Quindim is a pudding made by yolks and coconut, pão de queijo is one of the most famous Brazilian delights – cheese bread – something you have to try at least once in your life. Both of them are Pessach dishes for Brazilian Jews. Tishpishti is a Turkish almond cake, exotic and delicious, that is part of sepharadic tradition for Rosh haShanah. Pierogi, is a traditional Russian and Polish potato dumpling, that was incorporated into Jewish tradition, and we know it as varenikes. And it is from that part of the world that Jews inherited gefilte fish, which, upon arriving in this beloved island, was shaped into small balls and deep fried, giving birth to the unique fish balls. Actually, British Jews have their own traditions, as wishing a long life to the bereaved, something that sounds amazingly strange for people like me, who are learning local traditions.
Today is 7 of Cheshvan, a date chosen in an initiative by the Reform Movement in Israel and the Israeli government to mark Diaspora-Israel Day - a worldwide festival of Jewish Peoplehood to celebrate the relationships among the Jews in each place where they settled, and between these places and the Land of Israel. A day to celebrate the complex and rich dialogue that has been maintained between all Jewish communities, creating a delicate and unique thread that binds Jews living in different parts of the world.[i] To celebrate the diversity created by the fact that we have been living around the world for centuries, absorbing traditions, colours and tastes from cultures where we have lived during this time, but also spreading our fragrances and traditions and influencing the peoples around us. A day to recognise the importance of the Jewish community around the world.
There is a midrash that tells us that Avraham Avinu was like a fragrant oil that was hidden, until God told him – “go!” and as Avraham walked from place to place, his fragrance became familiar throughout the world. As descendants of Avraham, we have been wondering and spreading the fragrance of Judaism: words of Torah, Jewish songs, tastes and ways of living, around the world. And during our journeys we have also collected and developed different tastes and ways of being, that make the Jewish peoplehood so incredibly plural.
There is something very specific to being a Jew that connects with the idea of making journeys to ourselves and to other places. Our first forefather was a wondering person whose offspring became כַּעֲפַ֣ר הָאָ֑רֶץ - as dust from the earth, spread all over the globe, as predicted in this week’s parashah and reflected in our so many traditions. Our calendar offers us several opportunities to do this deep dive into our souls, like the counting of the Omer, cheshbon haNefesh during Elul and the whole day of Yom Kippur.
לֶךְ־לְךָ֛ מֵאַרְצְךָ֥ וּמִמּֽוֹלַדְתְּךָ֖ וּמִבֵּ֣ית אָבִ֑יךָ אֶל־הָאָ֖רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר אַרְאֶֽךָּ
Go forth from your native land and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you[ii]
With this the first sentence of this week’s Torah portion. This happens in a moment of big change for Avram: his dad has just died, the family is on a journey, he becomes the head of his family and makes a pact with God. Literally, Lech Lecha, the name of the parashah, can be translated as “Go to yourself”. And this is exactly the moment that Avram is living. He needs a change of place, but he also needs to journey to himself so that he can know this new person that is being borne. So much so, that by the end of this parashah, his name changes from Avram to Avraham, as well as his wife’s name changes from Sarai to Sarah.
As Jewish people, we were led to changes and migrations for so many times. We have been building our lives and our sacred spaces in the desert and in narrow places, inside our Temples and around the world. And by spreading the fragrances of Judaism, as our forefather Avraham did, we discovered that a Jewish sacred space is built around Torah and around the Jewish people, wherever we are.
The question about the land and sacred places for the Jewish people is the focus of my study during this year, as I prepare my final dissertation. My question is if the cloud – the online world – is a new sacred space to be inhabited, as we were born in the desert, moved to the Temples, and then spread around the world. Is Judaism bound to one place, to one land, or can we build different sacred spaces to live as Jews, to study and live by the lessons of Torah?
Israeli-American academic Daniel Boyarin suggests that: “Genealogy and territorialism have been the problematic and necessary . . . terms around which Jewish identity has revolved. In Jewish history . . . these terms are more obviously at odds with each other than in synergy. This allows a formulation of Jewish identity not as a proud resting place . . . but as a perpetual, creative, diasporic tension.”[iii]
This tension can already be found in the Mishnah, in Tractate Ta’anit, where the Sages set two separate days for beginning to recite prayers for rain. The “mentioning of rain” begins on Shemini Atseret (the Eighth Day of Assembly at the end of Sukkot), while the “plea for rain” is recited from the 7th day of Cheshvan. The purpose of this two-stage process was to ensure that Jewish pilgrims from Babylon who had been visiting the Land of Israel for Sukkot, would be able to return home without having rain catch them during their journey. A clear connection between life in the land of Israel and in different parts of the world. A connection that kept our people alive until today.
Tonight, I invite you to celebrate your identity as a Jew in this wonderful world. To celebrate the plurality of the Jewish peoplehood. Find the joy of being who you are, who we are, and be proud. I invite you to go to yourself, to your people, to your sacred spaces and then, as our Torah portion establishes, your name will be great, and you shall be a blessing. Lech Lecha.
[ii] Genesis 12:1
[iii] Daniel Boyarin and Jonathan Boyarin, “Diaspora,” in Michael Marmur and David Ellenson, eds., American Jewish Thought Since 1934: Writings on Identity, Engagement, and Belief (Waltham, MA: Brandeis University Press, 2020), 200-205
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