A wonderful moment
Posted by Erik on September 21, 2009
As I mentioned a little while back, I’m singing at a synagogue again – a small nondenominational congregation, very different from the big Reform shul where I sang for years (not necessarily better, but definitely funkier! :).
So we started off the Rosh Hashanah morning service with a sung blessing, and as soon as we stopped singing we heard a very loud bird singing right outside the door… and everything stopped, and we all listened to the bird for a couple of minutes until it flew away, and then we went on. It set the tone for the whole morning, at least for me – and it made me notice (again) how much of Jewish spiritual language and imagery reflects and assumes an intimate relationship with the natural world.
Feral Boy said
I went to Catholic mass here when I was in grade school. One day, a storm
was coming over as Mass ended. The priest finished with,”This is the word of the Lord!”
WHAM !!!! — lightning right outside.
We left to a bit of nervous laughter …..
– Feral Boy
executivepagan said
Similar story – one Shabbat several years ago there was a huge lightning storm that kicked up just as the Rabbi started his d’var torah (commentary on the Torah portion for the week). After couple of minutes of trying to talk over the storm, he looked up and said, “Look, I’m trying to tell YOUR story here – do you mind?”
I don’t remember if the storm quieted down or not… but that was such a prototypically Jewish moment that it stuck in my head ever since.