Taking Miracles Seriously | Rabbi Michael Zedek | Church of the Resurrection

2:23 Taking Miracles Seriously. Rabbi Michael Zedek. First, of course, thank you for that introduction, and as well, thank you for the opportunity to be here, although in effect I'm there, even though at the moment I'm here. To plunge in, I love stories, so here's a story that for me is memorable. It's based on the golden age of situation comedies in TV. of us are old enough to remember Mr. Ed. And while I don't do many impressions, here's my impression of Mr. Ed when he introduces himself to Wilbur. And as we would note, Wilbur is properly nonplussed, because it's not in our experience for horses to talk, let alone have the best lines in situation comedies. But interestingly, the Hebrew Bible has an exact parallel equivalent. Bilaam or Balaam and his talking donkey, or to be more accurate in terms of the Hebrew, his jackass, he has a conversation. As though it were a perfectly reasonable, everyday, commonplace thing to talk with a donkey. Perhaps the real point being, who is the jerk here, in fact. But more substantially, more critically, in the Hebrew Bible, every time what you or I would call a miracle occurs, no one draws the obvious or what we would call the correct lesson, which just may very well be the lesson at heart. So with that as background, let's plunge in.

4:05 You all, I'm sure, are familiar with the story of the exodus from Egypt. The text says it took 10 plagues to get the Israelites out. Now, let's just assume for a moment you're Pharaoh, or as I grew up, you're Yilbrunner playing Pharaoh. And what happens? Wouldn't one, at most two plagues, be enough for you to say, you know, this is going to work out really well. Maybe I should cut my losses. But the text says it takes 10. And by the way, rabbinic tradition, the tradition of which I them apart, invents thousands, which is their way of saying, watch out, something unusual, strange, and important is going on. The text says they march out into the desert, they get to Yom Suf. Yom Suf is the Hebrew for the Sea of Reeds, not the Red Sea as it's so regularly mistranslated, the Sea of Reeds. We called it the Isthmus of Suez in modern times, but there is no more Isthmus there. They built a canal there, that's where you build canals, in low-lying swampy areas.

5:05 The Israelites are stuck at Yom Suf, and they see the tanks, ancient equivalent chariots, of the Egyptians coming to get them. First problem. Tenth Plague says all the firstborn horses are gone, all the firstborn soldiers are gone. Don't let facts get in the way of a wonderful story. They go out after them. They see the dust cloud, and the Israelites do their default. They're going to do this over and over again. They panic. Why did you bring us out here to die? Weren't there enough graves in Egypt? Moses, my other good impression, turns to them and says, be still and see the workings of the Lord. But then the text goes in a much deeper direction. The text says Moses turns to God and the text says God says. I don't know what God says per se. I know what the text says, God says. Why do you cry out to me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward. And that may be the real miracle in this story, that in fact they go forward. But back to the story. The sea splits and they walk through on dry ground. Now, folks, shouldn't there be mud?

6:22 What happened to the mud? In fact, every single time in the Hebrew Bible, when what you or I would call a miracle occurs there's always a telltale there's always a watch out something funny is going on pay attention more important they walk through dry ground by the way if the text that is often mistranslated is plus or minus 3 million people it would have taken weeks for them to get through I don't want the details to get in the way of this so let's go back to our tale you're an Egyptian chariot driver text says they're held back by a whirlwind of fire. The whirlwind disappears. You're going to drive in there. You got to be out of your mind. But the text says they do. And then once more, a good old hint or clue, take my word for it. I promise I'm not stretching the truth at all. It says, then the children of Israel beheld Egypt, not Egyptians, Egypt dead on the shores of the sea. But even more important, then they had emunah is the Hebrew word, usually translated, or I'll be more honest, mistranslated, faith.

7:26 It really means confidence. Then they had confidence in God and in Moses, God's servant. That is, until the next chapter. Why did you bring us out here to die? We have no water. Moses, as you know, splits the rock. Everything's fine. Things are good, right? A little later, we've got no food. In Egypt, we had leeks, cucumbers, garlic. My goodness, why did you bring us out here to die? And they get manna, which, by the way, is very likely the Bible's subtle or otherwise attempted humor. They called it manna, the text says, because they looked at it and said manhu. Manhu, for those whose Hebrew is rusty, is archaic Hebrew for? What is it?

8:21 Mystery, whatever the case may be. The pattern is the point. What's going to happen next? They've cooked manna every way they can. They are sick of it. They don't want that anymore. They want meat. And lo and behold, the next day, camp is surrounded by birds. Or since I was born in Brooklyn, I'll do the correct pronunciation, boids. So, by the way, this is a miracle that happens every year in the Sinai. It's one of the world's great natural bird flyways. Those birds have been flying nonstop over the Mediterranean. They plop down in the Sinai to regain their strength for the rest of their migration into further parts of Africa. Pattern, point. Everything's fine. They get to Mount Sinai. And in the single greatest personal appearance in all of human history, God is experienced by the entire community.

