Tell September 2018 Tishrei 5779

{A NEW BEGINNING}
Merril Shead
A ‘new beginning’ is the moment we may grasp - take hold of, make our own -along the
continuum from fear to hope. The fear end of the continuum is built- in and reinforced
continually (refer to any ethologist). Always though, we can choose to make the 180⁰ turn.
I always read the Etz Hayim
commentary to Exodus 1:17 with
gratitude and delight: ‘17. The
midwives, fearing God The phrase
translated as “the fear of God” (yir•at
Elohim ), is the closest the Torah
comes to having a word for
religion. The case of the
midwives suggests that the
essence of religion is not
the belief in the existence of
God or any other biblical
precept, but belief that certain
things are wrong because
God has built standards of
moral behaviour into the
universe. … The midwives
not only believed in God,
but also understood that
God demands a high level of
moral behaviour. They were
willing to risk punishment at
the hands of Pharaoh rather
than betray their allegiance to God.
This is the first recorded case of civil
disobedience, challenging government
in the name of a higher authority. …’
The midwives story makes it clear
that there is nothing simple about
fear. At a minimum, the story posits
a hierarchy - let’s say, from Fear to
fear. This inheres a scale, and scales
are like ladders - for ascending
and descending. In all this going
up and going down the ‘mortal
coil’, fears can feel dominant. The
midwives negotiated the fearsome
terrain by the light of belief in the
availability of new beginnings.
It is notable that the midwives stood
for community. No less than life
was their hope and inspiration, with
continuity of the people as their
guiding and cohering principle.
So, when I learned - Pesach 2016
- that I had advanced(!) to stage
3 breast cancer, it was with the
community’s help - the Emanuel
family’s help - embodying Torah
values and tradition, that I was
able to move along the fear-hope
continuum, getting to the Yamim
Nora’im (Days of Awe) 5776-
7 and the ‘New Beginning’ joy
of Simchat Torah 5777.
Arriving at the ‘new beginning’, we
often notice that it is a place we have
been before - only this time
it is open, full and shared.
Which reminds me: On the
day Rabbi Kamins visited
me in St Vincent’s, the senior
nurse overheard our discussion
of Psalm 23. That included
Rabbi Kamins’s delightful,
but also disappointing story,
about him having said one
day to a local barista, when
she overfilled his cup, “My
cup runneth over!” He drew
a blank, then another, then
another, as he delivered all
the customary prompts. But
the Catholic senior nurse,
probably because she was aged over 60
and observant, needed no prompts.
She took up the theme with me the
next day - and so began another new
beginning, nested in my personal new
beginning: an interfaith dialogue that
continues to return me to the Makom
where the Tree of Life is rooted.
Shanah Tovah Umetukah.
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