L'Chaim
Back in the early days of lockdown, just after the Purim packages of 2020 had been hastily assembled and delivered by an amazing group of volunteers (who turned up with 24 hours notice), someone wrote to say “I'm not sure whether this is an appropriate greeting right now, but I feel I want to say L'Chaim - to Life! Let's hope we can meet at a service to count our blessings before too long”.
Though we are not completely out of the woods yet, and we all still need to be careful with what we do, this Saturday night is the first time since March 2020 that we, as a community, can come together and say L’chaim - to life, at our outdoor havdalah. Though many will be with family they have not seen since October, I hope we can all take a moment to lift a glass or a cup, or even a beaker, and count our blessings.
One way we will do this, is to also encourage everyone who has had a B'nei Mitzvah, or a baby blessing or similar and who has not had a leaf sewn on to our Tree of Life, to bring a small piece of cloth (5x5 cm) in an envelope, with their name and occasion, so that when we get to Rosh Hashanah, we can see how much our Tree has grown despite the circumstances.
One of the reactions to the conflict in Israel/Palestine (see more below) is the feeling of helplessness it causes, as once we have donated money, read articles and tried to process what is going on, it is hard to see how we can help. I keep circling back to the ideas of coexistence and peace (with all its complicating issues), coupled with the reality that we all live outside of Israel, and it dawns on me that one of the most important things we can all do here is to keep working on our relationships outside of our main bubbles. To keep reaching out, to grow our lives and friendships outside of the usual parameters, through the work we do with Citizens UK, in the multi-faith forums, and in all the places where we meet others.
Our Trees of Life do not grow in isolation, there is a whole forest out there of other trees. And the most important thing we can say is L’Chaim, to life, to choose life not just for us but for others, over fear, despair and violence.