When I began writing these Friday missives eight years ago, I don’t think I knew what they would become. I would sit down to write to you (in the early years, on Wednesday or Thursday; in these last few years, most certainly on Friday mornings), sharing a piece of Torah, something from my week, something that had impacted the Jewish world, or something I felt was important for us to think about as a community.
And an unexpected thing happened. You wrote back to me.
I developed relationships with so many of you because of these Friday messages. They became a way to connect with so many of you, many of whom I didn’t get to see as often in person. I sometimes wondered if I was setting myself up for too much by committing to write Toward Shabbat each week. And there were weeks when I truly didn’t know what to say. But still, each week I wrote, because it gave me a way to stay connected to you. And inevitably, each week, you responded. You engaged with me and my ideas, and you created your own and shared them in return.
I didn’t fully know what I was doing when I sat down to write that very first message, and I certainly didn’t expect that writing to you would become one of the most meaningful and steady spiritual practices of my rabbinate. What I have learned again and again is that it is not really about the words themselves. It is about the way they bring us into relationship. The way they draw us closer to each other, and to something greater than all of us.
So I write this final, bittersweet Toward Shabbat message to you with tears in my eyes. And undeniably, my overwhelming emotion is one of gratitude. Thank you for reading. Thank you for accepting my Torah. Thank you for your responses and your engagement, for sharing something of your life with me when my words resonated, and for pushing me to sharpen my own ideas when they did not. More than anything, I just feel lucky. Lucky that you read these words week after week. Lucky that you let me into your inbox, into your Shabbat preparations, into your hearts. That you let me be your rabbi.
As I write this final Toward Shabbat, I carry with me the Torah we have learned together, the questions we have wrestled with, and the love and care you have shown me through your replies, your stories, your trust. I hope that in some small way, these messages helped you feel a little more grounded, a little more connected, a little more ready for Shabbat.
And while this is the last Toward Shabbat I will send you as your rabbi, I hope it is not the last Shabbat when you take a few minutes to pause, to reflect, to reach for Torah, and perhaps to write back to someone else or even to yourself. Thank you for letting me be part of your sacred week, all these weeks. Thank you for the gift of being your rabbi.
With endless gratitude, and with abundant love, Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Sarit
