This week there are two sets of prompts: first, personal prompts as you engage in your own singular spiritual work. And then, prompts for you as religious leader.
ONE – These prompts are for your own private preparations for the new year.
(1) ~ On Rosh Hashanah we celebrate the birth of the world, experiencing God as Creator. What new world can you envision in the coming year? Allow yourself to fantasize, dream.
follow-up – Consider how you are a creator – what is your creative life and what do you want it to be? How can you infuse your daily life with freshness, with wonder? What new interest, new passion, will keep your brain alive and supple this year, your spirit adventurous and alive?
(2) ~ Another central theme of Rosh Hashanah focuses on Zichronot/Remembrances of loss – a beloved who has died; a relationship that ended, badly or well; a hope or dream whose time has irrevocably passed and needs to be honored and mourned. We experience so many different kinds of losses in any given year, and now, coming out of more than a year of quarantine, we may feel flooded by waves and waves of loss, with an uncertain future ahead. Sometimes it is possible to find healing, a sense of peace, sometimes the loss never fully heals. What has been one very particular, powerful loss you have experienced/are experiencing this year? Tell the story – what was precious, how have you mourned? changed? What does the road ahead look like?
(3) ~ The shofar blasts evoke multiple meanings – calling us to revelation, heralding redemption; it is the animal cry of “the wounded beast” that cracks our hearts open to teshuvah, the primal call waking us from our slumber. What causes your spiritual somnolence? How can you tell when you are sleepwalking? Who in your life will help rouse you when they see you fall asleep?
(4) ~ Identify two or three people in your life who can serve as teachers/mentors for you – perhaps a colleague, a spiritual director, a counselor, a friend, a loved one, perhaps someone from your Clergy Circle this past month – choose one or two individuals and schedule regular time to meet with them. When you feel ready, discuss with them your hopes for yourself this year, your fears, your concerns, your goals. Invite them to listen, to witness, to support your desire to be your truest best self in the coming year.
(5) ~ Write a tefillat haderech for yourself - a traveling prayer for the road - for the journey of this new year.
TWO – These prompts are for you to consider as you prepare your davening, sermons, drashot…
(1) ~ What do your people need this year? What goals do you have in deciding what to offer?
(2) ~ Which prayer in the High Holiday liturgy speaks most meaningfully to you this year? Why? How might that impact what kavanot you offer?
(3) ~ Which prayer in the High Holiday liturgy is most difficult for you this year? How can you wrestle with it? How might that impact what kavanot you offer?
(4) ~ Psalm 27, Achat sha’alti, has become a High Holiday favorite. What do you think it means to dwell in God’s house?
Going forward
~ Let me suggest you consider continuing to call upon one another, continuing to share and listen in the next two months, building and enriching the support you have offered one another.
~ In August I will be starting two Derekh Elul sessions, Derekh.org/Elul, a four-week session with two tracks: circles like these for student clergy; and an independent, self-directed writing guide for a mixed multitude of seekers sent out each week during Elul. Please consider reaching out to your congregants, students and friends to invite them to participate in one of those sessions – imagine the benefits you and they might reap if they enter Rosh Hashana with a greater-than-usual measure of spiritual preparation.
~ I invite you to continue to visit Derekh.org throughout the year as an ever-expanding cadre of Derekh Associates create exciting programs on a wide range of themes to serve you in your personal and professional development.
~ A reminder that deep discounts for A Spiritual Life and Finding Words are available through August. A Spiritual Life – discount code – XAMF21; Finding Words – discount code - WORDS21
I end as I began, with gratitude. I am deeply appreciative of the Derekh Associates – Rabbis Beth Kalisch, Eliana Jacobowitz, Jen Gubitz, Shahar Colt and Tamara Cohen – whose thoughtful collaboration, hard work and devotion to you have immeasurably enriched this experience. Also, huge thank you’s to our webmaster, Lisa Feld, for all she provided to birth this project and for her support on all aspects of Derekh – her competence, counsel, kindness and creativity are unparalleled.
For myself, I thank all of you for the opportunity to work on your behalf this past month, to do my best to support you as clergy who have come – are still coming – through the fires of these times. May you be blessed and may you go from strength to strength. May you be inscribed and sealed for a sweet new year of health and promise!