Reopening the Synagogue When People Are Coming up the Down Staircase
Judaism for the Thinking Person
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Show Notes
How do we reopen the synagogue after over a year of being virtual? For some it's procedural: distance appropriately, follow guidelines, limit numbers, maybe wait on the food. But the Temple is not a gathering of bodies, it's a gathering of souls. How do we reopen appropriately to be a holy community, one that recognizes each other as souls? One of my favorite mishnayot speaks to this, and I was happy to be scooped by Professor Naomi Kalish in applying it to us today: https://www.jtsa.edu/struggling-to-celebrate There are four categories of people who went up the downstaircase at the Temple, and down the up staircase: the one in mourning, the one caring for a relative, the one who has been isolated, and the one who has lost a precious object. In this Dvar Torah on Emor, I apply these to our norms for a holy reopening.
Helpful picture: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/Huldah_Gates3344.JPG