Coordinator of Informal Jewish Life (HS) – Chavayah Co-ordinator – Jewish Studies Teacher – Tutor – Acting Year 7 Co-ordinator

This D’var Torah was inspired by a D’var Torah from Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg and delivered at Tefilah:

Pesach is the story of the end of the Jews’ time in slavery, a time where we were constrained physically and mentally in Mitzrayim, Egypt, the narrow place. On the second night of Pesach we begin counting the Omer, a period of 49 days between Pesach and Shavuot, between the end of slavery and the beginning of the Jewish People at Har Sinai. So, we have left Mitzrayim but not yet reached Sinai, neither here nor there, we are in an in-between space, a liminal space. This is a period of our Jewish calendar for us to consider transition.

There is a theory, offered by author William Bridges, that transitions happen in three stages, ending, the neutral zone and beginning. In our story, Pesach is the ending of slavery, Shavuot is a new beginning, a life no longer dictated by the demands of an earthly taskmaster bur rather Torah and our collective imperative for good.

Last Tuesday marked 75 years since David Ben Gurion proudly declared “Hee Medinat Israel”, the Nation of Israel lives. Was this our new beginning? Or was it perhaps just the end of our time in Mitzrayim, a period of 2000 years where our lives as Jews often hung perilously in the hands of others.

But before I speak about Zionism, we need to really understand the in between time, the neutral zone that Bridges speaks about, in our story from Mitzrayim to Sinai, this in between time takes place in the desert, bamidbar.

According to Bridges, people in this intermediate space are often confused, uncertain and impatient. There may be feelings of anxiety, scepticism or low morale – the past has been let go of, but the path to the future has not yet manifest.

It is uncomfortable, being no longer this but not yet knowing what that is going to look like, how it feels, who we will be and whether it will be any good at all.

And yet the neutral zone is a time of rich spiritual power, creativity, a time to try new ways of being in the world. It can be liberating to not be constrained by old ideas about who we are, what are our lives are supposed to be like. Terrifying sure, but also exhilarating.

The neutral zone is a time of quietness, of seeking out silence and the power it holds.

It is no coincidence that everything important in the Bible – prophecies, kingships, Torah – came out in the wilderness. It’s a place of danger and vulnerability, and perhaps it can feel like it can go on forever. Just ask anyone who has been on Chavayah and travelled on the overnight hike through the desert. Midbar Medaber, despite its almost inconceivable silence, the desert speaks with incredible power.

I suggest that Yom Ha’atzmaut, Israeli Independence marks the ending of our 2000-year exile and since then, our people have been in transition, in between. The fact that Israel now exists cannot alone be our Shavuot, our redemption. We need to see the State of Israel as a place that still needs to reach the promise laid out in the Declaration of Independence, which states that, “Israel will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.” Notice that it says The State of Israel will ensure equality, it will be guarantee freedom. It will, it will, it will.  We celebrate Israel now and we also keep aspiring to realise its noble vision. The founders of Israel wrote about Israel in the future tense because they knew that we must always be in transition towards this better future. Our nation has made progress, but it is not there yet. We know that recent months have been terribly difficult for Israel. Terror attacks and tensions have risen while the fabric of Israeli Democracy has been under strain. While we hope for peace and are regularly challenged by tragedy, we can keep aspiring to build an Israel that is fully a light unto the nations. That’s the thing about Judaism and transitions, we are always transitioning towards something better. We don’t believe that our ancestors were freed from slavery so our job is done or that we received the Torah at Sinai so we are done with reinventing ourselves. We have a Seder, count the Omer and celebrate Shavuot every year.

So, while we sit here in that uncomfortable time of transition between the Israel we have and the Zion we dream of we are also reminded by Pesach, The Omer and Shavuot that revelation is a process that we transition towards constantly. The point of the transition is for us to sit with the anxiety, ambiguity and the unknowability of what comes next. This is the time to go down deep into the deepest recesses of who we are, to find the resources and riches we didn’t know were there. We must take hold of this transitional time and harness the spiritual power and creativity it affords us to try new ways of being in the world, so that together, we can try to live up to the hope of our Jewish Nation.