A Shabbat of Gathering - Not Gathering

This Shabbat, the Torah reading begins…..” וַיַּקְהֵ֣ל מֹשֶׁ֗ה אֶֽת־כָּל־עֲדַ֛ת בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל  . .    and Moshe gathered the all the assembly of the children of Israel………”

And there, I stop.

This Shabbat, there will be no gathering; there will be no assembly of the children of Israel, at least, not as we have known it for centuries, for millennia. Invoking pekuach nefesh, the tenet of Jewish practice that reveres the preservation of life over all other laws and customs, we must not gather, we must not stand as an assembly, so that we can preserve the lives of those around us, all over the world.

This is where I personally feel the overwhelming changes that come with the upheaval of our lives at this moment. Communal prayer has been the core of my practice for twenty years. It has supported me, lifted me, nourished me. I’ve been involved in the minutia of the ritual, the balance between halachah and minhag - law and custom. And I’ve experienced the joy that comes with letting all that go, simply feeling the uplifting of spirit – dancing with the voices of my kahal, feeding off the gathering of my community, breathing in the holiness we’ve created in whatever space we’ve been in.

But for now, we must gather together in virtual spaces – it is the new normal that will last for some time to come.We are finding, and will continue to find, new ways to invigorate the connections that we have, that we want, that we need. In many ways, even if out of adversity, those connections will be strengthened.

In When Things Fall Apart, Pema Chodron, American Tibetan Buddhist nun and spiritual teacher, writes, “Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.”

On this Shabbat of Vayakhel – this Shabbat of gathering without gathering, I wish you all the time and the space to gather as you can, making room for the grief, the relief, the misery, and the joy. Take the time to breathe, and make room for the healing to come.

Sending you all a virtual hug -- looking forward to the day that it's real.

Shabbat Shalom.