And still I rise

Some Jewish rituals rebalance our lives. These practices are often directional, completing an upward motion. The act of rising is symbolic of our dedication to the potentiality of an evolving world, even as we mourn the losses suffered.

After washing before a meal, the blessing we say is on “the lifting” of our hands as a demonstration that our actions should be holy. In Leviticus we are instructed to rise before our elders as an act of respect and deference. Similarly, at the end of shiva, the mourner rises up and takes a walk to rejoin community after a period of withdrawal. This tradition comes to us from Genesis.

In Torah portion Chaye Sarah, we are told that Sarah was 127 years old when she died. Abraham mourned her. “Then Abraham rose up from before his dead.” Rising up, Abraham goes out to procure a burial plot for his wife. He engages in a sensitive business transaction, negotiating a land purchase with strangers.

Rising up, Abraham balances time to grieve with time for hope. Abraham negotiates with antagonistic neighbors to acquire the needed land. He concludes the transaction and buries Sarah.  Soon after, the centenarian Abraham remarries Keturah and has more children. As we might now say, he rises to the occasion.

Resilience begins with the act of rising up.  If we feel beaten down, if we are feeling low, the counter balance is to elevate our selves. The test of resilience is not that we rise once in the wake of a tragedy, as did Abraham. Rather, resilience is the ability to rise up when life or God presents us with new troubles and struggles. In fact the lesson of resilience is learned every day.

Just as we are to teach Torah to our children when we rise up and when we lie down each day, so we learn the Torah of resistance. Perhaps it is a spiritual dementia that requires us to learn and relearn this lesson of getting back up. The Torah of resilience is elevating ourselves when we are low, negotiating our way back into the world, and creating something new. And we must learn this Torah every day of our lives.

Some of us are mourning the seemingly slow death of this planet. The time to rise up is now – to call upon our communities and political leaders to take action now.

Some of us are mourning the seeming death of democracy in the United States. The time to rise is now – to call upon our legislators to restore democratic values to our governmental institutions.

I close with the end of Maya Angelous poem, Still I rise:

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear

I rise

Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear

I rise

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,

I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise

I rise

I rise.

Rabbi Evan J. Krame