The Wedding & The Wine

With the recent beautiful weddings of my good friends Matan Darey & Megan Marcus, I am reminded of a long bus ride I had years ago, from Northern Israel to Jerusalem. I happened to be sitting next to a man with a guitar, named Shalev. Soon we were chatting away, and I was fascinated by his life story.

Growing up as a Christian in New York, Shalev always was attracted to Judaism. He really enjoyed the synagogue he visited for his friend's bar mitzvah. He even started learning Hebrew. One day, he was speaking to his priest at church. "Why don't you ever get married?" he asked. He didn't receive an answer. Intrigued, but with no encouragement, he slowly dropped his Jewish learning. As life went on, he forgot all about His Jewish phase. One day in college, he happened to meet a Rabbi. Discussion led to question after question, renewing Shalev's interest in Judaism. But one question really hit him hard. "Do you Rabbis ever get married?" he asked. "Sure, why not?" Answered the Rabbi. "Perhaps it's considered sinful?"

The Rabbi looked at him and said: 'Marriage, in Hebrew, is called Kiddushin - sanctification. Being engaged with the physical world, the Rabbi explained, is the entire purpose of creation. By elevating this material world in the proper way, by using it out for the good, its purpose for existing is realized. On nearly every holy day in Judaism, we sanctify the day over a cup of wine. In Hebrew, this is also called Kiddush. We reveal the spiritual within the physical, and we sanctify the spiritual with the physical together. The 2 unite, fused into 1.' Awed at the contrast between the 2 perspectives, Shalev slowly progressed in his Jewish learning and observance until eventually converting...

Now this isn't an attempt to disrespect other religions. Much beauty is to be found in all religions (well, since most came from ours, they must have some!) Rather, I was inspired from Shalev's highlighting of the unique beauty in the Jewish perspective. The material world isn't to be shunned - but rather elevated. Not only that, but through engaging & elevating the physical - we can achieve a higher level of spiritual goodness than even the most supernal of angels. But we must engage the world in order to elevate it, not to be lowered by it. Every day is a challenge to highlight the good, the holy, in everything we see and come in contact with. As hard as it is, that is our mission as Jews. The Ba'al Shem Tov even taught that a person's desire for the physical, is in essence his soul's desire to extricate the spiritual sparks found in that physical thing.

May this fusion of physical & spiritual lead us to the world's ultimate fusion with Godliness, with the coming of Mashiach. We are taught that during the Messianic era, nothing will really change; only that the spiritual, G-dly core of every physical thing will be revealed as the underlying reality of the world which it truly is.

Shabbat Shalom!