Filed under: Thoughts of the Week
It is new year in our community. This year, we all say how early it has come. The new moon of the fall season arrived before the autumnal equinox, on a Wednesday evening before mid-September. Since the dates on the lunar calendar of 5768 and the solar calendar of 2007 are unique, each year we have a reaction to their timing. The new year has broken pleasant, warm days and cool nights, but not the rains that we need.
Debbie and I have been honored during the past years to read/chant the story of Hannah and the birth of Samuel as the haftorah (I Samuel 1:1-2:10), the reading after the Torah.
This was a year when I chanted the story. Elkana of Ephraim had two wives, one of which, Hannah, did not have any children. Hannah went to Shilo, the northern kingdom’s Temple site, and prayed silently at its entrance. Eli, the priest, observed her distress and accused her of drunkenness. After explaining her despair, Eli wished that her petition for a child be granted. In due time, Hannah had a child whom she had pledged to have the priests raise, lending him to the Lord. That child was Samuel, who would be the prophet that would establish Saul and David as kings of Israel. Debbie read what is known as the song of Hannah, a poem that expresses a theme of the season, that the Lord determines the future directions of people, that “the barren woman has borne seven children, while the mother of many is forlorn.” With faith, and patience, “and not by one’s own strength”, does one succeed in this life.
The Torah reading (Genesis 21) that precedes this story is of the birth of Isaac, the conflict between Sarah and Hagar over the place of their sons in the future of Abraham’s descendants, the expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael, the promise of Ishmael’s future as a father of a great nation, and a peace treaty between Abraham and local kings over water rights and wells. This is a story first told over 3,000 years ago, but pertinent for today for the Arab people and Islam sees Ishmael as the true inheritor of the Divine’s promise to Abraham. Israel today is in need of the diplomatic skills of Abraham to resolve the conflicts of water and territory with its neighbors. And women still fight over the place of their children and of themselves in a community.
This year, I focused on the notion of weaning found in both of the Torah and haftorah stories. Over second evening dinner at the Rabbi’s home, we discussed that the Hebrew word for weaning has the consonants G-M-L, which are also the consonants for GaMeL – camel. It was fun to play with these words and to try to make the connections, but we are no longer desert people who know camels and weaning well. Both Abraham and Elkanar and Hannah had great celebrations when their sons were weaned. It is too bad that we have lost this custom. Perhaps it is because sons are no longer ever psychologically weaned from their mothers in this culture now.
The three members of our family remaining in our home this season developed a new year’s card and e-newsletter that we sent to our family and friends via email, with a few copies going to relatives who do not use computers. Our e-newsletter included a photo of our camel-riding last December in the northern Negev near Dimona, a blurry picture of the Temple Mount, a photo of Debbie and me in a cistern on Masada, and family photos from other happy events throughout the year. We look forward to another year of health, happiness, peace, and learning – which is our wish to all we know and all with whom we share this lovely planet during these always interesting times. L’shanah tovah.
Create a free edublog to get your own comment avatar (and more!)
No Comments so far
Leave a comment
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
