A Vision for the Year Ahead

The parsha we read this week is called Emor, Say, from the Hebrew root alef-mem-resh. And in the Hebrew language, saying, amirah, has a completely different quality that dibbur, stating. Amirah is the speech with which God created the world - “vayomer Adonai: yehi or”. God said: let there be light. And there was light. 

This “saying” was not harsh or demanding. According to Rav Yitzhak Hutner, amirah is “soft speech.” It is not trying to ask anything of the listener. It is rooted, first, in unconditional love. It is the speech that comes at the beginning of a new relationship. Amirah is tender and gentle and nourishing. 

Parents the world over use this kind of speech with new babies - sing-song speech, lilting and lovely, doing anything to get our little ones to laugh and smile, knowing that it will be months before we can expect any kind of response back. Trusting that the mutual devotion and sacred covenant will come in its own time.

It is in contrast to dibbur - the speech that God used in the aseret hadibrot, the 10 commandments. It was only after we had felt unconditional love and support that something could be asked of us, commanded of us, and we could be expected to respond with an equal, mutual love and a mutual action. 

I am thinking about this idea of amirah as it relates to our own community - how we are drawn in to relationship with one another and with the congregation as a whole. I think our greatest power as a community lies in our ability to create experiences and contexts where we feel this softness of speech, where we feel what it feels like to be unconditionally loved, where Torah and music and Jewish ritual and community soften us, help us unfold and expand inside of ourselves. Where we can let go of shame and feelings of not being enough and doing enough and know in our bones that we are enough, we are beautiful, we are loved. 

So many people have been drawn to our community because they were seen and loved that way here, or their kids were, or their parents were. There is no other community quite like this. And we want others to know about and be drawn to what we’re building here: An island of gentleness and softening toward one another in a sea of harsh noise. God willing, through that soft speech, through that unconditional love, we will build the bonds of relationship and community that allow us to ask things of one another, to feel mutually obligated to serve one another and serve something so much greater than ourselves. 

As Heather shared at the beginning, we think that immersive experiences like our congregational retreat and our December 2024 Israel trip have the potential to draw people toward one another in that magical, soft way, and I’m really eager to bring those experiences to life. In the nearer future, here are some of the projects I am working on - in partnership with Dr. Amy and many of you - that I believe are the backbones of our community: 

  • We are crafting joyful, musical Friday night experiences that bring our entire community together, like this past Shabbat for Yom HaAtzmaut. We’ve learned that our community members and people beyond the Or Hadash community crave this kind of experience, whether you’re coming with a four year old or you’re an elder - especially when there’s dinner to follow.

We are also beginning to organize smaller, more intimate Shabbat dinner gatherings among friends, neighbors, people who have never met but just might become best friends, along common themes of age, stage, and neighborhood. Happening in homes and in shul here as well. Creating an opportunity for intimacy, conversation - soft speech. 

  • We are creating learning and social opportunities that meet you where you are at, in the big questions you’re asking in life, right now. Including:

    • A discussion group for people who are parenting young kids, bringing the texts and tools of Jewish spiritual growth to this stage of life

    • A cohort of young couples who are just starting to build their Jewish home together learning about how to do so intentionally; 

    • A monthly Tot shabbat on Saturday mornings; 

    • A new social space for adults in their 30s-50s called “Beineinu,” between us, that’s kicking off in June with 90s trivia and havdalah (led by our new member, Cara Spitzner!)

    • And more. A group for dads of all ages might be in the works. A group for those approaching retirement - what’s next for me and how do I figure out my purpose going forward? 

If you have an idea for a group you’d like to bring together and want support in bringing Jewish wisdom and ritual to that group, come talk to me! I am so grateful to be co-creating this space with you, for dreaming the world we want to exist into being.

—Rabbi Lauren