All my bags are packed. I’m ready to go…..It seems more like the “Travelers Blessing Tefilat HaDerech” than the actual one.

No actually I am here. I’ve arrived. With 11 other rabbis and some of the AJWS staff. Ruth Messinger the founder and executive director (safe to say my hero) will be here tomorrow.

First impressions of Guatemala.The avocados are amazing. After two years of studying it is good to finally be here. My colleagues are caring committed interesting fun. And they are good at taking care of one another. Guatemala City is a real city of 5 million people. It looks more like sections of Heidelberg or Jerusalem than Los Angeles. Very European in feel. Dinner at a traditional Guatamalan restaurant was yummy. And it was very pretty. The flowers are gorgeous and everywhere. So is the music. Our session started with a wedding downstairs and the Latin beat was palpable. Literally.

We began our reflection meeting with stating one thing we wanted to leave behind and one thing we would each individually bring to the group. I was asked to go first which I thought was a daunting task. I said that I wanted to leave behind my dependence on my cell phone but that it would be hard because it doubles as my camera. I think I bring to the group the diversity that is my community and our commitment to pluralism. What I realized as I spoke later in the evening about my Guatemalan son-in-law and my Cambodian nephew is how diverse my own family is. Others spoke of needed to leave work behind or stress or anxiety and uncertainty. I think it is fair to say we are all excited and also nervous.

When each person spoke he or she would say “Dabartti I spoke.” And we would echo “Shamati. I heard.” This is something that I taught my own congregation yesterday when we were working on active listening skills. So the synergy was palpable. Then Adina our staff person told us a d’var Torah that she remembers from when she was 15. If you leave out the vowels in “Sh’ma Yisrael” you can read it as “Sh’ma Yashar El” translated roughly “Listening leads straight to G-d.”

This became the theme for me for the evening—probably the whole trip. Listen. Learn. Listen. Learn. See the Divine in everyone. Hear their words. This is how we get closer to G-d.