Perhaps 2.0

This brief meditation opens with a single, trembling word of hope: oulai—“perhaps.” When Abraham stands before God and pleads for the people of Sodom, he invokes a moral imagination willing to search for goodness amid ruin: “Perhaps there are fifty righteous… perhaps ten.” Perhaps becomes a quiet mantra, loosening the grip of certainty, resentment, and despair.

Through breath and simple contemplation, participants are invited to hold their own places of injury, conflict, or difference within this spacious uncertainty—softening judgment and making room for compassion. "Perhaps" is not indecision but permission: the courage to imagine goodness where none seems visible, to let empathy and curiosity gently restore what fear divides. Repeating oulai yesh—“perhaps there is”—we practice a modest but vital faith: that healing and justice may yet be possible, one perhaps at a time.

Transcript

Gathering in.

Noticing the places where you are ruffled,

Uneven,

And uneasy.

In the pace of your heart,

The depth of your breathing,

Where can you slow down and become more still and quiet?

Give yourself a moment to get more slow,

Still,

And quiet.

Inhale deeply,

Breathe out slowly.

Listen to the world around you and within you.

Using all of these as cues to focus on just this moment.

When we are distressed.

When we have become agitated.

When someone or something appears to be doing us wrong.

We can pause and say from Hebrew Bible,

Ulay yesh,

Perhaps there is.

Would that there might be an alternate explanation.

Breathing.

Perhaps there is.

Perhaps there is Ulay yesh.

Maybe there's another side to the story.

Breathing.

You may be able to identify the other side to the story or simply acknowledge that it could exist.

Perhaps there is.

Perhaps it need not be personal and continue breathing.

Ulay yesh.