(Note: This happened at Mayanot Shul in Jerusalem. Shachrit starts at 8am.)
In this vast sunlit hall
filled with the sound of chanting,
the black and white swaying movement of ancient offerings,
and accusations of going through the motions.
The post-modern pieces of relative perspectives
coalesced out of their fractured disjointed dance
into an arrow around a center,
pointing beyond my subjective opinion
to a God who created good and evil.
Somehow…in-between the words of the psalms and the prayers
my moral compass was sewn back together.
Like when I was a child and life was real.
The truth, even if unknown, not a preference.
The smug smile of sophisticated arrogance
of complicated meaninglessness
dispelled by the simple light of faith.
In this wordless luminosity,
the earth under my feet
and the consequences of my actions
were no longer cynically drained and of significance
into a weak and puny narrative.
I stood in creation.
Endowed by the Holy One Blessed Be He with free will.
I have a choice between good and evil.
Life and death. A blessing and a curse.
I must choose life.