Shabbat Beha’alotchah, June 2, 2007, is memorable for
Congregation Beth Emek. That was the day
Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, author of more than twenty books, some of the books I
love the most, came to our shul and read from his most-recently-published book
and his first novel, Kabbalah: A Love Story.
Rabbi Kushner currently serves as the Emanu-El scholar at
Congregation Emanu-El in San Francisco. Rabbi Kushner, and his wife and sometimes co-author, Karen Kushner, have
ties to the Bay Area. Their daughter,
Rabbi Noa Kushner, is married to Rabbi Michael Lezak, the associate rabbi at
Congregation Rodef Sholom in San Rafael.
Before moving to the Bay Area, Rabbi Lawrence Kushner
worked and lived on the East Coast. There, he created many of the things we might take for granted in our
Jewish life, things that have probably touched and moved all of
us. For example, my family has been blessed to
participate in a few havurot over the years, and it was Rabbi Kushner who is
credited with the idea for these groups that become extended Jewish families
for us as we wander in diaspora. Rabbi
Kushner created the first gender-neutral siddur so that we are reminded that
God isn't George Burns or Morgan Freeman or even Alanis Morissette. And like many others, I've been touched by
The Jewish Catalogue, required reading for many of us on our way home to
Judaism. That book pointed me towards
new, spiritual horizons and it was Rabbi Kushner who was instrumental in
creating the ferment and the firmament that gave us that book -- and more
broadly -- the Jewish Renewal movement. And Rabbi Kushner has written some of the bedtime stories I've read to
my daughters.
Dayenu.
But there's just a bit more.
A few years ago, the summer of 2002, David Silberman and
I attended a Union for Reform Judaism Kallah, kind of a Jewish summer camp for
adults. We both had a great time and
highly recommend you give it a try too. The year we attended, it was held on the campus of the University of
California, Santa Cruz, and we met so many amazing people like Laura Barnard's
mother and Ellen Bob, the lady that runs Bob and Bob. The teachers were amazing and included Rabbi
Lawrence Kushner and Karen Kushner. I
attended a class that Karen Kushner led about The Song of Songs and I still
blush when I think about it. Every night
there was some activity and one night Rabbi Kushner read from a work in
progress, Kabbala: A Love Story. You can
ask David Silberman, if you don't believe me: I was moved beyond words by Rabbi Kushner's reading. And I began stalking him on Amazon so I would
be first in line to get a copy of that story.
And then the book was published. And I got it right away. And I read it straight through. Twice.
And then, at the regional URJ biennial a couple of months
ago, Congregation Beth Emek was well represented and Rabbi Kushner was there
too. And at the biennial, Rabbi Kushner
read from his book accompanied by our very own Rabbi Richard Winer. President Carrie Arndt was so moved by the
performance she immediately invited Rabbi Kushner to read at Congregation Beth
Emek -- and he did, on Shabbat Beha’alotchah, June 2, 2007.
Kabbalah: A Love Story is a story about everything all at
once: God, love, sex, mystery,
loneliness, quantum physics, book binding, death, jealousy, friendship, time,
space, infinity and the stars. The book
either reminds us or teaches us that all these things -- and everything else --
is held in God's mind all at the same time. The characters in the book all yearn for something that might -- or
might not -- be within their grasp. They
yearn for something they believe will complete them and mend their
broken-ness. God and man, woman and man,
rational and magical -- all of these and more. And the book is a page-turner too. I couldn't wait to find out what was going to happen next. And I shouldn't spoil it for you because you
should read it for yourself already.
For me, that evening when Rabbi Kushner came to
Congregation Beth Emek was a blessing wrapped in a blessing wrapped in a
blessing. Five years ago in Santa Cruz,
I heard Rabbi Kushner read to us fragments from a story that was in creation,
ideas that arced like lightening across the room and made us all hold our
breath so we wouldn't miss a word. And
one of those flashes that night included the premise for the story: A scholar, Rabbi Stern, has in his possession
(how it got there is a puzzle) a volume from the Zohar that was printed in
Spain, 1697. And the binding of this
book begins to delaminate revealing a letter that will change his heart. And that fragment from Rabbi Kushner's story,
the one I heard five years ago that summer night in Santa Cruz, that fragment
stayed sealed in my heart until I read the book. But when I was reading it I could hear Rabbi
Kushner read it to me in my imagination. And then I wasn't imagining it anymore. It was Shabbat. The sun was
setting and Rabbi Kushner was reading from a finished book and Rabbi Winer
tuned us into that moment when Shabbat fades away from us as the stars peep
through the closing darkness. Our
heads are filled with the sweet scent of spice. We see the bright, braided flame. And we sip just a bissel more of the sweetness that God provides. And all this is true.
And, if there's a moral tacked on to the end of this
story, a prescriptive post script, it is this: If you want a religious experience in your life, attending religious
events and going to shul and studying Torah just might be like standing yourself
beneath a lightening rod so that, perhaps, one night, everything will be
illuminated if only for an instant.