By Laura Seymour
Dear Families,
When you read this, Inauguration Day and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day will be over. The news media will rehash the inauguration and continue to share constant updates on what is happening in the world; however, we may not hear much about MLK, Jr. Day until next year. I wonder if we would be better off if the constant updates were about the ideas MLK stood for?
In the search to give something to think about this week in my column, I went to www.recustom.com, a great site for new rituals. You may ask, “Don’t we have enough rituals in Judaism?” Good question! However, what this site challenges us to do is take the many rituals that we do daily, weekly, yearly, and change them just enough to keep the essence and help us create meaning for today (something that has always been done!). For MLK Day, there was a series of poems and readings, but what struck me was a photo along with poems of protest. As we know, protest takes many forms, but we know that we have an obligation to stand up for what we believe in. This photo was of a march with people carrying signs and the one in the middle said — WE ARE BETTER THAN THIS! There was no description of the purpose or time of the march, but the words ring true. We must continue to strive to be better.
The readings and thoughts for this week included a booklet with “20 Mitzvot for 20 Days” with lots of great ideas, from putting up a mezuzah and lighting Shabbat candles to smiling at someone and being kind to an animal. A mitzvah is a commandment which raises the level of expectations, yet shouldn’t we feel commanded to smile and be kind? It is already mid-January — have we forgotten our New Year’s resolutions? We can always begin again (listen to Elana Arian’s song “Begin Again”) and commit to always knowing we can change the world.
So what can we do going forward this year? We can begin by remembering the works of our sages in Pirke Avot — messages from another time but relevant to our tasks today:
• Chapter 4:1: Ben Zoma says: “Who is wise? The one who learns from everyone. Who is strong? The one who controls himself. Who is rich? The one who is happy with what he has. Who is honored? The one who honors others.”
• Chapter 1:14: Hillel was accustomed to say: “If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if I am for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?”
• Chapter 3:19: Everything is foreseen, yet the freedom of choice is given. The world is judged with goodness, and everything depends on the abundance of good deeds.
Laura Seymour is Jewish experiential learning director and camp director emeritus at the Aaron Family JCC.