The bulls eye story
Once upon a time there was a prince.
That prince became a master archer.
The prince excelled to such a point that he believes he’s the GOAT The best archer in the world.
On his journey homeward, the prince stopped in a small town.
Across from the tavern, he saw a barn with painted targets -these circles with a black ring and a white ring and a red dot in the middle - along the entire side of the barn.
And dead center in every target there was an arrow.
How could such a master archer be living in this small town? He wondered
The prince saw a young boy playing nearby and asked him.
Who is the archer who shot these arrows?
“It was me,” the boy said.
“You are the master archer…Show me,” demanded the prince.
He took his bow off his back and handed it to the boy.
The boy took aim and his arrow hit the side of the barn…
far far away from any of the targets.
Then, the boy ran into the barn and emerged with a brush and a can of paint.
He painted a solid circle around the arrow he had just shot, and two more circles to form a target.
We make the mistake of wanting to be like the prince but we are better off accepting that on YK we are more like the child.
We need to adopt the innocence that focuses on the process and less on the outcome.
I would like to connect archery to Jewish prayer
We the Jewish people have a very special language, Hebrew.
Hebrew is an ancient language.
In order to mine its riches one has to understand the metaphors used in Hebrew to describe anything, including the life of prayer.
Some of our Hebrew holy vocabulary is the vocabulary of an archer.
Archery was the most powerful new technology at the time of the torah
Like computers are the new most powerful technology today.
The archer begins with aiming.
Aiming in Hebrew is ...kavanah.
A Jewish prayer begins with a kavanah.
A spiritual intention.
What are you aiming for?
What are you dedicating your prayer to?
After aiming, the archer shoots the arrow.
The arrow follows a trajectory.
Shooting in Hebrew …Yeriyah.
The jewish path of torah helps us aim our lives
Torah provides the trajectory on how to live a jewish life.
What’s the bull’s-eye of Jewish life?
Kedusha holiness.
Holiness can be translated in many ways.
I like to translate kedusha as a sense of fullness.
When we live a holy life, we feel fullness. We feel charged with energy.
As we are charged so we are charging the energy field of God.
We, the followers of the Jewish path, are tasked with enriching life with kedusha, holiness.
Sometimes an archer hits the bullseye. But sometimes we miss the mark. The word chet is often poorly translated as “sin”
But it is an archery term that means missing the mark
When we commit a chet (often translated as sin), we miss the mark.
Instead of adding holiness to God’s energy field through following the trajectory of Torah, we miss the mark and do something harmful, We puncture the God field.
when something punctures your tire you get a flat tire.
When God’s name is punctured it cannot contain any more kedusha.
It is deflated.
A chet is an act that empty the God field of its fullness.
The Torah in Leviticus Vayikrah refers to puncturing when it states
וְנֹקֵ֤ב שם יהוה מ֣וֹת יוּמָ֔ת
The one who punctures God’s name should be put to death.
The prophet Isaiah in 53:5 refers to this act of emptying when he said
ישעיהו נ״ג:ה׳
וְהוּא֙ מְחֹלָ֣ל מִפְּשָׁעֵ֔נוּ
(God) was emptied because of our wrong doing,
Our destructive behaviors damage God's name.
But we can repair the breaches.
In the next 25 hours we will use words of prayer, meditation, acts of loving-kindness and music to bring us back to holiness, To repair the damage our actions caused in the world.
When the Temple was standing in Jerusalem, the High Priest would enter the Holy of Holies once a year on Yom Kippur. Where he prayed for all the people. When he emerged safely, he would pronounce the ineffable name of God. That was the highest moment of Yom kippur for our ancestors.
Today we have an opportunity to journey deep into the inner Temple or high to the heavenly Temple to renew God’s name.
To re-aim our lives to kedusha to holiness.
Today we have an opportunity to re-align ourselves with our highest values.
To recommit to love, kindness, compassion, caring, respect, stewardship and freedom.
The path of teshuvah, of return to God, goes through vidui- confessing our chet and selichot - forgiveness prayers.
Let's celebrate the cleansing power of this day together.
