Finding a place for Jewish spirituality

Your letters to me make writing this column interesting for me. If you have any questions you would like to ask me, please e-mail me directly or mail them to the Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402, attn: Tom McCord. He will forward them to me.

Robert wrote: “Where does a Jewish person experience holiness or the sacred? It seems to me that souls are starving for lack of genuine religious experience in this secular society …”

Dear Robert: First a story: A very nicely dressed woman from America gets off a plane in India and takes a taxi to a remote village, where she visits an ashram, a Buddhist spiritual center. She waits in line for hours to have a few minutes with the guru but gets impatient. She goes to the front of the line and pleads to see the guru immediately, saying she only has five words to say to him and that it will take her only one minute. The attendant sees that she is an American and lets her go in to see the guru. The woman approaches the guru slowly and looking directly at him says, “So, Sidney, come home already!”

For many Jews, finding a spiritual path within Judaism is challenging.

The personal and spiritual approach is often more hidden and not often presented at most synagogue services. There are places though where one can find very special spiritual experiences. One place is the B’nai Jeshurun Synagogue in New York, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, where every Friday evening for Sabbath services there is a long line of people waiting to get into services.

Once inside, a feeling of warmth and excitement fills the sanctuary. The service is filled with song and dancing as everyone welcomes the coming of the Sabbath. The congregation is egalitarian, diverse and embracing of the variety of people who are in attendance. It is a wonderful experience.

Another place is Elat Chayyim in Accord, near Woodstock, N.Y. Elat Chayyim is a Jewish Spiritual Retreat Center, where classes and workshops and services encourage people to find their own opening and approach to a more meaningful spiritual Jewish life. The workshops include instruction on prayer, meditation and chanting, classes on kabala or Jewish mysticism, Hassidic practices and healing training, as well as Sabbath and holiday worship.

The food is kosher and vegetarian, and the Elat Chayyim community is respectful of the diversity of its many participants and mindful of its mission to help deepen each person’s connection with the Divine Source. The weeklong retreats are wonderful experiences which can have a significant impact on an individual.

Recently, we read about and saw the pilgrimage or trip Madonna, or maybe Esther, as I think she is now calling herself, took to Israel to visit the burial site of a great kabalistic teacher. This obscure practice of visiting a burial site is observed by many followers of certain great masters. These devotees wish to meditate or pray or make a wish at this very sacred place.

Much more common for many Jews, is the practice of going to the Western Wall in Jerusalem, the wall which remains from our ancient and most sacred Temple. At the Wall, we pray and often put small pieces of paper on which a prayer or wish is written into the many cracks between the huge stones which make up this sacred site.

For most Jews though, on a weekly or daily level, we experience the sacred in our lives through our family and community. Every week on Friday evenings, many Jewish families usher in the Sabbath by lighting candles, eating a special dinner, chanting blessings and prayers and singing songs. This is done at home and sometimes at the synagogue as well. The Sabbath offers us a time to relax, be together, renew our love for each other and appreciate the world around us.

Many Jews experience holiness through prayer and meditation, through study, music, art and nature. It seems though that on the most universal level, one’s ability to love may be the greatest spiritual gift of all. To love others seems to mean to accept them for who they are with no hidden agendas. To love others seems to include being at peace with oneself and the world around you. This is what I believe is at the core of spirituality.

At this time of year, when we approach the darkest day of the year and our coldest time of year, may we kindle our lights of Hanukkah and Christmas and acknowledge the central humanness of all people; that we all wish to live in a world of acceptance, tolerance, holiness and love. Happy holidays.

Rabbi Barry Krieger is the rabbinic facilitator for the Hillel organization at the University of Maine in Orono. He may be reached via bkrieger56@aol.com. Voices is a weekly commentary by five Maine columnists who explore issues affecting spirituality and religious life.