Last month I had the great privilege and blessing to travel to co-create sacred community as we studied, prayed, practiced, danced, laughed, cried and deepened our connections to one another, to nature, and to the Divine Presence at our annual Torah Yoga Retreat.
The chance to be together on retreat, held by nature and the rhythm of the Hebrew calendar, was exquisitely delicious. Swimming in the warm lake at Isabella Freedman and a warm Atlantic ocean afterwards (very different from the Pacific) infused my being with joy and appreciation for the amazing natural world that continues to persevere, even alongside the horrific actions that we humans continue to take.
I imagine (and hope) that like wise elders, the trees, lakes, ocean and land look upon what we do with the knowledge, trust and faith that in the end, we are here to serve, inspire, support and lighten the load for one another, and that there still is a deeper wisdom, goodness and benevolence that will withstand and persevere through it all.
This year, we opened our retreat on Shabbat, also known as the Well of Seven (Ba'er Sheva /באר שבע) - the living waters, sourced by a deeper wellspring, the Source of all life. We continued to dip into and draw nourishment from this well of Seven/Shabbat and the quality of holy rest (Menucha/מנוחה) throughout the entire week.
“Shabbat came and gave a new strength to creation to sustain itself for another six days. And this is how it is week after week, that all of creation is sustained only
because of the strength of Shabbat.”
-Rabbi Sholom Noach Berezovsky (Slonimer Rebbe), (Netivot Shalom, Volume II, Shabbat, Ma'amar 12)
Dipping and swimming into the waters of sacred time during the retreat stay with us and continue to sustain us even after we depart. Returning to the strength of friendship, love and the container of sacred community that we have co-created for over a dozen years now every summer (aside from the years of the pandemic) nourished me deeply. We swam and kayaked in the warm lake every day; we sat, rested under, chanted, prayed and walked with the trees surrounding the property; we awakened to the birds chirping and the bunnies scurrying in the early mornings; we watched the moon rise and the stars appear in the evenings, and more.
The beauty and strength of the living waters (Ba'er/באר) of Torah, reflection, insight, study, resting, time in nature, sharing, singing, praying, dancing with one another, and engaging in embodied spiritual practice in community all gushed forth like the waterfalls we visited, and I notice that they continue to ripple and nourish me through these late summer days.
We studied, shared about and embodied qualities of our personal ancestors and our ancestors in the Torah. These qualities of lovingkindness, strength, companionship, inner divinity, balance and beauty continue to sustain us as we move through the month of Av towards Elul. They are always available to us to support us in refining our ways of being in the world.
Like an artist with a palette of various colors, we can choose to take the paintbrush and dip into one color, one quality, and infuse our entire beings with it for any given amount of time, as needed.
And everything aspires, longs, yearns according to a pattern that is adorned with holiness and girded with beauty. For this life of yours is not a meaningless phenomenon.
-“The Glory of Life”, Lights of Holiness, Vol. II, P. 355-356, Rav Avraham Isaac Kook
May these closing weeks of August open us to the opening weeks of Elul next Monday as we move towards the New Year. May we dip into, linger, and luxuriate in the warmer waters of late summer lakes, rivers, and oceans of our inner beings as a deep well (Ba'er/באר), connected to an even deeper wellspring- a resource for us to bring positive change and goodness to our world. May we be fortified with strength, inner seeing, and easeful support for returning to our essence, our truest selves, in these days to come.