By Kali Rifkin Silverman

Maybe one of the answers to this comes from the Sh'ma:

Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. 6 And these words, which I command you this day, shall be upon your heart; 7 and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk on the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 And you shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes. 9 And you shall write them upon the door-posts of your house, and upon your gates. (Deuteronomy 6: 4- 9)

Love is the key. For some, their relations with people flow from their relationship with God, and for most, it is the opposite. It is in their experience of love in the relationship in their lives that they encounter the divine. On Tu B’Av they covered over their economic status to allow people to see each other and start relationships without that status clouding their vision (economic equality! cool!?). Similarly, Yom Kippur is the day we cover over (kaparah) our sins and restart our relationship with God. As we see in the Sh'ma, we plaster love all over our lives. There is no joy without love. Love reigns supreme. #LoveWins

#2 (In which it's time to get real and I rewrite the Ve'ahavtah): This incredibly unjust and flawed world we live in is in need of a lot of love, empathy, and change.

As we teach our values diligently to our chanichim, and have sichot about them when we sit in the bayit, and when we walk on the way, and when (eventually) we lie down, and when we wake up to the kima mix. And as we tie them for a sign upon our chests, and when the sweat drips between our eyes. And as we write them upon the entrances of our machanot, and shout them throughout our eizorim... We must go through our lives pushing to live our values, seek justice, treat others with love and respect. We must never stop being grateful, and yet we must work our hardest to make others lives what they deserve to be.

<<< First Page