Chag, headbands, and...hope?
Today we have a three-for-one: Come for Shavuot Torah, stay for my newly published piece in HeyAlma and some beautiful wisdom on hope from my friend Aron.
All external pieces will be hyperlinked and spelled out in footnotes for accessibility.
In Love at Sinai
You can add up the parts
But you won't have the sum..
Every heart, every heart
To love will come
- Leonard Cohen
This Shavuot, acutely aware of how society regularly desecrates core tenets of the Torah, I am grounding myself in something that underlies the receiving of Torah and its laws and stipulations: love
Love. A word that can be easily diminished, in deed or in rhetoric. A word we might find trite. Yet a word that, when taken seriously, has monumental power to change how we engage with and experience the world. Experiencing love can make us feel held when the world crumbles around us. Sharing love with others helps us tap into our agency. Love can be so much more than a warm, fuzzy feeling.
ועל ידי שנפתחין לבות בני ישראל מכח התורה יכולין אחר כך לקבל הירא והאהבה
Once Israel’s hearts are opened by the power of Torah, they are able to receive awe and love
…
שבני ישראל במעשיהן יוסיפו על התורה שבכתב כי הרי מעשי צדיקים הם תורה
[The Blessed Holy One asks] of Israel that by their deeds they add on to the written Torah, since the deeds of the righteous are Torah.1
In his writings on Shavuot, Hasidic thinker Rabbi Yehudah Leib Alter of Ger taught that receiving Torah opens Israels’ hearts, making them receptive to awe and love, and that righteous deeds we subsequently do add on to the Torah. Torah helps us have the capacity to love, and our actions of hesed, loving-kindness, expand the Torah in return.
Beneath the laws, informing the laws, expounding the laws, an ability to love.
It is easy to say we are not the ones who need to tap into this love, to turn to those undermining the Torah we hold so dear. “If they only loved mothers as much as they loved babies.” “If they only showed children as much love after they were born.” And while I pray and take action to ensure that the secular laws in this country do not infringe upon religious freedom, access to health care, and the safety of schoolchildren, I also notice myself becoming more angry, more scared, less optimistic. It becomes harder to tap into this deep undercurrent of love.
American Buddhist nun Pema Chodron calls on us to keep our hearts open rather than shutting down amidst our suffering. When we look behind our rage and our fear, we can use “loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity” to “[awaken] our courage and love.” When we are scared and angry about current events, we can channel that anger into righteous resistance, but we then have to be careful not to let the fear and anger harden us. Maybe you, like me, are better served by considering how we love, who we love, and in what ways we stay open to receiving love.
I don’t have easy answers. I know there are sometimes no perfect words. Yet I have confidence in what is given in our Torah, in the example of a loving God whose care is mirrored in our communities, in the wisdom echoed in the Buddhist tradition to help us (re)commit to love. This Shavuot, whether you reenact the moment at Sinai by eating cheesecake, studying Torah, or recalling the stories and values that make you who you are, perhaps notice where love might be revealed.
Has the Headband Become a Jewish Symbol?
An investigation of #HeadbandNation, a trend in which Jews wear headbands not purely as fashion accessories, but as Jewish head coverings.
Hot off the presses, my piece in HeyAlma on the symbol of the headband is a great resource for people wondering what makes the headband Jewish and headband devotees alike.2 Please share the piece widely, and let me know your thoughts!
Hope. Yes, hope.
By now, you might know that I firmly believe in hope as an act of resistance. It is not something I take lightly nor for granted. I’ll admit, though, it’s difficult to tap into at times. Much gratitude to my friend Aron for his commentary on last week’s Torah portion,3 which helped re-ground me in the Torah of hope.4 Here’s, er, hoping it sparks something in you as well.
Translation by R’ Art Green, The Language of Truth
https://www.heyalma.com/has-the-headband-become-a-jewish-symbol/
Behar-Bechukotai (one iteration of last week’s parsha) was my bat mitzvah Torah reading, and yes, my party was called “Talia’s Broadway Debut.” Good things come to those who read until the end.
https://hitnodedut.wordpress.com/2022/06/01/bekhukotai-there-is-no-despair/