A Faith as Big as the Cosmos

Here is an excerpt from my sermon on Kol Nidre, given at Metivta Center for Contemplative Judaism on September 24, 2023 (10 Tishrei, 5784) in Los Angeles, California:

The greatest Chasidic masters taught that God, the consciousness of the universe is not only alive; it looks at us. And more, it needs us: Bakshu Phanai, God says, Seek my face. Look for me. I come in so many forms and guises. I show up in the faces of your children, as the face of your friends; in the face of tragedy and death. Above all in the face of kindness. You will find me in your heart.

Bakshu Phanai, I formed you over 14 billion years so that I might be known! God is saying to us: See me, feel me, touch me, heal me. The Great Who, the Mi of the Universe, wants and needs us.

One Hassidic legend tells of the grandson of Rabbi Baruch of Medzibz . The rabbi finds the little boy sitting under a desk crying. What is it? What happened? Between his sobs the boy explains: We were playing Hide and Seek, and I was hiding here but then they stopped looking for me and just went on to another game without telling me. Tears brimmed in the Rebbe’s eyes and he said: You know, God says the same thing. I hide but no one comes to seek me.

None of us can predict what will go on in the coming year. We do know this: The shape of our lives, from global finances to politics to earth and climate changes-to war, all is changing rapidly, alarmingly. There are bound to be more wild curve balls coming at us and we need a very strong container, we need each other, and we need a way to phone home.

Bakshu Phanai: Seek my face! Just look! My face is everywhere. On this side of the veil and that. And on this most sacred night of the year: We are facing infinity. We are facing our death. We are facing the still small child within us who has not forgotten the dimensions of heaven.

Let it not be said of us in the 21st century when our earth is dying and the cry of the species grows louder and louder, that we the people of Havaya, pure being, the people of Eheyeh, the universe that is ever becoming, the people of Mother Shechinah: Let it not be said that we were stuck praying to dead metaphors, to a tribal deity, with words that don’t soar, and concern for our own numbers rather than the awe and WOW of our universe.

Let it not be said of us that we are the Frozen Chosen, still enacting plastic rituals because we have hopelessly forgotten our home, the magical universe.

But let it be true of us that we stand facing the universe and expanding with it and into it, reaching for our limitlessness, seeking God’s face in all things, in the eyes of our children, in the elements of this magical earth, and especially in each other.

May the radiant face of the universe bless each one of us with life, and a faith befitting the cosmos. Good Yuntiff.