Here is a prayer that I wrote on Simchat Torah last year (5784), within hours of the coordinated Hamas attacks inside of Israel:
Divine Source, God of our ancestors, we pray that your compassionate and tender love for us will suffuse us with compassion and love, and bring peace to the world.
We all can remember back to those moments. How to be? How to move forward? How to celebrate Simchat Torah 5784? Was it okay to do so?
Violence and more violence. Unspeakable trauma, uncertainty, fear, and destruction on all sides.
This is the treasured moment in the cycle of the Jewish year when we complete, and begin again. Ha'azinu to Beresheit.
A friend who was visiting with me helped me roll the precious Torah scroll that graces my home, rewinding from the end to the start. Traversing a year of territory, the path of a year. Getting back to Beresheit.
As I watched the news, and prayed, and grieved, one word in Genesis 1:2 powerfully caught my attention:
מְרַחֶ֖פֶת
(referring to "the spirit of the Divine moving / hovering / trembling (?) over the face of the water":
(referring to "the spirit of the Divine moving / hovering / trembling (?) over the face of the water":
(ב) וְהָאָ֗רֶץ הָיְתָ֥ה תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ וְחֹ֖שֶׁךְ עַל־פְּנֵ֣י תְה֑וֹם וְר֣וּחַ אֱלֹקִ֔ים מְרַחֶ֖פֶת עַל־פְּנֵ֥י הַמָּֽיִם׃
(2) the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from*a wind from Others “the spirit of.” God sweeping over the water—
מְרַחֶ֖פֶת
√רחף
Only two other instances of this shoresh in Tanakh:
√רחף
Only two other instances of this shoresh in Tanakh:
Deut 32:11 יְרַחֵ֑ף
Jer 23:9 רָֽחֲפוּ֙
(יא) כְּנֶ֙שֶׁר֙ יָעִ֣יר קִנּ֔וֹ עַל־גּוֹזָלָ֖יו יְרַחֵ֑ף יִפְרֹ֤שׂ כְּנָפָיו֙ יִקָּחֵ֔הוּ יִשָּׂאֵ֖הוּ עַל־אֶבְרָתֽוֹ׃
(11) Like an eagle who rouses its nestlings,
Gliding down to its young,
So did [God] spread wings and take them,
Bear them along on pinions
From close to the end of Devarim - where we are reminded of God's tender love for us - to the SECOND VERSE in Beresheit.... an encompassing, tender love.
(ט) לַנְּבִאִ֞ים נִשְׁבַּ֧ר לִבִּ֣י בְקִרְבִּ֗י רָֽחֲפוּ֙ כׇּל־עַצְמוֹתַ֔י הָיִ֙יתִי֙ כְּאִ֣ישׁ שִׁכּ֔וֹר וּכְגֶ֖בֶר עֲבָ֣רוֹ יָ֑יִן מִפְּנֵ֣י יי וּמִפְּנֵ֖י דִּבְרֵ֥י קׇדְשֽׁוֹ׃
(9) Concerning the prophets.
My heart is crushed within me,
All my bones are trembling (Meaning of Heb. uncertain.)
I have become like someone drunk,
Like one overcome by wine—
Because of GOD and because of God’s holy word.
The verse from Jeremiah brings in the disturbing interior stirring and energetic experience we can have when we tune into events and forces - such as we all are today, the second day of the current tragic violence in Israel [I wrote this on October 8 2023].
Let's look more closely at this shoresh: Gesenius on the verbal root √רחף
We see in this entry from Gesenius that √רהף is cognate with
√רחם
√רחם
This is extraordinary; absolutely beautiful! to learn that the fluttering above has attributes of tenderness and cherishing, is cognate with the verb that brings us רֶחֶם (womb), רַחֲמִים (compassion/mercy).
