Thoughts from a Cantors' Conference

I’m writing today from a cantors’ conference in Palm Desert. It’s pouring rain, and we had an earthquake this morning.  But other than that, it’s been great!  I’ve had a chance to participate in some of the most moving prayer services I’ve ever experienced.

People often ask what these conferences are like.  No, the earth doesn’t always move like it did today, but it is an opportunity to take a deep breath and tune in to the natural world and its blessings in a new way.

We also have stimulating speakers, and yesterday featured our friend Aaron Henne from Theatre Dybbuk.  Aaron challenged us to write a personal reflection piece using one of three narratives from Torah: “Exile,” “the Wilderness,” or “Redemption.”  I chose “the Wilderness,” and for this particular choice he included a quote.  “Moving through the desert, the Israelites transform; they become a people chosen to lead; Exodus becomes a portrait of a people… undergoing transformation in a place outside of normal geographic and cultural boundaries.”  It struck me that this is the opposite of the challenge today’s American Jewish community faces.  The magnetic tug of popular culture combined with our nearly complete comfort within American society presents an existential problem.  How do we undergo transformation in an environment that is comfortable and not challenging? 

The wilderness we now find ourselves in is a spiritual one.

Since I’m surrounded by over 100 cantors right now (a frightening thought for some of you), I can’t help but think that our new “exodus” might be realized through mindful prayer, or at least by living a life devoted to the sacred.  Rabbi Arthur Green writes: “I still consider the sacred to me the most important and meaningful dimension of human life.  Life bears within it the possibility of inner transcendence; the moments when we glimpse it are so rare and powerful that the call upon us to transform the rest of our lives in their wake.”

Rabbi Green is onto something.  Judaism need not be concerned with the broader culture because we have something that our creature comforts and amusements can’t compete with: a life of holiness.  Maybe we don’t need GPS to find our way out of the wilderness.  Maybe we can find redemption by keeping the idea of holiness front and center in our lives, or as the psalmist says: “sShiviti Adonai v’negdi tamid.”

Rabbi Green has much to say on this subject. He will be our guest on January 29 and 30. I urge you to join us for these transformational programs.