I’m getting married this spring. If you speak to my parents, my friends or my congregants, it’s about time. If you had asked me a few weeks ago, I would have said that it’s long past time. For years I have been serving the families of my community wondering if I will ever have a family of my own, and to be honest, I had been making peace with the probability that I would not. Without delving into all of the possible reasons that it has taken me so long to find my soul mate, suffice it to say that at the same time that I have been announcing my engagement, many of my life-long friends have been announcing where their children will be entering college.
Last week, I related this turn of events to one of my rabbis, Rabbi Jim Ponet, the Jewish Chaplain at Yale during my years as an undergrad there. Over the course of our conversation, I described both my excitement about this new stage of my life and the regret that my fiancé and I had not found each other earlier. Once again demonstrating why I still count him among my rabbis decades later, Rabbi Ponet corrected me, reminding me that things always happen at the right time.
And of course, he’s right.
There is something unique and sacred about every moment. Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berdichev, an 18th century Hasidic rabbi, describes this beautifully in his commentary on a verse from the Book of Deuteronomy. In the biblical text, Moses exhorts the Israelites to heed God’s call and to listen intently to the voice of God on this day. (Deuteronomy 11:13).
Rabbi Levi Yitzchak notices the words “on this day” and explains that this is an opportunity available to each of us every day and at every moment. To support this image, he cites to a teaching from the Talmud that asserts that God’s revelation on top of Mount Sinai was not a one-time event, but rather that each day God calls out to us from that moment and encourages us to return to an awareness of our relationship with the Divine.
Most of the time in the Jewish community, we don’t use the phrase “receiving a calling.” The language feels like it falls within the domain of other faith traditions. Nevertheless, this teaching and others like it affirm that every moment contains its own potential and its own sanctity, if we will only devote ourselves to listening for it.
And this is the reality that my college rabbi was bringing to my attention. He had caught me dipping into regret about what had happened, or more accurately, what had not happened in the past. He stopped me from ruminating on what might or might not happen in the future in the lives of a couple who are marrying later in life. And he was reminding me to pause and to hear the call and the possibilities of this wonderful moment.
About Rabbi Eric M. Rosin
Rabbi Eric Rosin began his professional career as an attorney in Los Angeles serving the entertainment industry, but discovered he needed to be doing something he was passionate about. He left the practice of law and began studying for ordination at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in Los Angeles. After ordination, Rabbi Rosin served for two years as the assistant rabbi of Temple Beth-El in Richmond, Va., then assumed the pulpit at Kesher Israel Congregation in West Chester, Pa. in 2004.
(7 votes, average: 4.86 out of 5)
Loading...
Comments