http://www.ou.org/torah/article/rabbi_weinrebs_parsha_column_emor1#.UYPhq7XCaSo
It very much shares the message of incorporation-station. It also made me tear up a little, but I think the wave of Niddah is coming.
That and something about the omer filled my brain and seemed connected somehow. Just the day to day. There are lots of reasons for the counting of the omer. Plagues, Rabbi's, and Pilgrimages. I think probably it's way simpler than that. Pray extra hard and maybe our bread harvest won't get fucked. JEWS LOVE BREAD. Of course the switching of the crops to bread is an intense time. And Why Lag B'omer? Because you CAN'T BE THAT SERIOUS FOR FIFTY DAYS STRAIGHT. That being made clear, the omer is this extensive period. It's not a holiday or even a holiweek that we can do and put behind us. It's something that happens continually. As should tikkun olam and being holier (progressive not comparative).
But then I found this alread written but not posted. I'm just a schmuck sometimes.
Day to Day: Tikkun Olam
As a disgustingly Reform Jew, there are
many things my movement is doing that I like: Gender Equality,
Guitars at services, Generally being liberal. I also really like how
we've linked the concept of Tikkun Olam into social action. Spreading
it way farther than charity or within our communities but really
trying to make the world a better place.
However, something happens when you
give something a cool name and a category and its own page on your
website: you set it aside from your life. Usually, in Judaism when we
set something aside we make it holy...or at least holier: The Sabbath
Day, Our Diets, Israel, Judaism see, potentially holy things. But I
believe that there is something inherently wrong, sinful even, about
earmarking Tikkun Olam or social action.
Bettering the world should not be an
outlook, it should be a synthesis. Everything I do should be
motivated as a Jew...or at least that's my goal. And Judaism has a
goal: to better. Everything should be constantly improved. Ethics,
diets, environment, life.
We have gotten Tikkun Olam to the same
place that we got the Bar/Bat Mitzvah, possibly even by including it
in that zero-sum game. I'm not sure exactly how to cultivate the
life-long learning, the life-long commitment to making the world
better, but I know that removing them from other activities isn't the
way. There shouldn't be a box or an activity that I check and say,
“done” to. There should be a fire in me burning away the bad and
fertilizing the better. I should not only go to a park clean up, but
should pick up that bag I pass on the sidewalk. I should not only
sort my recyclables, or buy things that are recycled but should try
to not use unnecessary things in the first place. I should keep
learning Hebrew even after I have chanted my portion on the day
because I should keep interacting with Judaism and Hebrew enriches
those interactions.
Pirkei Avot tells us that while we are
not responsible for finishing the task, neither are we at liberty to
desist from it. That's comforting because no matter how much trash I
pick up, someone is going to miss the bin and keep walking. The
concern that we need to be wary of now is that these
compartmentalized, semi-goals ARE GOOD, because they motivate us, but
they aren't complete in that they give us an opportunity to turn down
the flame without the appropriate means of sustaining or rekindling
it. Breaks are fine. Accomplishments should be rewarded. But we are
never done. Unless some sort of 100% messiah comes and gives us the
all clear, we should probably be more incorporative of Tikkun Olam
not just as a branch of the tree of our individual lives, but as the
wood-fiber that makes up the tree. Focusing on behaviors not actions.
Changing eating habits instead of one quick diet. Whether at a
personal, group or institutional level (though all of the above would
be nice: the results will be slower, but in the long run more
profitable.
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