Wednesday, February 1, 2017

Take a Break - February 2017

Six years you shall sow your fields, and six years prune your vines, and gather the produce, but in the seventh year, the land shall have a sabbath of sabbaths - a Shabbat to God: You will not sow your field; you will not prune your vines. Lev. 25:3-4


Some sabbatical reflections: Almost eight years ago, as I began my second decade with Temple Sholom, the congregation gave me the ability to take some sabbatical time.  Taking a whole year off seemed daunting to a moderate-sized congregation, so we arranged that I would be able to take a cumulative six months over the five years of that contract, avoiding B’nei Mitzvah and major Temple events.  I ended up taking a month here and there - usually in the summer months, or December to January.  Because of Temple needs, one month of those six ended up in this current contract, and now I have completed, over eight years, the six months of rest.  Since I am grateful to the congregation for this opportunity, I thought I would share some of my thoughts, looking backward and forward.


At the beginning, my goals for sabbatical were three-fold.  Based on the text above, one primary goal was rest - a chance not to be on-call, or concerned about what was happening next.  But rest, in and of itself, seemed just to be a vacation, and a second goal was to see what arose from “lying fallow” - seeing what might sprout without careful tilling and tending.  To be able to see things in a different way, I tried to visit other congregations and even other religion’s services, but also just to take time to observe and re-examine old assumptions.  Third, I wanted to be able to take some time to study.  The more I learn, the more I can share, but study time often gets lost in the press of day to day.


Looking back, I can see some of the fruits of this time now brought into our congregation.  The ideas of sharing the joys in our week, as well as the sorrows, after we light the candles, came from sabbatical reflection on the nature of our communal worship - as did the time we now cherish when those in mourning share a memory of those they have come to remember at the Mourners’ Kaddish.  Our Hebrew school’s re-focus on helping our children to be “leaders of meaningful (Reform) Jewish worship” came before a sabbatical, but the repercussions were reinforced and expanded in sabbatical reflection.  I also had time to work with some of our larger Reform movement organizations - the Central Conference of American Rabbis on a project to help other rabbis with sabbatical; the Union for Reform Judaism on education at our teen leadership academy at the Kutz Camp; and exploring the concept of creating a Doctor of Ministry in Social Justice at the Hebrew Union College, our seminary.  As to study, I did a little bit of Hebrew brush up guided by Dr. Stanley Nash, but, by and large, the times of sabbatical were not conducive to the academic calendar.


After this month, I have returned with some ideas about how to help congregants fulfill their purposes and find meaning by engaging in the social justice work of their hearts - but more about that in the months to come.  I return from these widely-spaced tastes of sabbatical with gratitude to you, and a hope that, in taking time to let whatever may grow, grow, there are new things to feed our community.  I recognize that not everyone - barely anyone - is able to take extended time away from their careers (by choice) without the worry of continued employment, but I encourage you to take what moments you may - even each week at services - to step back, to let life flow by at its own pace, and to try to see things from a bit of a different angle.  We work so hard to sow and to prune - expecting everything to bloom as we expect.  It rarely does - and there is a gift in discovering what can grow and prosper when we step back and give a little space.


Thank you again.

Rabbi Joel N. Abraham