Wholeness & Brokenness

Tradition tells that for the entire journey in the wilderness, alongside the second set of tablets bearing the ten commandments, our ancestors also carried the fragments of the first set which Moses had smashed. In our present time of rupture and fragmentation, this image reminds us to make room for the broken along with the whole — in our lives and in our world. Often we can find in the fractured places pathways to wholeness. What is broken can become the foundation for healing and regeneration.

In moments of brokenness, we can help one another find comfort amidst loss, meaning in the face of upheaval, and agency when our values have been breached. However brokenness manifests, we can support each other to turn toward it with compassion and courage, so that we might discover wholeness alongside or even within it.

נשמת כל חי
The Breath of Every Life

We are sustained in every moment by our breath. When it is compromised or restricted, our lives are in jeopardy. Yet we mostly take it for granted until that occurs. This year’s theme, Nishmat Kol Ḥai: The Breath of Every Life, turns us toward fuller awareness and appreciation of this vital life force and all it sustains.

Neshamah means "breath" and also "soul." It is our essence, through which we are connected to one another and to all life. Nishmat Kol Ḥai asks us to listen closely for the breath that is not our own, to awaken to the preciousness of each breath and each soul.

Collectively, we are witnessing the tragic consequences of breath constricted, through illness and through violent oppression. All breath is not yet equally valued. Nishmat Kol Ḥai demands that we expand our notions of kinship and work to ensure that everyone can breathe freely, and every soul can flourish.

Our theme for 5779 – Panim el Panim: Encountering One Another.

פָּנִים אֶל־פָּנִים

Panim el panim, literally “face to face,” directs us to recognize and honor how we live in relation to one another. From the intimate, one-on-one connections that exist within Havurah, to the broader partnerships and networks of which we are a part, this relationality is at the heart of who we are. To live panim el panim is to genuinely encounter one another, sometimes to affirm and sometimes to challenge.

When we build relationships with people from whom we differ as well as those like us, striving to know the other for who they are, we grow as individuals and enhance our potential as a community. Through meeting one another in this way, we make room for connection and holiness. And amidst tensions in the world, the notion of panim el panim challenges us to perceive our interdependence and build bridges however possible.