Dear TBZ community:
This past week I have been able to do things that I have not done or been part of in more than 15 months!
Rav Tiferet and I were honored to be part of a conversion at Mayyim Hayyim.
I went to my work-out studio.
I got a manicure (orange of course!).
(and a few more things).
And, in the midst of all that good, I also joined daily on Zoom the shiva minyan for my sister’s mother-in law, Susy Avayu, z.l., in Chile who died from Covid last Shabbat.
The juxtaposition of these experiences, the sadness of loss and the joy of renewal, made me ponder how do we enter this new phase of Covid? How do we integrate the experiences of this past year with, what we hope will be at least in our corner of the world, the beginning of post-pandemic life.
In this week's parashiot Behar-Bechukotai we read a verse in the context of the blessings we will receive from God, if we follow God’s commandments.
The Torah says in Leviticus 26:10
וַאֲכַלְתֶּ֥ם יָשָׁ֖ן נוֹשָׁ֑ן וְיָשָׁ֕ן מִפְּנֵ֥י חָדָ֖שׁ תּוֹצִֽיאוּ
You shall eat old grain long stored,
and you shall have to clear out the old to make room for the new.
The meaning of this is that you will have so much bounty, that you won’t have enough room for all that you have stored plus all of the new harvest. A kind of “out with the old, in with the new” statement.
But the Italian Biblical Commentator Sforno explains this in a way that can inspire us in this moment of transition:
“You shall eat from stores long kept.”
Seeing that you will have been blessed with abundant crops, so that at the end of the harvesting season you still have surpluses from the previous harvests, they will become mixed, and during each year you will eat from the proceeds of two harvests.
We can read this interpretation and bring it into this moment, this very week -- mixing the previous and the new harvest as an opportunity to create the new normal.
The collective trauma of Covid 19 teaches us that as a society and as individuals we carry the pain, the hurt, the trauma, the lessons learned and the new discoveries of our own life, the positive and the less positive, forward. That is our road ahead. That is our new harvest.
We will mix last year’s loss, pain, uncertainty, fear, loneliness with a new harvest, of gratitude and friendship, of new learnings about ourselves and our communities and we will be nourished and have a harvest of abundance.
As my brother in law, Jose Alazraki and my sister Marcela Kreiman and their family are about to finish their shiva today just a few minutes before shabbat, I dedicate this Torah and learning to the memory of Jose’s mother, Susana Avayu Guiloff z.l, Shoshana bat Yosef, who loved Torah and Judaism and instilled a love of Torah & Mitzvot to her family. May her memory be a blessing.
May this Shabbat bring renewal and blessings to all of you and your loved ones.
May we find strength, courage, and patience, and open our hearts with generosity.
May all those who are ill find healing of spirit
May we have a joyful and restful Shabbat!
Shabbat Shalom
