I won the lottery this week! With some mazal and the wind blowing the right way, I won a spot in the Bold Voice Collective's (BVC) Voice the Pandemic Workshop. What an amazing gift! We practiced the art of writing with vivid detail and a strong voice. The time together was filled with honesty, courage, vulnerability, laughter, word and sacred silence. In less than two hours, we became community, documenting what we are living through in these corona-times.
As we told our stories, marking the most sacred and
mundane moments of the pandemic, I could not help but think of this week's parasha, Emor, which setsout the calendar of sacred time. Here we learn about the mo'aday Adonai, the sacred commemorations that scaffold our journey through the weeks, months and year of life (Lev. 23:2). Shabbat, marking the sanctity of rest. Passover, an invitation to stop and give, tell and taste. Shavuot and the omer, noticing potential and counting towards the responsibility of relationship and away from the unfettered first tastes of freedom. Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot, days of awakening, atonement, vulnerability and joy. The Torah reminds us it is not enough to talk about these days, we must engage with and practice these personal and communal commemorations. They rise up like flags, calling our attention to markers along our long and windy path of life. They prompt us to remember that it is ok and expected to make some times different from others. They remind us to stop and appreciate that in all that we cannot control, certain things happen on certain days. It is up to us to make it so.
Most important, this calendar of sacred time is part of a shared narrative that weaves a delicate tapestry binding us together as community. Each of us has the invitation to choose the color and thread to tell our story and expand and enliven the story of the whole. Storytelling and the sharing of narrative is a significant means of building connection and finding out what is important in someone's life. Does your shabbos table have chicken, meat and potatoes or tagine, bourekas and a table full of salatim? Do you drink tea from a cup or a glass? Does the tooth fairy leave notes, money or gifts? Each of us has a story to tell of who we are and how we arrived at this moment. I encourage you to take some time to mark time and tell your story. Give yourself five minutes to journal at some point in the day. Call a friend and engage in sacred telling and sacred listening. Record a memory on your phone. The Torah tells us Gd spoke the world into being. Live in the image of the holy one. Tell your story and help write the narrative of our people.
Shabbat Shalom Rg
Congregation Habonim 103 West End Ave New York, NY 10023
