Friends,
This week in our cycle of reading from the Torah, we encounter the vignette of our patriarch, Jacob, traveling alone in the desert, who settles for the night and places a stone under his head as a pillow, and dreams. In his dream, he beholds a ladder from the ground to the heavens, with angels of God going up and coming down. Jacob awakened and proclaimed that this was a place of God.
What made it a place of God? Was it because God chose to reveal the Divine presence to Jacob at that maqom – that place, that night? Or was it because the place was intrinsically holy? Or, was it because a special man had alit upon that spot, and through his sacred presence, imparted some of his radiance to that very place?
I suggest the latter. It has happened elsewhere. The mount where Abraham was to offer Isaac became sacred through Abraham’s devotion. To our Christian friends, places where Jesus visited are similarly marked. And, the Jerry Pettis Bridge in Selma was made holy because Dr. King and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel marched its length to protest justice.
Thus, not only might a place change us, but we might change the nature of a place. Beholding a wonderful sight – Yosemite or Yellowstone – can stir a soul and turn Teddy Roosevelt into an environmentalist. But no less, when a special figure comes to an ordinary place, one can impart one’s own holiness on that place, as well.
Think about our own Hudson Valley. How many visitors have come and been stirred by the river and the mountains, and found it holy? And how many people came and left some of their holiness in our beautiful valley – from Edward Hopper to Eleanor Roosevelt, George Washington to Washington Irving.
There are moments, day after day and week after week, to touch a community and leave behind some holiness. We might do so by simply being present, or by giving some gifts of our resources, time or talent. We need not be a world-famous painter or a nation’s President; we can touch a place simply with kindness and awe.
Jacob demonstrated how a simple night in a faraway place could be deemed holy because he was there. How much more for those of us who get to spend every night in our own nearby valley! Let’s let some of our own holiness rub off on this place where we live, and see it as a wonderful place of God!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
This week in our cycle of reading from the Torah, we encounter the vignette of our patriarch, Jacob, traveling alone in the desert, who settles for the night and places a stone under his head as a pillow, and dreams. In his dream, he beholds a ladder from the ground to the heavens, with angels of God going up and coming down. Jacob awakened and proclaimed that this was a place of God.
What made it a place of God? Was it because God chose to reveal the Divine presence to Jacob at that maqom – that place, that night? Or was it because the place was intrinsically holy? Or, was it because a special man had alit upon that spot, and through his sacred presence, imparted some of his radiance to that very place?
I suggest the latter. It has happened elsewhere. The mount where Abraham was to offer Isaac became sacred through Abraham’s devotion. To our Christian friends, places where Jesus visited are similarly marked. And, the Jerry Pettis Bridge in Selma was made holy because Dr. King and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel marched its length to protest justice.
Thus, not only might a place change us, but we might change the nature of a place. Beholding a wonderful sight – Yosemite or Yellowstone – can stir a soul and turn Teddy Roosevelt into an environmentalist. But no less, when a special figure comes to an ordinary place, one can impart one’s own holiness on that place, as well.
Think about our own Hudson Valley. How many visitors have come and been stirred by the river and the mountains, and found it holy? And how many people came and left some of their holiness in our beautiful valley – from Edward Hopper to Eleanor Roosevelt, George Washington to Washington Irving.
There are moments, day after day and week after week, to touch a community and leave behind some holiness. We might do so by simply being present, or by giving some gifts of our resources, time or talent. We need not be a world-famous painter or a nation’s President; we can touch a place simply with kindness and awe.
Jacob demonstrated how a simple night in a faraway place could be deemed holy because he was there. How much more for those of us who get to spend every night in our own nearby valley! Let’s let some of our own holiness rub off on this place where we live, and see it as a wonderful place of God!
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Douglas Kohn
