August 15, 2008 - VAETCHANAN: AN ASCENT TO THE SUMMIT - (14th of Av, 5768)

Part of the glory of living life in Colorado is the magnificence of the mountainous habitat which is virtually at our door step. And there is a reason why Coloradans lead the nation for being in shape. The wonders that are so accessible to us are neither for the feint of heart nor the weak of body. You have to maintain some level of fitness to enjoy them. Several of us found this out this past weekend as I summoned the congregation to a Tishe B’Av hike to tackle the 14,200 foot mountain, Gray’s.

Tishe B’Av was really a very appropriate day for me, personally, to attempt this climb. It is the day in the Jewish calendar which marks the falls of the First and Second Temples in Jerusalem. As I wrote in the August Newsletter, it is akin to being the Jewish Friday the 13th because so many calamities which befell our people throughout history are said to have fallen on this sad and terrible date. However, given the fact that we Reform Jews do not resonate with the ancient Temple cult or the sacrificial system which it practiced, we observe neither a fast nor read Lamentations on this day. Rather, I found another, better, Colorado way to afflict ourselves!

So, starting almost promptly at 5 a.m., 9 of us drove off for the Bakerville exit of I-70. The trailhead itself is up a badly washed out road which we finished at about 6:30, just a tad late, by my lights, for our ascent. The initial climb took us through hillsides of wild flowers which are just about at their prime at this time of summer. The red, blue, yellow, white and purple Alpine blooms form a breath taking carpet of color that one should take the time to appreciate along the climb. The summit, which comes into view early on this trek, beckons because of the lightning factor and the need to be off the mountain’s top by 11 to avoid any possibility of being struck. As we reached about 13,000 feet, the vegetation having now slipped away behind us, several of us discovered that we were woefully out of shape. Something there is at that altitude that doesn’t brook one’s being unprepared. Altitude sickness is a real problem if you’re not physically fit. Then, too, on that particular Sunday, the weather turned at that point and a huge cloud drifted over the Gray’s and Torres, enshrouding everyone on the trail and above on the summit, and a cold and nasty rain began to fall. It seemed that there were icy particles in the cloud further up along the switch backs, above 13,600 feet. I had a man from Australia pass me on the trail at about that point whose lips and finger nails were blue. It was clear that he wasn’t wearing enough warm clothes.

Of course, when you are climbing a 14ner, you lose concern for everything else that is going on in the world. I am sure that there were many folks on the mountain that day, who were hiking it partially, at least, for that reason. Who, after all, wanted to think of the Russian forces attacking and mauling the Georgians who were virtually defenseless against overwhelming land and air forces? Who wanted to dwell on yet another American political leader whose hubris, narcissism and lust brought him and his family to public disgrace and professional ruin? Who wanted to concentrate on the drought that Israel is suffering and the fact that the country is being forced to marshal and ration what little water is left? Israeli farmers are having to jettison tons of growing crops due to their inability to provide them water. What a waste to see apples, oranges, plums, pomelos and other citrus stripped from their boughs, and lying in the rows between the trees, desiccating and rotting in the hot sun. In this all too hungry world, what a tragic time for Israel and the whole of the Middle East, Iraqi farmers included. And lastly, who wanted to be a couch potato watching those striving so hard for Olympic glory when we could achieve something of the same by challenging this 14ner?

This week, in Torah, we encounter yet another mountain climber. Moses tells the people as part of his recapitulation of their history that God has instructed him to climb Mt Nebo and die there. Moses pleads desperately with God to let him finish the journey by allowing him to cross over the Jordan and enter the Promised Land. But God cuts him off. God stops him cold in his arguing and commands Moses to climb up and view the Land from north to south and east to west…but, from the Eastern side of the river. Moses is never to set a foot on the holy soil promised to the descendents of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Rather, he is to remain on that mountain top.

Not three chapters later, Moses recounts the giving of the Ten Commandments. At the foot of a flaming, trembling and cloud enshrouded mountain, the people were told the 10 rules by which theirs and any society must live. Several of those commandments and especially the one concerning adultery our national, state, and local leaders ought to pay special attention to. These laws apply to everyone and none has outlived its utility or applicability. Think, as any head strong person does that he or she is beyond the laws for the rest of humanity, and they quickly discover how much they are just like everyone else when their abrogation of society’s norm is discovered.

Moses then encourages the people by enjoining them to continue throughout their lives to listen to the voice of their God and to love the Eternal by the ways in which they live, by their deeds and by how they conduct their relationships and business affairs.

If this Tishe B’Av hike to Gray’s taught those of us who went anything, it was that we are a caring, decent and very affable group of Jews. We were there in a common purpose that turned out to be more than just achieving the summit. It was also more than celebrating Michael Rees’ 55th birthday, although that was, indeed, a major theme of the day, as well it should have been. It was the fact that although Jewish history marked this as a day of suffering, it was for us a day of getting to know each other better, of sharing this challenging adventure together and of coming away from it enriched by having been in each other’s company. What more spiritual way to observe this Jewish Day of suffering than by our bonding together as friends.

Unlike Moses’ climb which was to culminate in his death, this climb, made on a day which acknowledged much death, destruction and despair throughout Jewish history, actually was a celebration of life. Some of us reveled in a father and son taking time to hike and just be together. Others recounted where they were along their life’s journey, how their families were doing and what some of their immediate and less immediate goals were. Some of us spoke about climate change and what it was doing to flora and fauna around the state, the ravages of the bark beetle and the plight of those animals which are losing their habitat and, in the case of the picas, for instance, the to move higher and higher in elevation necessitated by the need to stave off the higher and higher temperatures.

But at the end of our ascent and descent, we all returned to our lives, as opposed to Moses who would, by Deuteronomy’s end, return to his Creator. We realized that we had witnessed something of the grandeur of our surroundings. Some of us are resolved now to head back to more regular workouts. All of us have a memory to savor of having spent time with our fellow congregants and having done so in a most strenuous, yet enjoyable way. In a real sense, I realized that this was the most spiritual Tishe B’Av we may have ever spent.