You know how the Rabbis always talk about spritual links between words that share root letters...
I wonder if anyone has ever noticed/written about how Moshe and HaShem are the same letters backwards/forwards: Moshe - Mem Shin Hey - and HaShem - Hey Shin Mem...
*cue Twilight Zone theme*
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Sunday, April 10, 2011
The ShopRite Minyan
A wise Rabbi once remarked "Feed them, and they will come". A related corollary to that rule, at least here in Wilmington, seems to be "You will always find a minyan at the Shop Rite".
It matters little what day of the week, or what time of day (1am!), I always find people I know from the Jewish community. Grocery shopping takes me hours, because I end up in conversation with each fellow congregant.
Shopping for Pesach groceries this past Monday afternoon was no different. I ran into several congregants, as expected, and we all laughed about it being the season to congregate in the Passover foods aisle.
What is different though, is that this time of year allows you to expand that community to those who you don't already know.
You see someone pouring over the shelves of matzoh meal, it's a reasonably sure bet that they're Jewish. It's easy to strike up a conversation about some new product, or how prices have yet again risen this year on staple items, or frustration over how the store hasn't yet put out the pesadic dairy items. It's common to find someone offering assistance to another who looks lost or flustered, desperately searching for the white grape juice amid the bottles of regular grape and apple juices.
Community - being built right there in the Passover aisle.
Community - being built over food... a shared cultural eating experience.
Isn't that just amazing? I think it is. We are building community over something so trivial, yet also so vital to survival.
We may not be from the same congregation. We may not both belong to the JCC. We're not coming together over some shared interest. We're not meeting each other because we have a job or hobby in common. We're not classmates, or down the street neighbors. We're building community because we eat.
Of course, it's not that simple. It's not just any old food. It's Passover, and even the most secular and unafiliated Jews have held onto some aspect of the ancient traditional foods of the holiday.
This is why many Rabbis take the laws of kashrut so seriously. It's not just about what we eat or why we eat it... it's also about building community.
Keeping kosher does several things at once:
So, next time you're walking down the kosher foods isle of your local supermarket, remember to say hello to your fellow members of the Jewish community!
It matters little what day of the week, or what time of day (1am!), I always find people I know from the Jewish community. Grocery shopping takes me hours, because I end up in conversation with each fellow congregant.
Shopping for Pesach groceries this past Monday afternoon was no different. I ran into several congregants, as expected, and we all laughed about it being the season to congregate in the Passover foods aisle.
What is different though, is that this time of year allows you to expand that community to those who you don't already know.
You see someone pouring over the shelves of matzoh meal, it's a reasonably sure bet that they're Jewish. It's easy to strike up a conversation about some new product, or how prices have yet again risen this year on staple items, or frustration over how the store hasn't yet put out the pesadic dairy items. It's common to find someone offering assistance to another who looks lost or flustered, desperately searching for the white grape juice amid the bottles of regular grape and apple juices.
Community - being built right there in the Passover aisle.
Community - being built over food... a shared cultural eating experience.
Isn't that just amazing? I think it is. We are building community over something so trivial, yet also so vital to survival.
We may not be from the same congregation. We may not both belong to the JCC. We're not coming together over some shared interest. We're not meeting each other because we have a job or hobby in common. We're not classmates, or down the street neighbors. We're building community because we eat.
Of course, it's not that simple. It's not just any old food. It's Passover, and even the most secular and unafiliated Jews have held onto some aspect of the ancient traditional foods of the holiday.
This is why many Rabbis take the laws of kashrut so seriously. It's not just about what we eat or why we eat it... it's also about building community.
Keeping kosher does several things at once:
- Allows us to perform a mitzvah - to fulfill God's commandments about what foods we eat and do not eat.
- Elevates the basic act of eating, nourishing the body, to a holy level, so that it also nourishes the soul.
- Builds connections - having a kosher home means that everyone can visit and share a meal together, both those who keep kosher and those who do not.
- Creates community - Jews from all walks of life, if nothing else, have kashrut in common.
So, next time you're walking down the kosher foods isle of your local supermarket, remember to say hello to your fellow members of the Jewish community!
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