SIMPLY GRATEFUL

I stepped into the lobby of my apartment house, the magnificent clear and summery blue sky behind me. My eyes blinked, adjusting to the sudden darkness of the indoors.
I spotted an elderly gentleman, leaning on a cane, frail looking but with eyes wide open, as if awaiting the adventure of a new day. We have become friendly through the almost daily contact in the small exercise room in the basement of the apartment building. He rides the exercise bicycle to keep himself fit.
“Good morning, Irving. Where are you off to today?” I asked.
With large eyes twinkling good-naturedly, he replied: “Where else? The doctor needs some money so I‘m paying him a visit.!” We chuckled and shared a few more cordialities, then said goodbye. His wife acknowledging my presence by adding-“Where do you think we’re going?” her voice slightly aggravated but resigned.
I continued to the elevator. How sad-what a way to spend one’s final days-going to doctors!
A moment later it occurred to me that Irving has so much for which to be grateful. He lives in a comfortable apartment house, together with a loving wife of 60 years; He is able to exercise each day, however limitedly; his mind is alert, and he continues to be sociable and friendly. His greatest gift perhaps is his ability to visit his doctor almost every week.
Is there not something in all our lives for which to be thankful? If not, then I fear a reality of utter despair.
I thank Irving for reminding again that the core of our lives pivots around the gifts that we have, if only we are blessed with the vision to see them.
I close with much gratitude for the sun that has been hiding but has finally decided to reappear and bless us with light and warmth.

GRATEFUL FOR PRAYING WITH CHILDREN

Today was my last prayer service with the children of the Hebrew day school where I have taught for the past five years.
I have grown quite attached to these kids; a mixture of innocence and uncanny understanding fascinates me and draws me to their company. Over the past years I have tried to teach not only the skills of prayer-more fluent reading, understanding the choreography of prayer, and the many hows of praying-but also the soul of prayer, to somehow create an environment in which each student will feel something special, something of gratefulness and blessing about their lives, in spite of their youth and inexperience. I am persistently dogged by the awareness that these experiences may or may not become an integral part of their lives. So, with the relief that comes at the end of a school year is the question of how much was accomplished, how much will endure and not dissolve into oblivion.
I am grateful for the opportunity to have had a congregation of children who at times were annoyingly silly and noisy, and at other times the source of remarkable insight and perception. I have admonished them for their misbehavior and have congratulated them on their successes in conducting and reciting the prayers with clarity and enthusiasm.
I have giggled with them at moments that were somewhat awkward, laughed aloud when something truly funny popped out of their mouths and experienced a primitive sadness when something went wrong in their lives or the life of the school community.
I am most grateful for the gift of being allowed to love them.
I will miss them but hope to visit and in this way rejuvenate my gratefulness for simply being with them.

GRATEFUL FOR THE WEATHER

My mind is on the weather; I haven't seen the sun for almost a week. The sky has been shrouded in an enclosure of gray, and besides the wetness in the air, I have been feeling the loss of spacious possibility. The sky has encroached on my imagination, shrinking its grasp and range.
Today, the sun played hide and seek, appearing for a moment and then retreating behind
threatening dark clouds, echoing an invitation to continue seeking and not give up hope of rediscovering its outstretched warmth and light. I was blessed with a momentary reminder of life's paradoxical contrasts. As the sun shone, and as streaks of blue strained through the ominous blackness,its brevity filled me with a penetrating pleasure reserved for moments of transient treasures. How precious the sun, how precious each moment of warmth and light.
So I am grateful for the weather. It is obvious that without weather we cannot exist.
The blue and the gray are the colors of human survival. Be grateful for both.
Moreover, imagine the world without weather-what would we talk about with strangers in elevators or grocery stores? How would the media fill its advertising slots? And these fellows selling umbrellas on the street, how would they feed their families?
Thank You for the weather, for the cold rain that refreshes and the warm sun that replenishes our souls with the miracle of light, and for endless vistas of blue that
hold out out visions of infinity.
Shabbat Shalom

