Some of you might recall that for over 16 years, my wife Randy, our three daughters, Hayley, Ilana and Aviva and I used to live in the Justa Farm area of Huntingdon Valley. Our home on Dogwood Lane was architecturally described as a “contemporary” one with the master bedroom, combined living and dining room, kitchen and den on the main floor and all the other bedrooms down in the basement. At the top of the landing, a spiral staircase ascended to a loft which I converted into a home office.
Who knew that we were destined to live in a home with a “shvindel trep,” the Yiddish for a spiral staircase! Actually, the literal translation is “swindling steps!” Why? Because when you climb a regular vertical staircase, you see yourself getting closer to the destination as you climb the stairs. A spiral staircase, on the other hand, “swindles” you into thinking that, at times, you have stopped climbing and may even be regressing because as you get closer to the destination you have to turn completely round, in a 360-degree turn, to the point where you cannot see the apex. As you climb, at each revolution you make, you turn your back to the destination, and just before you reach the top, you must turn completely around for the last time. At that point, with you being unable to see your destination, you may give up and feel that you haven’t made any progress. Even though you are but a step away from your goal, you may stop climbing…the key is to always remember, even when your eyes cannot see it and your heart cannot feel it, that you are on a climbing spiral staircase, and you must continue to move.
For all you know you may feel the need to just make one more turn to reach your intended objective. *
Tonight, we usher in the most solemn 25-hour period in the Jewish calendar. The obligation of praying, atoning and fasting at length might seem like an arduous journey on a shvindel trep: an exhausting ascent and one seemingly without end!
Nevertheless, the rocky road to repentance – climbing a long, steep, spiral staircase – reminds us that we dare not turn our backs to the destination at hand. Our goal on Yom Kippur is, after all, to try and reach the peak of moral rectitude and personal contrition.
And the only way to ascend this Yontiff’s shvindel trep is to descend into the innermost depths of your soul!
Whether you choose to be with us in person or on Livestream, our service for Kol Nidrei begins tonight at 7:30pm. Please don’t forget to have your silver-covered machzor, Mishkan HaNefesh, with you and, if it’s your custom, your tallit, too!
Rabbi Tornberg and Cantor Zarkh join with me in wishing you all a “Tzom Kal,” an easy but meaningful fast. Robert
* I first came cross this analogy for life’s cycles on “MLC,” The Meaningful Life Center. www.meaningfullife.com
Old York Road Temple-Beth Am 971 Old York Road Abington, PA 19001
