It was another beautiful morning at Horseshoe Lake!

I approached the lake for the Rosh Chodesh Nisan ceremony with the words from last night’s Shabbos kiddush in my mind: Remember the exodus from Egypt! This exodus is celebrated at Passover in Nisan as an exodus to freedom. But it is not the only exodus or expulsion endured by the Jewish people in history, and certainly not necessarily to freedom. I thought of the Babylonian exile after the destruction of the first temple, the expulsion by the the Romans into what became the diaspora, the expulsion from Spain in 1492, the exodus of millions from Eastern Europe to the United States about 1900 and the more recent exodus from the Soviet Union to both Israel and the United States. Some were to freedom and some were forced. These were all Jews. But mass expulsions are certainly not behind us in history as they are  taking place today for non-Jews in Myanmar and Syria.

It was gray and mild this morning, ice thick on the lake, the sky flat, everything still, not a goose around. But colors in the woods! – almost harlequin, bringing to mind Purim costumes, orange and green.

This morning we welcomed the month of Adar. In the Torah, the Israelites are wandering in the desert after receiving the Ten Commandments at Sinai. In biblical Israel, Adar began the agricultural season, with plowing of fields, and sowing of chickpeas, vegetables, and millet. Here in the Great Lakes we are still deep in winter – but the daily light is slowly growing, and this week we heard morning bird song in the cold. Spring will come!

 The highlight of Adar in our tradition is the Purim holiday, a celebration of victory after a near-miss attempt by villain Haman to annihilate the Jews. The day is marked by the reading of the triumphant story of Esther in the synagogue, amid hilarity and absurdity, costumes, games, clowns, farces, and plenty of liquor. The absurdity of telling jokes in the face of tragedy was not lost on our sages. But they taught nevertheless that we enter into joy just by living in Adar. We are obligated to laugh and be funny, no matter the circumstances.

Our resource Jill Hammer notes that Adar is a “double month”. In the Great Lakes, this season is marked by a dual personality, alternating mildness and fierce storms. This is not a Jewish leap year, but when one occurs, we insert an extra Adar II in order to catch up our lunar calendar with the seasons of the sun.

As inhabitants of the earth, we are aware of the great peace and connectedness of nature, when we are awed by the majesty of mountains or the silence of a forest – and yet we also must consider the terrible forces that devastate – drought, fire, earthquake, tsunami, landslide, flood, predator. In our stories this month, we face terrible enemies – Haman in the Purim story, and in the Torah, Amalek – and yet both were ultimately overcome, and our victories celebrated. And so in Adar we are aware of the duality of life: the sorrow and the joy, the bad and the good, the terrible and the funny, the frightening and the awesome. We are aware that growth and healing come through pain and suffering – and also through joy and laughter.  According to Hammer, “Our lives flow through good and bad times. The key to Adar is to know this and still to believe happiness is possible.”

We start the month in darkness, and then on the 14^th of Adar, approaching the full moon, we welcome Purim joy. Whether we are in a place to be happy or not, the joy of our community rises, and brings us with it. It is said that if we put on a smile, we will smile inside; if we put on a costume and tell jokes and laugh, it brings us and others joy, and brings us closer together.

Whatever our challenges, whatever the news may bring — may we all find and share joy with each other in the coming month.   Chodesh tov – and Shabbat shalom! — Kirby

Two reasons to write a short post tonight:

First, A CORRECTION on the next Rosh Chodesh walk – it is Friday, February 16, not Thursday!  Every now and then we have a two-day Rosh Chodesh according to the Jewish calendar.  When this happens, the first day of the month occurs on the second day of the new moon. In keeping with our policy to always meet on the first day of the new month, we will meet on Friday the 16th this month.  My bad!

