Going up! by Cantor Mary Rebecca Thomas

I tend to be a little near-sighted in my personal life. Matthew will tell you that my regular response to “Where shall we go for dinner?” is, “Let’s get in the car first, then decide.” Sometimes, that’s all I can manage: one step at a time, one task at a time, one goal at a time. The practice serves me well, keeping me from being overwhelmed when there is just sometimes just SO MUCH GOING ON!

The last few days have been so full, that I can only just now begin to truly grasp the glorious prize that is waiting for me next week. I am going up!

Up! Up! And East!

Rabbi Judy and I are traveling with 36 TBE congregants and their family members to Israel for our annual trip. We have three kids becoming b’nei mitzvah while we are there, three kids who became b’nei mitzvah at TBE earlier this year going to celebrate, lots of siblings, parents, grandparents, and all other kinds of grown-ups! It’s an incredible group.

And we will travel with Doron, our tour guide, who has traveled with TBE groups for years and years. Doron will bring his deep knowledge and scholarship of The Land to bear on every spot that we visit. He will make ruins, artifacts, and layers of a tel come alive before our eyes.

We will drive down to the Dead Sea, we will climb up to Masada. We will eat awesome Israeli breakfasts and feel our peoples’ prayers swirl around us at the kotel. Truly, there is no place in Israel where the whisper of a prayer does not palpably drift by on the breeze. It is a place where, if you listen closely enough, you can feel the weight of history anchor your feet more deeply into The Land and the transcendence of belief pull you toward Heaven. You will be more grounded, yet you will be lighter.

And then there is always great sadness. And struggle. And there must be honesty. We exist in this tension between the world that might be and the world that simply is. We allow ourselves to feel both the love and open our eyes to what often causes so much pain.

My favorite poem of Yehuda Amichai –

Jerusalem is built on the vaulted foundations
of a held-back scream.

If there were no reason
for the scream, the foundations would crumble,

the city would collapse;
if the scream were screamed,

Jerusalem would explode into the heavens.

And while we are all home, safe in our beds, we will pray for those touched by terror yesterday in Tel Aviv. That the lives lost will be remembered, that the lives touched will find healing and wholeness, that we may all work towards safety and harmony and peace.

I am going up! And I am taking so many of our TBE family with me. Keep us in your prayers, you will be in ours.