In Praise of Praise:A Rosh Hashana Invocation

Blessed Holy Wholeness,

Tonight begins the Yamim Noraim,

The Days of Awe.

And every year I like to decide on a meditation or prayer practice that I do for all ten days, and then at the end of Yom Kippur I take note of what effect it may have had on me.  This year I have decided to be aware of the word, praise.

Praising God is weird

If God is God, then why would God need or want praise?

And it comes up a lot in our prayers

So this year, for the next ten days,

I’m going to define praise

Not as flattery, but as awareness, mindfulness,and awe of the Wow  

So…first things first…

Here you are!

You made it, you are still alive! Hi! How’s it going?

My cat died, but I’m okay.  You?

Praise us, here we are, this congregation,

awesome in the days of awe,

That we are here together, after three years apart

On Rosh Hashana

In person and en masse:

Wow.

Y’all look so good,

All three dimensional and stuff,

And smelly and real,

With actual books,

To sing and pray and learn

And whisper in the back rows  

Say hello to each other.  Go ahead.

Wow  

Also, lest we forget,

Praise technology and technicians

That we may also join in via Zoom

For all of our High Holyday services

So that those of us who are ill or vulnerable to Covid,

Those of us with mobility issues,

And those of us who are far away

Can still join together

To sing and pray and learn

And comment in the chat room.

Zoomers, say hello to each other.  If the chat room isn’t working, wave to each other. 

Go ahead.

Wow.

And at last

We can pray and we will be heard 

We can mourn and we will be seen 

We can apologize and we will be forgiven.

We are not alone.

Wow.

And As good as we feel in this moment

We must praise our constant companion of late,

Despair

Born from our compassionate hearts

And our grief, disappointment and fear, 

May it motivate us to action.  And,

If the king walks in the field as they say he does during Elul

Perhaps he will take a moment or two to notice the fires and the floods

And the racism and the misogyny and the LGBTQ phobia and the fascism.

Needing some wow over here, please.

And as bad as we may feel in this moment

We must praise our other constant companion,

Hope.

And I know you guys

You can’t fool me

You wouldn’t be here if you didn’t have quite a lot of hope

I mean, a lot of you are activists, it’s who you are. 

So maybe your hope is on vacation or having a good cry in the corner

But it is here, with you, in you, it is in your very soul. .

So 

Happy vernal equinox, y’all.

Spring is coming!

Eventually.

Hope! 

Light some candles and

Praise the future. 

Wow.

Praise our Clergy and speakers and the next ten days.

Praise tefillah,

When we engage in holy conversation

Praise tzedukah, when we actively seek to heal the world

Praise teshuvah, when we return to our true selves and our community.

Anyway, may you all you have a sweet New Year

And an interesting fast!

Amen

And

Wow