Interlude

Oasis Songs: Musings from Rav D
Friday, January 13th, 2017 – 16 Tevet, 5777

Kashrut Class Begins this Sunday 12:30-2:00 pm for the next 8 weeks. Anyone still interested in participating should contact Kwilkins@nevehshalom.org or me so that we can make sure we have sufficient materials.

We’ll be learning some texts on Martin Luther King during Shabbat services that an old friend and colleague put together a number of years back. If you are interested and can safely make it, it would be great to have you there and to help the Greenberg celebrate as Miles becomes a bar mitzvah.

It feels like the world has stopped for a moment and that we are stuck in between places. I’ve been stuck in bed this past week with a rather virulent cold, and that’s made this a personal period of quiet for me. But it’s hardly just my experience. We are in between American presidents–not according to the letter of the law–but there’s this pregnant pause as we await the peaceful transfer of power in one of the most contentious elections in memory.

The big storm has brought a completely different sort of interlude to our city. As I’m sure you’ve heard, Mayor Wheeler declared a state of emergency. Work productivity has plummetted in most businesses with small independent enterprises hard pressed. The schools have lost more days of instruction and along with happy children, there are parent struggling to fill the hours and keep their kids engaged. Paychecks are slimmer for too many hourly workers. Garbage piles up as pickups were canceled. Newspaper and mail delivery? They’ll start up again soon enough.

An early definition of interlude referred to a short play placed between the main show; this reminds us that interludes are not a retreat from life, but a necessary and important pause that helps us put things in a different perspective. Like Shabbat.

While I was experiencing the interlude of illness, Laura and the boys brought me back pictures of the outside world. On Thursday, I was well enough to drive around a little bit. Here are some images that have captured my imagination this week. They speak of the different ways our human and natural world marked this time between times.

Enjoy. Stay Safe. Shabbat Shalom.