Majesty

Temple Israel High Holy Days > Blog > Majesty

How We Get By

Poem written by Em Meuller, used with permission from the author See how the sun wants to get through pushing light past sodden clouds. See how trees hold up the sky like Atlas' rounded shoulders weighted by earth. Can you see those white specks of net -- a soccer goal, forlorn, praying for children to play. See how relentless we go on and on, the sky, the sun, trees, earth, me, you reading this poem.

In Week’s Field

Poem written by Em Meuller, used with permission from the author With gulls and crows and my dog running circles around me, the goal posts, the trunk of the tree, I shout at the top of my lungs “Get the birds, Teddy! Get the birds!” He barks and races all four feet off the ground at one time flying, trying to catch the seagulls, the crows, anything with wings, fiercely joyous, loving the chase, the stretch, the soft grass under his paws, the whistling air.

Sometimes in September

Poem written by Ellen Steinbaum, used with permission from the author Every morning now we count the morning glories-- twenty-three today-- that sprung up while we were sleeping and curl glorious in their one day on the arbor among waning moon-flowers, wisteria too new this year for bloom, and grape vines that persist through all our attempts to tear them out. A rush of birds and squirrels harvests acorns and the kousa dogwood’s dropping fruit. Every year I forget this--how spring’s all petulance, with cold and rain that never end and summer’s short, winter forever, but this brightness will open, lit colors clear as morning glories, with curtains blown inward at an empty window, with papers flying in the air above a desk, with something just about to happen, with something just over.

Queen Esther Approaching the Palace of Ahasuerus

Year: 1658

Artist: Claude Lorrain (Claude Gelée)

Our tradition uses such a wide variety of images and metaphors to describe God. During this season, we allow ourselves to imagine God in majestic terms. We imagine ourselves approaching a sovereign ruler, recognizing our own smallness and our own humility. Here, the artist depicts the biblical Queen Esther approaching her husband, the King, to plead on behalf of the Jewish people. At this season, we imagine ourselves in Esther’s shoes, using our voices to request mercy and compassion.

Avinu Malkeinu

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Judaism’s understanding of God is multitudinous, with infinite metaphors implemented to comprehend that which is beyond comprehension. Avinu Malkeinu asks us to see God in two starkly different ways simultaneously. God is presented as both a parent and a sovereign ruler. We pour out our hearts to a God who is compassionate, intimate, grand, and powerful, all at the same time.

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Metaphors for God

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Reflection from Rabbinic Intern Andrew Oberstein on the words of Avinu Malkeinu.

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Majestic God, Today Enthroned המלך יושב על כסא

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Mishkan HaNefesh, Rosh Hashanah p. 138

This text focuses on a small but meaningful High Holy Day adaptation in the HaMelech prayer. It is a prayer which we do not recite in our regular Temple Israel tefillah, which makes this stirring depiction of God as a ruling sovereign all the more vivid and impactful for these Days of Awe.

MAJESTIC GOD, TODAY ENTHRONED המלך יושב על כסא Throughout the year, this prayer describes God
as HaMelech hayosheiv -- literally, "the Sovereign who sits [on a throne]." On Rosh HaShanah and Yom
Kippur, the wording changes to a dramatic proclamation: HaMelech yosheiv -- literally, "the Sovereign is
sitting [on a throne]." This small and often unnoticed change evokes the immediacy of God's presence of
the Days of Awe. These words announce: "Court is now in session"; on this day, we are summoned
before the Sovereign of the universe who sits in judgement of our deeds. Like all human images of God,
this one cannot be taken as a literal description. Yet it conveys the sense we share with our ancestors that
we are accountable for our actions, responsible to a Power beyond ourselves.

Excerpts from Mishkan HaNefesh: Machzor for the Days of Awe © 2015 are under the copyright protection of the Central Conference of American Rabbis and used by permission of the CCAR. All rights reserved.

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Laying the Earth’s Foundations

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Job 38:4-13 Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundations? Speak if you have understanding. Do you know who fixed its dimensions, or who measured it with a line? Onto what were its bases sunk, or who set its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together, and all the divine beings shouted for joy? Who closed the sea behind doors, when it gushed forth out of the womb, when I clothed it in clouds, a think darkness its swaddling band? I made breakers My limit for it, and set up its bar and doors. And said, “You may come so far and no farther; here your surging waves will stop.” Have you ever commanded the day to break, assigned the dawn its place, so that it seizes the corners of the earth and shakes the wicked out of it?

אֵיפֹה הָיִיתָ בְּיָסְדִי־אָרֶץ הַגֵּד אִם־יָדַעְתָּ בִינָה׃

מִי־שָׂם מְמַדֶּיהָ כִּי תֵדָע אוֹ מִי־נָטָה עָלֶיהָ קָּו׃

עַל־מָה אֲדָנֶיהָ הָטְבָּעוּ אוֹ מִי־יָרָה אֶבֶן פִּנָּתָהּ׃

בְּרָן־יַחַד כּוֹכְבֵי בֹקֶר וַיָּרִיעוּ כָּל־בְּנֵי אֱלֹהִים׃

וַיָּסֶךְ בִּדְלָתַיִם יָם בְּגִיחוֹ מֵרֶחֶם יֵצֵא׃

בְּשׂוּמִי עָנָן לְבֻשׁוֹ וַעֲרָפֶל חֲתֻלָּתוֹ׃

וָאֶשְׁבֹּר עָלָיו חֻקִּי וָאָשִׂים בְּרִיחַ וּדְלָתָיִם׃

וָאֹמַר עַד־פֹּה תָבוֹא וְלֹא תֹסִיף וּפֹא־יָשִׁית בִּגְאוֹן גַּלֶּיךָ׃

הְמִיָּמֶיךָ צִוִּיתָ בֹּקֶר ידעתה שחר [יִדַּעְתָּה] [הַשַּׁחַר] מְקֹמוֹ׃

לֶאֱחֹז בְּכַנְפוֹת הָאָרֶץ וְיִנָּעֲרוּ רְשָׁעִים מִמֶּנָּה׃

--- At the end of the Book of Job, God answer’s Job’s mournful plea for a fair trial with God. God answers Job’s call appearing in the form of a whirlwind, a powerful natural phenomenon, evoking the awesome mystery and creative power of the universe which in so many ways defies definition. God’s voice from amidst the whirlwind fills Job and his companions with hope; that even in the most uncertain tumultuous times, God has the power to appear and restore order. God points out to Job that the world exists infinitely far beyond Job’s chronological and geographical conceptions. God describes a tour of the known universe from its very beginnings highlighting God’s awesome power and challenging Job with rhetorical questions which remind the human that he is but an infinitesimally small element of the grander universe. And yet, God nonetheless speaks to Job, answering the call of the suffering individual. Majesty and intimacy in one moment, that is the awesome power of God.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]