Rabbi Stephen Weiss
Shemini Atzeret Yizkor 2013
If we close our eyes for a moment, we can almost see them, hear their voice, and feel their touch.
It was a torrid love affair. He was an affable, always smiling, very green… frog…named Kermit. She was a legendary rock singer named… Linda. Linda Ronstadt. They were very much in love. It was all Linda Ronstadt’s idea. She appeared on the Muppet Show and sang to Kermit first Gershwin’s “I’ve Got a Crush on You,” and then The “Shoop Shoop Song” with its refrain, “It’s in his kiss,” after which Kermit kissed her. It’s all there in Linda Ronstadt’s new memoir, Simple Dreams. She says that she was warned not to actually let her lipstick touch Kermit’s green felt lips, or it would stain, and the Creature Shop would have to construct a new body. Linda goes on to say, “Since Kermit had already made a serious commitment to Miss Piggy, our affair was doomed, and we had to part like Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in the last scene of Casablanca. Years later, she writes, she was reunited with Kermit for one last song, after which, in her words, “he returned to his love nest with that pig, and I never saw him again.”
Even Linda Ronstadt could not keep Kermit and Miss Piggy apart. And yet for 19 years America’s most famous and beloved couple were separated by many miles, Kermit – actually two Kermits – all alone at the Smithsonian Institute and Miss Piggy in a box in the home of Cheryl Henson, daughter of famed puppeteer Jim Henson. But on this past Tuesday, which would have been Jim Henson’s 77th birthday, Miss Piggy and over 20 other famous muppets, including Bert and Ernie, Count von Count, Grover, Cookie Monster, Fozzie Bear, Scooter, Elmo the Swedish Chef, and characters from Fraggle Rock – among others – who will join Kermit and Oscar the Grouch at the Smithsonian.
Imagine how overwhelmed with emotion Miss Piggy must be, how excited Kermit must feel to old pals from Sesame Street and the Muppet Show.
Fran Brill, the puppeteer most widely known for bringing to life the Muppet Prairie Dawn, said like Henson she felt like she was at a Muppet family reunion. “It’s a big extended family like finding some cousin you didn’t know existed,” Brill said. “I would just love to hear a conversation between all of them…”
For me, having grown up on Sesame Street, this news was very exciting. And how appropriate that the Muppet family reunion took place on Tuesday, just two days before today’s festival of Shemini Atzeret. After all, this holiday is all about about reunions and family gatherings. In fact according our sages it is the whole meaning of today.
You see, Shemni Atzeret is an unusual holiday. Sukkot commemorates our wandering in the wilderness, Pesach is in remembrance of the exodus, Shavuot celebrates the giving of the Torah at Sinai, but Shemini Atzeret as no historical connection. Sukkot has the sukkah and lulav, Pesach has matzah and seder, even Shavuot has the Tikkun and the Torah but there is clear symbols tied to this day. And yet the Torah specifically teaches us that Shemini Atzeret is not the last day of Sukkot (Though it is also like a second day to the last day, hence the Kiddush the sukkah), Shemini Atzeret is Chag Bifnei Atzmo – its own free standing independent holiday. But of so, what is it about? What is its meaning?
The sages explain it through a parable. They tell the story of a king who holds a festive celebration and invited all his citizens to come to the capital to join in the celebration even from the farthest provinces. It is a joyous celebration. When it ends, his tired by happy subjects journey back to their homes. But the king turns to his most precious subjects, those near and dear to him, and says, “Stay a little longer, linger with me so that we can enjoy each other in more intimate company.”
That, say the rabbis, is Shemini Atzeret. Over the festival of Sukkot, 70 separate offerings are sacrificed, one for each of the other nations of the world – as the rabbis counted them in their day – on Sukkot we pray for the welfare of the entire world. Sukkot is the universal holiday. But on Shemni Atzeret we offer only one sacrifice – as we pray for Israel’s wellbeing and celebrate our relationship with God. On this day, God says, okay, the party is over, but stay awhile, you, Israel who are so precious to me. Linger with me so we can savor each other’s’ company. Shemini Atzeret is Israel’s unique day to share alone with the Holy One. It is our special reunion. That is the meaning of Atzeret: Gathering. This is our time of gathering.
The times of gathering and reunion are the most joyous times in our lives. We cherish being together with the ones we love; and, like God, we love lingering with them as long as possible. I frequently will ask families about their most precious memories. No one ever says their favorite memory is visiting the Great Wall of China or the Grand Canyon, as beautiful as they are. No one says it was that win at the Casino, or buying that fancy car or building that nice house. It is always that special birthday celebration, or that Thanksgiving or Seder or special vacation when everyone in the family was present together. Nothing can replace the sheer joy of just being in the presence of those we love. And it is important that we should be together every moment that we can. Don’t be like Miss Piggy and Kermit and let years go by before you are reunited. Every newswire in America is lit up with the news of Kermit and Miss Piggy, but the smile we feel at seeing them together Is just a faint wisp compared to the utter joy we feel when we are reunited with our family and friends. The lesson of Shemini Atzeret is that we have to make a point of being together now, when we can.
Shemini Atzeret is not just about reuniting with God and with family in this world. The theme of gathering should remind us that when we die the Torah describes it as being gathered unto out ancestors. Our tradition teaches that when we pass from this world, the souls of our loved ones who passed on before us come to greet us and escort us to the next world. Our transition from this life to the next is a time of reunion, and for our souls, on a spiritual level it is a time of great peace and joy.
And this Yizkor we are about to observe is likewise a time of gathering, a time of reunion, when we seek to invoke the presence of our loved ones whom we miss, to draw on our memories of them so that we can linger with them just a little bit longer, and in our heart and our mind’s eye savor their presence. We believe that all year long every day our loved ones are with us. Freed of the physical constraints of the body, freed of the limits of time and space, the souls of our loved ones, which like our souls are refractions of the God Soul, are able to be in heaven and in our hearts at the same time, to quietly comfort us, to strengthen us, inspire us, guide us. Our loved ones are also according to tradition our advocates before the Heavenly throne, interceding and pleading with God on our behalf to forgive us our failings, protect us from harm and grant us blessing.
When we light the Yizkor candle, and when we say the Yizkor prayers, if we close our eyes for a moment, we can almost see them, hear their voice, and feel their touch. Just as Sukkot ultimately must pass, just as the Kings festival came to an end, so too inevitably we must all eventually leave this world. But in this moment, this Yizkor moment, we say to our loved ones, stay… if only for a moment… linger a short while, so that we can enjoy each other’s presence once more.
And in that moment, when we feel that presence, our eyes fill with tears, but our hearts also fill with joy, joy born of our great love for them, and our gratitude for the gift of their presence during our lifetimes, that touched us so deeply and transformed us, that made us who we are.
At the unveiling of the new Muppets exhibit at the Smithsonian, Cheryl Henson said, “When I look at this table of puppets they are each one such a strong personality… I look at them and I can hear them talking. I hope that new generations will find the heart and the soul… that was my father’s work.” As we recite Yizkor this morning, on this day of gathering and reunion, may we hear the voices of our loved ones, and savor the heart and soul that was their gift to us. And may we in their memory commit ourselves to gathering our family and friends together with us in this life at every chance we get.