This morning, I find myself feeling the uncertainty particular to inhabiting a liminal space. As the votes are still being counted - as they should be - we wait. I’ve always thought that waiting for an outcome, waiting for something to be certain, is the hardest. Even if I knew the possibility of an outcome might be challenging, being in limbo is especially hard. Liminal spaces are the ones in-between. We wait for a sense of knowing, and often anxiety and unrest accompany us as we stand in the space before the knowing.
The liminal space of waiting is like a doorway, demarcating what we are leaving and where we are entering. And for many, we have to figure out how to make our way through this doorway. How will we get through feeling a sense of wholeness and calm? How will we get through without unbearable, nail-biting anxiety? That doorway is not just these four, long days. That doorway is the liminal space towards healing our country and greater unity amongst our people.
I am reminded that on every doorpost we place a mezuzah. Mezuzot are always, and only, put on liminal spaces, marking the space in between. Mezuzot hang in liminal spaces, perpetually, as we pass through, coming and going, in order to bless us on that path. Blessing us as we find ourselves in-between. In those doorway moments, the in-between spaces, there is often fear, anxiety, hope, and deep intention. It’s hard to hold presence. So we look for blessing, and we place it on the side of that doorway, accompanying us in that space.
Inside of the mezuzah are the words of Shema and Ve’Ahavta, the words we use to declare our loving relationship with God. In these liminal spaces, we try to find blessing that will ground us in God’s love as we make our way through.
That’s the prayer I have today. That wherever we are, whatever we’re feeling, however long we’re waiting, we are able to feel a sense of blessing, that we are accompanied by God’s presence as we are in-between.
Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Sarit
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