Last Shabbat, we ran the first of our FPS listening projects*. B’nei Mitzvah families got to say in just 60 seconds what they love about our community and what they’ve been disappointed by. It was excellent. I very much want to hear both.
We clearly need to ensure all our prayer books (siddurim) have transliterated Hebrew so that all feel included.
People love that we are committed to making our Jewishness – our Torah, our services, learning and conversations – relevant and in touch with contemporary events. Thank you. I hear that clearly.
This week’s Torah portion describes the Israelites being bored, very bored indeed, of manna, that celestial food whose name literally means ‘what’s this?’ It is described as looking like puffed cotton seed and as tasting creamy and versatile enough to make cake or bread.
Instead of being grateful for this miraculous food dropped by God, the Israelites wept and said, ‘If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we used to eat free in Egypt. The cucumbers, the melon, the onions and garlic… .’ Numbers 11:4-5)
How can I read about God-given nourishment and the longing for food without being mindful of the hunger in Gaza and the withholding of food aid? Many, many Jews, both in Israel and outside of it, have spoken against this. Our foodbanks are overrun in this country, the need for food and the help to eat does not feel an ancient idea at all. While we read this portion this year, we must be mindful of this and of the imagining and story telling it offers.
We will read this and feel deeply the fragility of this moment of people’s desperate suffering and our continued turning to Torah to speak to us where we are.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca
* Please be in touch to share your thoughts with me if you are not able to attend one of these home events with wine and food.
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