Sunday, September 23, 2007

Coming up for air after Yom Kippur

It's the day after Yom Kippur, a purposefully undemanding day after the intensity of the past few weeks. Intense because of preparations for the High Holy Days. I led some of the services at Ahavat Olam -- and new this year I was a baal tekiah, a shofar blower. What a thrill. It feels very elemental and grounded in the earth, almost shamanic.

For the third year at Or Shalom, I led "Chanting at the Gates," a chant workshop that comes at the break in the afternoo
n before the Minha service. The spiritual goal was to call out to God to keep open the Gates of Righteousness, which our tradition tells us close for another year at the end of Yom Kippur. The intention of the workshop was that the gates are always open for an open heart. And the opportunities for "returning" to our essential selves after missing the mark are always there.

The year ahead brings a focus on Jewish learning. I've begun a year-long course in Biblical Hebrew, and am contemplating enrolling in the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School to fill in some of the many holes in my basic Jewish knowledge. Anyone else have experience with that program?

I've begun assembling a team to organize the third-annual Vancouver InterSpiritual Chant Festival. We're looking at possible dates in February or March at the Centre for Peace.

Let Bob Dylan send your message

My friend Al Pasternak turned me on to this great way to send a message. It allows you to customize the cue-card scene from the 1967 movie "Don't Look Back" with Bob Dylan singing "Subterranean Homesick Blues." (Check out Allen Ginsberg in the background on the left.) It's part of a promotion for a Dylan album due out Oct. 1 but that's a pretty subtle part of it. I used it to send a message to my fellow graduates of Rabbi Shefa Gold's Kol Zimra chant leadership program. You can send your own message, too.