“Unfinished,” Rabbi Elaine Zecher’s Shabbat Awakenings

October 25, 2024 | 23 Tishrei 5785

Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings, a weekly reflection as we move toward Shabbat. This week I offer the words I shared on Yom Kippur. You can listen to it as a podcast here.

To be wrapped in Jewish time is hardly a linear adventure. Just as the earth circles around the sun and, God willing, continues to do so, we circle around the year experiencing again and again the holiday cycle. Traditionally, the purpose of offering the full prayer Shehechyanu thanking God for keeping us alive, sustaining us, and bringing us to whatever moment we are in, is said because we have returned to that moment and are experiencing it anew even though we celebrated, observed, and commemorated it last year.

We are ever in the process of living and reliving. As Rabbi Harold Schulweis taught:

We are Jews of no single festival. We are Jews of the entire calendar. No festival is complete. There is a Passover of the past, but it is prologue to the Passover of the future. There is likewise a Shavuot of the past but also one for the future. The Shavuot of the past celebrates giving of the Torah but leaves open, the reception of the Torah to the future. No festival is over. It is forever unfinished. [And Simchat Torah surely teaches us that the same is true of Torah].

On the day we complete the study of the end of Deuteronomy, we begin the study of Genesis.

With all the movement forward even as we come around again, we now add another experience of commemoration to our holiday cycle. It is that time of ending and beginning that we will continue to acknowledge and process the trauma of the Hamas attack on Simchat Torah last year and all that has ensued. With hostages still in captivity and the lives of so many innocents devastatingly affected, the rejoicing felt bitter. The healing is unfinished and will continue to be so. And yet, under that towering shadow, we cannot let our enemies steal our joy which we did pursue this year by gathering, celebrating, and dancing joyously with the Torah scrolls in our arms. The Torah is a gift which we cherish. Our pursuit of learning from it remains unfinished. And so does our willingness to remember and to mourn.

We will continue to abide by these words from Pirkei Avot (5:22) about our regard for the Torah: Ben Bag Bag said: Turn it over, and [again] turn it over, for all is it. And look into it.

And so, we begin again, again! Though there are no holidays in the Hebrew month of Heshvan with the new moon which also renews through its orbit around the earth, we keep going. With Torah, with holiday celebrations and experiences of memory, with our own lives, we renew, we relive, and we grow in knowledge, wisdom and wonder.

Our Jewish lives are yet unfinished and still unfolding. May they be filled with blessings of sweetness.

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I continue to value the many comments you exchange with me through these Shabbat Awakenings. Share with me what you think here. Your email goes directly to me!

We celebrate Shabbat this week with Qabbalat Shabbat at 6:00 p.m. Register here to join on Zoom. .

On Shabbat morning, we gather at 9:00 a.m. in the library for a short Shabbat service and Torah reading followed by a lively discussion of this week’s Torah portion. All levels and abilities are welcomed. Register here to join on Zoom.

Thank Goodness it’s Shabbat gathers at 10:00 a.m. No registration necessary.

Gather online to say goodbye to Shabbat with a lay-led Havdalah on Zoom at 8:00 p.m.

See Temple Israel’s webpage for Livestream options.

Rabbi Elaine Zecher