The week of parashat Vayak’hel began with Kadima’s Community Meeting during which much was shared, answered for, and proposed. It was a communal act of recommunitization after rupture, and so so many responded with generosity, curiosity, and persistence. And this season in the Torah reading is brimming with a reflection of such action with the Israelites working to build sanctuary for the divine presence in their midst.
The very name of this week’s parasha implies the act of recommunitization. Vayak’hel literally means “and he [Moses] communitied.” This verb form of the Hebrew word for community kehillah (also kahal) is the act Moses needed to do to help transition the Israelites from the rupture of the Golden Calf to the communal project of building the mishkan – the structure for the divine presence to dwell among the people.
That we read these parashiyot back to back is of significance and of perhaps great resonance in this time for Kadima and for any community or group seeking to find community again after faltering. In fact one of Judaism’s most powerful gifts to the world, in my rabbinic opinion, is our focus on and structures for repair and restitution.
And Moses does not do this work behind the scenes. He does so by addressing the entire “witness” of the Israelites – kol eidat b’nai yisrael – everyone together. No one was left out of this attempt at bringing the people back toward one another – making them whole again. And Kadima’s meeting this past Sunday was similarly open to all in our community, recorded, and being shared out.
As we continue the work of return to one another, may the torah readings and more offer resilience and comfort, instruction and resolve. And may the generosity, skill, and beauty that went into creating the mishkan be a model for how we can show up in this season as well, as it says “and the efforts had been more than enough for all the tasks to be done.” May it be so.
Shabbat shalom,
R’ David
PS – join us on site or on zoom for a Shabbat Morning Service where we will read from the parasha and bless a new Kadima baby and an upcoming Kadima wedding! Details on our online calendar.
_______
Responding to the Synagogue Attack in Michigan
The attack on a synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan reminds us at Kadima of countless attacks on sanctuaries and places of worship around the globe. From Christchurch to Hebron, from Pittsburgh to Poway, from Charleston to Birmingham, and so so many more. And the targeting of Jews in particular is misinformed, wrong, and dangerous – especially now when heightened confusion and disinformation run deep about who to blame for war with Iran and for genocide in Gaza. Let us all hold out, as Kadima has for generations, that Judaism ≠ Zionism, Jewish ≠ Zionist, Temple Israel ≠ State of Israel. That no people are a monolith, that attacking people for their identity is a desecration, that violence cannot end violence, that places of worship are sanctuaries, that no group is to be blamed for the actions of one, that children are not to be targeted, that we can hold and love and support one another across manufactured divides. That our sadness and our anger is righteous, and that our love and compassion can be overpowering. May there be clarity in our resolve, peace and healing for those targeted and their families, and, in the words of the prophet Amos: may restoration roll down like waters, and justice like a mighty stream.
The very name of this week’s parasha implies the act of recommunitization. Vayak’hel literally means “and he [Moses] communitied.” This verb form of the Hebrew word for community kehillah (also kahal) is the act Moses needed to do to help transition the Israelites from the rupture of the Golden Calf to the communal project of building the mishkan – the structure for the divine presence to dwell among the people.
That we read these parashiyot back to back is of significance and of perhaps great resonance in this time for Kadima and for any community or group seeking to find community again after faltering. In fact one of Judaism’s most powerful gifts to the world, in my rabbinic opinion, is our focus on and structures for repair and restitution.
And Moses does not do this work behind the scenes. He does so by addressing the entire “witness” of the Israelites – kol eidat b’nai yisrael – everyone together. No one was left out of this attempt at bringing the people back toward one another – making them whole again. And Kadima’s meeting this past Sunday was similarly open to all in our community, recorded, and being shared out.
As we continue the work of return to one another, may the torah readings and more offer resilience and comfort, instruction and resolve. And may the generosity, skill, and beauty that went into creating the mishkan be a model for how we can show up in this season as well, as it says “and the efforts had been more than enough for all the tasks to be done.” May it be so.
Shabbat shalom,
R’ David
PS – join us on site or on zoom for a Shabbat Morning Service where we will read from the parasha and bless a new Kadima baby and an upcoming Kadima wedding! Details on our online calendar.
_______
Responding to the Synagogue Attack in Michigan
The attack on a synagogue in West Bloomfield, Michigan reminds us at Kadima of countless attacks on sanctuaries and places of worship around the globe. From Christchurch to Hebron, from Pittsburgh to Poway, from Charleston to Birmingham, and so so many more. And the targeting of Jews in particular is misinformed, wrong, and dangerous – especially now when heightened confusion and disinformation run deep about who to blame for war with Iran and for genocide in Gaza. Let us all hold out, as Kadima has for generations, that Judaism ≠ Zionism, Jewish ≠ Zionist, Temple Israel ≠ State of Israel. That no people are a monolith, that attacking people for their identity is a desecration, that violence cannot end violence, that places of worship are sanctuaries, that no group is to be blamed for the actions of one, that children are not to be targeted, that we can hold and love and support one another across manufactured divides. That our sadness and our anger is righteous, and that our love and compassion can be overpowering. May there be clarity in our resolve, peace and healing for those targeted and their families, and, in the words of the prophet Amos: may restoration roll down like waters, and justice like a mighty stream.
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