We have been going through it nonstop since 10/7.
These past few weeks alone—from Operation Midnight Hammer to the NY mayoral race and more. While our friends & family hid in bomb shelters overseas—loved ones whose humanity we keep shouting for—we’d barely processed the murders and attempted murders that happened here in DC and Colorado and so forth. We still have hostages in Gaza. Who can keep up?
But a few nights ago, I got to meet in person for the first time with my weekly online Torah study group from NYC. And it was pure joy.
Every Monday this past year, our class read and analyzed the weekly parsha from a post 10/7 lens, and while doing so, we all became Jewish again: building community, making meaning, listening and learning from multiple points of view. I want to add that Tehilah, our gifted facilitator, also works on the interfaith front, building bridges between Jews and others.
We arrived wounded and isolated and full of grief. And while we still carry challenging feelings, we now have joy and meaning and community to help us through.
My friends, I am going to say this now because I am still your convert in progress. (The mikveh awaits.) I am speaking from a liminal space that allows me to share a perspective of arrival that I hope might encourage some of you to return.
We are living in a world marked by toxic polarization where people remain isolated in their silos. It is lonely. It is chaos. An era of projection and hate.
Jewish tradition offers the antidote to this. It embraces debate and diversity.
I’m not so naive to think that every Jewish space is free from corruption and darkness. That is the human condition. The Torah itself reveals the complexity of what it means to live in both light & darkness, both within and at large.
We are not without our ills, but we have a way through them together.
We return. Over and over again through literal millennia. We rupture and repair. We challenge. We endure. We laugh and we love.
While we are running for our lives, we forge a path for everyone. We lead the way forward AT THE SAME TIME we are being chased.
We are a living miracle.
xoxo Jen xoxo
“We are living in a world marked by toxic polarization where people remain isolated in their silos. It is lonely. It is chaos. An era of projection and hate.
Jewish tradition offers the antidote to this. It embraces debate and diversity.
I’m not so naive to think that every Jewish space is free from corruption and darkness. That is the human condition. The Torah itself reveals the complexity of what it means to live in both light & darkness, both within and at large.
We are not without our ills, but we have a way through them together.
We return. Over and over again through literal millennia. We rupture and repair. We challenge. We endure. We laugh and we love.”
——And by doing so, there is a radiance of hope.
Wishing you a filling life of Torah and Yiddishkeit!