9:16 The entire people have an encounter with the Holy One. That really is unprecedented. Normally when we talk about epiphany or a manifestation of deity, it's one person, three persons, but a whole nation, watch out what's going to happen next. Moses was up on the mountain and they build a golden calf. And on top of that, they say to this golden calf, this is your God, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. What kind of insanity is that? They just made this thing. This is your God, O Israel? Please.

9:53 What's going on here? Either these are the dumbest people to ever walk the face of the earth, or there's a great deal more going on here. And religious tradition of which we are all a part insists there's a heck of a lot more. So striving to unpack a little bit of that, Martin Luther King Jr.'s understanding was these stories, and that's an important word, these stories teach us that it is easier to get the slaves out of Egypt than to get Egypt out of the slaves. That is always true, whether it's a movement for a people's or an individual's embrace of freedom. We are free before we are willing to accept the privilege and the responsibility, and of course the opportunity to be in charge of our lives. My book, which is the basis for this talk, is focused on another idea.

10:52 People are free to disbelieve the evidence of their own experience. People are free to disbelieve the evidence of their own experience. I know that's true about me, and I'll make the leap to presume others share that same blind spot. Or, to quote one of my favorite poets, days pass, years vanish, and we walk sightless among miracles. Part of the problem is what do we mean when we use the word miracle? For if I were to ask you for a definition, I'm reasonably confident that you would include the word supernatural in your description. supernatural intervention to the regular routine of experience fair I hope you'll agree fair will it surprise you I hope not the Hebrew Bible has words that are translated miracle but they don't mean supernatural intervention the three most common words nace which means a sign or a symbol signs or symbols are things that point to something else something more out which is literally a letter meaning in Hebrew, a letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

11:57 We say this is O. Why don't we say this is O? We've agreed that this stands for something. And my favorite of all of them is a word, pele, which means a wow or a wonder. Taken seriously, the burden of my presentation is what isn't a wow, a wonder, an amazement? Days pass, years vanish. maybe we would walk a little less sightless among miracles. So if I'm right, the greatest challenge to what I'm talking about would be why the scripture reading, Moses at the burning bush. After all, what would you say if I suggested to you in this presentation, you know, when I was walking in to the campus of the Church of the Resurrection, there was this bush out there and it was burning wasn't burning up, but it was burning.

12:54 And not only that, it talked to me. Now, presumably you would think, we need to find this guy a bed in an institution for the mentally challenged. Or alternatively, an American society might very well put me on television and I would indicate, please, send me $20 and I'll pray for you, or at least send me $20. Somebody should benefit from this experience. seriously I don't think Bush's talk not Hebrew English Latin or Greek but I do think it is possible to understand oneself to be addressed in an endless number of possibilities be a sunset a tear and embrace or even the symbolism of a bush that is burning but not consumed so let's use a natural explanation for what might have been happening to the Moses story as the text suggests. It's toward the evening in the desert. A pure, pristine environment, unlike what we are used to, alas, pre-industrial, of course. Sunset, it would be as if the sky were on fire. Here's Moses. Here's the sunset. Here's a bush. What kind of bush was it? I can guarantee you we know what it was. It was a bramble, because it has to be the specialized kind of vegetation that grows in that severe environment. It had small leaves to minimize evaporation, and it had thorns to minimize how much it would lose to the animals that need to use it in order to sustain their lives. Moses sees this site, and he changes his life, and he changes the history of the world. What was the message?

14:39 Here he is, safe in the Sinai suburbs, married to the boss's daughter. I'm sure he had a three chariot garage, he's going to inherit the family business, and he throws it all away to go back to Egypt to free a people and to begin the story of liberation in human history, and the people aren't going to be grateful. What in the world? What happened? I believe it is this minimally. He understood he cannot be free while his people are burning in the fiery furnace of Egyptian slavery. he heard himself addressed. He heard himself compelled. By the way, let's assume for a moment you saw that sight. What would you do? I'm willing to presume, oh, isn't that interesting? Might even be beautiful. But Moses turned aside, which is the biblical way of saying he paid attention.

15:36 He paid attention. Because one of the things that I am convinced is true is that there are burning bushes scattered randomly through every day. And what do we do? We ignore them. Could we possibly ignore them less? For if we were to do so, our lives might in fact be more filled with life. Or as Elizabeth Browning, even from a wheelchair, writes, Earth's crammed with heaven. Every bush is afire with God, but only he who sees takes off his shoes. the rest sit round and pluck blackberries. I would love to imagine that what he is also indicating is when it's just, just a blackberry bush, it is as well the opportunity to hear oneself addressed and to recognize that it too is metaphorically a burning bush. Put it this way, there's a wonderful midrash, a rabbinic commentary that says, not a single blade of grass can grow unless the angel for that particular blade of grass whispers to it, grow, grow, grow.

