Yesterday I told you about four of the eight affirmations of the Confirmands, and today you’ll read about the other four. Let me review just the basics of 1-4:
1. That God sustains creation in love.
2. That God does not hide the Divine light from anyone yearning for guidance.
3. That God created us in the Divine image, endowing us with the gift of thought and freedom of choice.
4. That commanded us to affirm our faith through our actions and our words.
The other affirmations are as follows:
5. You call Your children to live together in harmony…
Shalom, as you know, means “peace,” “hello,” and “goodbye.” It also means “wholeness.” The goal is a world filled with peace and justice, compassion and understanding, the “whole” package, as it were, for everyone regardless of who they are or where they come from or what they believe.
6. You endowed us with an immortal soul…
What “soul” means is truly in the mind of each of us, but “immortality” means that whatever it is lives on. I like to think of it as the reputation we leave behind. If mention of your name brings about a smile and a good word, or if your name brings to mind terrible deeds, that is your “heaven” or “hell” on earth.
7. You commanded that we stand above the pettiness around us, striving to make all creation holy…
We are to be Or la-Goyim, a “Light to the Nations.” Our pursuit of all the good we can muster should be an example to others, and by doing that perhaps “all creation (including you and I, can become) holy.”
8. You summoned us to labor for Your reign on earth…
That “reign” is what liberal Jews call the Messianic Age. Note, it is an “age” when humankind chooses to do what other faiths and other branches of Judaism, believe will be done by a messiah. We are not to wait; the knight in white armor is each one of us.
Grace and Owen, our Confirmands, were not idle in their thoughts or discussion. I was energized by their contributions to what I believe is an ongoing conversation, not only with me, but far more importantly, with the chain of tradition that made for, and will make for, creativity. In what each generation culls from the past and offers the future. I felt truly fulfilled and, yes, very optimistic every Sunday!
(Speaking of nothing, this absolute truism came from the Orchard Street Oracle many years ago: If someone tells you s/he has never seen Grant’s Tomb, the Statue of Liberty, the Metropolitan Museum of Art or a parking space - that person is a native New Yorker)
((To emphasize this, on one of our breaks in rabbinical school, a friend from Florida who had never been in New York before visited for a few days. When we stood atop the Empire State Building, he said, “You make it seem as if you’ve never been up here before.” “I haven’t!”))