It’s hard not to feel despair when the weather drops 30-40 degrees overnight and we are confronted by a continuous stream of depressing news at home and abroad. Pick your special interest: public health, climate, gun control, antisemitism, Israel-Palestine… To say there’s a lot to be sad and anxious about seems beyond cliché at this point.
There is so much that makes us feel hopeless, ineffective, and isolated. For many people, when darkness and fear move in, we shut down, stay home, and hide out. But in these times our kehilah and the ties we are weaving between ourselves and our Jewish traditions are all the more important. Connection is the anecdote to disconnection.
I for one was grateful to everyone who attended our fall community meeting on November 13th. It was a blessing to spend the morning sharing what we value about Sukkat Shalom and our dreams for the future. We used the concept of shmita and the new seven year cycle to begin to imagine where we and the kehilah might be in 2029, our 25th anniversary.
At the start of the meeting, we passed paper around and drew a kehilah into existence. Starting with basic shapes for the head, with each round we handed the paper to our neighbor and added a facial feature. This playful activity (borrowed from Lynda Barry’s Making Comics) was both an ice breaker and a creativity booster, offered to warm us up to share our overlapping dreams and visions for the future. It also provides an analogy to how this community was built and continues to grow. Founded by a group of folks who have largely moved away, our energy and activities have shifted and evolved as leadership passes from one group to another.
At the time of my writing, the Ethiopian-Israeli holiday of Sigd begins tonight – November 22-23, 2022. Sigd falls 50 days after Yom Kippur and celebrates acceptance of Torah and yearning for The Temple. The holiday was developed during Ethiopian-Jews’ centuries-long isolation and is believed to be the date on which G?d first revealed himself to Moses (MyJewishLearning.com). November 23rd is also a new moon, marking the start of the Jewish month of Kislev. As such, the holiday might be considered a reminder to hold hope and heritage close as we enter the darkest days of the year.
A few years back, Debra helped me realize that Chanukah is celebrated in the days around a new moon as well. Be it at the start of December or the end, Chanukah falls on these darkest nights of the year when daylight hours are short and the moon is in shadow. Attuning ourselves Jewishly to the moon is something Rabbi Jessica often encouraged us to do, and something I find more and more meaningful each year. Chanukah is a perfect time to observe and notice this relationship.
So don’t go it alone this Kislev.
There’s no we without you.
Don’t let the darkness get you down.
Check the calendar and join us for a service or Chanukah celebration.
Jodi Kushins
KSS Board Chair