Burst Forth

Brief words from this past Shabbat after the attack on Temple Israel of West Bloomfield

Bursting Forth

With the sun and warmth this week,
despite losing an hour with Daylight savings,
despite being incredibly worried for
our nation,
it felt like coming out of
hibernation
The hope of spring, of flowers
burst forth!

Yesterday, I was taking a writing class
on crafting the hybrid memoir,
the sort of pieces you read in the Atlantic or New Yorker.
Where a writer writes about the stories of their own life
and thru it seeks connection to stories in the broader world,
weaving the two together
- self and world -
in conversation.
For me,
the hope of creativity and exploration
Burst forth.

Until my friends started texting me:
”Did you hear the news?”
”What’s wrong? “
Fear and anxiety
burst forth.
My friend and rabbinic classmate -
Rabbi Jen Lader-
is a rabbi at Temple Israel in Detroit.
All the expected feelings and concerns arose
and I trembled
with that sort of fight or flight feeling,
until Jen
texted a group of colleagues
that she was “okay.”
A desire to nap, utter exhaustion,
the need to sleep it all off
like Rip Van Winkle for 20 years
Burst forth.

And somehow here we are again
this Shabbat -
selves and world -
as if an embodied hybrid memoir.
Holding our lives, our families,
our stories and our Judaism
while trying to understand the world
and our place in it.

So what of the sun and warmth,
the fear and anxiety,
the utter exhaustion alongside
the hope of spring, of flowers?

It’s like two candles on Shabbat -
they each cast their glow
reminding us to keep and remember
this day of rest -
which at the end of Shabbat
are braided together
to bring even more light out into the greater world.

As we welcome this Shabbat with light,
let us acknowledge that Bursting forth from each of us
are, in fact,
multitudes
of feelings, worries,
and dreams, and hopes.
And as we continue to find ourselves
moving through the proverbial darkness,
may the glow of our Shabbat candles
bring us joy and light.