A Message from Rabbi Maurice (Mar, 2005)

During the month of March this year, we will traverse some interesting spiritual terrain in the Jewish calendar. I'd like to focus on two themes that are part of the Jewish landscape in the month ahead. The first is defined by the Torah portions we will read in early March, and the second springs out of the holiday of Purim, which begins the evening of March 24th and continues through the 25th.

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Giving Shape to a Community's Future

During the first two Shabbats of March, we will read the last two parashot (sections) of the book of Exodus. The focus for these texts is the portable sanctuary – the mishkan – that the Israelites built to carry with them while they wandered for 40 years in the wilderness. We will read about how this community of wanderers pooled the talents, gifts, and unique skills of its diverse members to construct a sacred space, a vessel through which the people could maintain and deepen their connection to the Divine.

The Torah’s telling of how the Israelites worked together to construct the mishkan has much to teach us about the art of creating sacred space in a community. The timing of our reading from these passages of Torah is excellent this year because in April, you as members of TBI will have a wonderful opportunity to participate in an important act of creating and developing the future vision for TBI. I’m referring to the upcoming parlor meetings.

Invitations are being mailed to every TBI member household, asking you to attend one parlor meeting from a list of 12 scheduled throughout the month of April at various members’ homes. We seek to gather members from every part of the TBI community to take part in these guided, facilitated conversations. The goal is for you to come together and share your visions and core values about Jewish community at TBI. Please sign up for a meeting and take part. Instructions and details are in the invitation.

When our ancestors built their first sacred space together in the wilderness, they did it by offering from their hearts, and they all took part in the project together. This is your chance to join in a key act of community building that will help determine the foundation of core values and vision upon which TBI will develop its future agenda.

Earlier in this article I mentioned Purim! It’s well known that Purim is a time of joy and laughter, a time of costumes, of concealing and revealing, of silliness and revelry, and of pageantry too! Once again, this year, we will read the Scroll of Esther (Megilat Ester) and gather for our annual Purim Shpiel (see the enclosed flyer for more details).

I’d like to draw the community’s attention, however, to a Jewish holiday connected to Purim but often overlooked in the liberal Jewish world, the Fast of Esther (Ta’anit Ester). The Fast of Esther is a dawn to nightfall fast that commemorates Queen Esther’s courage. Living in a palace in which the all-powerful king had established a law that no one may approach him without his summons, or else risk death, Esther chose to break the king’s law and go before him uninvited in order to try to save her people. Before she risked her life, however, she asked the entire Jewish community to fast with her for three days.

Recently, some Jews have drawn new inspiration from the Fast of Esther, taking the day to engage in activities that support other women of courage living, sometimes unrecognized, in our very own neighborhoods. New ritual has grown around the Fast of Esther from feminist Jewish centers. Some Jews choose to give the monetary equivalent of at least a day’s food in tzedakah (charity) to organizations that educate about preventing domestic violence, or to groups that work to protect the rights of girls and women.

One organization that does this work right here in Eugene is Womenspace: Domestic Violence Services. To donate to Womenspace, send a check to: P.O. Box 50127, Eugene, OR 97045. If you decide to make a contribution in honor of the Fast of Esther, please contact the office to let us know, so that we know that sharing this information was useful.

Thank you and Hag Purim Sameach (happy Purim)!
Rabbi Maurice