The Maggid

I have a new word in my vocabulary--Maggid.

Of course it is not a new word--quite old in fact. (Wikipedia says dating to the sixteenth century--Maggid (מַגִּיד) is a traditional Eastern European religious itinerant preacher, skilled as a narrator of Torah and religious stories.) Reb Marcia Prager, my teacher last week in a class entitled The High Art of the Maggid, provided a much richer definition. She told us and then demonstrated how the Maggid's aim is far more than mere storytelling or even, like Aesop, providing a moral. The purpose of the story is to activate that part of the listener's heart that wants to serve God. The story becomes a merkava--a chariot that carries one up to the Holy throne.

Tonight a few of us gathered at my house in the presence of a Maggid. I'm not sure if he would self-describe with that term, but it fits nonetheless.

Nigel Savage, Executive Director of Hazon, the sponsoring agency of the Israel Ride, came and regaled us with stories. We learned of his personal history which connects directly with the history of Hazon, which he founded in 2000. The word hazon is Hebrew for "vision." Their vision is "to create a healthier and more sustainable Jewish community -- as a step towards a healthier and more sustainable world for all." We learned the history of the bicycle rides Hazon has initiated in the United States and in Israel to bring attention and resources to the cause of the environment. We listened to anecdotes of riders from past events--people whose bicycles have become merkavot. We listened to Nigel's stories and I, for one, felt a part of my heart activated to greater service.

I have sensed for some time that--as Buckminster Fuller would say--the "precessional effect" of taking on this Israel Ride challenge may not be known for some time. Without going into a lot of detail, that's Bucky's term for unintended consequences of a higher degree of importance than the aim of the original action. I suspect that through this venture I will make connections to people and ideas that will have lasting meaning. I got a small glimpse of that tonight in the stories of past riders. I got an immediate "hit" in our conversation that resulted in my being designated Ba'al Tekiah (the "carrier" of the shofar blast) for our ride. Each ride is heralded at the start with sounding of the shofar.

This has more overtones than a complex Cabernet (says the wine non-drinker). Only a few days ago I related a story to our Maggid class of why I so value the shofar that came to me from my father and came to him from an Israeli tourist guide almost fifty years ago. How they became friends is at the heart of the story which I will save for another time. To think that I will be carrying the shofar, its piercing vibrations, and the memory of these men back to their origin in Eretz Yisrael at the time of my father's yartzeit--this is rich.

Nigel said he would like me to tell the story again when we are together in Israel. It will be my opportunity to be a Maggid for my fellow travelers, which I look forward to as much as anything on the trip.