Rhythm and Chaos By: Rabbi Denise L. Eger

Shabbat Shalom.

Tonight we have experienced the way in which rhythm can help us redirect our thoughts and prayers. Thank you, Mike, for helping us get in touch with the beat of our hearts and the pulse of life.

Drums and rhythm have always played a part of our Jewish tradition. Miriam and the women used timbrels and tamborines in their dance of jubilation at the Red Sea’s shore. Psalm 150 recounts the music of the ancient sacrificial service in the Temple and specifically mentions the tof-the drum as one of those used to praise God.
Maimonides, in the Mishneh Torah, writes that “[p]rophecy does not come from sadness or sloth, but from joy. Therefore the prophets had before them harp, drum, flute, and lyre so they could seek prophecy.”
Drums were used to send messages and sound alarms. Drums were used in war to help march soldiers from place to place. These rhythms shaped our history and our worship.
Each breath that we take propels our hearts to pound out its own special rhythm that keeps us alive. And when that rhythm ceases and death comes, the silence can reveal many things. It is either chaos of the vacuum or the order of the quiet. And the truth is you can have some role in creating either chaos or quietude.
These couples of weeks we have been witness to the chaos of the vacuum of the rhythm of life. In the wake of the death of Anna Nicole Smith the tabloids of print and video have had their day. The chaos surrounding her passing, her burial, the paternity of her new baby as well as the recent death of her older son has created its own pounding of the airwaves. Not too mention the circus and spectacle that has ensued.
They say we often die as we live. And she was no stranger to the intrusiveness of the camera and in fact she courted it. But part of the chaos we have been bombarded with has come because of a lack of responsibility and planning. She left no plan for her death. She had no updated will no written expression of her wishes. This has added to the chaos and in fact contributed to the mess we have been witness to.
How many of us would be prepared? How many of us have taken care of the essentials of what are wishes are in death? Where we want to be buried? Who we would want to make those decisions? Who among your family or friends even know what your desires are when you are gone?
My friends, it is no secret that in recent weeks in our own congregation I have had to deal with a similar situation. One of our own did not have enough details outlined or arranged so that it enabled family members who came in and created havoc.
If you don’t want your brother or parent or cousin to make decisions regarding your healthcare and then your burial –please then be an adult and take care of the forms that will allow you to make your wishes known legally. In California the Medical Power of Attorney for Healthcare, or California Advanced Healthcare Directive –forms that are downloadable –(www.calhealth.org/Download/AdvanceDirective.pdf) allow those who you designate to make health care related decisions, end of life decisions if you are unable or incapacitated as well as final disposition decisions. There are several copies of this form available here tonight. They must be witnessed and notarized to be effective.
If you don’t have these kinds of forms your legal next of kin will make those decisions no matter your relationship with them. So if you are comfortable with a parent, or sibling, child, or second cousin making those decision. Fine. But if you want your partner, neighbor, best friend, or even rabbi to be the one—then you need to make sure you have the legal document that states this.
Secondly, your will or trust doesn’t necessarily cover your final wishes in regard to funeral or service. Unless you specifically provide for it in your will, even your executor can not make health care decisions or plan your funeral.
Tonight I have available for you our Temple’s pre-planning guide. It has a number of questions to help you think about these end of life issues. I want to encourage you to take one—fill it out –even as difficult as that might be—and send me a copy, so we have one on file here at the Temple. While this is not a legal document like the Advance Health Care Directive—it at least puts your wishes on record. And I am often asked by family and friends if I know what the final wishes were.
Order or chaos—they are our choice in life as well as death. We can allow our end of life to be peaceful and loving or filled with difficulty and pain. Just turn on the television to continue to see what happens when death comes suddenly and no plans are in place.
The pulse that is within you is your own beat. I pray that it stays within you for many years yet to come. But tonight even as we express our joys and sorrows through drumming, we take a moment to know our responsibilities when that personal rhythm ceases. By making sure our affairs are in order, our forms completed properly we shall be protected and our wishes fulfilled.
In our Torah and Haftarah portion this week—Parshat Terumah –we are given the instructions for building the temporary tent of meeting and in the Haftarah the construction of Solomon’s temple is described. Each of these sacred spaces were the central core of our tradition. It was the heart of our heritage. Its fabrication and construction were made without the usual cacophony of hammers and chisels pounding out the sounds of construction. Instead a sacred rhythm of life and death, sin and forgiveness, curse and blessing were part of the inner sanctuary as the pulse of a people was to be explored in that space. So may we on this Shabbat Terumah—find solace in the quiet and the calm as well as the cacophony of joy in the rhythm of life

