Imbolc and The Moon of Liberation

Rabbi Rami names teshuvah, finding again your true self, and tikkun, repairing injustice, as the core missions of Judaism. I want to add a third: talmud torah, educating ourselves and others.

Tikkun:  When ICE came, three thousand agents to Minneapolis, neighbors turned a noun into a verb: To neighbor. While neighboring, they blew whistles to warn of ICE agents on the street. They delivered food to immigrant families sheltering in place. All while standing as a gentle, angry people against the power of a corrupt regime.

A few hold a guttering lamp–like the protesters in Minnesota–as a light on the path for those who want justice.  Who want light. Who will stand up.

Tikkun. Not charity. Radical change.

Teshuvah:  Teshuvah is a return to the homeland of your soul.

Even after I cleared away the underbrush, a thick veil still obscured who I was. So. Who was I? How could I, how would I find myself?

The plane from India landed at midnight on December 15th, 1981. A blue and white clad-nun came out with a wicker basket. Inside were two tiny boys. I found a parent.

When writing my doctoral thesis, I found myself one-hundred and twenty pages into a novel instead:  Even the Gods Must Die. I found a writer.

The Mah Tovu taught me. The people I worshipped with made the synagogue a sacred place.  My friends. I found a Jew.

Teshuvah unveils the man in his godly image. Slowly.

Talmud Torah: A third leg to Rami’s mission for Judaism. Now we have a stool that can find balance on any surface.

What is Torah? What is not Torah might be a better question.

Yes, the books of Moses. Yes. The writings and the prophets and the Talmud and the Midrash and works on Kabbalah. Each Saturday morning at ten. Bagel table. Tanakh open to the week’s parsha.

The natural world is Torah. A hike along Maxwell Creek, skiing A-Basin, growing your own food, each cracks open the sacred text of Mother Earth.

You are Torah. Introspection–like the weekly parsha–teaches us what it is to be a self. Who this self of mine is. Who, really, is that white-haired, white-bearded old man in the mirror? Is he the kind grandfather? Is he the human companion of Shadow? A gardener?

We study Torah. On the streets of Minneapolis.

Talmud torah.
Teshuvah.
Tikkun.