This Saturday night, as we honor this beautiful community with our annual gala, we begin the celebration of our 70th anniversary. This number is so significant in our tradition, and while any anniversary is an opportunity to celebrate, this one feels especially important.
The number 70 comes up over and over throughout Tanakh and Rabbinic Literature. It took seven days to complete the creation of the world, and any number multiplied by ten just enhances the significance of its value. Seventy is a number of completeness, of wholeness, of arrival.
It was taught that 70 members of our ancestor Jacob’s family came down to Egypt. This was the moment in the Torah when they shifted from being a group of families to being a nation. They were a full community at that point. They were a tribe, a people. Seventy was the number that allowed them to transition to a new era, a new iteration of who they would be.
And there is also a teaching from the Midrash, offering an idea that there are 70 faces of the Torah. This means that there are endless perspectives, opinions, interpretations. There are endless ways to engage with Torah and to understand Torah. Embracing 70 faces of the Torah means that there are infinite ways to interact with our Tradition and access its beauty.
It’s these ideas together that shed light on so much of what we begin celebrating this weekend. We are a full community, in the offerings that we have and in the way that we care for people in the fullness of their lives. We are a community that is diverse, one that has room for everyone, one that has many different pathways for people to find their way.
There is so much to celebrate. There is so much to embrace. I am so proud of our community and what we accomplish together. I can’t wait to celebrate all that we are - our fullness, our multiple pathways, our connections. The celebration tomorrow night is only the beginning.
