How To Sing Avinu Malkeinu

 

Blessed Holy Wholeness, 

How can I sing Avinu Malkeinu?

How can I use this limited name for God?

I don’t do kings

Or queens,

No vertical hierarchies. 

Verticality creates the problems, it doesn’t fix them. 

I don’t do fathers

Or mothers,

No parental substitutes.

Parents love you but they really do mess you up. 

I don’t do tribal gods

Or protective angels

I like my myths to stay fictional. 

Supernatural intervention fantasies lead to passive magical thinking. 

I don’t do male eternal mysteries 

Or female avatars.

A gendered God is illogical. 

Besides, ineffable spirits may feel good but can they save the planet??

I respect random chance 

And don’t want to indulge in wishful thinking

But, rationality just isn’t much fun.  

(Nevertheless, I hold atheism in reserve so I don’t look stupid.)

It does feel good to consider God’s surrounding presence 

And everyone’s shared divinity. 

I pray to holy wholeness

With a knowingness that I cannot explain away. 

Hmmmm. 

HaShleimut,

When I sing with the congregation 

On the Holy Days

For redemption and second chances 

For me and the world,

I think I will sing,

Avinu Malkeinu,

Our Father Our King,

The way it’s written.

It’s a lovely tune and I’m used to it.  

Sue me. 

But,

Since every metaphor leads to One-ness, 

I think I will then pray 

To 

All Of The Above.  

Amen

                   

Delusions of Separation and Reference: A Hatzi Kaddish

Bless our need for a name

For that which cannot be named.

It has made us so creative

And gives us structure,

Blessed One-ness.

In Genesis
God created the wild beasts and all the birds of the sky
And brought them to Adam to see what he would call them
And the man gave names to them all.
Did Adam gain control of the animals because he could name them?
Or was that only an illusion of control
To comfort Adam in his newborn bewilderment?

And sometimes I think
That the God who receives all this blessing
Watches us to see what we will call God.
Giving us the illusion of control
Over the Eternal Ineffable Unnameable One-ness
So as to comfort us in our spiritual infancy.

And let us say, Amen.

Praise the One-ness who has given us the delusion of separation

So that we might see beginnings and middles and ends

And not go crazy.

Praise the One-ness who has given us delusions of reference

That we may pretend that we are the center of the universe

And not be lonely.

These are comforting gifts,
One among many.

We give thanks for this Hatzi Kaddish

That separates one prayer from another

That creates structure in the prayer service,
As we come together,
To Bless the Name of the Names of the Un-nameable

Now

Until

Then.

And let us say, Amen.

Layer Upon Layer

A Holy Wholeness…

May all our prayers

Be understood

By God

However we understand God on any given day.

God,

Making peace and sustaining wholeness

Through us

For us

And for all the world,

And let us say,

Amen