The other day I heard knocking which sent me hunting through the house to find its source. After surveying the area and determining the sound was neither from a neighboring apartment nor within my home, I realized it came from outside. It sounded just like a woodpecker. How could it be a woodpecker in NYC? And then I saw a delightful little bird - perhaps a gold crowned sparrow standing at the window. It held a crouton in its beak. It seemed to smile at me as it hit the crouton against the window, working to make lunch more manageable. The knocking called my attention from the midst of my work.
It beckoned me to stop and pay attention to what was going on around me and not just what was in front of me at the moment. I couldn't help feel like it had come to say hello precisely when I needed company. That bird tapped on my heart, adding wonder and joy to my day with its relationship to a salad topping.
The Slonimer Rebbe reminds us that the Torah begins with the hebrew letter Bet (the first letter of Breishit) and ends with the Hebrew letter Lamed (the final letter of the word Yisrael).Turned around, together they form the word Lev (lamed bet) which means heart. As he teaches, From its beginning to its end, the Torah is hinting to us that Gd wants a person's heart (Netivot Shalom, Vol. I).
We begin our review of the Torah again this week, immersing ourselves in the story of creation where birds burst forth from the waters on the fifth day, a surprising gift. Before long, humanity will appear, making choices and facing consequences. Just four chapters into our foundational story we find the first act of injustice, fratricide. Hevel, the Hebrew name for Abel, Adam and Eve's youngest son murdered by his brother, means breath or vapor. In an instant (just 8 verses of existence in the Torah) Abel is gone from the story, evaporated like air. When the Holy One asks Cain, Ee Hevel Achicha/Where is your brother Abel, we can imagine Gd asking, where is your brother's breath? How has his potential evaporated from the earth? The Slonimer suggests that Cain did not invest his heart in the offering he presented to Gd while Abel shared what was most precious to him. Thus the confrontation that leads to one less human on earth. A tragedy.
Jealousy and strife are at the heart of our people's narrative. Less than three weeks ago, we knocked on our heart with the vidui/the confessional reminding ourselves of what it means to think and feel not only for ourselves but for those with whom we inhabit the earth. As we return to the Torah anew this year, let us remember to pay attention with our heart, the seat of wisdom to all the stories we encounter. May we attune ourselves not just to what is front of us in the moment but also to the larger context and potential of what might be. So may the holy rise up to nourish us with full heart in all we do.
Shabbat Shalom rg
Congregation Habonim 103 West End Ave New York, NY 10023
