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A zodiac graced the ceiling of the old synagogue where, as a rabbinical student over 30 years ago, I began to work with congregations.  What – astrology and Judaism practiced in one place?  The tradition of placing signs of the Zodiac on synagogues is quite ancient – dating back to the early Rabbinic era!  The arcane concurrence of Jewish custom with what our Rabbis themselves disapprovingly euphemized as avodat kochavim (literally, “worship of stars”) serves as a reminder of imbalance and unpredictability built into our Jewish value system.

The reference takes us back to the Torah (first and most revered 5 books of Hebrew Scripture), where we read:  “…lest you lift your eyes heavenward and see the sun, the moon and the stars – the whole host of the heavens – and are impelled and prostrate yourselves to them and worship them, which the Eternal your God assigned to the other nations under all of the heavens…” (Deuteronomy 4:19).  The word “lest” is a cautionary emphasis, saying that if you (Hebrews/Israelites/Jews) get into astrology, you’re inviting trouble although going there is fine for other people.  So why do so many synagogue ceilings sport zodiacs? 

The answer to that question opens up a bottomless pit of inquiry relating to how I, for one, see my Jewish identity, belief and practice tangled up in my humanness.  Do you as well feel a sense of intriguing spiritual cognitive dissonance?  If I chose to use my horoscope as a guide to my decisions, would I be abdicating my free will or – as Judaism insists we must do – acting on it?  While the Torah forbids us from looking for heavenly “signs” and calls those who do so idolators, the Psalmist praises God for having “set your majesty upon the heavens” and, again addressing God, refers to “your heavens, work of your fingers, moon and stars that you made firm” (Psalm 8:2, 4) – if so, how is drawing inspiration and insight from the universe an affront to God?  Yes, walking the line between compliance with Jewish values and violation of them is perilously complicated!

This blog post and the ones that follow are for those Jews and other Jewishly receptive souls who’re sorting through their lives and sorting out priorities, principle and purpose from convention, dogma and trivia.  The Jewish experience holds a rich variety of meaningful public and personal activities:  from religious worship to social action to folkways.  That body of Jewishness is vast, boundless and infinite, like what Abraham imagines his offspring to be when – the divine spirit having led him out of his tent – he looks up and sees a spray of numberless stars:  “So your seed shall be” (Genesis 15:5), God tells him. 

We’re forbidden to worship the stars, yet they’re brimming with the promise of fruitful engagement with this world.  Hmm…  Is that flat-out contradiction or uncanny correspondence?  I would love to explore with you this question – among others challenging us to think creatively, act boldly, and study joyfully.  From our wrestlings with the unreliability of the “official” version of what Judaism is (I mean, of what we’re taught to think it is), better insight can spring.  The zodiacs on ceilings of synagogues attest – as do many other “foreign” elements embedded within the Jewish heritage – to Jews’ complicated relationship with history, culture and religion.  If you are wary of societal norms, holding at length the customs of your childhood, feeling impelled to “stray” off the beaten track of familiar ritual and defy expectation but at the same time want to tap into deeper sources and ongoing debates (or, dare I use the heretical phrase, “inherent inconsistencies?) of Jewish tradition, then what I have to offer might be for you. 

Each of us has, like each twinkling star in that infinite celestial array Abraham beheld, a unique light to shine; your light’s facets combine, refract, sparkle and illuminate in a way that belongs to you alone.  Your individual light does shine and shed its distinctive glow! 

For practice:  Connect your individuality – your personal passion and creative drive – with your Jewish adventure.  I’ll illustrate from my own.  I am a musician, and all too often I find Jewish prayer’s familiar musical habits boring.  However, I love folk music from all cultures.  So, one year, for Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), I took an old Welsh song, “Ar Hyd y Nos”/ “All Through the Night” and fit its melody to the hymn “Ya’aleh” / “May It Arise” from the holiday’s Ma’ariv/Evening service.  I chose this melody because it refers, as does the folk song, to evening-time and has a serene, soothing and comforting quality fitting for the occasion.  I repeated my Welsh-music-inflected version of the hymn for several years on Yom Kippur.  Go to my YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRAFisrITK-VqmrBOL2waTw) to hear how, in this way, I’ve channeled my passion for world music into my Jewish religious life.

What do you seek in Jewish life: 

·      a synagogue that fits your needs? 

·      connection with your synagogue’s resources?

·      to enhance your personal practice while staying involved with existing Jewish institutions? 

·      a way to live Jewishly outside the “organized” Jewish community through religious practice and home ritual life of your own, involving:  cooking/cuisine…, candle-lighting…, baby-naming…, star-spotting…?

·      to team up with likeminded people? 

·      teachers, study partners, classes, information, perspective…? 

These are some of the paths I can help you on or help you locate for yourselves.  While my approach is grounded in reliable scholarship (in terms of historical, sociological and theoretical research), the emphasis here is experiential, thus, on what Rabbi Mordecai Kaplan saw as Jewish identification based on belonging, behaving and believing. 

Jump in; dive deep.  Let me accompany and guide you as you reach into those depths.  (I’ll learn from you too.)  Wherever you are on your Jewish journey is a good place to start.  My intent is not to change you but help you explore where your intuitions – your flashes of inspiration, your guiding stars – lead you in yam talmud – the cosmic ocean of Jewish discovery.