Charlottesville, Tinshames and the Eclipse

Hearing the news and seeing the rally marches from Charlottesville, was appalling and frightening. Could it be in the USA in 2017, these words, these actions?!

 

It’s easy to get caught up in one’s political leanings, to blame this party or the other. To blame one individual or the other. I’ll leave that to those that actually get paid to have an opinion on that.

 

For me as a Rabbi and a Chabad Chasid, I attempt to look to the deeper dimension and ask myself what can I learn from this?

 

I found the answer providentially from this week’s Torah portion and a fascinating experience but an unlikely source; bats (Tinshames in Hebrew) – the flying kind.

 

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This Sunday, to close out the summer and to spend time with all of our children who are home for a short time for the first time in a year, we traveled West. This Sunday our stop was in New Mexico at Carlsbad Caverns – truly one of the most magnificent places on Earth. Underground caves with stalagmites and stalactites the sizes, shapes could have only been created by the greatest artist of all – Almighty G-d!

 

Three hours underground and you’d think we’d be ready to go home. But the best was yet to come.

 

At exactly dusk from the opening of the cave, hundreds of thousands of Mexican bats exit the cave for their nightly adventures. The bats migrate from Mexico in the Spring and head home in October. During these months, the bats head out at dusk and return before dawn.

 

As on cue, they begin their migration out of the cave. One minute not a solitary bat and then next thousands begin their exit. The exit continues for 45 minutes until the last bat has left, and then it gets quiet, without a single bat in sight.

 

Completely fascinated by the coordination and orderliness of their departure, I found something else even more profoundly inspiring. As the bats exit the cave they make a circle, before heading off into the sky. It appears that the circle is for them to pick up the tail wind of the bats in front and collectively as a group to get the momentum they need to propel themselves up.

 

(The non kosher birds are listed in this weeks Torah portion and, indeed the Bat is listed among the non kosher birds.)

 

Well that’s enough about bats. What does all of this have to do with the awful events of this past weekend?

 

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One more thought before I bring it all together. This Shabbos we bless a new month, the month of Elul. Elul is the final month of the Jewish calendar year and an acronym for Ani Lidodi Vidodi Li – I am to my beloved and my beloved is to me.

 

As a rabbi, I encounter a lot of pain and fragmentation. Loss of life, health, livelihood, relationships and the list goes on. The fact is that each of us to a lesser or greater degree experience fragmentation in our lives.

 

During the month of Elul, we pause to defragment or to unite with our underlying core – I am to my Beloved – Almighty G-d. And in turn my Beloved is to me – G-d let’s me recognize and connect with the reality that all the fragments are really part of one greater Whole.

 

The bats while seemingly fragmented creatures, come together in a symphony of nature, a manifestation of the maestro who energizes each of them. As they come out of the cave on a silent cue, they all unite together before becoming fragmented again.

 

So it is with all we experience in life, but most prevalent in the painful stories we see, hear and experience.

 

While they appear to be fragmented they are truly a part of a single whole. (It is because we live in a fragmented world we are called upon to act to eliminate the fragments and bring the pieces together.)

 

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One more thought. Driving through the great beautiful expanse of Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, I thought of the pending eclipse. The powerful Sun being eclipsed by the moon. Reminiscent of our father Abraham and his discovery of the Divine. In that discovery Abraham comes to realize that everything has something else more powerful that can affect it. That is everything but the Divine. The Divine, G-d, the Soul are untouchable because they transcend the fragmentation of the created world.

 

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As we begin our blessings for the month that will prepare us for the new year, it is time to reconnect with our core, with our soul. In doing so we are able to let a little bit of its light shine forth and bring together just a little bit of the brokenness around us.

 

With blessings for a peaceful Shabbos and a Happy and Healthy New Year!