New Year New City New Shul

The morning after Ida on the subway.

Dear friends,

I arrive at this new year wet, slightly ragged, but infused with new ideas and horizons I’ve picked up at our chevrutahs this last month. I come with a real feeling that I need to see you people, that we all need these holidays, that being together in whatever way each of us is able will give us the boost we need to dive into this year.  

Yesterday morning on the subway platform I saw a woman singing I Will Survive to the tiny number of people who braved the post Ida MTA. She reminded me that I love this city. Strange and beautiful acts of resilience and resistance happen here. Unusual and interesting entities like The New Shul mushroom out of the fertile asphalt. Moments of beauty are less rare here and pop up when you’re not expecting them.  

Rosh Hashanah last year, in a farm in Queens produced that feeling too. I was just finishing the Amidah when Liat showed me a headline on her phone. “Ruth Bader Ginsburg is dead.” When we got to the mourners Kaddish people yelled out her name. We gasped. Some cried. The musicians played their music. And then community members shared their cooked pieces of glory that represented what we needed in that moment. Ghiora explained the details of his saffron honey cake, a complex kabbalistic creation with specific numbers of nuts to reflect the zeitgeist. Others shared their fun brilliance in the form of cooked goods. And the moment was transformed. We were still sad, but we were in community, and it was nice. The bitter shock had softened a touch. 

Theater for the New City, where we will meet on Monday evening is a historic place. Early Sam Shepard plays, Living Theatre performances that changed the definition of what a play is, the wildest Halloween costume party in the city for years on end, Street plays to protest Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Bread and Puppet Theater performances protesting the ills of capitalism and hailing the indestructible power of Mother Earth, Grammy and Emmy and Pulitzer prize winners work performed before anyone knew who they were. Fifty years of New York strange, New York protest, New York art - and now we step into the fold, and try to cook up some New York Shul action.  

The chevrutah learning pods over the last month proved to me yet again what a unique group of people this Shul is made of. The type of discussions that went down in the Erich Gutkind chevrutah, a strange and marvelous combination of philosophy, rebellion and mysticism, were something I hadn’t experienced in a long time. In the Death and Dying chevrutah, deeply personal reflections on loved ones was shared in a way I had never quite witnessed, combining intellectual digging into text with the quiet awe of knowing there is an end. In the Karma chevrutah there were discussions of past lives. In Nehemiah history and economics morphed into the present political moment and Kabbalah. In the Meditation and Niggunim chevrutahs gates were opened, hearts relaxed, people shared moments of peace.  

Despite what we may or not be feeling, we are ready to bring in a new year together. 

See you Monday evening at Theater for the New City, and Tuesday morning at Brooklyn Bridge Park. (If you haven't already please register!)

Let’s use these last few days to prepare. Our season of return begins. 

Shabbat shalom,

Rabbi Misha