Here I Am. Where Are You?

By Rabbi Mark Borovitz

As my first blog of the new year, 5775, I want to talk about hiding. For me, this is the original sin in the Bible. Whenever we feel less than, whenever we feel wrong, we hide. God is calling out to us every hour of every day the same word God called out to Adam and Eve: “Ayecha,” where are you? 

The challenge of humanity is to answer with Hineni—here I am. God doesn’t care if we have erred; God knows we will, which is why God put T’Shuvah into the world! What God cares about is relationship, connection and Truth with us, God’s partners. Two of my greatest teachers, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and Rabbi Edward Feinstein, teach this and live these principles. In God in Search of Man as well as Insecurity of Freedom and his other books, Rabbi Heschel has taught me that a life without learning, without Truth, without God is not worth living. Rabbi Feinstein in his books Tough Questions Jews Ask and his newest, The Chutzpah Imperative, teaches how to engage the texts of our Tradition with passion and purpose. Both of these Gadolim, Giants of learning and living, have given me the strength to live in relationship, Truth and connection with God, others and myself.

I believe that only by being Addicted to Redemption can we truly answer the God’s question “Ayecha” with Hineni. It doesn’t mean that I am always where I want to be, that I am always “right”; rather it means that I am willing to be seen. I am willing to look at myself in Truth and I willing to change/repair my current position and old errors that I discover/uncover.

We have just finished the High Holiday Season with Simchat Torah, the Joy of Learning. I am asking all of us to honor the Joy of Torah by beginning anew our relationship to God, others, and ourselves by being in Truth with all of these entities. I am asking us to honor the Joy of Torah by being in connection with all of our inner parts and allowing our Higher Self to have sway over our baser desires. I am asking all of us to do T’Shuvah daily so we are unafraid to answer “Ayecha” with Hineni.