Daniel Bloom - experiencing Awe

Awe, the Sun, and the Exodus
-by Daniel Bloom

Although ordinarily I do not consider myself an emotional man, there is a particular scene in a particular feature film that leaves me wrought with emotion. Sometimes tears well up in my eyes or a smile radiates from my face, sometimes both. I experience a humbling wonder, an awe-filled satisfaction that in religious terminology might be described as 'yirah' – a complicated Hebrew term sometimes translated as fear, but usually better understood as awe. Which movie you may wonder can provoke this intensity of feeling? Perhaps surprisingly, it is the animated DreamWorks classic The Prince of Egypt.

I believe that there are two main categories of awe that we might experience. The first I would call 'materialist awe' and stems from our wonder at the physical world. We can experience what Heschel calls 'radical amazement' at existence. Upon reaching the summit we gasp at the breathtaking vista of snow-capped peaks extending out before us. We stand dumbstruck marveling at meteors streaking across the night sky.

There is, however, a second category of awe which I would call 'idealist awe.' Where as materialist awe represents wonder at the world as it is, 'idealist awe' constitutes wonder at the world as it should be. We want the world to be just and loving, and when we encounter justice or love we might experience this humbling awe. We might feel it when the wrongfully imprisoned are released. Some feel it whenever they hear the recording of the UN vote granting the Jewish people the right to return to their homeland. Doubtless many felt that chilling wonder when America's first black President was inaugurated.

If you still doubt the ecstatic experience of justice, witness the TV show 'Extreme Home Makeovers.' Each week the show features a disadvantaged family who has shown extraordinary generosity in their community. Through the aid of donors and local volunteers, the family's inadequate and dilapidated residence is promptly replaced by a spanking new custom-designed home. The final segment, where the family is shown their new home in front of a cheering crowd of friends and volunteers, is overwhelming. The family breaks down, the crowd weeps, and I have no doubt that tears are shed in many living rooms around the country as they watch the raising up of the downtrodden and the rewarding of the deserving.

That is why when I watch the liberation of The Prince of Egypt's cartoon Hebrews, my animated ancestors, I feel it every time. When a nation of slaves marches to freedom while joyfully praising God, that is the world as it should be... and it is awesome.

This year the Jewish calendar provides a fascinating juxtaposition of our two categories of awe. Next Wednesday evening we will gather and retell the story of the exodus from Egypt. True, we will expound upon the physical signs and wonders of the ten plagues and the splitting of the sea – but the primary theme of the Passover Seder is the liberation from Egyptian slavery. On Wednesday morning, however, we will be celebrating a different and more obscure festival, Birkat HaChamah. Literally 'the blessing of the sun', Birkat HaChamah occurs once every 28 years and marks, according to Talmudic lore, the moment when the sun sits in the same place in the sky as it did at the moment of its Creation.

Although we are forbidden to worship celestial bodies, Birkat Hachamah is a religiously mandated appreciation of the sun, and we recite the blessing 'who makes the works of creation.' If we begin to examine the nature of the sun, one cannot help but be in awe. The source of all life is in fact an unfathomably large ball of constantly exploding hydrogen bombs. Moreover, our real estate in relation to the sun is uncanny. Were the Earth to orbit ever so slightly closer to the sun, all water in liquid form would vaporize, rendering life impossible. On the other hand, if Earth were slightly more distant from our heat source our planet would be a frozen wasteland. Our existence in the universe could aptly be described as absurd and ridiculous.

Many communities will utilize Birkat Hachamah as a tool to promote awareness of our environmental impact, particularly climate change. We are slowly learning that we cannot plunder and consume with impunity. We are also learning that our continued marveling at physical existence, of 'materialist awe,' in fact depends on our providing a system of justice and love for humans – and vice versa. We cannot hope to protect the environment while maintaining an economic system that encourages its exploitation. Nor can we provide justice and love to humankind while we allow environmental degradation – knowing that its harshest consequences will be felt by the weak and disadvantaged.

Wishing you all a meaningful and a kosher Passover, and a freedom filled with awe.