As the holiest days of the Jewish calendar approach during the most difficult year it has been to be a Jew in my lifetime, I’m thinking about community and how I find joy and spirituality.
I connect through song — connect to myself, to my past, to my history, to my future, to my children, to my grandparents, to the words on the page, to the stories the words tell, to the prayers, to tradition, to the diaspora, to IsraelLit. ''the one who struggles with God.'' Israel means many things. It is first used with reference to Jacob, whose name is changed to Israel (Genesis 32:29), the one who struggles with God. Jacob's children, the Jewish people, become B'nai Israel, the children of Israel. The name also refers to the land of Israel and the State of Israel..
And most importantly — I connect to the people in the room. I connect THROUGH the people in the room. Our song and prayer resonate and vibrate through each other, through our voices and breath, through our bones, through the machzorim we thump, through our hands as we clap.
We sing and chant our gratitude and ruachLit. Spirit. Some new versions of blessings call God "Spirit of the World" (Ruakh Ha’olam), rather than "King of the World" (Melekh Ha'olam)., pain and separation, hope and fear. And the best part is our differences don’t matter in those moments. There is no division — only connection.
Especially on Yom KippurThe holiest day of the Jewish year and the culmination of a season of self-reflection. Jews fast, abstain from other worldly pleasures, and gather in prayers that last throughout the day. Following Ne'ilah, the final prayers, during which Jews envision the Gates of Repentance closing, the shofar is sounded in one long blast to conclude the holy day. It is customary to begin building one's sukkah as soon as the day ends. — we are singing for our lives in community. We are vibrating, resonating together our entreaties of gratitude of blessings, of hope, of regret, releasing what doesn’t serve us from the year that’s ending. Opening the gates to a year of possibilities and being better — ourselves and the world.
It’s what’s so special about doing it in community — we are not alone. We are active participants — not passive observers or witnesses watching someone do it for us or on our behalf. It’s not a performance — our participation is essential.
We can’t do it alone. That’s why it’s a gift.
