Shavua tov to all!!
This is another busy week for our community…as some of you know, one of my favorite aspects of Jewish life is the Jewish calendar. I do not see the Jewish year as a perfect circle in time, rather, my image of the Jewish year is an hour-glass, with one large container for the days of the year at each end and a very narrow passage way as the days flow from season to season.
We are now getting to the end of one of the large periods of the year and the flow of the days is slowing down. We started after Hanukkah in December, one side of the narrow transition periods in the year. Then we worked our way up to Tu B’Sh’vat and the very beginning of Spring time, which led us to Purim. This year, Purim marked one of the last times that we gathered together as a community at TAS. From Purim it’s one month to the Festival of Pesah and our freedom from Pharaoh and our slavery in Egypt. On the second night of Passover we start counting the Omer, the seven weeks between Pesah and Shavuot.
This year the counting of the Omer has had a very different feeling. It’s not just the time between two of the major holidays in the Jewish year, it is also a daily reminder of how long we have been staying in our homes, how long it’s been since we have been to work or seen our children or grandchildren, our parents and friends and lots of other important people in our lives.
As we are approaching the end of the Omer and the welcoming of Shavuot on Thursday night, we are confronting two significant and challenging times in our lives. On the one hand, we are hopefully nearing the end of one of the most difficult times in our world, in our country and in our community. How soon will be able to leave our homes more regularly? How soon will be able to walk around without masks on? How soon will be able to be closer that six feet to the people we know and love, let alone strangers at Trader Joe’s or in the paper towel aisle at Costco? How soon will be able to go to the beach and not feel restricted walking down the sandy walkway? And, of course, how soon will be able to go to a Dodgers or Angels game?
At the same time, during Shavuot we once again receive the Torah and 10 Commandments at Mount Sinai. It is one of the most important, some would say THE most important event in our people’s history. It certainly gives us an annual look at the role that the commandments, mitzvot, and the Torah play in our daily lives. Will we keep more kosher in the year ahead? Has being able to be more selective in our driving habits make it easier to modify our ‘traveling’ on Shabbat? Will it be easier to appreciate and follow some of the mitzvot that we ‘know’ but choose not to observe? Will we study more about our Jewish life and all of the ways that it can influence our day- to- day behavior?
So many questions, so many opportunities, for all of us. In Judaism it doesn’t matter where you are in the ladder of Jewish study and observance, what matters is our willingness to keep studying, keep trying to do more and, most importantly, how does each and every one of us, including me, become better people.
Rabbi Avivah and I will be starting our Shavuot study and celebration with a traditional Zoom ‘tikkun layl Shavuot’, Torah study, on Thursday evening at 7pm. We will be studying the 10 Commandments and we welcome all of you to join us for an hour, or so, of study and discussion. And although we will not be having services on Friday morning, we will all continue our Shavuot celebration with services on Friday evening at 7pm and again on Saturday morning at 10am. We will also include the Book of Ruth in one of our services and we will include the Yizkor prayers and Hallel on Shabbat morning.
I look forward to sharing the special events of the coming week and Shavuot and Shabbat…be safe and an early Chag sameach and
Shabbat shalom to everyone…Rabbi Ralph