House Blog

This space in the weekly e-mail often serves as place for us to share spiritual insight, thoughts on Torah, and timely information about local grassroots social justice efforts. While this week’s parsha or Torah Portion, Bo is both rich and exciting (it includes The ten plagues sent by God against the Egyptians, among other things), we’d like to switch gears a little bit and offer to you all a simple invitation. In just six weeks Massachussetts will hold its presidential primary when voters have the opportunity to pick the presidential candidate of their respective parties.

Another opportunity to excercise the democratic perogative is coming up much sooner. Moishe Kavod House will hold its annual Membership Meeting on February 12th. This is when members of the Moishe Kavod House can come together and struggle as a community with the direction they want this organization to go in.  The issues will of course be a bit different from the up coming election. We don’t get to decide whether our government is committed to maintaining a fair economy that works for all people, will run a balanced budget, or will work with its neighboring governments to ensure a more peaceful world. However wewill have the opportunity to weigh in on whether Moishe Kavod House will ever be a multi-generational community, how we can reach financial viability, and what it means to be a powerful civic entity. It is the chance of every member of the Moishe Kavod House to stand up and make their voice heard. You may not always be able to voice your opinions on where our conuntry should be going in a way you know it will be heard, but you can help to shape the direction of this house.

These meetings help to decide the strategic direction that our house takes, but it is only open to those who have become members of Moishe Kavod House. If you are not yet a member and you want to have a voice in the conversation on where Moishe Kavod is going, it is not too late. You can still become a member. It takes a few minutes and can be done on-line here.

And if you can’t make it, but still need some democracy in your life there’s always Super Tuesday, but we hope we get to see you before then.

This past Sunday and Monday, several of us had the opportunity to take part in the 2^nd annual Arts Team Retreat. It, as you probably could have guesses, was about 30 hours or art and retreating which is to say taking time away from the everyday business of the world and making space to create. It was in one of these creative spaces that this week’s e-mail exegesis became apparent. Very often you open this e-mail and find yourself exhorted to look inside yourself and find the strength and conviction to engage in the work of progressive social change in the world. This week, we’d like to send you a slightly different message.

One of the sessions during this past Arts Team Retreat took the form of participants drawing what their spiritual home would look like. Given that these were all Moishe Kavodniks, one would think that if there was a common theme amongst these pictures it might be something symbolizing a thirst for justice. While some did feature this theme, the real common thread between all of the pieces produced during this session was a dwelling place that was still, peaceful, beautiful, and open to nature. What they all suggested was not necessarily a commitment to justice but an openness to radical awe. Now we are not suggesting, (and certainly not on this the day after Martin Luther King Day) that we are abandoning our commitment to action in the pursuit of social justice. However what we would like to suggest is that a well rounded and holistic sense of spirituality takes more than this. It takes an willingness to feel the unexplainable, to see the divinity in all people and all things, and to experience miracles in our everyday existence. Being spiritual person means being able to stand in silent awe of something, whether it be a beautiful sunrise or an unexpected act of loving kindness.  That being said, we would simply like to suggest to all of you that you keep your ears, eyes, and spirits open this week, and find something radically awesome in your life to be witness to.

We also hope that you can find ways to stand in awe with us and experience the divine presence in our Jewish community.