Yesterday, a group of kindergarteners from Bornblum took a field trip to Beth Sholom. They were learning about the letter ‘bet,’ and after learning Hebrew words like ‘bayit’ (house) and ‘balon’ (balloon), they wanted to come see a Beit Knesset. We sat in the sanctuary, and I told them that while we often think of a Beit Knesset as ‘synagogue,’ the translation of the word actually means ‘House of Gathering.’ I told them about the many kinds of gathering that we do in this place, together, as a community - gathering for happy times and sad times, gathering to learn, gathering to pray, gathering to just be together and have a good time.
And as I stood in the middle of the Sanctuary, I looked up at the ceiling, and for the first time, I paid attention to something that I had seen hundreds of times before. In the middle of the ceiling in our sanctuary, the ceiling that is entirely made of wood panels, there is a window, open to the sky, letting bright light into the Sanctuary. I don’t know if it was architecturally intentional, but I couldn’t help but think that perhaps it deliberately echoed Noah’s ark, the story that we read in this week’s Torah portion.
When God tells Noah to build an ark, God says there should be a ‘tzohar.’ Unfortunately, it’s not clear from the context what this word means, and the word doesn’t appear anywhere else in the Bible for us to get a sense. We are left with various commentators' approaches to what the tzohar is, what this element of the ark is that Noah must include. Some say it’s a precious stone. Others say it’s a window. But both sets of commentators argue that regardless of what the tzohar actually is, it emits light into the ark. It allows Noah’s family (and the animals!) to see each other.
This feels like the perfect symbolism for our own sanctuary, for our own sense of gathering and real need to be together. Of course, we have lights that we turn on, but the window in the ceiling, harkening back to Noah’s tzohar, reminds us that it’s not just a place to pray, but the Beit Knesset is a place to gather, to be together, to be uplifted by our people. The Talmud actually teaches that we must pray in a room - whether we are alone or with others - that has at least one window. We have to be able to let the light in to see, and to remind us that we need to see others. We need to be with others.
I was so grateful for this moment with those Kindergartens. It forced me to stop and pause, to look upward to the heavens and see that window. And in looking at it this particular week, it forced me to not just see it as a window, but to see it as a reminder of our true purpose, our true meaning: being a Beit Knesset, a House of Gathering.
Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Sarit
Please click here to join our Shabbat morning service, live-streamed from our sanctuary at 9:15AM on Shabbat morning, or join us in person in the Sanctuary by signing up here.
