"To be a teacher in the right sense is to be a learner.  I am not a teacher, only a fellow student."  (Soren Kierkegaard)

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A FEW PRE-SHABBAT WORDS FROM RABBI AARON

Consolation
What do we mean when we speak of finding consolation, or when we think about consoling another? I believe the notion is a very complex. Below are two very different poems called "Consolation," -  one is from Matthew Arnold (1822-1888, one of the great English poets), the other is from Waslawa Szymborska , a recent Nobel Laureate from Poland. These gorgeous poems - each in their own way - rise to the challenge of conjuring the unique emotional atmospherics of consolation. The assorted pictures are another attempt to portray consolation as something larger than words, something intensely human and relational.

I would be remiss if we left out the 1964 Dylan masterpiece, Lay Down Your Weary Tune.

Lay down your weary tune, lay down
Lay down the song you strum
And rest yourself ’neath the strength of strings
No voice can hope to hum

Struck by the sounds before the sun
I knew the night had gone
The morning breeze like a bugle blew
Against the drums of dawn

Lay down your weary tune, lay down
Lay down the song you strum
And rest yourself ’neath the strength of strings
No voice can hope to hum

The ocean wild like an organ played
The seaweed’s wove its strands
The crashin’ waves like cymbals clashed
Against the rocks and sands

Lay down your weary tune, lay down
Lay down the song you strum
And rest yourself ’neath the strength of strings
No voice can hope to hum

I stood unwound beneath the skies
And clouds unbound by laws
The cryin’ rain like a trumpet sang
And asked for no applause

Lay down your weary tune, lay down
Lay down the song you strum
And rest yourself ’neath the strength of strings
No voice can hope to hum

The last of leaves fell from the trees
And clung to a new love’s breast
The branches bare like a banjo played
To the winds that listened best

I gazed down in the river’s mirror
And watched its winding strum
The water smooth ran like a hymn
And like a harp did hum

Lay down your weary tune, lay down
Lay down the song you strum
And rest yourself ’neath the strength of strings
No voice can hope to hum

Without referencing God, the writer paints in colors of reverence for the grandeur of the cosmos into the poem. What is Dylan's message? If there is theology is it, it is about presence - I am here with you, for you. Let's look closely at the haftarah for the "Shabbat of Consolation,” and see if you can detect a similar sentiment between the words... 

Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. A voice of one calling: "In the desert prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken." 

A voice says, "Cry out." And I said, "What shall I cry?" "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the Lord blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever."You who bring good tidings to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah,  "Here is your God!" See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and his arm rules for him. See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him. He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young. 

So, what is the message, where is the consolation? God's House, the Holy Temple, has been burned to the ground. The people are captive, broken, leaderless. "Where is God?," there surely ask. The writer tells us. God, who crafted the universe - is still with us, and within us. Israel has suffered, but those dark and painful days will not continue. God will always love us.

One More Fragment of Text...

These are the days of miracle and wonder,
This is the long distance call,
The way the camera follows us in slo-mo
The way we look to us all oh yeah,
The way we look to a distant constellation
That's dying in a corner of the sky,
These are the days of miracle and wonder
And don't cry baby don't cry
Don't cry

When and where do each of us feel God? How does each of us offer a cup of kindness to another, to someone who feels beaten down, to someone who is losing their will to keep on? I believe that the answers lie within relationship, within a sense of connection. 

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Aaron

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