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Heschel This Week -- More on Prayer

...there is a wider voluntary entrance to prayer than sorrow and despair -- the opening of our thoughts to God.  We cannot make Him visible to us, but we can make ourselves visible to Him.  So we open our thoughts to Him -- feeble our tongues, but sensitive our hearts.  We see more than we can say.

Mindfullness of God rises slowly, a thought at a time. Suddenly we are there.  Or is He here, at the margin of our soul?  When we begin to feel a qualm of diffidence lest we hurt what is holy, lest we break what is whole, then we discover that He not austere.  Repentent of forgetting Him even for a while, we become sharers of gentle joy...

Or Not a Crisis...

This came today from the Jewish Telegraph Agency:

March 17, 2010

Oren, White House deny 'crisis quotes'

WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Israel's ambassador to Washington and the White House denied remarks that have fueled the current Israel-U.S. crisis.

Israel's Michael Oren was quoted this week by Ha'aretz as saying that relations were at a 35-year-low after Israel embarrassed Vice President Joe Biden during visit to the region by announcing a massive housing start in Jerusalem.

On Tuesday evening, Oren issued a statement flatly denying that account of a conference call he had Saturday night with Israeli diplomats.

"I was flagrantly misquoted about remarks I made in a confidential briefing this past Saturday," Oren said in a statement. "Recent events do not -- I repeat -- do not represent the lowest point in the relations between Israel and the United States. Though we differ on certain issues, our discussions are being conducted in an atmosphere of cooperation as befitting long-standing relations between allies. I am confident that we will overcome these differences shortly."

Separately, numerous media quoted senior White House officials as denying an account in Yediot Achronot last week that Biden had told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Israel was endangering the lives of American troops in the region.

"He never said that, and there's no basis to assert that he did," The Atlantic quoted one official as saying. "What he did say in a meeting with the prime minister and his senior advisers and his own team was that the U.S. is doing a number of things in our national security interest, and in Israel's national security interest, and they include a strong effort to build a coalition against Iran's nuclear program; deploying 200,000 troops in conflict areas in the region; standing against efforts to delegitimize Israel in various international bodies, sometimes virtually alone; acting decisively against terrorists in very significant ways; and building probably the strongest defense cooperation relationship with Israel that we've seen, including on missile defense."

Read more from JTA's Washington bureau chief, Ron Kampeas, on efforts to get the Obama and Netanyahu governments to turn down the temperature. Plus editor in chief Ami Eden reflects on the initial report about Oren and the ambassador's subsequent denial.

Visit JTA's politics blog or read the Daily Briefing later today for more information.

"A Crisis of Historic Proportions"

I need time to sit down and sort through what has been happening since last week in U.S.-Israel relations.  What happened:  Last week, Vice President Biden went to Israel and the Palestinian territories to help launch indirect talks between the two sides.  While he was there, an Israeli government office announced plans for the building of more Jewish housing in East Jerusalem.  The Obama administration views this as a direct slap in the face of the United States.

• So far the best thing I've read is Tom Friedman's column from yesterday in the Times.
• Secretary of State Clinton rebuked Israel in unusually sharp terms.
  
• Michael Oren, Israel's ambassador to the U.S., says that this is a crisis that has brought U.S.-Israel relations to a 35-year-low (the title of this post is a quote from him).  Oren is a fascinating person, a serious historian in addition to his involvement in public life.  His book on the Six-Day War is terrific.
  
• Political football in the U.S. -- Rep. Eric Cantor, the second ranking Republican in the House (he's Jewish) blasted the administration for its handling of this.

I'm keeping my eyes open for thoughtful commentary from Israel.  You can read the above links for a sense of the scene.It's helpful to read the site of an Israeli paper each day, at least for a glance.  I prefer Haaretz, but the Jerusalem Post seems good too.

Heschel This Week on Words of Prayer

It takes two things to make prayer come to pass:  a person and a word.

Words are not made of paper.  Words of prayer are repositories of the spirit.  It is only after we kindle a light in the words that we are able to behold the riches they contain.  It is only after we arrive within a word that we become aware of the riches our own souls contain.

To be able to pray is to know how to stand still and to dwell upon a word.  This is how some worshippers of the past would act:  "They would repeat the same word many times, because they loved and cherished it so much that they could not part from it."....  "Am I not the word 'Baruch' (blessed)? Hearken to me when you pronounce me.  Consider me when you utter me."

--from Man's Quest for God

Vayakhel/Pekudei and Shabbat HaChodesh: Ending and Beginning

This week, we read in the Torah about completions -- and preparations.

We are finishing up the book of Shmot (Exodus).  Chazak chazak v'nitchazek -- Be strong, be strong, may we strengthen each other!  Shmot began with bursting-out and disorder.  The Children of Israel expanding at an expontential rate, then the beginning of slavery.  As the book ends, Moshe is guiding the assembly of the Mishkan, which has been so carefully laid out.  Eight times the Torah notes that Moshe carried out the work "as the Lord commanded."  The language echoes the days of creation, when God's word translated immediately into reality.  The number eight in Jewish thought represents nature-plus-one -- the perfection we add to the world we find, through our covenant with God.

That's the completion.  Then we take the second Torah out and read the instructions for Pesach MItzrayim, the night of the first Pesach in Egypt.  This Shabbat is called Shabbat "Hachodesh" after the first words of the maftir reading:  Hachodesh hazeh lachem rosh chodashim, "This new-moon shall mark for you the first of the months" (Exodus 12:2).  This is the Shabbat right before Rosh Chodesh Nissan, the beginning of the month of Pesach.  We read about the roasted lamb, the meal eaten dressed for departure, the blood on the doorposts.  The preparations for the launch of everything.

Reading these two sections together, I feel like both are about both -- completion and preparation.  The reading for Shabbat Hachodesh is obviously about the completion of slavery, and the beginning of the march forward toward freedom and Torah.  The end of the book of Exodus is certainly a completion.  The completion of the Mishkan also represents the complete transformation of the Israelites, from Pharaoh's world to God's.

But the transformation is really only beginning.  When the Mishkan was completed,  God's presence immediately entered it.  Even before Aharon and his sons began their rituals for becoming priests and starting up the sacrifices, the "standard" way for summoning God's presence!  God couldn't wait for one thing to end, so that the relationship could begin.  The building project was just the start.

In many workplaces and towns, as we've been reading, it's budget time -- time to start thinking about next year.  In schools at this time of year, it feels like the end is in sight and soon we'll be winding down.  It's tempting for any of us to look out past Pesach and say -- June will be here soon, the world shifts into lower gear, put this year in the books.  Whatever got built up to now, it's finished.

No!  The year is just beginning.  Only two of the five books of the Torah are behind us.  If we've built something, in our lives or in our work -- now it's spring, time for new energy.  Now we're dressed for the march, now our designs are filled with God's presence.  Preparing for Pesach will keep us moving.  Not to tire us out, but to get us a running start for the warm and rich months ahead.