16:46 Now, if you promise not to tell anybody else, I really don't believe there's an angel for every blade of grass. But I do hope, I even pray, you've had moments like that where life has a coherence and a clarity that you cannot but recognize you are standing on holy ground. As Moses, we become part of that journey. So what's part of the problem in getting to this insight, assuming for a moment that, yes, this is an insight worth embracing? Part of it, I believe, is that we're all dualists. We all divide our experience into ordinary and extraordinary. What do we do with the extraordinary? That's clear, obvious. It slaps us across the face, at least metaphorically, and says, pay attention. What do we do with the ordinary? it's equally clear we take it for granted. Were we to take the ordinary for granted less, our lives would indeed be more filled with life. Or as Albert Einstein put it, there are two ways to live. The first is as though nothing is a miracle. The second is as though everything is a miracle. And I honestly, sincerely believe it is possible for us to get closer to that second way. Indeed, shameless promotion. My book tries to offer some genuine pathways to embrace that conviction. But why bother? What's the point in all this? We have enough problems. Or more specifically, what gets in the way? A whole bunch of stuff. But I'm going to suggest for the moment three items. One, in general, we have so much attention paid to making a living that we forget the at least equally important task of making a life.

18:37 For instance, this example from a New Yorker cartoon of some years back. And since there's a New Yorker cartoon and people are at the beach, they're obviously the Hamptons. Two people are sitting there with their adult beverages. Can I say that in a United Methodist community? Adult beverages. And one says to the other, this is perfect. I could stay like this for the next five seconds. After all, it's not productive time. I'm not producing something. I'm not making something. I'm not earning something. More importantly, we are addicted to the quick fix. We want what we want, and we want it now. After all, I did 20 minutes of meditation. Where's my enlightenment? I did a week's worth of abdominal work. I want to know what happened to my six-pack.

19:28 More substantially, Jim Morrison of the Doors fame. we want the world we want it now and kerry fisher comes along alas and offers an even more painful suggestion instant gratification is not quick enough the quick fix more substantially still there is a lack of comfortability in our own skin we are all challenged by gracho marx's suggestion i wouldn't want to be a member of a club that would have me as a member or to put it another way Cain's punishment to be a ceaseless wanderer even though he settles down can only mean an existential disconcertion in our own skin all of us have some wrestling with that or as I put it in my own cliche I am much more than I ever thought I would be and I am much less than I should be and both statements are true wisdom is when it's okay for both of those statements to be true but it is a hard job to get to comfortability about them.

20:33 By the way, magic, if it's okay for both of those statements to be true, you get more the better and less the worse. Or as the great humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers put it, it is a curious paradox that when I accept myself as I am, then I can change. Then I can change. But why should we bother at all? Well, for the Hebrew Bible, the answer is so that your days will be long upon the earth. Notice this days, not years, not you're going to live X, whatever the portion of time that is your or my portion, how we embrace this wonder we call life will determine how rich the engagement with it so that your days will be long upon the earth. So for example, the toast, may you live all the days of your life. How many people get that? But could we live more of them?

21:24 And to be more precise, I learned this vital lesson from my dad. I was 18 when my father died. He knew he was going to die. He had cancer. He set out for me to learn what I consider the four most important lessons of the adult I hope to become someday. As opposed to learning life can't be trusted, what's the point of loving someone? You're only going to lose them. This journey stinks. Here are the four lessons I learned from my dad with his intention. One, life is a very precious and very fragile gift. Self-evident, needs no elaboration. Two, were I to die today, I want more. I am so intoxicated with the gift of life. Two, again, quote Edna St. Vincent Millay, Oh life, I cannot hold you close enough. Lesson number three, and I mean this with every fiber of my being.

22:22 Were I to die today, and someday that will be true, were I to die today, it will be enough to say thank you. I want more. But if this is all I get, I am grateful. And that's an understatement. Lesson number four. I'd rather have my father than have learned any of that. I can't have that. But I can have what his life still means in me. He is apart from me, but he is also part of me. Challenge me to continue to grow, grow, grow. So consider Henry James, the great novelist. Be among those upon whom nothing is lost. But that's part of the problem. We tend to be all or nothing next. Can we perhaps be among those upon whom less is lost.

