Jewish Musings, Wednesday, April 10

[louise]

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!

[louise]

Tuesday was an exhausting day for me. I drove back from Rochester with a friend – with our various stops the trip took about 8 hours from door to door, after which I went directly to the synagogue to hear a guest speaker which was followed by a board meeting and now my preparing for our discussion and a production meeting. It’s not a matter of “poor me” – on the contrary the time has been very satisfying - but rather a matter of my head spinning, especially because the guest speaker was a congregant’s relative visiting from Israel – a young man who attended the Nova concert October 7 and is finally able to share his story. "Oh my!" doesn’t cover it.

I thought I would share this paragraph from some post-October pre-pesach writings my rabbi has told us about:

I am at the Seder but my heart is in October

“Centuries ago the Spanish Jewish poet Yehudi Halevi expressed both his sense of distance from, and connection to, the land of his ancestors: My heart is in the East, and I am in the furthermost West.” Many of us feel similarly today, in terms of both space and time. Months have passed, but for many Jews around the world, the traumatic events of October 7 feel ever present – and in Israel this sense is even more acute. Many of us in the diaspora feel the emotional connection to Israel, as well as the physical distance, as much as ever. We are here, but our hearts are there. And we are at the seder, but our hearts are still in “shivah b’October” – which can mean both “the 7th of October” and “the shiva of October.”

I know you have been through all of the emotions pulls over and over again. I’m looking now I guess for ways to incorporate the experience of October (and the war) into where we are now as we go into a celebration of our freedom. It’s certainly sets up a good deal of cognitive tension! It has always been our way both with this particular holiday and whenever we study torah to look for threads that help us weave our past an our present together. Happy to hear how you might want to expand on these ideas.

[lee058]

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

Re today's topic: What is hurting me is how so many people and nations are turning against Israel. It is constantly on my mind. The news is so bad that I can barely read/see it, but I feel that I must face it.

As for dealing with the negativity, the only thing I can recommend is to remind ourselves that we have lived through this sort of thing before, and are still free. Am Yisroel Chai!!

Have a peaceful day, Lee

[hollygail]

I mentioned that I attended the annual "day of learning" on Sunday, and that the second session I attended was presented by an Israeli who lost several (not close) relatives. I accepted the responsibility of wearing a pin (it's more like a tie tack) of a yellow ribbon, as in "bring home the hostages." I've been wearing it every day (okay, I got it on Sunday and I wore it Monday and Tuesday, and plan to wear it today; to be clear, I'm sitting here in my pj's before I shower, dress, make and eat breakfast and go to weekday morning minyan). Yes, October 7 changed me and my outlook on life. It's with me all the time. It's been six months and there are still more than 130 hostages not accounted for. I have no answers. And I'm leading two sedarim and have no idea what I'm going to do. For the first night, I know all the people and will be open and honest about as many aspects of 10/7 and its effects as I can, but my DS invited someone she plays bridge with who is a very conservative Republican and I feel like I may need to be on my best behavior (which is sssooooooo not who I am) while at the same time being myself, which means including at least mentions of the current situation regarding 10/7 and its aftermath... Oy!

[gazelle18]

This is one of those years that I’m glad to be among relatives/friends at Seder with whom I agree politically. Whew!
As Lee mentions, the world has turned against Israel (once again), but that often seems to have the opposite effect of causing Jews to be even more Jewish. So one way I’ll honor and mark 10/7 at seder this year is to be even prouder of our traditions.

[peachymom1]

For the first seder, we will be hosted by a family with two toddlers, so we will not be talking politics, thank God. The second seder will be hosted by our bffs, and I'm pretty sure it will feel safe to say how we feel and help each other.

We had a special speaker from Israel at our shul last Shabbat, and he spoke movingly and thoughtfully. But one sentence he said lodged straight into my brain: "We will survive." That one simple line gave me heart. He wasn't dismissing anything or making light of anything - he was just convinced that even through all the worst the world has for us, we will make it.

I am so proud to be Jewish.