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Preparing to Marry God: A Near-Death Experience.

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September 21, 2014

Today is a good day to die!

In sharp contrast to the upcoming New Year celebration of 2015, where people party as if they will live forever, and dance to music focused around the “booty,” the Jewish New Year is a simulated near death experience, it’s focus the soul. 

We celebrate the birth of the universe, then prepare to die.  In ten days between Creation and Yom Kippur, we ask for forgiveness, we awaken our souls by sounding the Shofar, and prepare for our journey back to God.  On the Day of Awe, we forgo all materialistic acts, dress in white as if ready to be buried, and we fast- for the soul needs no food, just love, prayer, and community.

When God created Adam, He declared that it is not good for man to be alone.  But why would a perfect God create fallible man in the first place?  If we are made in God’s Image, perhaps it is not good for God to be alone either.  God’s deep desire to love, led to the creation of man.  Love Created something out of nothing.

In my practice, the most common disease I see is not high blood pressure, heart disease, or even diabetes- but loneliness.  At home, my son breaks down, screaming “I'm not hungry” as the tears fall uncontrollably. Precisely at that moment, he needs to eat. At six, he does not feel hunger, but the crash is evident to all around him.  Adults become spiritually depleted, unaware of the symptoms: agitation, anger, fatigue and “can't get no satisfaction…” The greatest yearning in life is for what money cannot buy. The deepest hunger is for love, for connection, for community and for the understanding of our essence. Meaning, purpose and service are nutrition to a starving soul.

All our lives we prepare to marry God, a return to The Source of Love.

Our faith is one of optimism- its' focus, not punishment, but love. We are told that despite our imperfections, we are worthy of God's love- that God not only wants us, but needs us.  Fear is a juvenile motivation to seek God, love the mature drive.  Fear of sin is infantile religion, where as wonder and awe universally mature spiritual quests. 
Our souls cast into a bodily cage seek reunion.  On Yom Kippur we are bound to God.  On Sukkot, overjoyed, we show off our marriage. 

Death is the great equalizer.  None of us carries back accumulated wealth; all of us are temporary guardians of what slips out of the closed fists with which we are born and the open hands with which we die.  A kiss, a whisper, a hug, a “yes”-  that is all that remains of us.

May the New Year help us better prioritize all that is truly important in life.

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