I was in line for frozen yogurt last night minding my own business as the customer in front of me started to gossip and use inappropriate language. She noticed the kippah on my head, and said out loud, “I shouldn’t be speaking like this!!!” After I told her I was a Rabbi, the conversation switched to theology. She had the urge to tell me that four years ago, her father passed away suddenly. She looked at me as I was about to order and said, “Rabbi, you really believe in God when you hear things like this?” This week we started to recite the 27th Psalm leading up to the High Holidays. The author of that Psalm begins with complete faith in God, but very quickly recognizes life’s vulnerabilities and doubts of faith. While God is seen as a shelter, that shelter is called a sukkah, a shelter so fragile that the wind can knock it down.
Yet, from this one word we learn a deep lesson; the holy and sacred is fragile and thin. The holy can be blown over in the wind; but the holy can also be easily picked up and restored to its proper place at the proper time.
The Psalm concludes, “If only I could trust that I would see God’s goodness in the land of the living…”
If only…
How many “If only” moments do we have in our lives? Probably too many to count.
If only I didn’t go for frozen yogurt last night…If only…
