Rabbi Megan’s Dvar Torah at our Kick off Shabbat
Today you are witnessing the birth of a new prayer community. While this is the 4th “pre launch event for the collective” and many of us have sung and prayed together in other configurations, tonight we gather to bring the third friday musical kabbalat shabbat service and potluck into being.
My deepest prayer is that we gather, likely in a larger space, though I am so grateful to the rotenbergs for hosting us, for many months and years to come, That strangers in this room become like family to each other, that these tunes become part of your soul, that we transform each other, and ourselves and this neighborhood.
I told this prayer circle last night that this is the scariest thing I have ever done in my professional life- perhaps second only to coming out in my personal life.
I am declaring before all of you- I believe I have something to offer, that a need of this community meets my capabilities and my deepest desires- to build community and to serve as a rabbi to that community. And I cannot do it by myself- I am going to need all of you, and many people not in this room (most notably my wife who is away this weekend teaching Jewish teens about feminism)- and many people I have not yet met.
As our social media, lovingly cultivated by Lauren Zalut has told us this month, our core values here at the Collective are mutual aid and supporting one another in an intergenerational community of belonging and care, creating accessible Jewish spaces, especially ones that are welcoming and affirming for interfaith families and couples, we will sing and pray together, and we everything we do will be locally rooted and homey, in actual homes whenever possible
This week’s Torah portion, Lech Lecha, has at its heart the Brit, the covenant, between Abraham and God that becomes the cornerstone of Judaism. Abraham promises to serve God, to follow God, to argue with God, to stand up for what he believes in, to welcome strangers and friends into his tent. He can say yes to this because Sarah, his life partner, is 100% part of the work he commits to. And in return God promises blessing, legacy, and an everlasting relationship.
I chose to become a rabbi, rather than pursuing a career as a psychologist, because at some point I realized that Judaism held the wisdom, the rituals, the celebrations, the questioning and the commitment to bring meaning and purpose to the messiness of life. I realized I didn’t need to be a therapist, sitting with solid permanent boundaries from the people I was trying to support. I had the tools I needed in Judaism, and I could utilize these tools while in deep relationship with the people I cared for, to make people’s lives better, more connected, less alone. At the center of these tools is covenant, obligation- the sense that we owe each other something. My mom used to sing many songs to me before I went to sleep- one of them was
No man is an island,
No man stands alone,
Each man’s joy is joy to me,
Each man’s grief is my own.
We need one another,
So I will defend,
Each man as my brother,
Each man as my friend.
This is a covenant- we need one another, man, woman, non binary human. This commitment of care is the cornerstone of the Collective we are building. The Jewish covenant is not just with God, it is with humanity, and in our community it is hyper local.
I have had the blessing of serving as a rabbi for the past almost 13 years. But it has always been for folks outside of my own family’s direct community, college students and then young adults. My dream is that you will allow me to be a rabbi to you, and you will allow us to take care of each other, supporting each other, celebrating together, in prayer and song, on holidays, in moments of loss and moments of blessing.
But right now, it is enough to just be here together. And because I am my mothers daughter- I will ask you to mark this moment with me with a shehecheyanu:
Hebrew Text:
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה, יְיָ אֱלֹהֵינוּ, מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, שֶׁהֶחֱיָנוּ וְקִיְּמָנוּ וְהִגִּיעָנוּ לַזְּמַן הַזֶּה.
Transliteration:
Baruch atah, Adonai Eloheinu, Melech haolam, shehecheyanu, v'kiy'manu, v'higiyanu laz'man hazeh.
Translation:
Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of all, who has kept us alive, sustained us, and brought us to this season.
