Posted on January 21, 2022 by Liz Cohen
In the wake of the hostage rescue at Congregation Beth Israel in Texas, so many emotions have been stirring within — relief, fear, gratitude, vulnerability, anger — it’s hard to know what to do with all these feelings and stay grounded.
How fitting that tomorrow is our Tikkun Olam Shabbat. Tikkun Olam means “repairing the world,” helping to make whole that which is broken. We will come together to find personal and communal healing through prayer and consider meaningful acts that can bring healing to the world around us.
In this week’s parashah, Yitro, Moses’ father-in-law, advises him that leadership is not a solo act and that he should create a council of elders to help lead, guide, and judge. The lesson is clear: we grow stronger and are more effective as a community when we share responsibility for working toward our goals.
Working together is essential to effective social justice efforts; this has always been a guiding principle at TBE.
Our temple’s Social Action Committee was recently renamed and restructured as the Tikkun Olam Coalition, with the aim of enabling broader inclusiveness and engagement in both direct service and advocacy initiatives.
Many of these initiatives are not new, but now we have several teams representing the different efforts. We’re calling this a Coalition because our teams join together to support each other’s work, the totality of which is greater than the sum of its parts.
Tomorrow evening, you will hear from the leaders of the various teams about each initiative and about how we can work together as a temple community toward making our world more compassionate and just. Our service theme will be Welcoming the Stranger, a commandment that appears in the Torah 36 times and is an underlying value for all our efforts.
The work of the coalition is essential to shaping ourselves as the community we aspire to be. In this time of pandemic, events like the Texas hostage crisis, and challenges in our own day-to-day lives, we look to our temple to be a place of warm connection, welcome, and inspiration
The Tikkun Olam Coalition includes
We invite you to take part in ways that speak to you. Please contact Liz Cohen.
Shabbat shalom,
Liz Cohen
Chair, Tikkun Olam Coalition
