Shabbat Shalom from Rabbi Arnow 7/31/2020
Dear Kol Rinah Family,
I'm pretty good (most of the time) at compartmentalizing, and not taking home or dwelling on the sad things and hard things that I frequently need to hold as a rabbi. I don't let myself get too sad from individuals' problems, or the problems of the world, probably as a way of self-preservation, but I'm also not a ruminator, by nature, which helps.
Wednesday evening though, as we began Tisha b'Av together on Zoom, I let the sadness of the world flow into me, and I was profoundly sad. Because there is so, so, so much to be sad about. We each have our own lists of sadnesses, which will overlap subtantially.
Tisha b'Av is annually, and for me very much was this year, a day to live in all that sadness. But the rituals of the day also are about emerging from that sadness: we did not wear tallit or tefillin in the morning of Tisha b'Av, but we do wear them in the afternoon, to show already that our sadness has begun to dissipate. We go from fasting to eating, although gradually--the custom is still to abstain from meat and wine until noon on the following day (that is, today).
The Haftarot (prophetic readings associated with each Shabbat) go from readings of warning the previous three weeks to prophecies of consolation, of hope, of rebirth and renewal. This Shabbat, immediately following Tisha b'Av, is known as "Shabbat Nachamu," the Shabbat of comfort, based on a word repeated twice in a row at the beginning of the Haftarah from Isaiah 40.
The message is not that things are better already, right now. But rather, the message is one of hope and optimism, that things will be better, not today or tomorrow necessarily, but that there is a future, down the road, and it will be sweet and bright and worth waiting for, hoping for, and building for.
Today, July 31, 2020, the 10th of Av, is not in reality any better, any less sad, than yesterday, the 9th of Av, July 30, 2020. But our Jewish calendrical and liturgical cycle directs our hearts to be sad yesterday, and today and in the weeks to home, to remember, to know, that one day, in the not-infinite future, we will experience a kind of redemption.
I'm working, together with Rabbi Shafrin, and our entire synagogue staff and leadership, to help us weather this time of sadness and challenge. And we are also confident in and hopeful for a time when at least the challenge of Covid will be behind us, and we will be able to really start rebuilding, and re-meeting. We need each other now, and we'll need each other then, too.
Tonight at 6pm, we'll gather on Zoom for mincha and Kabbalat Shabbat with melodies of hope and comfort.
Sunday morning at 10am there's Havdalah, and at 11:30am, Leora Spitzer will lead a conversation about Dara Horn's novel, "Eternal Life."
Minyan continues this week, and Rabbi Shafrin will be teaching Torah Talk on Friday at noon.
I'll be taking my second week of staycation this coming week, and will look forward to being more in touch after next Shabbat.
Shabbat shalom and see you on Zoom,
Rabbi Noah Arnow
I'm pretty good (most of the time) at compartmentalizing, and not taking home or dwelling on the sad things and hard things that I frequently need to hold as a rabbi. I don't let myself get too sad from individuals' problems, or the problems of the world, probably as a way of self-preservation, but I'm also not a ruminator, by nature, which helps.
Wednesday evening though, as we began Tisha b'Av together on Zoom, I let the sadness of the world flow into me, and I was profoundly sad. Because there is so, so, so much to be sad about. We each have our own lists of sadnesses, which will overlap subtantially.
Tisha b'Av is annually, and for me very much was this year, a day to live in all that sadness. But the rituals of the day also are about emerging from that sadness: we did not wear tallit or tefillin in the morning of Tisha b'Av, but we do wear them in the afternoon, to show already that our sadness has begun to dissipate. We go from fasting to eating, although gradually--the custom is still to abstain from meat and wine until noon on the following day (that is, today).
The Haftarot (prophetic readings associated with each Shabbat) go from readings of warning the previous three weeks to prophecies of consolation, of hope, of rebirth and renewal. This Shabbat, immediately following Tisha b'Av, is known as "Shabbat Nachamu," the Shabbat of comfort, based on a word repeated twice in a row at the beginning of the Haftarah from Isaiah 40.
The message is not that things are better already, right now. But rather, the message is one of hope and optimism, that things will be better, not today or tomorrow necessarily, but that there is a future, down the road, and it will be sweet and bright and worth waiting for, hoping for, and building for.
Today, July 31, 2020, the 10th of Av, is not in reality any better, any less sad, than yesterday, the 9th of Av, July 30, 2020. But our Jewish calendrical and liturgical cycle directs our hearts to be sad yesterday, and today and in the weeks to home, to remember, to know, that one day, in the not-infinite future, we will experience a kind of redemption.
I'm working, together with Rabbi Shafrin, and our entire synagogue staff and leadership, to help us weather this time of sadness and challenge. And we are also confident in and hopeful for a time when at least the challenge of Covid will be behind us, and we will be able to really start rebuilding, and re-meeting. We need each other now, and we'll need each other then, too.
Tonight at 6pm, we'll gather on Zoom for mincha and Kabbalat Shabbat with melodies of hope and comfort.
Sunday morning at 10am there's Havdalah, and at 11:30am, Leora Spitzer will lead a conversation about Dara Horn's novel, "Eternal Life."
Minyan continues this week, and Rabbi Shafrin will be teaching Torah Talk on Friday at noon.
I'll be taking my second week of staycation this coming week, and will look forward to being more in touch after next Shabbat.
Shabbat shalom and see you on Zoom,
Rabbi Noah Arnow
Fri, April 19 2024
11 Nisan 5784
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Fri, April 19 2024 11 Nisan 5784