A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to The Temple

In 586 BCE the Holy Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed and a large part of the Jewish community living in Eretz Israel was exiled to Babylonia. Normally, when a people is exiled to a foreign land, they get absorbed into society and disappear. Not so with us. If anything, Babylonian exile, and Roman exile in 70CE, were responsible for a transformation and strengthening of Jewish learning, practice, observance and identity.

We no longer had a central place for sacrificial offerings, and without them, the kohanim and leviim no longer had jobs. We couldn’t observe the pilgrimage festivals of Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot the way we had been, and without the High Priest and the Yom Kippur ritual, how would we make atonement for our sins?

We are a resilient people, and because of our commitment to Jewish peoplehood, we figured out how to stay Jewish during very difficult times–we adapted. Our kitchen tables because the new altars, and instead of taking a sacrifice to the priest, we ate a Shabbat or festival meal with our family and friends. We learned how to do things for ourselves: Remember and observe Shabbat? Candles and wine! And a nice dinner with singing and schmoozing. Instead of the temidim, the regular/daily offerings, we instituted personal and communal prayer.

In essence, we democratized Jewish observance and ritual and empowered the community. The home became the focus of observance and celebration, and people learned how to “do Jewish” themselves, rather than assuming that a class of priests would do it for them.

We need to reclaim DIY Judaism. We can create somewhat of a sense of community on Zoom and other online platforms, but given how much time so many of us are spending at home, creating a makom kadosh, a “holy space” in our homes and in our lives can help keep us connected to our Judaism, and to others as well.

Make no mistake, the destruction of our two Holy Temples–major tragic events in our history, is mourned each year on Tisha B’Av, the 9th Day of Av, with fasting, prayer and lamentation. But as that day wears on, our prayers take on a more hopeful note, and remind ourselves that we–Jews–are still here.

My job as a rabbi is to help empower you to live your Judaism in ways that are meaningful to you–to empower you to pray on your own, to learn how to make Shabbat special, to draw closer to God and community. Let’s take this journey together.

 

2 Comments
  1. Carole Leskin

    Looking forward to talking to you.

    Reply
    • SusanSchwam

      you too!

      Reply

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest Sermons

Hukkat: Our Flowing Wells
Hukkat: Our Flowing Wells

In this week’s Torah portion, Hukat, we begin by learning about the red heifer, whose ashes would be mixed with water and sprinkled on a person who had been made ritually impure by reason of a corpse, in order to purify them. It’s good information, because as soon as...

Moses & Yitro At The Mountain
Moses & Yitro At The Mountain

Yitro, this week’s Torah reading, is famous for containing the Aseret haDibrot, commonly translated as “The Ten Commandments.” There’s no question that a law code is necessary for a community to be cohesive, to have a set of principles to guide them, and to create a...

Chayeh Sarah-What We Learn From Abraham
Chayeh Sarah-What We Learn From Abraham

Va y’hihu chayay Sarah may-ah shanah v’esrim shanah v’sheva shanah shnay chayay Sarah And the years of Sarah’s life were 100 years and twenty years and 7 years, the years of Sarah’s life. This week’s Torah reading is Chaye Sarah, the life of Sarah. However, it begins...

Latest Midrash HaZak

Chukat: The Red Heifer and Our Stuff, Rabbi Andra Greenwald
Chukat: The Red Heifer and Our Stuff, Rabbi Andra Greenwald

Photo Credit: Rennett Stowe on Flickr Chukat: The Red Heifer and Our Stuff Rabbi Andra Greenwald Is it sacrilegious to feel that some pieces of the Torah just don’t make sense? In parshat Chukat, the Law of the Red Heifer presents us with one of the statutes for which...

Devarim: The Power of Retelling, Rabbi Jane Rachel Litman
Devarim: The Power of Retelling, Rabbi Jane Rachel Litman

Image from Medfield, MA public library, wallaceshealy-com-OPvCP3-clipart The Power of Retelling Rabbi Jane Rachel Litman A few weeks ago, I was invited to speak to a university class about being one of the first generation of women and queer rabbis. At these kinds of...

Mattot: What Words Can Create, Ilene Winn-Lederer
Mattot: What Words Can Create, Ilene Winn-Lederer

Illustration ©2009-Ilene Winn-Lederer Mattot: What Words Can Create Ilene Winn-Lederer Although I grew up with a strong Jewish identity, I did not experience a traditional Jewish education and came to Torah in my late teens through influential involvement with a...

Latest Personal Blogs

Blessing My Bended Knees-A Poem
Blessing My Bended Knees-A Poem

This past week, I participated in a Ritualwell class with Alden Solovy on "Writing From One Word of Torah." I distilled 3 stream-of-consciousness prompts on the word "Baruch/Berekh," the root of which can mean "blessing' and "knee, into this poem. Blessing my bended...

The Eshet Hayil In Our Lives
The Eshet Hayil In Our Lives

Photo: publicdomainpictures.net The Eshet Hayil In Our Lives An email from My Jewish Learning about “A Woman of Valor” prompted me to pivot the next evening’s planned adult learning session to looking at these 22 verses from Mishlei, the Book of Proverbs. These verses...

Live Long and Prosper?
Live Long and Prosper?

By Oklahoma Heritage Association, Gaylord-Pickens Museum - Author, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25656727 Live Long and Prosper? January 5, 2022 began the third year of the seven and a half-year cycle of Daf Yomi, the practice of...

Pin It on Pinterest