columnist for the Jewish Journal
in Los Angeles and the online
Huffington Post, wrote about ask-
ing the audience at a Tikkun con-
ference, regarding the underlying
assumption of the peace process
that Israel is the major obstacle to
peace. "When is the last time any
of you woke up in the morning and
asked yourself, `What if I'm wrong?'
No one raised their hand."
What would Lerner have said?
Lerner quickly replied, "Of
course I might be wrong. But that's
not how I wake up in the morn-
ing. I wake up saying, Modeh Ani
Lefanechah," the Jewish prayer said
upon awakening.
It was one thing when anti-
Tikkun vandals desecrated or dem-
onstrated outside his home three
times this year. It was another
thing entirely when cancer entered
him two years ago.
The cancer is gone — "there's no
sign of it in my body:' Lerner says.
But did it leave a mark on his soul?
"It made me more aware of how
important it is, every day, to thank
God for life, and for this incredible
universe he says. "It's not that I
was out of touch with that before,
but the prayers are so much deeper
for me now."
Is there anything in the davening
he says differently now?
"Well, it's definitely Modeh Ani
and Asher Yotzar," a meditation
about the many intricacies of the
body, a blessing for the God "who
heals all flesh and acts wondrous-
ly," Lerner says. "When I say it now
I say it very slowly and visualize
my inner body and God's healing
energy. I say that differently than I
said it five years ago."
At Shabbat tables, he is likely to
be the first to start singing Sabbath
songs, the lively and the stately
ones alike, singing with a passion,
grinning broadly, enjoying himself
immensely.
"A lot of people learned how to
daven from me, learned how to do
Shabbos meals from me he says.
At a time when thousands of
Jews are leaving Judaism, osten-
sibly because of that hostility
to Israel, say this for Lerner: He
stayed. He never let his decades of
criticism for Israel corrode his love
for davening or Shabbat.
As he says every morning from
the siddur, "The soul You placed
within me is pure." II
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March 24 • 2011
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