Shine a New Light

The following reflection was offered at HUC-JIR services this week.

NASA astronomer Natalie Batahlia compares the existence of dark matter in our universe to the existence of love. Dark matter, she explains, is this strange force that scientists can’t quite yet explain, that neither our eyes nor our most powerful telescopes can quite see, but that we know we exists. Dark matter causes galaxies to hold together. It causes planets to move along their orbit. Dark matter moves us, brings us together, keeps the universe from completely falling apart.

And so it is with love. We can’t see it. We can’t quite explain it. But we know it’s real.

Love brings us together. It keeps us moving. It’s the force that keeps our universe from completely falling apart.

Our experience tells us that the dark is bad. The unknown can be scary. The mysterious can be overwhelming.

But Judaism recognizes what Natalie Batahlia recognizes—that there’s One God who creates both darkness and light, both mystery and understanding, “yotzeir or uvorei choshech.”

Our dark matters—our brokenness and our pain—these are the forces that move us, the forces that bring us together, the forces that remind us of our own humanity. Darkness is a source of love.

And this is why we pray “Or chadash al tzion ta-ir—shine a new kind of light on our lives: not the kind of light that washes out the dark, but rather a kind that helps us to discern the force of love in our universe, even when it’s buried in dark matters.

Baruch Atah Adonai, Yotzeir HaMei’orot.