Jewish Musings, Friday/Shabbat Nov. 10/11

[hollygail]

What’s on your mind — how to make kugel? This week’s Torah reading? Life goals? Prayer? We are all engaged in weight loss/weight maintenance journeys and we are all Jewish or at least interested in Judaism. We like to eat, we like to discuss. It is our goal here to provide each other support on our journeys, to share experiences, to call on our rich cultural heritage and texts, and to help each other grow spiritually.

Some of us take weekly turns starting the thread:

Frieda (hopefully)?
Holly
Lee
Louise
Lynne
Peachy

And for those of you that stop by to read this thread without posting — you are welcome to, but you are also welcome to chime in. Don’t be shy!

[hollygail]

I'm wondering what prayer you say, Lee, when you pass roadkill... Living in a city as I do, I very rarely see roadkill...

There are two things I'd like to introduce today. The first is about this week's Torah portion (you knew that, right?). The concept is that families can always heal themselves. We learn this from the brief passage in which Isaac and Ishmael meet once again to bury their father Abraham. The brothers had been separated from each other for many years. Often, family celebrations and shared sadness bring people together. And I've been wondering whether this is also a foreshadowing of when Jacob and Esau meet after having been separated for at least two decades after Jacob stole Esau's "blessing of/for the firstborn." Your comments about how families heal?

[May I suggest that you respond to the above before continuing to read the remainder of this post...]

And the second one has to do with poetry that many of you have been ending the week's threads. I found quite a few that are more about this week's Torah portion than about Shabbat. Here's a sampling.

- - - - -
reformjudaism.org/blog/poem-parashah-chayei-sarah

A Poem for Parashat Chayei Sarah
October 24, 2013      Stacey Zisook Robinson, Z"L

This original poem is based on Parashat Chayei Sarah, "The Life of Sarah." (Gen. 23:1−25:18), which we read this week.

"Chayei Sarah"

I followed you
Through vast deserts and over mountains
Into lush valleys
and across years

I followed you
Though you did not follow me,
Offering me instead to strangers
and angels

I followed you
Into the desert, empty and sere—
Sterile as my womb,
While you built altars
to your God.
And I laughed
And lied
And sent my Handmaid to your bed
To please you
And appease you.

And still I followed you.

I followed you,
Sacrificed my royalty for you,
Watched a Handmaid's child
Claim a nation

And felt my womb quicken.

Even after
I followed you
And laughed at God
And lied—
I felt my womb quicken!

And so I followed you
Drank at your wells
and prayed at your altars
Built to please and appease
your God.
And you walked through oceans of sand,
Knelt in fertile crescents
Rich and lush as life itself,
Traversed mountains
At the whim of your God.
At the command of God

And on the last mountain
I did not follow.
I watched you walk away,
Walk up that mountain
With our son at your side.
Our son—
Whose life had quickened my womb;
Whose heart had beat in tandem with mine;
Whose hand I held and body I cradled,
Whose fears I eased
And tears I dried—
I did not follow you
While you sacrificed our son
Until the angel stayed your hand.

I will not follow
Build a nation and altars to God.
I have drunk at your wells,
And laughed,
And lied;
And watched you walk away,
Watched my son follow you
Up that mountain
Knife in his hand,
The sun silver against that sharpened blade.
He followed,
Your sacrifice
My son.

And so I will not follow
I will remain.
Keep your altars
and your God
I am your sacrifice
And I —
I will not follow


Stacey Zisook Robinson, z"l, who died on March 8, 2021, was a member of Congregation Hakafa in Glencoe, IL. She blogged at Stumbling Towards Meaning and authored a collection of poems and essays, Dancing in the Palm of God's Hand.
- - - - -

Gut shabbes / Shabbat shalom.

[gazelle18]

Wow. I love how Sarah tells her story in this poem. One almost never hears about the sacrificing of Isaac through the eyes of Sarah. This poet imagines that Sarah reaches her final breaking point at this moment. And to tie it into the question of “how families heal,” it seems that Sarah does not completely heal. She may understand (sort of ), she may love Abraham, and she may kind of accept the fact of Abraham’s dogged (blind?) faith. But if there is any healing for Sarah, it is by finally saying “I will not follow.”

[gazelle18]

Years ago, DH and I “broke up” with his brother and the brother’s wife. There had been years of resentment, anger, betrayal . There were unresolved financial issues. I could go on and on. DH and I just gradually came to the conclusion (and perhaps so did they) , that we’d be happier not having regular contact, despite the fact that we live in the same city. And you know what? It worked just fine. We are close to their only child (a beloved niece), we are friendly when we happen to cross paths, and we can finally say that there are no hard feelings. This is what healing looks like in THIS situation.

[lee058]

Good afternoon everybody. Hope you are all well and SAFE! Please pray for Israel.

Re today's topic: Re prayers over roadkill: I just say (or think) something about how it is part of the circle of life, even though it had a sad ending.

And re Sarah: I was moved by the poem.

Have a peaceful day, Lee

[peachymom1]

Beautiful, moving poem. Rabbi Ed Feinstein said once in a Torah discussion that the reason God didn't "test" Sarah instead of Abraham was that God knew Sarah would never do it and would probably take God to task for even suggesting such an awful thing. So the question remains: If God was testing Abraham (as it says in the Torah text), did Abraham pass the test? Was God really asking Abraham to slaughter his own son, or did God expect Abraham to speak up and argue about it, like he did in last week's Torah portion about if there were ten righteous people in Sodom & Gomorrah?

About healing in families, there has been a lot of healing in my own family, with my sisters in particular. I can't see DH and his sister ever having a healthy relationship though. And we're at peace with that.

Everyone have a wonderful weekend. Shabbat shalom!

[louise]

I loved the poem as well (don't you love how we went where youtold not to go first?). Sarah did not recover from it. Her death followed son after. Our forefathers were seriously flawed yet here we are. A lesson there as well.
After stained glass today I went to the synagogue to plate the pretzels I had made for a bat mitzvah tomorrow. I leave right from there for a family memorial service 3 hours away. I am staying over.