Filed under: Thoughts of the Week
Re’eh – Deuteronomy XI, 26-XVI, 17, we will read XV, 1 – XVI, 17, haftorah – Isaiah LIV, II – LV, 5
We will be on vacation in central Maine, north of Bangor, and not in our community this weekend. The short Torah reading describes the spring holiday that we know of as Passover, the holiday seven weeks later for the first harvest and the remembrance of the giving of the Torah at Sinai that we know as Shavuot, and the fall harvest festival, Succot, and these holidays’ practices. Key to the practices is that the whole community would celebrate, with one’s family, one’s neighbors, all who serve, the poor, the widow, within the gates of the community. One would give to the celebration and the practices as one is able, according to the blessing of the Divine that was given to the individual.
The prophetic reading is also short and focuses on the security from the people’s enemies by their trust in the Divine. “All of your children will be taught of the Divine and great will be peace for your children” (Isaiah LIV, 13).
This week for me was one of blessings – the blessings of completing one’s summer programs and classes – and the curses of losing the stability of the routine and the added problem when one’s tools are not reliable. My office workstation went to the technology hospital for what seemed to be a virus and now seems to be a major malfunction, taking with it many of the tools that I rely upon. With the problems came learning to find alternatives to deal with the daily email, writing, online course teaching, and webpage development. The curse of unstable technology is strengthening one’s reliance on creative problem-solving.
I had an opportunity to celebrate our community when invited to speak on the phone about Willimantic and my impressions of its diversity, schools, and future. I spoke of first seeing Willimantic when visiting with Debbie to hear several regional/national bands at Recreation Park one Sunday afternoon in August 1985. Coincidence, or the Divine’s sense of humor, there will be another day in the park with music and fireworks next weekend; this time, Debbie and I will be going as members of a community with a lot of friends and a lot of blessings. We celebrate our community and its holidays and events, its diversity, our neighbors. There is a peace that comes for seeing the blessings of what we have and striving to turn curses into ways of learning more.
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