Second, the full moon this month, which coincided with Tu B’Shvat as it always does, was a sight to behold.  This year’s Tu B’Shvat full moon on January 31 happened to be a coincidence, the first since 1982: a blue, super, blood moon.  “Blue” because it was a second full moon in a calendar month; “super” because it was one of the times in the year when the moon is closest to the earth, and appears up to 15% larger; and “blood” because it was a lunar eclipse, with the shadow of the earth on the moon turning the moon a blood red, where it is visible.  The eclipse was not so visible in Cleveland this year – but the night was beautiful nonetheless.  Here are an afternoon photo (from me), two beautiful late-night photos (from friend Mimi Plevin-Foust), and a blood moon photo from Wikimedia Commons, taken in Kuwait by Irvin Calicut on January 31. Enjoy, and see you next Friday! — Kirby

It was cold out there this morning – 5 degrees! Normally we don’t post pictures of ourselves, but this morning called for a selfie.

Every year at Shvat I am reminded of the dissonance between the natural cycles in our home, the Great Lakes, and our homeland, Israel. We tromp our meditation in the snow, in below-freezing temperatures, around the iced-over lake – and we meditate on the New Year for Trees, Tu B’Shvat, the holiday which occurs at the full moon of Shvat, only a short two weeks from today. At Tu B’Shvat we celebrate the rising of sap in the trees, the first buds, and in Israel we plant new trees in warming soil. At Tu B’Shvat we eat abundant fruits, well past harvest time for fruit trees – nuts and fruits we have stored, for Shvat is not yet seedtime or harvest . Tu B’Shvat is a reminder that the cycle will turn again, and we will once more be back in leafy abundance, in not so much time.

Our Kabbalistic sages taught that Shvat is the month of taste. As one of our sources, Jill Hammer, notes, taste is a “powerful motivator” – in Eden, Adam and Eve tasted the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and were thereby launched into the larger world. We taste fruits at Tu B’Shvat and are given a hint of the bounty to come, as the trees begin their seasonal cycle. We are encouraged to taste new fruits and foods this month that we have not tried before.

It is sometimes difficult to find meaning in contemplating the natural world, when we are surrounded by polarizing political events and our awareness of growing injustice, disparity and exclusion. Some might find putting time into meditation and prayer challenging when action is called for so urgently. Yet our Jewish tradition grounds us in the cycles of the moon, nature and agriculture, as well as in social action. Working together with others, building community, worshiping together and spending time outdoors in the natural world, we give ourselves a taste of the harmony and peace we seek to build through Tikkun Olam, repairing the world. We taste the future, and derive the energy to follow through to the seedtime and harvest. Chodesh Tov! —Kirby

At the full moon of Tevet, in our tenth year of Rosh Chodesh meetings at Horseshoe Lake, it seems like a good time to move our monthly Facebook posts to a new format.  I am new to blogging but hoping this format will allow us to reach more readers.  I hope you will bear with me as I try to take the usual somewhat disorganized set of thoughts each month, and make some coherent sense of them here.

Rosh Chodesh (literally “head of the month”) is the Jewish acknowledgement of the arrival of the new moon, marked on the first day of each Hebrew lunar month.  While traditional prayers are said in the synagogue, in Cleveland we also meet to recognize the natural and agricultural world, the cycle of the Jewish year, and its place in our lives.  A small group of us meet at the dam at Horseshoe Lake in Shaker Heights, 7:30 am, rain or snow or shine, on the first day of each Hebrew month.  In ten years we have not missed a month – even in 10 degree weather, the middle of a blizzard, and in pouring rain. We advertise ourselves as a walking meditation group.  We try to bring some thoughts from our tradition to our meditation, before walking in silence around the lake – and close with the traditional blessings for the New Moon and a good month ahead. We try to finish within 45 minutes to an hour, shorter if the weather is not agreeable.  You are most welcome to join us – contact me here if you would like more information.   However we also recognize that 7:30 am, year-round, is not always a convenient time to head outdoors for everyone.  Hence this attempt to share photos and thoughts to help all of us feel a little more grounded in the cycles of the Jewish year, and the natural and agricultural cycles of the Great Lakes and Israel.

The next Rosh Chodesh meeting is the first day of the month of Shevat, Wednesday, January 17, 7:30 am, the dam at Horseshoe Lake.  Join us! — Kirby