Relationships by Rabbi Sandra Kviat

Today is the beginning of the annual Jewish Women’s Aid Shabbat (JWA), which this year focuses on healthy relationships.

It’s a poignant theme not just for love relationships between partners, spouses and boyfriends/girlfriends. The idea of healthy relationships can also include our close friends and family. And it is especially poignant because of the experiences of the past 5 weeks, where many have talked about the strain the situation in Israel/Gaza has put on these different relationships. JWA is asking us to have open conversations about what makes a relationship healthy – or unhealthy, and they have written this guide, which is a helpful start to discuss with partners, children, and friends about what makes a healthy relationship, what are the areas that we each feel challenged about, and what are the signs that a relationship might be abusive, or veering from unhealthy into something else.

You can find their Shabbat Conversation Starter here.

As a chavurah we are also looking at the relationships we have with those outside of our community that enrich our lives, but which might have become stretched in the past weeks. On Sunday 3rd December we will strengthen those bonds with the other faiths (and those of none) in the borough through the Multi Faith Forum Daffodil Planting event (more info in the newsletter on Sunday). It takes courage to engage in a conversation about our relationships but the effort is worth it, both hearing what the other thinks, but also as an opportunity for us to think about our ways of behaving and what matters to us in a relationship.