We are not born perfect- into an imperfect world.
At birth we start with a cry. Our grand entrance is with closed fists and our exit with open hands. We circumcise our newborn males. Life is an exercise in humility. Our hearts are shattered again and again as God seeks our vulnerability. We are perfected through being broken, reassembled and broken again.
In Deuteronomy, we are told to circumcise our hearts. To do His work, we must be open to suffering, and help heal, not despite the pangs, but as their result. Cracked open, we feel more, and our inner spark can light a dark world.
Each New Year, on Rosh Hashanah, the Shofar cries for the derailed sacrifice of the young Isaac. We beat our chests with the tight fists we were born, till they both open, seeking God’s Love. We utter communal sins, knowing we did not commit some, but are responsible for all. We prostrate as priests and bend as the horn we blow. We cry without food, empty as the reed. We cry tears of shame, of community, of nostalgia and of hope.
Courage is love despite fear.
Our nature is to withdraw into hard turtle shells to avoid pain, to close our eyes or to look away. The eyelids resemble the discarded foreskin. Our lives are but a glimpse of light between the shadow of the womb and the darkness of the grave. We must no blink.
In the mystical month of Elul, God walks among us. The gates to His Palace are open, but so should be ours. If the windows of our souls are free of the mud of anger, hatred, jealousy and ego, He will enter to circumcise our hearts and reconstruct our souls.
We fill with shame of what we have done with our time, the leaks we ignored. We act as if we have a tomorrow, and maybe we do. Perhaps we have a hundred or thousand of them. We may have so many days ahead that we lose count, become careless, and do as we please, ignoring the cries on the corners and the lonely lullabies, leaving our healing task to another day. But some of us only have this moment, or only the next, and none of us really knows. We have but today to unveil the mask of our neighbor and seal her sinking spirit.
Forget superficial selfies. Dive deep within, where the currents rise and the whirlwinds insult erratically. That’s where God is working. Forget selfies. Are you proud to show your true unmasked face, your inner longings, your inspirations and aspirations, your yearning secretes- to God? Deep inside you, where God placed His breath is where you must meet Him.
We are all broken vessels. Your scars are not marks of shame but signs of triumph and strength. Success is not in gifts of inborn talents but in overcoming hardship. In this world, God’s instruments are broken vessels that mend others. We live in a materialistic land which respects and rewards wealth and power- all a trap! What lies within us is Infinite. Our true wealth rests in the ripples of joy we create, the shattered hearts we heal, the broken relationships we restore, the kind words we whisper, and the goodness felt upon the mention of our name.
Though covenant and blade circumcise the male foreskin, poetry and prayer circumcise the human heart. The reconstruction of our souls is never final, but in the words of Heschel “an endless pilgrimage, a being on the way.”
Although we are born imperfect, we are worthy of God’s Love.
