Holiness
Exercise: Take three deep breaths. Invite either through the traditional language or your own imagination connection to our ancestors, our family that is and that will be. Connect also with God’s power to heal, to support us, and to invite us to confront our own limited selves.
Take another breath. Now is the prayer of noticing God’s holiness. This is the moment to see that there is something else, something beyond and within us. You, we say, are holy, and Your name is holy. We notice an energy in the Universe that is other. It is filled with love and compassion, also incomprehensible and overwhelming. Nevertheless, we seek to touch that force or energy, to receive it, to vibrate with it. Barukh Atah Adonai, HaEl HaKadosh. Praised are You, God, the Holy God.
Background: The word holy, kadosh, in Hebrew means dedicated or set aside. It can describe the most mundane. For example, my can opener is dedicated to opening cans. It can mean loving and romantic. To become m’kadesh to someone is to become betrothed. It is a declaration of love and an intent to join lives together. We also use the word to notice the otherness of Shabbat. We m’kadesh et haShabbat, we sanctify the Shabbat as we notice the unique difference of that day from all other days.
Kadosh, holiness, is the places or moments that alert us to something beyond ourselves. It can be in beautiful locations. This morning I was watching the sun rise in all its reddish orange glory. In that moment I felt a wholeness and connection that felt holy to me. My soul lifted beyond myself for a brief moment and I was simply in the beauty that I saw.
By the same token, when I light Friday night candles and leave aside the work of the week, I am inviting in a different kind of time. By refraing from work and media and the internet, I am creating space to notice something different that is always in the Universe. By being with beloved community and dear friends I am inviting a wholeness no less marvelous than the one I experienced in watching the sun rise. This too is holy.
To be holy, I believe, is to vibrate with that divine energy that pervades the Universe. It is to allow for another level of human experience that transcends our normal experiences. It is a reminder that there is more than our physical and measurable sensations. To be human is both to be rooted in our bodies and in the world that is, but also to be able to imagine and connect with more. Sometimes we name these experiences of the more, of that which is beyond, God. The act of connection is itself the place of the holy.
This is why the Torah scroll is also holy. It is the bridge beyond us and God. It invites and leads us to the Divine in our actions and in our study.
Final Note: I worry in this writing that I have lost some people. Many of us are skeptical of anything beyond our measurable experience. I want to suggest that being human means living within imagination and narrative. Jung was onto something when he noticed the collective unconscious. There is a part of what it means to be human that pulls us beyond. I invite you to explore a different part of your own awareness that certainly has an inner authenticity because I believe it will help foster more wholeness in you.
Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi David Booth
