Kayaking and Being There

I took eight Confirmation students on a Shabbat kayak trip today with the help of my friend, Rabbi Michael Birnholz, and the folks at Tropical Kayak Tours. While we had more rain and a bit cooler weather than we wanted, it was glorious to be paddling on the Indian River Lagoon on the first day of December. (I'm still a northerner who finds it remarkable that anything can be done outdoors in December that does not involve a wool hat and insulated gloves.)

We spent the afternoon on the water, learning about the living things in and around the lagoon, studying some Jewish texts, and watching the dolphins (who were also watching us). We spent time on a small island where we did a scavenger hunt inspired by the writing of Rav Kook, the great Torah scholar who served as the first Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi of Palestine. Our theme for the day was appreciating the natural world, opening our senses, and allowing ourselves to be awake to each moment.

I taught one of my favorite texts, a teaching from Rabbi Menachem Mendl of Kotzk, the slightly mad and reclusive sage who is known as the Kotzker Rebbe. This teaching is an interpretation of a verse from the book of Exodus:

“Adonai said to Moses, ‘Go up to Me on the mountain and be there. I will give you the tablets of stone, the Torah and commandments that I have written for you to teach” (Exodus 24:12). 

There appears to be a difficulty with what God says. If Moses goes up to the top of the mountain, of course he is there! Why then the emphasis on “Be there”? This is proof that even after one strains to climb all the way up to a peak, it is still possible not to be there. You may indeed stand upon the mountain, yet your  head is in a different place. The main point is not the ascent, but actually to be there, and only there, and not be above or below at the same time.

It is not often that you see a group of fourteen- and fifteen-year-olds who have the spiritual awareness to spend an afternoon in a kayak with the kind of mindfulness I saw today. Each of them, in his or her own way, showed an appreciation for the importance of "being there" — of taking in a beautiful place, of being genuinely curious about the world, of letting the experience happen without demanding too much from it, and just allowing the truth of the moment to emerge. 

It is with great pride that I say that we did not just go on a kayaking trip. We were there.


Other Posts on This Topic:
Lifting Our Hands
God of the Natural or the Supernatural?