Yesterday, we had our first day of religious school at Beth Sholom. For the first time in a year and a half, we had children learning, IN our building, with fabulous teachers. The energy filled me in a way I wasn’t expecting, and I felt buoyed by the eagerness of students to be back at shul. Despite masks, despite distancing, despite a long time not having been in the shul, our students fell right back into feeling at home at the Beth Sholom.
I saw in my office and heard as our youngest students moved around the building exploring the sacred objects that add holiness to our tradition. They looked at the Sifrei Torah in the ark and counted the Mezuzot around the building, talking about what’s inside and why we put them on our doorposts. Another group explored the concept of Shabbat, the role that Shabbat can play in our family and our lives, and learned the Lecha Dodi prayer that we use to welcome in the Shabbat bride on Friday nights. I walked past the board room to see another group of students starting their Torah learning with the book of Exodus, imagining what it must have been like to have been slaves in Mitzrayim, and how our lives are so different from theirs. Finally, I walked back to my office and overheard our oldest students exploring different names of God, the different ways we can connect to God, and the ways that we imagine God in our own lives.
I paint this picture for you to gain a small sense of what I felt yesterday, a feeling that while there may be so much that is challenging in our world, locally and abroad, there are moments that lift us up, that give us life. The energy of our students learning again in person was palpable and invigorating. I felt like the physical walls of our shul must have rejoiced, living up to their purpose once again of housing meaningful Jewish experiences.
Throughout the pandemic, as we have so significantly pared down our lives, we’ve had to ask ourselves what really matters. What meaning does something have, and does it have a place in my life? For things that we simply just did, without much thought prior to the pandemic, what value does it actually have in my life? Hearing the sounds of our students learning, hearing their excitement about being in the shul was such an affirming reminder that the role that we play in their lives matters. That our children feel at home at shul is such a tremendous blessing.
Shabbat Shalom Rabbi Sarit
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