ALONE AND TOGETHER
SHAVUOT 5782
Standing alongside others is perhaps one of the most crucial aspects of being alive, perhaps one of the most important parts of the life of any species.
Feeling understood, held, connected with others really matters and we might spend many days, weeks and years yearning for this sense of connection. I have always felt somewhat an outsider and perhaps that is an aspect of the life of a rabbi holding inner conviction which, to a degree sets oneself aside from others. This can be a lonely place.
And yet,I too, yearn for connection, yearning for a sense of community, yearn for common purpose with others.
Shavuot, our festival coming up this week, is the festival when the Israelites received the Torah fromGod (so the story goes), the vision of the Torah is that all Jews; past, present and future stand at Mount Sinai.It is one place in the Jewish calendar where we might find a common purpose with community. Our Torah is described in the Midrash, by the rabbis, as a document of the ages, a Torah, teachings, which precede even time itself, its mystical context above earth and time. As a community we have the opportunity to pull in the same direction, on Shavuot and throughout the year, to try to connect the inner essence of Torah, all its collected teachings, as a guide for life and a way marker to find some of the core wisdom and meaning of what it is to be alive.
At its core our Torah is unity, the possibility that as a community we can hold together, move in the same direction, learn the same lessons and in richness and in strength find our best selves reshaping, holding a timeless Torah as ours, preparing the next generation in wisdom and vision for a good life, building a better world.
And yet this is only one part of the story, life, in essence, is a lonely journey, from the moment we leave the containment of the womb we are on our own. We might find connection and intimacy with parents, siblings, loved ones, friends, partners; these relationships can be journeys of great wonder and beauty but are themselves finite.
The relationship of our lives is that of our relationship with ourselves, how we treat number one. Apart of my learning in the last weeks has been from one of my rabbis, the Aish Kodesh (PiasecznoRebbe, Rabbi Kalonymus Kalman Shapira 1889-1943). He describes the fundamental importance of spiritual yearning in relationship with the image of standing atop Mount Sinai. Contained here is perhaps one of the great dichotomies of Jewish life: on the one hand we are a people, each person a member of a tribe, on the other hand the great moment of revelation was Moses’s moment on top of the mountain with the Israelites watching from the side lines.
I think the Piaseczno Rebbe understood well this dichotomy, understood the interplay between solitude and community but perhaps as part of his life’s mission of bringing new vibrancy to Jewish life in his generation he knew that in order to make community count, the individual had to matter. He describes the individual in romantic, intimate embrace both with God and Torah, imagining oneself as standing atop mount Sinai alone.
This is the vision of my Shavuot. Standing on top of a mountain, a place where nothing else matters, where I am the centre of the world, impassioned, enlivened, strong, resilient, and embraced both byGod and the wisdom of our tradition. It is from this place that I can be my best Oliver.
So, Shavuot is both, alone and together, our Judaismholds both sides, the fundamental importance of the communal journey and the possibility of spiritual attainment.
Shabbat Shalom, Ḥag Samayach
