This Shabbat will be all about our place. Literally. We get to dedicate and celebrate our place in the wider community with our MP Sarah Sackman, our Mayor and our Councillors. We are very much woven into the fabric of things here in Finchley, in Barnet, in London. And of course we also have been the place for our families, our members and those who have found consolation and joy within our walls. The word in Hebrew for place is makom. In post Biblical literature, the rabbis started to see makom as symbolising God, or goodness or the sacred.
So how extraordinary that this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Vayeitze refers to makom so repeatedly. Jacob, our Patriarch, has left his mother, his father and his home, taking with him only his birthright, stolen from his brother Esau, from whom he is now running. He’s alone, maybe for the first time, and primed for an experience.
He came upon a certain place and stopped there for the night, for the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of that place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place.
וַיִּפְגַּ֨ע בַּמָּק֜וֹם וַיָּ֤לֶן שָׁם֙ כִּי־בָ֣א הַשֶּׁ֔מֶשׁ וַיִּקַּח֙ מֵאַבְנֵ֣י הַמָּק֔וֹם וַיָּ֖שֶׂם מְרַֽאֲשֹׁתָ֑יו וַיִּשְׁכַּ֖ב בַּמָּק֥וֹם הַהֽוּא׃
Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely יהוה is in this place, and I did not know it!”
וַיִּיקַ֣ץ יַעֲקֹב֮ מִשְּׁנָתוֹ֒ וַיֹּ֕אמֶר אָכֵן֙ יֵ֣שׁ יְהֹוָ֔ה בַּמָּק֖וֹם הַזֶּ֑ה וְאָנֹכִ֖י לֹ֥א יָדָֽעְתִּי׃
Shaken, stirred up, he said, “How incredible is this place.”
…וַיִּירָא֙ וַיֹּאמַ֔ר מַה־נּוֹרָ֖א הַמָּק֣וֹם הַזֶּ֑ה…
Sefat Emet (Yehudah Aryeh Leib of Ger, 19th–20th century) wrote a great deal about makom, place, in this moment of Torah, explaining sometimes we have to be ready for the revelation, for the feeling and meaning that exudes from the place if we let it. Jacob sees what’s there, hamakom – truly sees it. Maybe it’s his first spiritual awakening. I wonder for all of us what places and moments have moved us and offered a magical sense of makom, of being in the place that you need to be.
I feel that right now in our renewed sanctuary. The whole synagogue has been lovingly restored to show its beautiful bones, as our architect Phyllida Mills identified, and this is why taking a moment to acknowledge this place and all it does and symbolises is a good thing.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca
P.S.
For those who’d like and are able to be good neighbours (or angels) on Christmas Day by driving nurses to and from North London Hospice please be in touch with me. I am gathering a small group of us. Thank you.
Copyright © 2025 Finchley Progressive Synagogue. All rights reserved. Website designed by Addicott Web. | Charity #1167285