BBC Radio 4 2016-09-30

This past summer my wife and I visited New Zealand. It is a beautiful and mysterious country. We walked miles of wild uninhabited coastline, rainforest and the famous West Coast black sand beaches. We visited Rotorua with its geothermal wonders; mud pools, geysers and hot springs. And we saw incredible flora and fauna. And of course, lots of sheep!

There were many moments throughout the trip when I just stood still, absorbed in my new surroundings overcome by an all-encompassing emotion that I could not immediately define.

I felt small, overwhelmed, but not diminished. On the contrary, I also felt enlarged; part of something so much greater than myself. Then it came it to me: What I was experiencing was Awe.

On Sunday night Jews celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. It ushers in a period known as the Yamim Noraim – the Days of Awe. These are days for introspection, reflection and for drawing closer to God.

Awe is akin to fear but it is not fear in the conventional sense. Rather it is an acute awareness of being in the presence of an inexplicable Other.

The twentieth century theologian Rudolph Otto associated awe with what he called the mysterium tremendum meaning a mystery that leaves one in a paradoxical state of terror and attraction and he saw this strange experience as the basis of Holiness.

The great 16th century Jewish mystic Moses Cordovero wrote that when you recognise how insignificant you are in relation to the universe:

‘Your awe is invigorated
The love in your soul expands.’

My experience of awe in New Zealand took me by surprise. But the Days of Awe suggest that this elusive emotion can be cultivated by training ourselves to see the grandeur in the routine rhythms of life.

This was the insight of one of the most awestruck Jewish thinkers, Rabbi Yehudah Alter of Gur who taught that physical reality and beauty point towards an underlying Divine reality. And he consistently argues that the purpose of Judaism and its accompanying rituals is to live in sacred attunement with this inexplicable Other, that some call God.

Awe is not exclusively a religious experience. And it does not, by definition presuppose belief in a deity. Yet, while one can experience awe without being religious, one cannot be truly religious without experiencing awe.

The Days of Awe invite us to reflect on how extraordinary the ordinary really is.