Shavuot 5784
Next month, the Jewish people will celebrate the holiday of Shavuot. Shavuot is the holiday where we commemorate the giving of Torahat mount Sinai, that seminal moment when we became a nation with a shared future, the covenant that made us a people. Love it, hate it, live it, leave it, the Torah is ours. Engrained in our collective experience for thousands of years.
There is a tradition that when we stood together at Sinai, each letter of the Torah corresponded to a human being receiving the Torah. That is to say, every Jewish soul represents a letter – one letter – in the Torah.
When I think about that metaphor, I imagine each letter – each soul – finding it’s place. From a jumble with potential but no meaning, to a profound, interconnected story. Each person, each soul, finds the place that makes it most meaningful, it’s place among the Jewish people.
As we approach Shavuot, the question seems particularly acute this year – where is my place? How can I most meaningfully contribute to Am Israel?
Right now we all have a part to play – a contribution to make. What letter from our collective covenant is in your soul to share? To find meaning together with the other souls you touch?
Some of us have felt a renewed commitment to our Jewish selves. Taken on a new Jewish practice, or made the hard choice to leave spaces and relationships that once felt comfortable but now demand a sacrifice of your Jewishness as the price of admission.
Some of us have decided to fight. Our brave brothers and sisters in the IDF. Our Jewish family in leadership roles around the world who stand up for our right to peoplehood and safety. The young generation who have decided to speak up against the anti-Jewish hate on their campuses and in their friend groups, despite the high social cost.
Some of us have decided to volunteer. Since October 7th, Am Israel has engaged in volunteer work and community building at an historic scale. In Israel, grassroots work has fed, clothed, relocated, housed, and provided medical care to an estimated 250,000 displaced Israelis. Jews around the world have donated over $1.4 billion to our Israeli family. Jews from all walks of life have given their time, treasure, and talent to Jewish community organizing, and walked away from long careers outside the Jewish community to dedicate themselves to Am Israel.
I am reminded of the phrase from scripture, “the stone the builders rejected has become the corner stone.2” Many of us felt our Jewish identity to be a part of our selves that didn’t drive our decisionmaking or identity in a core way. After the devastation of October 7, we turned around to find this piece was essential. How do we build a future around it?
Some part of us all was wounded on October 7, and as the war continues and more precious lives are lost, we are not whole. With the captives still in Gaza, we are not whole. Those letters are missing from our shared story. What are we going to do about it? How do we make meaning in this moment?
This Shavout, my hope is that we may all reveal the letter – themeaning - unique in each of our souls. May we all find our place in our shared story. This moment in history calls every last one of us, each for our own unique contribution. A Torah scroll is pasul – ritually unusable, if even a single letter is missing or damaged. How will you build the future of the Jewish people this year? Let’s find out together.