Parshat Nitzavim

Parshat Nitzavim

Sept 26, 2008/26 Elul 5768

"I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse-- choose life!" (Deut 30:19)

It is already late on Friday afternoon here in Israel, the close of my second week of this year-long adventure. I have only a few minutes before I will go to celebrate Shabbat with my family in Haifa-- so no deep philosophy from me this week.

Instead, I'm passing on a poem. Rabbi Shawn Fields-Meyer hooked me on a poet named Mary Oliver last year. As I read and re-read her poetry, I find that her words are as profound as any prayer. This is a poem she wrote about the imperative to really choose life, even in the face of death. I think it is a beautiful meditation for heading into this holy, reflective week.

Shanah Tovah,

Adam

When Death Comes

by Mary Oliver

When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse

to buy me, and snaps the purse shut;
when death comes
like the measle-pox

when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?

And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I look upon time as no more than an idea,
and I consider eternity as another possibility,

and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,

and each name a comfortable music in the mouth,
tending, as all music does, toward silence,

and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.

When it's over, I want to say all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.

When it's over, I don't want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.

I don't want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.

I don't want to end up simply having visited this world.