Parshat Yitro; Exodus 18:1 – 20:23, By Rabbi Denise L. Eger

The Children of Israel are about to encounter God in a unique way this week. In the barren landscape of the wilderness in the shadow of craggy mountain peak, three short months since they left Egypt, the Children of Israel in Parshat Yitro hear the voice of the God.

They have seen God’s might and power before. In Egypt they were witnesses to the power of God that was unleashed by the ten plagues. Blood and hail and locusts and darkness were some of the forms of Divine might that the children of Israel experienced. They saw God’s resourcefulness and power in the miracle of the splitting of the Red Sea. Moses’ staff raised above the salty waters brought the Eternal’s power to bear over the Sea and rout the Egyptians. God brings manna to eat and helps Moses’ sweeten brackish water to drink. But now encamped at the base of Mt. Sinai the revelation of the Torah is not just a conversation between Moses and God but it is revealed to the entire nation.
“I will come to you in a thick cloud, in order that the people may hear when I speak with you and so trust you ever after” (Ex. 19:9).

This encounter is not private but public. These former slaves are elevated to a unique position. They average Egyptian did not meet their gods and goddesses face to face. They saw their statues and images around them but only the priests of Egypt were able to invoke the gods. And they did so in glorious monuments and temples.
But now these former slaves will out in the open meet their God. This is a revolutionary idea! Those on the lowest rungs of Egyptian social life, those who were outsiders, will now encounter the Divine as if they too were priests. God recognizes the sanctity of this moment and the revolutionary impact of this. “You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex. 19:6). The average stone worker will now be transformed into and elevated into a role that they only knew was at the highest ranks of Egyptian society. Indeed to have your social class lifted up in such a way must be a miracle as great as the parting of the Red Sea! No wonder they chime out when Moses’ asks them, “All that God has spoken, we will do!” (Ex. 19: 8). They want to be lifted up never to return to slavery.

But they had to prepare for this moment. They had to prepare and purify themselves. They had to wash their clothes and refrain from sexual encounters, anything that would distract and create impurity. Then they would in the proper state to receive God’s word and to experience the Holy One of Blessing.

And so on that mountain in the barren wilderness the Jewish people heard the blasts of the shofar and saw the smoke and fire and felt the trembling of the mountain as God descended upon Sinai. They heard God’s words speak out the Ten Commandments. These newly freed slaves who a mere ninety days ago were building the garrison cities and storehouses of Egypt are hearing the Divine Words revealed to them. It becomes so overwhelming that they fell back and stood at a distance” (Ex. 20: 15). But the revelation of the Torah at Mt. Sinai was for all to hear. The revelation was not just for some but for the entire people. The revelation was not based on social status but for this new nation whose holiness began at that moment as they were transformed by their common experience that day and their bond with each other and with God through our covenant.

That bond remains in force today. We are the heirs to those who stood at Sinai and that moment of revelation is reenacted when recite the Shma’ prayer together in worship. We too are elevated into a kingdom of priest and a holy nation by our affirmation of our faith and the conduct of our lives. That is why the Torah and its teachings are as relevant today as they were so many thousands of years ago. The Torah’s ability to help transform our souls and lift us up from the many ways we are still in bondage. Just as God’ lifted the Children of Israel up on eagle’s wings (Ex. 19:4), so too, if we cling to that revelation be uplifted even today.