Shabbat Gathering: Inclusive Judaism.

Gud Shabbos Khaveyrim, as is our custom, we will gather tonight at 5.45p ct to welcome Shabbat. These are the coordinates:

Zoom
Meeting ID: 883 8469 4181
Password: 822665
Phone: +1 312 626 6799

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Here we go.

I’ve mentioned before that I belong to a small book group with two other congregants. We just finished the first section of Martin Buber’s Tales of the Hasidim and will be moving on to our next book. The book is a collection of very short (one to three paragraph) anecdotes about the founders of Hasidism (18thC). Honestly, I found it to be a hard read and at 318 pages, it was a long, hard read. And I didn’t get that much from it. But, in our final week, I came across a tale that really spoke to me.

In Many Ways
Some time after Rabbi Shalom, the son of Rabbi Abraham, the Angel, had died, two of his disciples came to Lublin to study with the Seer. They found him out in the open, saying the blessing of the New Moon. Now, because he did this a little differently in some details from what their teacher had accustomed them to, they did not promise themselves much from Lublin and decided to leave the town the very next day. When they entered the rabbi’s house, shortly after, he spoke words of greetings to them and immediately added: “A God who one could serve only in one set way — what kind of God would that be!” They bowed before him and became his disciples.

That tale opened doors for me to better understand myself. My journey into Judaism wasn’t a straight path. I made sincere stops along the way in other traditions. And the other members of the group have similar paths with stopovers in various sacred and secular traditions.

Judaism has been tied up with other traditions from even before Jethro, Moses’ Midianite father-in-law, gave Moses guidance on how to structure the Israelites system of justice. And Judaism’s most frequently repeated commandment is to welcome the stranger. So it comes as no surprise to me that our own congregation makes a special point to be “Madison’s inclusive Jewish community.” Everyone is welcomed.

And may it be for all of us a blessing.

See you tonight!
Mit vareme grusn,
(With warm regards,)

All my love,
brian.

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