Dear TBZ community:
Last weekend we had our TBZ Community Retreat at Craigville Center on the Cape. It was our first retreat in three years, Covid having kept us from gathering these past years. It was wonderful to be back, in this beautiful place, looking out over the ocean and the marshes and though it was cold and a bit rainy, we had a wonderful time.
Over seventy TBZers came, most for the full weekend and some for the day. Our youngest was 9 months old, our oldest was probably in their 70’s. Witnessing once again the power of intergenerational community and relationship was the highlight of the weekend for me. The connections between people of all ages, sitting together during the meals and at kabbalat shabbat (ok, the little ones were running around, not sitting) reminded me of what I mean when I say often, that what we are doing at TBZ is building relevant, meaningful and intentional community.
Two highlights (every year, and this year was no exception):
Friday night, as we gathered later in the evening for games and schmoozing and singing and for the annual Bananagrams and Hedbanz competitions (playing Bananagrams with Cindy-jo and Hedbanz with Rav Claudia are well-known TBZ Retreat traditions) kids, adults, teenagers, long-time members and new members, laughed and talked and connected in ways that were especially precious this year after the last two and a half years of distancing. Each and everyone there was and is part of our community and brings their own gifts to TBZ.
Saturday night, just before Havdalah, as always we had our “Variety show” also known as “No Need of Talent - Talent Show.” Many talented people performed and many of us less talented did too! It was a gathering of the community where little ones and older ones stood in front of the community singing, playing instruments, pretending to be magicians, dancing, and other presentations not so easy to describe on paper. As I watched my own kids and others doing their show, I thought: what a gift, they are so happy to stand before the TBZ community and bring their own selves, fully to it.
Being part of a multi-generational community where we invest in developing relationships between people in different stages of lives is not something we see or experience often enough. Usually, many of us hang out mainly with people in our own cohorts, and of course that is wonderful, but the possibility of bridging between older and younger, single and partnered, empty-nesters and new parents is unique and something that at TBZ we celebrate.
This week we read parshat Emor. This week's Torah reading includes two major themes: first, laws relevant to the priest and second, a detailed discussion of the yearly festival cycle, including the counting of the Omer, which is the seven weeks, forty-nine days that we count in between Pesach and Shavuot.
The verses that command us to count the Omer are found on Leviticus 23 verses 15-16:
וּסְפַרְתֶּם לָכֶם מִמׇּחֳרַת הַשַּׁבָּת מִיּוֹם הֲבִיאֲכֶם אֶת־עֹמֶר הַתְּנוּפָה שֶׁבַע שַׁבָּתוֹת תְּמִימֹת תִּהְיֶינָה
And from the day on which you bring the sheaf of elevation offering—the day after the sabbath—you shall count off seven weeks. They must be complete
עַד מִמחֳרַת הַשַּׁבָּת הַשְּׁבִיעִת תִּסְפְּרוּ חֲמִשִּׁים יוֹם וְהִקְרַבְתֶּם מִנְחָה חֲדָשָׁה לַיהֹוָה you must count until the day after the seventh week—fifty days; then you shall bring an offering of new grain to Adonai
In the Babylonian Talmud, in the Tractate of Menchaot (66a) we read about the debate if one must count individual days or weekly units.
אמר אביי מצוה למימני יומי ומצוה למימני שבועי
רבנן דבי רב אשי מנו יומי ומנו שבועי
אמימר מני יומי ולא מני שבועי
Abaye said: It is a mitzvah to count days, and it is also a mitzvah to count weeks.
The Sages of the study hall of Rav Ashi counted days and they also counted weeks.
Ameimar counted days but not weeks..
Our practice is the one of counting days and weeks. We count seven days, that is one week, or as we will count tonight, 28 days, which is four weeks.
The practice of counting can be profound. Usually we focus, perhaps without intention, on minutes, hours, days and weeks. When we intentionally count the days and the weeks between Pesach and Shavuot, time can become transformative and meaningful. This practice teaches us that we may count each day, each week, each year, each moment of our lives as a moment of potential and possibility.
This last weekend, I was so moved by the experience of our community that I thought about the fact that each and every one of us counts: those of us who have counted to 9 months of life, like baby Aaron, and those who have counted up to eighty years of life and more. Each of us counts, each of the days of our life count, and each of our experiences count. As each day makes a week and seven weeks make the Omer, each individual makes our Community. But even more importantly, we bring ourselves together, each individual counts toward the community’s wholeness and creates an even more powerful meaning to our counting: I count on you and you count on me and we count on our community who supports us in moments of sadness and celebrates with us in moments of joy.
I feel beyond blessed to be part of the TBZ community, an intentional multi-generational community that counts each and everyone of its members and each and everyone is part of it.
(and if you want to see some pictures from this past weekend Visit our SmugMug site (password: ShalomTBZ) for great photos from the weekend)
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.
May we have a joyful, sweet, and peaceful Shabbat.
Shabbat Shalom שבת שלום
