He was undoubtedly one of the greatest theological
physicists of our time.
Fusing Einstein’s Theory of Relativity with Jewish
wisdom, the genius of 20th century Jewish philosopher Abraham Joshua Heschel was
navigating through the spatial and temporal dimensions that make up 21st
century Jewish life. It takes place in our homes. It takes place in our hearts.
We are participants in this story. We can access the Divine space-time through
ritual and faith. And we can realize what Heschel described as the “radical
amazement” of having God present in our lives.
But for all his brilliance, for many Jews Heschel’s ideas
are incomplete. This Rosh Hashanah follows a very difficult summer. Israel
fought in Gaza. World Jewry fought battled global anti-Semitism. Jews even quarreled
with one another. As such, defending Israel; protecting Jews afar; and healing
the rifts within occupies our thoughts. The lavish concepts of a Jewish
philosopher may not seem so relevant to us now.
It is the unexpected murkiness that unsettles much of the
elegance of Heschel’s ideas. So it was also for Albert Einstein’s theories:
quantum physics. Einstein’s grandiose concepts of our universe become upended
by events in subatomic minutia. Chaos. Unpredictability. Paradoxes. Unknown
variables. And competing forces. A mirror of life itself, we too experience the
quantum realm daily via what 21st century Rabbi Irwin Kula calls, “the sacred
messiness of life.”
And yet, as millions of Jews prepare for their New Year,
we yearn for unity, understanding and a sense of meaning. How can we make right
what is wrong in our lives? Who will give us the answers – or at least the
guideposts – to bridge the divisions between time and space, the mundane and
the Divine, between us and them, and between the conflicted parts of our souls?
In 2013, scientists around the world celebrated the
discovery of the elusive Higgs Boson particle. Sometimes (but inappropriately)
called the God Particle, its significance is largely related to validating
concepts that bridge the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics. Is there
also such a bridge to traverse for a conflicted four-thousand year old
religious civilization as its welcomes its holiest days?
For many Jews, and indeed for many Americans, the missing
element is not merely the lack of connections to our spirituality, but the lack
of our connections to one another. We have individual lives to live. We have
individual stories to tell. But we lack the glue to connect them to the fabric
of places and moments that are supposed to bind us together.
Yet, that is the power of Rosh Hashanah: a birthday party
for the world’s creation, it reminds us that living is best done together. The
missing element is not an elusive particle but rather an entity that already exists:
community. A community that’s within our reach. A community that we can own. A
community that we can repair and make better. A community that helps our hearts
and minds to grow.
In his later years, Rabbi Heschel explored the existence
of prophesy in post-Biblical times. Perhaps that was his calling to us. We are
all authors of our future. Yet the story can only be completed by adding yet an
entirely new dimension: communities of purpose that bring us together. In that
manner, we have the power to sketch for ourselves a new beginning on the canvas
of eternity.
Happy New Year. Shanah Tovah.
