Rituals embody our most subtle ideas as tangible gestures. They don’t always make sense but their sensory and sensuality translate the sacred into the somatic heart of consciousness.
This past week in The Book of Words, as it nears its end, lifts up words into future rites to help mark transitions and separations, celebrate love, bring dignity to lust, and remember how to hold on to happiness.
Whether we use a shoe or saliva, our voice or a fruit, each other’s consensual touch or a written statement, we extend the abstract into memorable echoes. That’s why rituals matter and why Moses hands them over - to last long past his moral musings. And he was right.
This week Jews celebrate a holiday full of off gestures from by gone earth based living, that yet resonate, if only we turn on their hidden meaning. Sitting in a temporary hut or waving a bunch of green leaves around is as luscious as lighting a sabbath candle or kissing a person, or beloved book - farewell, thank you for your precious presence, for now.
Shabbat Shalom. Happy Sukkot!
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The Rustle of Rituals