GRATEFUL FOR A PIECE OF CHALK

I teach a summer class in a school of social work; invariably, I forget to bring chalk with me to the classroom and find my self hoping to discover the treasured item when I arrive. I am usually disappointed and then scurry about in a desperate search for the white stuff-or yellow stuff- I am not particular, darting from one classroom to the next on the hunt for the precious prize.
This morning I was chalk-less. I tried the next door classroom and lo and behold one tiny piece of yellow chalk –an inch long-was perched on the chalkboard ledge . Several students were seated awaiting the arrival of their professor.I snatched up the chalk and grateful for my good fortune was about to rush back to my classroom when a young lady called out, smiling: “What is our teacher going to use? Why don’t you break the chalk in half and leave a piece behind?”
I was caught short and realized that my feeling of gratitude was an incomplete experience. For gratefulness to fulfill its course it was necessary to be translated into an act of sharing.I broke off a piece, thanked the young woman for her suggestion and left the classroom.
Not only can we discover a reason for being grateful in everyday, little things, but we can perform simple acts of giving as we respond to the ordinary, little things of life, as well.
Opportunities abound as the blessings of grateful giving.

GRATEFUL FOR A CHILD'S SWEETNESS

The school year is winding down. Students are putting finishing touches on projects in progress, including the Gratefulness Journals that the children in my classes were filling with their expressions of gratitude. We collected all the individual sheets and put them into a decorative binder for the students to glance at while at home and share with their families. It was my hope that this exercise would heighten their sense of gratefulness beyond the school environment.
The range of things for which these kids expressed their gratitude was typically one that reflected the needs and desires of children. Perhaps the most popular item was the video game, with money and sports coming closely behind. Yet, family and friends emerged as immediate reasons for gratefulness too. Beyond the object of gratefulness, I tried to cultivate in these young hearts the very notion of gratefulness as a way of seeing the world. It was not the object but the emotional process of thankful awareness that was important.
As I returned the journals, one boy, barely 8 years old, walked over to me and as he handed his journal for me to enjoy said: "Rabbi, thank you for teaching me Torah."
I was overwhelmed by both his sweetness and his sincerity. What a gift! I could think of no greater reward for a teacher than these words of gratitude for teaching the subject I love most.

GRATEFUL FOR A CHILD'S SWEETNESS

SHAVUOT-SILENCE AS THE SOIL OF REVELATION

Rabbi Abahu said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: When the Holy One gave the Torah, no bird chirped, no fowl flew, no ox lowed...the se did not roar, creatures did not speak-the whole world was hushed into breathless silence; it was then that the voice went forth:"I am the Lord thy God.(exodus Rabah 29.9)

The written Torah has a completely different account of the context of divine revelation. The Book of Exodus relates:""As the third day dawned there was thunder and lightening and a dense cloud upon the mountain ...and Mount Sinai was all in smoke...and the whole mountain trembled violently...the blare of the horn grew louder and louder,as Mose spoke God answered in thunder..." (Exodus 19:16-19)

It can be claimed that there is no contradiction between the account of the written word-nature's dramatic eruption, and that of the oral Law, the dominance of silence. One could have followed the other. First there was the spectacle, then the silence. I would like to think however, that both settings represent ways by which the human soul experiences revelation.
I prefer the understanding of the Oral Law. Some need the dramatic, the overwhelming, the overpowering to submit to a divine reality. The sensational has wide appeal.
But, the Rabbis had the keenest of spiritual insights when they arrived at the understanding that the most fertile and receptive soil in which revelation can be planted and grow sturdily is the soil of silence. Words and spectacular natural phenomena, while striking and impressive, circumscribe the orbit of heavenly revelation.Once a word is spoken or recorded, its meaning takes on a specific definition, often inhibiting a wider and indeterminate range of possibilities. Likewise a passing natural phenomenon- stirring and majestic as it may be, its impact is often a fleeting one.
A silent hush, by contrast, is a realm of infinite possibility, a space in the mind and heart in which God's voice can be heard with the greatest of clarity-neither words nor natural sound interfere with a communication that is utterly pure.
Many of us are uncomfortable with silence; we grow restless, even anxious. So filled are we with sounds-from others, from sources of mechanical communication-TV, cell-phones, I-pods, computers etc. that silence is equated with lifelessness, with emptiness, with a sense of utter confusion.
Perhaps it is this spiritual setting of silence, of emptiness, that is the most fertile for spiritual aliveness and fullness. The Rabbis remind us that the deepest revelations take place surrounded by the sounds of silence.

As we celebrate and listen to the words of revelation-the reading of the Ten Commandments and the Book of Ruth-words of great beauty and compassion, let us sit in silence , allowing ourselves to encounter these words in the heart of our souls.
As we express our gratefulness for the sounds of Torah, so do we experience gratitude for the gift of silence.
Chag Sameach.