Closing Message - Rav Steven
As we start a new week, each week, I feel a sense of renewed possibility. With everything we experienced at the end of last week, that feeling - though still present - is tempered by so many questions about what happened and what lies ahead.
I'm resharing my video derashah from this past Shabbat with you here, a derashah which asks some of those questions and begins to try to glimpse answers. A partial synopsis follows:
A midrash on the story of the burning bush suggests that the bush was consumed. It burned down to the ground and another rose immediately in its place (this explains why, after the Torah says the bush was burning (bo'er), Moshe says in the next verse 'why isn't the bush burning (yiv'ar)?'). This - the burning and replacement/restoration - was the great sight Moshe beheld and turned to see closer, where he met God.
What might this teach us - for the great destruction wrought in our world in this pandemic time and in the fabric of our democracy this past Wednesday?
Perhaps that in some moments of crisis, the first response is to put things back just as they were before - on the outside, for there is a comfort in that restoration and order. And then to recognize that seeing them restored to the way they were before doesn't mean a great seismic shift hasn't taken place. It may have - on the inside. Appearances aren't always what they seem.
Our Capitol may soon look again just as it did - but something has changed, unalterably. Not just a loss - but also a change, I believe, in us. To be different so that what happened will never happen again.
Our Bayit will - in not too, too long, I hope - be fuller again. It will look as it once did - but something has changed, unalterably. Not just a loss - but also a change, I believe, in us. To be different so that the bonds of our community, and our appreciation for what we have, and our sensitivity to inclusivity and protecting and strengthening the most vulnerable - individually and systemically - will be ready to withstand our next challenge.
May we continue to build, and rebuild, towards that day.
Reminder to all to take good care of ourselves and each other. Try to do something specific today that strengthens you, and something else that strengthens someone else.