23:17 That's doable. That is genuinely achievable, to be among those upon whom less is lost. Or to put it another way, the great writer Annie Dillard suggests, if you really pay attention, life is like holding a wine glass under a waterfall. So just two suggestions that I want to offer as exercises to get some more of that mindfulness, to get some more of those living the days of our lives more fully. Number one, I have a friend whose mother was imprisoned in a Japanese prisoner of war camp in Indonesia during World War II. 80% of her fellow inmates did not survive. They starved to death. Her mother, who lived into her mid-90s, was an exception, obviously. And her mother never gave up her enthusiasm, her joy in this adventure. The daughter inquired, how is it possible?

24:14 After all, you and I know people of less challenge who've given up. Skepticism is the only thing they know. Cynicism, despair. Her mother never lost her zest for living. She asked, mom, what is your secret? How do you explain this? Her mother responded, I would try to do three things every day of my imprisonment and every day thereafter. By the way, you'll forgive me. I'm a rabbi. I added a fourth thing. One, I would try to be sure I saw something beautiful. Two, did I hear something beautiful? Three, did I say something beautiful? And I've added, did I do something beautiful? Did I hear, see, say, and do something beautiful? And what I've integrated that into my inventory of life is every night before I attempt to sleep, I'm at that age where it's not always obvious that I'm going to get away with it.

25:10 I ask myself those four questions that I see, hear, say, and do something beautiful. If the answer to any one of them is no, I have to get up because my real work, my soul, S-O-U-L work for the day isn't finished. I promise you, if you embrace it, you'll find more and more of it and it will enrich these days for whatever portion we have. Second suggestion, and then I promise to conclude. When I first came to the greater Kansas City area in 1974, I used to study once a week with a retired rabbi who was blind. I would read to him and we would study together. And then when we had the study done, then the real teaching began. He said to me, Michael, when do you say the Shechecheyanu prayer? If you can do that, you may have a Jewish background. The Shechecheyanu prayer.

26:04 The Shechecheyanu prayer, for those who are not aware, is in English, praise of you, eternal our God, ruler of the universe, who has kept us in life, sustained us, and brought us to this special moment. You would do that prayer when you're doing something for the first time or the first time in season. First time you've never done it, the Shehefeianu, a way of saying, wow, wonder, pay attention, focus on the ordinary and the extraordinary that's found therein. First time in season, so for instance, first night of Hanukkah, in addition to the blessings for lighting the candles, you add that prayer, but not the second night, because it's not the first time in season. So, what to do? I said to him that answer. I'd just gotten out of seminary. I knew more than I was ever going to know. First time, first time in season. He said, you're wrong. Let your ears hear what your mouth has spoken. When you're doing something the first time, first time in season.

27:00 Then he said the following to me. It changed my life. He said, Michael, when are you not doing something for the first time? Hmm. Ever since, a little voice right back here. And I praise you, eternal God, rule of universe, who kept us in life, sustained us, and brought us a special one. Praise you, eternal God, I can't get through one before it's time for the next one and the next one. Now I'll admit to you, there are times when it's just background noise, but then there are moments where there's breakthrough and yes, the bush burns, unconsumed, and I experienced myself as addressed. So let's try to wrap this up a little bit, because one of the things I'm absolutely convinced is poets know this and they bring it out in us. If a poem works, it's only because they've articulated what's inchoate in ourselves. Let me begin with an introduction of a story of poetry.

27:56 The story's told that Robert Frost was having dinner with a graduate student in his cottage in Vermont. Now, I honestly admit, I don't know if Robert Frost had a cottage in Vermont, but it's a really good story. The graduate student was doing her PhD research on the poet and they're having dinner and the graduate student says, you know, Dr. Frost, look at that gorgeous sunset. Frost says, you know, I make it a point never to discuss business while I'm eating. Well, the business in poetry might unlock some exquisite recognitions. So for example, those of you who know Mary Oliver, This is just an excerpt from a larger poem called When Death Comes. When it's over, I want to say all my life, I was a bride married to amazement. I was the bride room taking the world into my arms. When it's over, I don't want to wonder if I have made of my life something particular and real.

28:54 I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened or full of regret. I don't want to end up simply having visited this world. Or this concluding poem. You are likely aware that E.E. Cummings, famous for never using capitalization, but in this poem, he actually uses the word God and he capitalizes it. I thank you, God, for most this amazing day, for the leaping green leaf spirits of trees and the blue true dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes. I who have died am alive again today and this is the Son's birthday. This is the birth day of life and love and wings of the gay great happening, eliminably earth.

29:51 How should tasting, touching, hearing, seeing, breathing any lifted from the all of all nothing being doubt unimaginable you. Now the ears of my ears awake. Now the eyes of my eyes are opened. Abraham Joshua Heschel, one of the great theologians of the previous century, said, who lit the fire before my eyes? And who lit the fire of my eyes? May those fires be present and may we be warm by them. And may we journey together to a place where endless numbers of burning bushes are scattered randomly, wonderfully.