Carrying the Ark of the Covenant

Carrying  the Ark of the Covenant

(Reflections on the Haftorah for Shemini)

(II Samuel 6:1 -19)

To rejoice with abandon as King David did,

Not knowing what lies ahead or behind,

Or even in one’s midst, is belief,

The ultimate in living the moment fully.

Crossing the Red Sea on faith that land will appear,

Is the patience, integral to belief,

Subsequent to logic and beyond its domain;

Yet, within its purview, as logic is human.

Faith accepts our limits of logic, as does love,

The very glue that holds up life’s meaning,

Beyond explanation as ineffable,

And, if explicable, a formula would have existed.

As Michal watched David dance

She mocked his lack of regal dignity.

Recollecting Miriam with handmaidens,

Sing her song of jubilation with timbrels,

Seizing the eternal moment beyond life’s limits.

The bridge between the finite and the infinite

Was crossed at the Red Sea, as it is

Each moment when a smile crosses one’s face

On the bridge between logic and faith.