Rabbi Lynn Greenhough

Details, details, details – such is the stuff of life and certainly of Torah. We seemingly spend acres of ink – and time – to parse out what all these details signify, both in meaning and practice. I spoke on Shabbat about Torah being the social media of its day – where we learned together about our responsibilities as a people who said yes to the mitzvot and to God. We had much to learn, then and now, and the conversations continue.

The learning we engage in about how to best have a good life are a constant. How many conversations do we even have at home about housework? Who is responsible for what, when, and how? How do we handle our finances – separate accounts, joint accounts, pre-nups, savings, budgets? Who is cooking and who is shopping – and who is cleaning? Torah, the mitzvot ask another level of engagement and learning, for us as Jews: How do we navigate Jewish observance – or not – in our respective households?

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Although I am not a lawyer, Mishpatim will always be a favourite and memorable Torah reading for me. This was the parashah of my conversion, my birth-day, if you will, and I hold each specific memory of that time in 1992 as a jewel in my mind.

Judaism is not anarchist by nature; our halachah recognizes our human tendency to chaos and reinforces at every turn order and stability, reliability and recognition, even as it is circumstantially pliable. I am certainly honoured to serve as rabbi of Kolot Mayim, but I am utterly honoured to be counted as a Jew. Thank you to all for your continued welcome.

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Over these past few days I have had a chance to catch up on some reading – I actually read a few books. I uploaded several to Kindle: Jews Don’t Count by David Baddiel, a British stand-up comedian who addresses anti-Semitism within the progressive left, and People Love Dead Jews by Dara Horn. I highly recommend both books. Horn is an excellent writer and there is much to recommend this book.

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The Book of Exodus, or Shemot is a saga of survival in a strange land. The Israelites are now firmly established in the land of Egypt, and things are now not going so well. A new Pharaoh, (subsequent to the Pharaoh who had sat rocking on the porch with Yaakov, who had given the Israelites welcome and land and honour), is much less inclined to look on this foreign people with favour.More

The last reading in any of the Five Books that comprise our Written Torah, our Chumash, always gives me pause. It marks both a completion and an opening as the saga of our peoples evolves and continues.

We are a People of the Book, and we are a People of our Land, Israel. The texts we read from the earliest of our times, and continuing through millennia, reference Jerusalem and the land of Israel, now the State of Israel. Often those texts reference borders well beyond present day political borders.

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Hannukah is over, and now we hold sweet memories of eating with friends and families over these days of lighting candles together. Last week in our Torah portion we read how Joseph prepared a table for his brothers; this week he finally shared the news that he was, in fact, their brother. He promised them bread, that they would eat, even in such a time of famine.

It is not insignificant that Joseph prepared a meal to help ready himself to share this truth. There is something profoundly fundamental about sharing our food, even if it is the most simple of meals. Even as Abraham ran forward to welcome the three men he spied whilst sitting in his tent, Joseph knew that to honour guests with food – no matter whom they may be – is in no small way honouring God.

Food, be it bread and salt, or the most sumptuous of feasts, plays such a role in our Torah and in our tradition. Blessings accompany our eating as we acknowledge how eating binds us in sacred relationship with God and with those we love.

All the more do we want to share food together at Kolot Mayim. Each Shabbat morning (first of every month) when we meet in person, we now share food. More and more of us are coming and staying, hungry not so much for edible delicacies, but for nourishment of company. Food is a vehicle of connection to the blessing of company and companionship. Come and join us on January 1^st (that other New Year), as we share prayer, song and food together.

Kol tuv,

Rabbi Lynn