Today I am sharing an example one of the most, if not the most, sacred of the Hebrew writings describing God’s covenant with the Hebrew people.  

When I was a student of religious studies, this text was emphasized as forming much of the basis of the monotheistic tradition, setting out the formation of deep attachment between God and the Hebrew people.  Earlier I had read these texts as a child in a Christian family.  Of course, I did not imagine then that there was an ethnic boundary to the covenant expressed.  In my young mind it simply set out the singularity of the connection between the Creator, the Other that I had known in a variety of intuitions and experiences, and myself, my own family, and all humankind.  

Now that I am sixty-three I go back and grasp again that same sense of universality of this text.  I know from the Truth inside of me that the text really expresses the relation all of humankind and the Creator.  We come together from the ends of the earth, and the scientists tell us that we are descended from single parents, if not similarly evolving ones.   For all that we know, it is likely that we extend even beyond this planet.

God’s full nature is incomprehensible and unknowable in our current existence.    

Despite this mystery, we can feel the palpable presence of God’s presence in our lives, especially when we experience our love for one another and when we take in the full mystery of our fragile interconnectedness on this planet. 

These texts and their context in Deutoronomy serve to warn us that if we abrogate and dishonor our relationship with the Creator we can become arrogant destroyers of the earth we inhabit.  If we do not understand that it is for all of us, we and the generations that may follow us will suffer the inhospitable results.  

6:4 Listen, Israel, God is our Lord, God is One.
Shma Yisra’el Adonay Eloheynu Adonay Echad.

5.  Love God your creator with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. 

Ve’ahavta et-Adonay Eloheycha bechol-levavcha uvechol-nafshecha uvechol-me’odecha.

6.  These words which I am commanding you today must remain on your heart.

Vehayu hadevarim ha’eleh asher anochi metsavecha hayom al-levavecha.

7.  Teach them to your children and speak of them when you are at home, when traveling on the road, when you lie down and when you get up.

Veshinantam levaneycha vedibarta bam beshivtecha beveytecha uvelechtecha vaderech uveshochbecha uvekumecha.

8.  Bind [these words] as a sign on your hand, and let them be an emblem in the center of your head.
Ukshartam le’ot al-yadecha vehayu letotafot beyn eyneycha.

9.  [Also] write them on [parchments affixed to] the doorposts of your houses and gates.

Uchtavtam al-mezuzot beytecha uvish’areycha.

excerpt from Velveteen Rabbi

….what does “religious” mean, anyway? Religion is that which connects and binds. It’s how we engage in the work of re-ligare, linking ourselves back with our source. It’s like we’re reattaching spiritual ligaments. And ligaments are by their nature flexible; they allow movement, and they hold us together.

Flashes of enlightenment can arise through “spiritual but not religious” experiences. But the feeling of connection is necessarily finite. That’s the nature of things. We get stressed, overwhelmed, burdened. It’s hard to keep the portal open.

Religion, at its heart, is about reopening our connections with the infinite.  The practices of Jewish tradition are designed to cultivate and strengthen those connections.

No one imagines they can run easily and far if they don’t work out with some regularity. Just so, we can’t run spiritually if we don’t stretch and work out spiritually. The practice of daily prayer is a chance to stretch spiritual muscles. It allows us to domesticate the peak experience.

….Not just when I’m on retreat, but every day of my life.

Walking the paths of our liturgical texts more closely and attentively helps me be awake to the possibility of transformation.