SHMOOZY NUZ
Events, News, and Shmooz
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Dear Friends,
This week's parsha begins with God leading our ancestors on a “roundabout” path on the way to freedom. Basically, they were made to take the long, circuitous route, as opposed to the more direct path. (If you’ve been going through it lately, and feeling like life could make so much more sense, or be so much easier or happier, if only for this one really obvious but impossible change… you know the feeling.)
Our go-to medieval commentator, Rashi, clarifies that God made the Israelites take the long way around because, if they’d taken the shorter route, it would have been easier for them to go back. In fact, Rashi outright says that “if they had traveled by the direct route, they would have returned to Egypt.” He absolutely was not wrong that they were tempted. Our ancestors’ journey was challenging and fraught, and they would constantly complain that life was better as slaves, literally begging for someone to take them back.
That thinking makes some sense, I suppose, but it is also a bit insulting to feel that our ancestors needed to be so babysat and controlled. Torah scholar Aviva Zornberg adds some nuance to the dynamic that I really appreciate. The picture she paints is of a people that’s going to be going through an existentially dramatic time, regardless of the length of their journey. And with that, here’s what she says:
“Indeed, we might say that God has set aside for them a kind of ‘academic space’ in which, precisely, to do their thinking. For this activity to be innocuous, they need the protection of a vast wilderness, so that acting on their thoughts becomes too complicated to be realistic. Their ‘crooked road’ into the wilderness gives them, paradoxically, a freedom to think, to ask their subversive, sarcastic questions. It gives them, also, the outrageous freedom to ‘zigzag,’ not only geographically, but intellectually, emotionally. The road that is akuma (‘crooked,’ ‘devious’) threads through places of vision and faith and, adjacently, places of doubt and revision.” (Zornberg, The Particulars of Rapture, p. 204).
Space to think. Freedom to ask subversive, sarcastic questions. The outrageous freedom to zigzag physically, intellectually, and emotionally. Vision, faith, doubt, and revision. I almost want to put those on my shopping list, they sound so good right now. And maybe I don’t even need to. Maybe God has given me, you, us, that space and freedom already, along with the challenging and circuitous route, just as God did with our ancestors.
May we enjoy the space, exercise the freedom, and zigzag away. May vision, faith, doubt, and revision always be with us along the jagged way.
Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Hannah
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To learn more about these events (including how to register, which we require for almost all events), please visit our website calendar HERE. Also, we plan to livestream many of our in-person events. Information about how to stream can be found in the event descriptions on our website calendar.
Please note -- We will of course be monitoring the evolving pandemic and making changes to the below events as warranted (e.g., making an in-person or hybrid event fully virtual).
Saturday, January 15th
Shabbat Morning Service & Torah Discussion (on Zoom)
at 10:00 am
Sunday, January 16th
at 10:30 am
Friday, January 21st
Communal Kabbalat Shabbat Service (on Zoom)
at 6:30 pm
Saturday, January 29th
at 6:00 pm
at Reformation (212 E. Capitol St., NE)
Wednesday, February 2nd
at 7:00 pm
Saturday, Feburary 5th
Tot Shabbat (in-person outdoors)
at 9:00 am
Shabbat Morning Service & Torah Discussion (in-person indoors)
at 10:00 am
at Reformation (212 E. Capitol St., NE)
Wednesday, February 9th
at 7:00 pm
Saturday, February 12th
Meditation & Torah Study (on Zoom)
at 8:45 am
Tot Shabbat (in-person outdoors)
at 10:00 am
at Reformation (212 E. Capitol St., NE)
Tuesday, February 15th
"Life After Hate" -- A Discussion and Q&A Session
with Former members of Violent Far-Right Extremist Groups (on Zoom)
at 7:30 pm
For information about upcoming events not run by Hill Havurah that might be of interest to our community, you can click HERE.
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It was fantastic that so many of you ordered our first-ever Tu B'Shevat packages. Thank you!
A big thank you to Adrienne and Ricky Tropp, who spearheaded this project!
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New Annual Chesed Project in Honor of Lenny Braverman, z"l |
A big thanks to all of those who have volunteered to bake -- and to those who have willingly received! As our lives continue to be upended by Omicron and who knows what else, please continue to reach out to Marlene Singer if you'd like to be on either end of the baked goods delivery equation.
And now, feeling the swelling of energy around this effort: We are excited to announce the creation of Hill Havurah's Annual Chesed Project in Honor of Lenny Braverman, Zichrono Livracha. Lenny was a truly beloved Havurah member who passed away earlier this week. He was a beacon of sweetness and positivity, and we want to carry on that legacy of his by engaging in an act of chesed, loving kindness, every January in his honor. If you'd like to be a part of making it happen next year, let Marlene know.
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If you'd like to contribute food, toiletries, and other goods to our neighbors in a convenient way, visit the new Little Free Pantry on the Hill (at 521 7th St., NE).
Rabbi Hannah was part of an interfaith blessing of this new neighborhood landmark recently. Read more here.
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Happy 17th birthday, Bennet Elmendorf!
Happy birthday, Caren Benjamin!
Happy birthday, Alyssa Charney!
Happy 12th birthday, Paul Meyerson!
Happy 7th birthday, Leah Needham!
Happy birthday, Dan Gordon!
Happy 12th birthday, Cora Gelman!
Happy birthday, Eva Epstein!
Happy birthday, Isaac Epstein!
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We do not know of any yahrzeits that are coming up this week.
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ABOUT HILL HAVURAH
Hill Havurah is an independent, Jewish community based on Capitol Hill and serving people from across the Washington metropolitan area. We have a mission to meet and anticipate the spiritual, educational, religious, cultural, and life cycle needs of a growing and evolving Jewish community. Hill Havurah's many activities support our members' interests in advancing Jewish culture, identity, education, and a commitment to community service. A warm, inclusive, and informal spirit is part of what has made Hill Havurah so special for more than two decades.
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Contact Information:
Email: info@hillhavurah.org
Address: 212 East Capitol Street, NE
Washington, DC 20003
Phone: 202-729-3515
Rabbi Hannah Spiro, Rabbi
RabbiHannah@hillhavurah.org
Alan Shusterman, Executive Director
Alan.Shusterman@hillhavurah.org
Melissa Werbow, Education Director
Melissa.Werbow@hillhavurah.org
Sara Carnochan, Interim Gan Shalom Director
Director.GanShalom@hillhavurah.org
Rebecca Freund, B'nai Mitzvah Coordinator
Rebecca.Freund@hillhavurah.org
Liz Woelkers, Operations & Program Assistant
Liz.Woelkers@hillhavurah.org
Amber Ben-Hanania, Operations & Program Assistant
Amber.Ben-Hanania@hillhavurah.org
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