D'var Torah

In addition to Thanksgiving, this week brings us two Jewish holidays with related themes: Sigd, and Rosh Chodesh Kislev.

Sigd, which fell this week on Tuesday night and Wednesday (and falls every year on the 29th day of the month of Heshvan), is a Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jewish) holiday celebrated 50 days after Yom Kippur. It is a time to reflect, repent, and to celebrate the giving of the Torah (and it also commemorates Moses’ first encounter with God, in the burning bush). Members of the Beta Israel community who live in Israel mark Sigd in part by gathering in Jerusalem to hear parts of the bible read aloud in Ge’ez. Another Sigd custom is fasting, and then participating in a celebratory communal feast at the end of the day. Since 2008, Sigd has been recognized as a national holiday in Israel. Many people who did not grow up in the Ethiopian Jewish community mark Sigd in part by learning more about Sigd and Beta Israel. (Are you interested in doing this? Here are some starting points.)

Meanwhile, Rosh Chodesh Kislev, on Thursday and Friday, marks the beginning of the month of Kislev. (Chanukah begins on the 25th of Kislev.) On every Rosh Chodesh except for Rosh HaShanah, it is customary to recite a series of celebratory psalms called Hallel. Very fittingly this year especially, one of the main themes in most of the psalms that make up Hallel is gratitude. (See for example this musical setting of the beginning of Psalms 118, which is at the heart of Hallel.)

The text of Hallel, with lines like “the stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,” and “from the narrow place I cried out to God, and God answered me from the wide place,” also invites us to imagine a world in which we all honor and respect one another. How can we get ourselves to a place, it implicitly asks us, where people who have been historically marginalized are lifted up as leaders – cornerstones – of our communities, and anyone who is feeling like they are in a narrow place can find their way to a wide place, a place of connection and possibility?

On a week like this one, when many of us are all too aware of acts of hate and violence in our own country and around the world, it can be hard to tap into the sense of gratitude, possibility, and connection that Sigd, Rosh Chodesh, and Thanksgiving each invite. (And this is okay too!) Nonetheless, my hope for each of us this week is that, if possible, we are able to find some moments of connection, gratitude, and possibility, as we keep working for a wider, freer, and more healed world.

Shabbat Shalom, and take good care,

Rabbi Stein