This weekend marks Jewish Women’s Aid Shabbat, a fully cross-communal event supported by the Office of the Chief Rabbi, United Synagogue, Reform Judaism, Liberal Judaism, Masorti Judaism, S&P Sephardi Community, Jewish Leadership Council and the Board of Deputies.

According to Jewish Women’s Aid’s website:
“The goal is to focus our community on the issue of domestic abuse and sexual violence, and generate important conversations that lead to a culture change.”

Sadly, no community is immune from domestic abuse. As we reach nearly two years of the pandemic, the lockdowns caused a spike in cases of domestic abuse as people were trapped in with their abusers. In this last year alone, it was estimated that 1.6 million women were victims of domestic abuse. When we speak of domestic abuse, it is not just physical violence that is being spoken of. Since 2015, coercive control was recognised in law. Coercive control is a continuing “act or pattern of acts of assault, threats, humiliation and intimidation or other abuse that is used to harm, punish, or frighten their victim.” (cps.gov.uk)

Jewish Women’s Aid has wonderful resources to help educate our communities and support those going through physical abuse or coercive control. So often in tight-knit communities, rather than being held and protected, people can feel constrained and may feel  reluctant to share the truths of their relationships, if they fear it will damage the name of a loved congregant. No one should have to suffer at the hand of another. If you are concerned about yourself, a friend or a loved one, please know that Jewish Women’s Aid is there for you.

Rabbi Anna Posner

As we entered into the New Year, we rerolled the scroll and began our story back at the beginning. Bereshit, in the beginning, God created all that was. Often, we read the story as binary; light and darkness, day and night, land and sea. Yet we know that as we follow the light through the day, from morning to night time, it changes in increments; twilight, dawn, dusk.

The stories in Genesis, before Abraham, are universal stories of humanity. No tribe is set, no religion. In creation, we learn that all humans are created in God’s image. Famously, when asked the ‘golden rule’ of Judaism, Rabbi Hillel answered, “Treat your neighbour as you would want to be treated.”  Rabbi ben Azai argued that the word ‘neighbour’ is too narrow. In fact, the golden rule should be to remember that all humans were created in the image of God and we are all descendants of Adam.

In Exodus, we’re taught that all people whose hearts moved them, contributed to the building of the Mishkan (Tabernacle). The artists who were wise of heart brought the plans, and the women whose hearts stirred them spun the goat’s hair. Together the Israelites built the tabernacle where God would dwell. Upon the Mishkan sat two cherubim, from the root keruv, to draw close. The two cherubim facing each other teaching us, according to Torah scholar Avivah Zonberg that, “God is in the place where the two gazes intersect.”

The divine is found in connection and relationship, and through those divine encounters, we are moved and changed. Divinity is found in the connection between, and knowledge and truth are found in an understanding that often, when things seem binary, we must look for the twilight.

Rabbi Anna Posner

The task of heshbon hanefesh (accounting for the soul) that Jews are implored to do during the High Holy Days is too large to begin just on Erev Rosh Hashannah and so, the month of Elul is traditionally a time where we begin the work and prepare our minds and bodies for our yearly soul cleanse. Customarily the Shofar is blown every morning to awaken the senses, reminding us of this extra daily task and Psalm 27 is added to the daily liturgy, a psalm that begs for guidance and support, that God not abandon us through this difficult process. That month of Elul began on the 9^th of August, giving us plenty of time to prepare ourselves for the month ahead.

This yearly cleaning out of the soul culminates with Yom Kippur, a day where we withdraw ourselves from the world of the living and refrain from normal day to day activity including eating, washing and working. We give space for our minds to reflect to give us the strength and motivation to be judged and be ready start afresh for the New Year ahead. If we are building up to the final stage of withdrawal, maybe we begin the process in the month of Elul at the other end of the spectrum by truly engaging with our day to day lives. Not just going through the motions but taking stock of our interactions, the places we go, the things we write, the people we see, each and everything we do in the daily run of life. Taking the time to be present and engage with how our movements and actions affect us and those around us. Being able to reconnect with people again and go places after nearly eighteen months of the world being turned upside down gives us another opportunity to take stock of our lives. What relationships flourished, which need repair, what did we miss, what are we learning, what feels safe, what feels like we do not want to return to it. Elul is a time for taking action rather than withdrawal, a time to tie up loose ends, make those connections you keep putting off, apologise to those who you may have hurt, break bad habits, channel your anger into action and give yourself a fresh start.

The modern world can often feel nonstop. With work days and weeks getting ever longer, social media and mobile phones keeping people always switched on and political unrest feeding fear, uncertainty and anger. It can be overwhelming and exhausting. The month of Elul affords us that time to step back and take note, even see where we may want to throw ourselves in. The Maharal of Prague said that during the month of Elul before eating or sleeping one must look into their soul and search their deeds for what they may confess this year and Mateh Moshe, a rabbi who wrote halacha in the 16^th century, said that during the month of Elul people should exclude themselves for an hour a day to scrutinize their actions.

Be it by listening to the Shofar sound every day, reciting psalm 27, excluding yourself for an hour a day, making that phone call you keep meaning to make, writing that letter, donating to that charity, going out to protest, choosing to engage with those things that give you energy and stepping back from those that give you pain, find the thing that can help you this Elul to prepare yourself for the fresh start of the New Year. And remember, while all this soul searching can only be done as each of us as individuals, we are held together and supported in a community of people joining us in the task and when we join together on Rosh Hashannah there, we can continue the work together.

Rabbi Anna Posner