A PASSOVER PRESCRIPTION (2017)

A PASSOVER PRESCRIPTION (2017)

Courtesy of Donald Trump, Jude Law, Saint Juana Fernandez and Me

With Music By Charlie Chaplin

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At last year’s Seder, I read from an article by David Duke — the white supremacist, Holocaust denying, former Imperial Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan — who was then running for Congress and invoking anti-semitic diatribe in support of Donald Trump’s candidacy.  Since the election, we have gone through a dark winter.  Fortunately, as the poet says in The Song of Songs, the rains are over and gone.  Passover this year seems like an especially good opportunity to turn to another source to help find a cure to what seems to ail us.

These are hard times.  Previously disguised, sinister and insidious ideologies have been normalized, mainstreamed and emboldened.  Fear and even hate of “the other” has become a dominant motivator in shaping horrific and hurtful policies.  Me, me, me has taken precedence over we.  Institutions that have sustained our core beliefs for hundreds of years seem to be crumbling around us.   There is the prospect of the real nuclear option, not just the one invoked to fill our highest court with extreme justices.

We are flooded with numerous calls to action each day.  We are told to resist.  We hope to rise to the challenge…to maybe co-create or participate in the next Women’s March…to contact our representatives each day.  But we are human.  We get weary.  And anxious.  And afraid.  We may go into fight or flight mode.  Our bodies may tighten.  Our breath may shorten.  Our adrenals may overload.

Passover is exactly the right and wrong holiday to teach us how to cope.  The story of liberation from slavery, yet also of a wrathful God who strikes down the oppressors.  What could be a better example of the horror of the abuse of power…by anyone, or by any “other” side?  Or of the madness that can ensue when fear freezes us and tries to Trump what connects us — the power of love?  Black lives matter.  So do the first borns of all traditions.  I take no pride or comfort that Egyptians drowned in the sea.  The holiday this year seems at best especially bittersweet.

This is a time when we must free our hearts, bodies, minds and spirits, so that we can remember what we know, who we are, and who at our best we can be.  So that we can stay grounded in a place of love, compassion and connection.  And so we can use the tools in the sacred toolbox that Hashem (God) has given to help us cope and thrive.  Simple though some of the tools may seem, they can be more powerful than we know…powerful enough to help steady us through the dark times.

I recently encountered the story of Saint Juana Fernandez, a miracle healer from Guatemala, who supposedly lived not very long ago, from 1962-1980.  Herself a child, Juana would tell the sick and dying children stories about the Madonna, and the children would heal by the next day.  The children were asked why they were cured and they said it was because the Madonna made them laugh.   

Consider these words, not mine, about Juana’s teachings,*** and how they uncover a hopeful foundation for getting to a better place.

When they asked her: "Who is God?”, "God is a line that opens” replied the Blessed Juana.  

"God is a line that opens.”   She was just fourteen years old, and no one understood what it was she was trying to say. 

And then, all the children asked the dying Blessed Juana dozens of questions: Are we dead or are we alive? Are we tired or are we vigorous? Are we healthy or are we sick? Are we good or are we bad? Do we still have time or has it run out? Are we young or are we old? Are we clean or are we dirty? Are we fools or are we smart? Are we true or are we false? Are we rich or are we poor? Are we kings or are we servants? Are we good or are we beautiful? Are we warm or are we cold? Are we happy or are we blind? Are we disappointed or are we joyful? Are we lost or are we found? Are we men or are we women?

"It doesn't matter", replied the Blessed Juana as she lay dying at the age of just eighteen. And she added, on the verge of death, with tears in her eyes: "God does not allow Himself to be seen. God does not shout. God does not whisper. God does not write. God does not hear. God does not chat. God does not comfort us." 

And all the children asked her (again): "Who is God?"   

And Juana replied: "God smiles".  “God smiles.”  

And only then did everyone understand.

Taking my cue from the source of this story,*** I’d like to ask all of you to smile. Smile. Smile. Find the happiness, hope, connection and love in this present moment — and smile.  Look at the person to your left and smile.  And to the person on your right and smile.  And across from you and smile.  And everyone in the room, one by one, and smile.  Yes, smile.  Not in and of itself a solution to the madness of the day.  But one of many important gifts we’ve been given, and can freely share, that can help us get across the sea and safely to the other side.

I’d like to close this piece by joining together in song, with a Passover Niggun (chant) by a great teacher, Reb Charlie Chaplin (Smile).  Here are the lyrics (below).  

Mark Rubin

April 10, 2017

Smile though your heart is aching
Smile even though it's breaking.
When there are clouds in the sky
you'll get by.

If you smile through your fear and sorrow
Smile and maybe tomorrow
You'll see the sun come shining through
For you.

Light up your face with gladness,
Hide every trace of sadness.
Although a tear may be ever so near

That's the time you must keep on trying
Smile, what's the use of crying.
You'll find that life is still worthwhile-
If you just smile...

By:  Charlie Chaplin (yes, that Charlie Chaplin) et al

*** From the riveting television series The Young Pope, staring Jude Law.  As best I can tell, Juana is a fictional character based on Chile’s first saint, Juana Enriqueta Josefina Fernandez Solar, who lived from 1900 until dying of typhoid fever in 1920.  According to another source, ‘Teresa possessed an enormous capacity to love and to be loved, joined with extraordinary intelligence. God allowed her to experience his presence. Knowing him, she loved him; and loving him, she bound herself totally to him, even through many interior trials. The Church holds her up as a preeminent model for children and young adults: a real person to whom they can relate.”