Blessing for the Month of Adar

By Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, Hebrew College President

How do we find joy? In his commentary for Rosh Hodesh Adar, the Yismach Yisrael teaches that we enter the gates of joy by loving our friends, by joining in community, by seeing ourselves as connected to — and responsible for — each other. This intuition is reflected in each of the central mitzvot of Purim. What do we do in the face of God's absence? We turn toward each other — by delivering gifts of food to friends (mishloach manot), by giving tzedakah to those in need (matanot la'evyonim), by rejoicing in each other's companionship (Se'udat Purim). 

For many years, I have thought of these acts of human friendship and care as a response to — and even protest against — God's absence. Ribono shel olam, You're not going to take care of us? Okay. Then we'll take care of each other. 

This year, I am thinking about these sacred obligations a little differently. 

I've just returned from three days in England, at an extraordinary gathering of leaders called The London Initiative — Jewish Israelis, Palestinian Israelis, and diaspora Jews and non-Jewish allies. Against the backdrop of these heartbreaking times, I felt the heart-opening joy of insisting on making a home for each other. And I came away feeling that, in making a home for each other, we are also making a home for God.

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SEVENTY FACES OF TORAH
Build Small

By Chaim Spaulding, Hebrew College Rabbinical Student

Parashat Terumah (Exodus 25:1-27:19)

In moments of crisis, many people often feel moved to show up, but that overflowing of emotional energy — fear, anger, grief, love, desire to help — doesn’t always lead to effective action. It’s easy to channel that energy into expressions of moral outrage; it’s much harder to channel it into meeting people’s tangible needs in the short or long term.

In order for a community to build something big, Parshat Terumah teaches us, we have to start small. Imagine the Israelites: newly freed from slavery, fleeing the only home they’ve ever known with little more than the unleavened bread on their backs. They’re terrified and exhilarated. They pool together all their most precious resources for this first project that they are undertaking as a community, building the Mishkan. The stakes are so high. If they were to focus on the end goal — building a sacred space beautiful enough for God to dwell in — they might be so overwhelmed they could never even begin.

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TOMORROW! THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19

"Havruta": A Concert Born in the Beit Midrash

How is the meaning of a word shaped by melody? How does the Torah we learn shape the music that we make? Join us tomorrow evening for a concert born in the beit midrash. Inspired by the ancient practice of paired Torah study, musicians and rabbinical students Sam Tygiel and Julia Sabra weave together original, familiar, and ancestral melodies to crack open the heart of the verse.

Sam Tygiel is an alumnus of Hadar’s Rising Song Residency, Or Halev’s Yesod Jewish Meditation Training, and a fifth-year rabbinical student at Hebrew College. 

Sam Tygiel

Julia Sabra is a shana dalet rabbinical student at Hebrew College, a singer-songwriter and musician currently living in Cambridge, MA. As a classically trained musician from South Florida, Julia found her doorway into Judaism through music. 

With deep gratitude to our series sponsors Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Foundation; Suzanne Priebatsch; Susan and James Snider; Diane Troderman and an anonymous donor.

Julia Sabra

Hebrew College is reimagining Jewish learning and leadership for an interconnected world, making our lives more meaningful, our communities more vibrant, and our world more whole.