King Shlomo, Constant Change and the Mistaken Sarcasm of Urinetown - A Reflection on Shabbat Chol HaMoed

As a theater dad, I have spent many Sundays at shows over the life of my children.  And while there were many shows that were familiar, the one that was least familiar, but most enjoyable was Urinetown. This hilarious social commentary about politics, power and life is one of the funniest shows I have ever seen.  

One of the greatest exchanges is after someone takes a glass of water and then she is told that “The glass of water's inside you,....because we are all rivers.”  The ensemble then goes on sing operatically and sarcastically that we are all rivers. ‘You are the river, I am the river He is the river, she is too.”  (To listen to this song, click  here)

This song always made me laugh, but over the past few months, I have been thinking a lot about rivers. And maybe rivers are really inside of us.

Way back in the summer, was our first allusion to a river.  We mourned the destruction of the Bet HaMikdash we sang about rivers. (Psalms 137:1)
א  עַל נַהֲרוֹת, בָּבֶל--שָׁם יָשַׁבְנוּ, גַּם-בָּכִינוּ:    בְּזָכְרֵנוּ, אֶת-צִיּוֹן.
1 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.


Just a few weeks ago, we sat by the flowing waters or streams and rivers with our families and friends hoping that the flow of the waters would remove our sins.  As we read at Tashlich from Micha Chapter 7. 

יט  יָשׁוּב יְרַחֲמֵנוּ, יִכְבֹּשׁ עֲו‍ֹנֹתֵינוּ; וְתַשְׁלִיךְ בִּמְצֻלוֹת יָם, כָּל חַטֹּאותָם.
19 He will again have compassion upon us; He will subdue our iniquities; and Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.

Rivers and bodies of water seem to be places we go, when we want to reflect on the passing of time and on our lives, our good, our misfortunes and our mistakes.  

This past week, I had the honor of listening to Rabbi Dov Lerea speak about the message of change that is the message of Sukkot.  Sukkot, he said, teaches us about the impermanence of all of our lives.  As is echoed by Rabbi Steinsaltz, “Status quo can back up a claim or serve as evidence in any discussion, but it affords no certainty that the existing state will continue” (Change and Renewal p. 101)  All of our selves are constantly changing--our work, our relationships.  

In this way, life is a river.  In her incredible book, Broken Open, Elizatbeth Lesser writes, “Life is always changing; we are always changing. We live in a river of change and a river of change lives within us…...From year to year, every one of our cells is replaced...who we were yesterday is not who are are today.”  And “every day we’re given a choice; We can relax and float in the direction that the water flows or we can swim hard against it….feeling rankled and tired as we tread water.”  (p. 237)
While we should be confident to not always go with the flow, Sukkot tells us that change is more normal than status quo. We are “much more like a river than anything frozen in time and space.”

This Shabbat of Sukkot we will read Kohelet where King Shlomo’s famously says (1:9), 
ט  מַה-שֶּׁהָיָה, הוּא שֶׁיִּהְיֶה, וּמַה-שֶּׁנַּעֲשָׂה, הוּא שֶׁיֵּעָשֶׂה; וְאֵין כָּל-חָדָשׁ, תַּחַת הַשָּׁמֶשׁ.
9 That which hath been is that which shall be, and that which hath been done is that which shall be done; and there is nothing new under the sun.
But there is something new.  It is us.  

Let’s remember that under the sun of our Sukkot, we are new.  We, our world, our loved ones and our communities are always evolving.  

While that can be scary, if we remember that we are rivers, we can use God’s love to keep us afloat, appreciate the surroundings of our lives and engage with and embrace the changes that are constantly happening all around us.