Transitions

Back home I always knew that Labour Day was around the corner when the nights in August would turn crisp and cool, unlike the hot summer nights of July. September would come, and so would back to school, or back to a packed work schedule (what with the courts or the government no longer being on a summer rhythm). September does feel like the time of a new year, and so it always made sense to me that the Jewish new year- Rosh Hashanah, would fall sometime in the autumn, as we all got our work pistons going.

Transitioning back to life here in Jerusalem after a wonderful sojourn back home in Ottawa (as well as in Montreal and Vermont) I am most struck by the fact that it is still so hot that it does not really feel like the new year is around the corner (I shouldn't complain as come January the winter here in Jerusalem will seem like heaven compared to winter back home!!) Nonetheless, today was our first day of real, full-on school (vs. ulpan), and gearing up to today I have been meditating on what this all means. As suggested in my previous post, the fact that I am actually here in Israel, in the first year of a rabbinical program, has finally hit me. While back in Ottawa I was able to appreciate how lovely a life I have there, which led to all sorts of thoughts regarding what has drawn me here. This past Friday night, sharing Shabbat with colleagues and friends Adam, Alicia, Philip and Alicia and Philip's two snazzy kids, I felt why it is so important for me to be spending this year in Jerusalem. After enjoying a delicious Shabbat meal we made our way down Ushishkin street to a little neighbourhood full of people welcoming Shabbat, kids playing outside, great smells and enchanting lights emanating from houses, and so on, to a little second-floor synagogue for services. The synagogue seated about 40 people, and I would describe it as a sort of progressive almost-Hasidic Carlebach style type of place. There was a mechitzah, or division, dividing the women from the men, though it was only a sheet and of course the children attending the service paid it no mind (a little girl spent a good portion of the service climbing on the rabbi). The rabbi himself was positioned at the front in the middle of the mechitzah, so half of him was on the women's side and half of him was on the man's side. Usually mechitzahs bother me (with what the division connotes), but this was fine in the circumstances. The spirit of the service was wonderful. The women and men prayed and danced and sang aloud, and women led bits of the service. I spent my time out on the porch at the entrance to the synagogue's prayer room, and was warmly greeted by the women there, many of whom were quite pregnant and were caring for multiple children whilst praying. The service spilled out into the courtyard, creating a beautiful flow between the inside and outside. The best part, perhaps, was that we only found this service because Philip had been directed to the yeshiva affiliated with the synagogue, and had been quite impressed with what he had seen there. After the service Philip introduced me to one of the rabbis at the yeshiva. It turned out that it was none other than Rabbi Sholom Brodt, who had been a teacher more than twenty years ago at my elementary school (Solomon Schecter Academy) in Montreal!!

I took from Friday night that this year is to be a year of learning, where I will likely discover things or gain insights in unexpected ways. To do so I must keep my eyes open, and I will know as the year goes by where this year will lead me. I suppose, then, that even though the weather is still hot, I am ready to transition into the autumn and all that the new year will bring.

Sending snazziness,

Dara ;-)

p.s.- As you know federal elections will soon be taking place in both Canada and the United States. These elections will be key, as both main parties in both elections present very different visions of what the respective countries should be. Vote.