Rabbi's Message

Rabbi Elyse Wechterman
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July-August 2006

Home

Not a night goes by,
I don't dream of wandering
Through the home that might have been.
And I listened to my pride
When my heart cried out for you.
Now every day I wake again
In a house that might have been
A home

- Dixie Chicks

It is interesting to me that the Hebrew language does not have a distinction between house and home – the word Bayit is used for both. But as the Dixie Chicks song suggests, we intuitively know the difference between a house – walls, bricks and mortar – and a home – a place of familiar comfort, warmth, and safety.

This time of year I often find myself thinking about what it means to have a home-both as an individual and as part of a Jewish people that experienced themselves in exile and “homeless” for more than 2,000 years. On August 3 we will observe the fast day of Tisha B’Av (The 9th of Av) which is the day on which both the First and Second Temples are said to have been destroyed. [In Hebrew, the term for the Temple is Bet Mikdash (Holy House) and the two historical Temples are referred to as HaBayit HaRishon (The first House) and HaBayit HaSheni (the second House).] The 9th of Av is the day that marks the beginnings of our wanderings and sense of exile.

Traditionally, Tisha B’Av is marked with fasting, mourning and the recitation of the book of Eicha (Lamentations). Many liberal communities do not make such an observance of Tisha B’Av. Frankly, we are not particularly mournful of the sacrificial system and priesthood that disappeared along with the Temple and don’t carry that same sense of longing for a time long ago that other Jews may have through the centuries. The idea of the Temple was never really “home” to us any way.

But each of us knows what it means to have a home – and what it might mean to lose it suddenly and without replacement.

During the summer travel month I am fond of telling people that I love to go away (to camp, to family, to the beach) and I love to come home. One of my favorite things in the world is to sleep in my own bed the night after being away. There is something about “coming home” that is so much more powerful and primal than “being home.” It is a feeling you can only experience by leaving the place you love.

The Jewish tradition gives us ample opportunities to remind ourselves of our rootedness in home. We thank God every morning for returning our breath/soul to our body - also known as a house. A second soul (neshamah yetera) returns home to us every Friday night for Shabbat. Each year in the fall, Jews return to synagogue, they flock to houses of worship for the High Holy Days to reconnect, rejuvenate, even just to check in on an annual basis. This year, God willing, many of us will travel to Israel to visit the ancient homeland of our people – another opportunity to “come home” in a most profound and potentially transformative way.

In each of these houses, we have the opportunity to build homes – with our bodies, with our families and with our community. In each of these spheres, I would like to challenge all of us to figure out what makes a house into a home and how you will deepen your sense of homecoming as we face the dawn of a new year.

Enjoy the rest of the summer.
B’Shalom
Rabbi Elyse

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