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Shiurim
USCJ EC Staff Meeting Shiur - May 2007
My brother and I were at Sinai
He kept a journal
of what he saw
of what he heard
of what it all meant to him
I wish I had such a record
of what happened to me there
It seems like every time I want to write
I can’t
I’m always holding a baby
one of my own
or one for a friend
always holding a baby
so my hands are never free
to write things down
And then
As time passes
The particulars
The hard data
The who what when where why
Slip away from me
And all I’m left with is
The feeling
But feelings are just sounds
The vowel barking of a mute
My brother is so sure of what he heard
After all he’s got a record of it
Consonant after consonant after
consonant
If we remembered it together
We could recreate holy time
Sparks flying
- Merle Feld, “We All Stood Together,” A Spiritual Life: A Jewish Feminist Journey [Albany: SUNY Press, 1999], p. 205
Questions for Discussion:
- In recounting when we stood together at Sinai, receiving the Torah, we are told, “But take utmost care and watch yourselves scrupulously, so that you do not forget the things that you saw with your own eyes and so that they do not fade from your mind as long as you live. Make them known to your children and to your children's children” (Deuteronomy 4:9). Merle Feld’s poem points out that this attention, this memory, is not always possible. How do we reconcile the disparity between our desire to preserve and document a moment and the reality of fleeting moments and demanding priorities?
- The Torah tells us, “I make this covenant…not with you alone, but both with those who are standing here with us this day… and with those who are not with us here this day.” (Deuteronomy 29:13) We all stood at Sinai. The giving of the Torah was intended for each of our ears. Picture yourself standing at Sinai. Are you young, struggling with a baby on your hip, or are you an old woman at the end of her days? Did you come straight from work with paint shmeared on your pants?
- When we each envision ourselves standing at Sinai, we can each embark on our own connection to the Torah. We want children to have a sense that they, too, stood at Sinai, so that they can take ownership of the Torah, all the stories and the laws. Still, very young children are very literal. How can you enable children to experience standing at Sinai, while at the same time actually use the experience to give children a connection to Torah?
Printable version
Maxine Segal Handelman
Consultant for Early Childhood Education,
United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
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