It is also extraordinary to contemplate that the tremulous fluttering of the Shekinah's ruach has resonances with
With this in mind - the resonance among the tremulous fluttering of God's ruach above the face of the waters - with the experience of being in the nest with the compassionate Divine presence hovering over us - with the bone-trembling disoriented and unsettled state we can arrive in (as in the verse from Jeremiah) when our connection with God is disrupted.
Thought experiment: simultaneously consider:
the spirit of God fluttering over the face of the primordial waters
and
the tremulous fluttering of the eagle over its nest
and
the unsettled, softened, trembling state we are in when we are out of connection with the Divine
I suggest that this triad of images of fluttering, trembling, softening, probing... contains a seed of a promise of repair: I see suggestions of a cycle - perhaps like the cycle of water and rain: the spirit of God descends towards and flutters over the face of the waters, and something is formed. The eagle rouses its nestlings, and they start to learn to go forth on their own. However, they falter on their path, they err and do wrong; and then (Jeremiah) when we realize we are alienated from God, we tremble and dissolve.
Perhaps the dissolved state is where we need to start, to receive once again the spirit of God fluttering above the primordial depths of our confusion and despair.
I offer this prayer today on the 23 Tishrei Simchat Torah 5785 (as I did on Simchat Torah 5784):
Let us all pray that God's tender and compassionate care for us will radiate and suffuse all of us, and guide all people towards compassion for one another, and towards lasting peace in Israel and throughout the world.
Let us experience the tremulous fluttering of the wings of the Divine presence, above us, within us, shattering us and comforting us, so that we can form ourselves into agents of righteousness and light.
As an epilogue to this sheet, I will share a poem that I wrote during Sukkot 5785:
a failing grade (Sukkot 5785)
in the season
of our joy,
i fear
we are failing the test
of our joy,
i fear
we are failing the test
each day
a chance
a chance
each moment
an opportunity
an opportunity
show me your heart:
show me your kindness:
the breadth of your wingspan;
the depth of your compassion.
show me your kindness:
the breadth of your wingspan;
the depth of your compassion.
holy holy holy
kadosh kadosh kadosh
kadosh kadosh kadosh
i want to hear the angels singing
this structure
reminds me
“i’m just passing through”
reminds me
“i’m just passing through”
and so are you
are we truly
homeless?
homeless?
please pick up your pencils;
the test starts
now
the test starts
now
just kidding
the test,
it started
on the seventh of october,
or the twelfth;
it started
on the seventh of october,
or the twelfth;
it started on
the fourteenth of may
(north america or levant);
the fourteenth of may
(north america or levant);
on august sixth, or ninth,
or twenty-fifth…
or twenty-fifth…
or… any day
you name it
time’s nearly up
it’s almost time
to put our pencils down
to put our pencils down
that’s a shame
i wanted so
to pass this test
to pass this test
didn’t you?
did i really fail
to welcome the stranger?
to welcome the stranger?
did we really fail to see
the universe in that child,
that man,
that hospital
that woman?
the universe in that child,
that man,
that hospital
that woman?
the little girl carries
her injured sister
whose foot was shattered
in a bombing
so now the littler sister
cannot walk.
her injured sister
whose foot was shattered
in a bombing
so now the littler sister
cannot walk.
big sister knows what to do.
she tells the journalist:
“I must carry her.
I am so tired.
I must keep going
on this road.”
“I must carry her.
I am so tired.
I must keep going
on this road.”
and she walks on.
a tiny girl
bearing the burden
of a life
bearing the burden
of a life
smaller and smaller
receding
as the journalist’s camera
documents
her courageous
and inevitable path
receding
as the journalist’s camera
documents
her courageous
and inevitable path
show me your heart:
show me your kindness:
the breadth of your wingspan;
the depth of your compassion.
show me your kindness:
the breadth of your wingspan;
the depth of your compassion.
holy holy holy
kadosh kadosh kadosh
kadosh kadosh kadosh
i think i hear the angels singing
can we have
just one more chance
to take this test?
just one more chance
to take this test?