A reminder to join our kehilla this Shabbat/Saturday morning,
June 25th
, when we will gather for Shabbat Vayinafash, a contemplative approach to Shabbat morning worship and Torah. We will meet from
10:30 a.m. to noon
in our worship space at Covenant Presbyterian
Church.
Join Spiritual Leader Jessica Shimberg for a gentle flow of Shabbat chant, liturgy, movement and holy conversation around themes from this week’s Parsha/Torah portion as we continue to wander B’midbar (the Hebrew name for this book of Torah which means in the wilderness and is more widely called Numbers).
This week’s parsha, Beha’alotcha, finds the Israelites wandering and whining, unable to process the enormity of the change that accompanies their new-found freedom and the work it entails. Even with the miraculous manna they receive in the desert, the former slaves wistfully recall the host of foods they had as slaves – cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlics (Little Minyan’s Matt Cristol wrote a beautiful D’var Torah for his bar mitzvah last summer on this parsha and the narrowness of vision that accompanies fear and discontent.)
Rabbi Elliot Kukla, in his 2008 Dvar Tzedek (a weekly offering from American Jewish World Service) on Parshat Beha’alotcha, quotes contemporary writer William Bridges in describing the difference between situational change and psychological transition :
Change is your move to a new city or your shift to a new job. It is the birth of a new baby or the death of your father… Change is situational.
Transition on the other hand, is psychological. It is not those events, but rather the inner reorientation and self-redefinition that you have to go through in order to incorporate any of those changes into your life.
This is also the parsha that brings us the profound words of healing –
El Na, Refah Na La/אל נא רפא נא לה/God, please, heal her please –
expressed with
such simplicity and deep yearning that we use them regularly in our prayers for healing and in the words of heart-opening that invite us into Kabbalat Shabbat (Yedid Nefesh). We will explore the Biblical story that gives rise to these words and the healing we can find in taking time to forgive ourselves for ugly unkindnesses we have thought or uttered (about others or about ourselves) and the ways in which prayer can be healing and assist us in transition and growth.
You may wish to bring your own chumash. Comfortable attire encouraged, and, if you wish to sit on the floor, a mat, zafu, pillow or blanket. A light lunch will follow our worship.
