The Shiva Candle

Opening comments for the Center for Small Town Jewish Life Shabbaton

Welcome to the Center for Small Town Jewish Life Fall Shabbaton. I am Rabbi Rachel Isaacs, Executive Director of the Center. We are so grateful and moved that you are with us today. We have been hosting this Shabbaton for a decade, and yet, this year it is different.  I want to talk about this moment we are in, and where I think we should go for the next 25 hours. 

Eicha – how?  During times of tragedy, this is the word that rings in our ears through Jewish text and tradition.  Eicha? - how do we move forward, how do we make sense of a world radically changed. We are in a state of mourning.  Many of us are mourning for our family and friends in Israel, killed and held hostage in Gaza. Many of us are mourning for the Palestinians killed and displaced in this conflict.  Many of us are in a state of acute grief for those killed in Lewiston. We are holding different pains differently, depending on our stories, our identities, and worlds we are working to create. But almost all of us are experiencing a moment of deep pain, concentric circles of profound grief.

And also, now that the sun has set, we are here together on Shabbat – our island in time, a time we are commanded to push mourning to the sidelines of our life, to make space for peace and sweetness.  According to Jewish tradition, when we are in Shiva, the 7 day period we mourn an immediate relative after they have died, we don’t blow out the shiva candle that we lit when we came back from the cemetery.  But we are supposed to move it outside of the dining room on Erev Shabbat so that we can create a space of comfort and joyousness, making real room for a Shabbat meal that serves as an island of goodness in the raging sea of our despair. 

Tonight at this Shabbaton, we are not extinguishing the flame we hold with us as mourners, but we are moving it to the kitchen to make a space fitting for Shabbat. We are blessed to be joined by incredible musicians Lapidus and Myles for a beautiful night of song, and college students from around the state that will teach us Torah.  I want to thank our sponsors and volunteers who have made this incredible and deeply needed Shabbat possible:

Thank you to:

Bowdoin College Hillel and from Colby College: Center for the Arts and Humanities, Cultural Events Committee, Department of African American Studies, Department of Jewish Studies, Department of Music, Department of Religious Studies, Office of the Provost, Pugh Center for Student Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and the Student Government Association.

For those of you who want to watch what promises to be a beautiful and moving Shabbat service, you can livestream it here, beginning at 7:00 pm Friday night.

Shabbat Shalom to one and all.