Tag: deliver

I recently attended a birthday dinner for an old friend. With only a few days’ notice, she had gathered together about 20 close friends from different areas of her life. Some of these friends she had met while traveling around the world. As we sat and talked, everyone with whom I interacted had an inspiring story of how they are working to make the world better, or passionate ideas and hopes about how to heal the world and bridge the human divides. It left me feeling a bit better about the state of humanity to remember that there are many people who are striving for the greater good, and many more with whom we can find common ground in our shared humanity.
–Suzanne Gold

Sometimes I get this extraordinary and goosebumpy feeling, usually during Yom Kippur or Rosh Hashana, that the community I’m in is a part of something incredible, both temporally or spatially. That we are davening in a manner recognizable by Jews for two thousand years and, going forward, will be for as long as we have a world to daven in. And that, allowing for a scattering due to time zones, Jewish communities circling the globe are saying the same words at the same time. There is immense hope for me in this. Not a hope FOR something so much as more generalized faith in something powerful.
–Rav Amelia

I love the beauty of spring flowers in the garden. Hellebores come first. Then crocus and forsythia to daffodils to tulips; now dogwood and next azalea and rhododendron. In between, the bleeding hearts, hyacinth and others. The light passing through translucent petals and the scent are marvelous. And that’s just the beginning of the season

–Jeanne

I’ve been listening to a podcast recently called LeVar Burton Reads, in which he reads short stories and shares a few personal thoughts about the authors and narratives. Something about hearing this guy who I feel like I have a connection with, from Roots, to Reading Rainbow, to Star Trek: The Next Generation, and his passion for storytelling, discovering meaning, and interpreting stories in a hopeful way, just inspires me and gives me hope that there’s still so much to be discovered in the world. That’s a lot from a 22 minute podcast episode!

Learn More at: https://www.levarburtonpodcast.com/
–Anoynmous

For me, when the world seems too crazy and out of control, I look for meaning and relief in nature. My favorite is the W&OD trail. A long bike ride, even on a cool day, pushing myself, being out in the open, feeling the miles go by, mingling with other riders along the ways, gives me that sense of connection. The world will be OK.

Learn More at: https://www.facebook.com/WODFriends
–Ken Ackerman

This poem, “Miriam’s Daughter,” touches me with its focus on the importance of hope in the darkest of times. That ability to hope for a better world even when things seem hopeless is one way I sense the divine in the world

I found this on RitualWell, one of my favorite resources

Learn More at: https://ritualwell.org/ritual/miriams-daughter/
–Debbie Ann Doyle Ainspan

The Torah uses the phrase ‘gathered unto his people’ in describing the death of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Aaron. I believe that is the destiny of all of us. I believe that there is a cosmic consciousness from which we are born, and to which we return when we die.

I believe that we are all part of the cosmic consciousness, even while we are alive; I sometimes sense it. If enough people believed this, perhaps there wouldn’t be so much heartlessness and hypocrisy in the world.

–Milt Hess

When I am studying Jewish texts, especially in conversation with fellow students or in chavruta, I have the powerful feeling that I am joining in an age old conversation that God opened up at Sinai and just never really ceased. After all, the voices on the pages I study are multigenerational and full of disagreement. Each new voice brings in new contexts and ways of looking at the world and looking at the words. Now in my own generation, I’ve added my own. And in doing so, I speak back to God.
–Rav Amelia

For me (and this will surprise no one who knows me), I most often experience this in the theater, sometimes when I am playing piano and the music and the singers just align together perfectly, and sometimes in the audience. As an audience member, the clearest moment I can think of is the full cast of Sunday in the Park with George singing “Sunday”. If done right, it is a truly transformative moment.

Here is a link to a group of performers singing it during Covid–when we all needed this kind of content so much!

Learn More at: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/07/theater/surprise-theater-times-square.html
–Elisa Rosman