May 15th, 2020
21 Iyyar 5780
I am a person that relies on stability. I like when things are predictable; I thrive on feeling grounded and rooted. I don’t like surprises very much. A sense of security in the world is such a basic need, and this theme emerges in our Torah reading this week.
In Parshat Behar, we read about the Shemittah and Yovel years, the Sabbatical and Jubilee years that dictate the need to let the land rest. Land returns to its original owners and the farmers plan for this crop cycle in order to not over-burden the land. While that 7th, or 50th year, is very different from the others, it’s expected. There’s a sense of security in the calendar, a predictability of the cycles of time and how everything will function in relation to time. It’s a time that one works towards and expects, marking time.
As a person that loves this groundedness, I find these moments in the year, or even in a decade, as useful markers of time. They ground my experience in a predictable way and provide some sense of comfort as we make our way through life when time could otherwise seem endless. This is what Shabbat does, this is often what our holidays do for me. But this year, as time feels unpredictable, the calendar hasn’t had its same meaning. When I often feel comforted by the passage of time, this spring I’ve felt somewhat betrayed by time. It’s cycles and movement operates in ways unfamiliar and don’t create the same rhythm I’m used to.
In the springtime, I always look forward to graduations. I love seeing pictures of young adults with their hats, I love hearing the stories of people who have persevered and worked hard to finish their well-earned degrees. I love hearing about the next steps of people I care deeply about. This year, I know many of our families are mourning the loss of these graduation celebrations and are feeling tremendous disappointment of not being able to celebrate these great accomplishments. To all of you that are feeling this way, I am with you in this betrayal of time. I feel for you in this unexpected lack of stability. As our calendar and rhythms are uprooted, I also mourn the losses of punctuation that we expect to experience this time of year.
I wish a huge Mazal Tov to all of our graduates and their families. You have put in a tremendous amount of work, and the entire Beth Sholom community is so proud of your accomplishments. We are eagerly excited to see what your next steps are, and we hope that Beth Sholom will always be a spiritual home for you. We’ll be adding some special components into our Hachanah l’Shabbat program tonight for you, and I hope you’ll join us. Please join me in offering congratulations to all of our graduates:
High School:
Max Sabin (from MUS, attending Indiana University)
Isabella Gadberry (from White Station HS, attending University of Mississippi)
Orli Katz (from Lausanne, attending University of Michigan)
Jeffrey Shulkin (from MUS, attending University of Michigan)
Eli Bernstein (from Houston HS, attending University of Memphis)
Abby O’Guin (from White Station HS, attending Tulane University)
College and Graduate:
Nathan Light (University of Memphis, Psychology)
Julia Morrison (Indiana University, Operations Management)
Monali Shaina Lipman (George Washington School of Medicine)
William "Kyle" O'Guin (University of TN, History)
Lauren Schaeffer (Florida State University)
Danielle Schaeffer (University of Georgia)
Zachary Shulkin (University of Michigan, Public Policy)
Karen Schaeffer-Krischer (Tulane Medical School)
Finally, there’s another loss of this particular Shabbat, and that is being in shul to celebrate the Bar Mitzvah of Jacob Attias. Jacob’s Bar Mitzvah was scheduled to be this Shabbat, and he has worked incredibly hard to prepare for this important moment in his Jewish life. We will fully celebrate Jacob’s Bar Mitzvah once we are back in shul, but in the meantime, we offer him a Mazal Tov for all that he has done working towards this day. I hope you will all watch this thoughtful and meaningful d’var Torah that Jacob has prepared for us.
Jacob, I hope you feel the love this Shabbat, and I want you to know that your tutors and teachers have only the most wonderful things to say about you. In fact, we asked them to share thoughts about you with the whole Beth Sholom community. In turn, the community has shared their Mazal Tov messages with you. Until we can be together, I hope you’ll accept this video with their messages as a virtual candy-throwing.
I pray that we soon return to a time where time is predictable, where the flow of life returns to a sense of groundedness. And I pray that we will be together, in person, for many smachot to come.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Sarit
