Every year over the High Holidays, we distribute a State of the Mishkan, our version of an annual report. Below is the opening letter from Rabbi Lizzi and Rabbi Steven. Read the whole State of the Mishkan now to learn more about the health of our organization, all the exciting things our Builders are doing, and how you can be part of writing Mishkan’s next chapter.
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Dearest Mishkanite,
Exhausted. Anxious. Lonely. Scared. Feeling like things are coming apart at the seams. These are some of the most common answers we heard to the usually straightforward question, “How are you?” this past year.
Then again, we danced with you at your weddings, celebrated your baby namings and brises, sang mazal tov with you at your kids’ BMitzvahs, and clinked glasses at home-cooked Shabbat dinners all year. We learned together with visiting scholars, in small groups, and in hevruta. We kvelled as a new class of BluePrint students joined the Jewish people, and we rocked out at one joyous service after the next.
Remember the mantra we started repeating at Mishkan during the 2020 lockdowns? It’s time to dust it off again: We were built for this.
We don’t get to choose the moment in history we’re born into as Americans and Jews, but we do still have a choice: despair or hope, isolation or community, giving up or getting in the game. Or, to quote the Torah, life or death, blessing or curse. We choose to resist hopelessness and despair. We choose life.
Spirituality and tradition are nice to have when the going is good, but they become tools of survival when the going gets tough. And it’s in those moments that we see how resilient, creative, and brave we are. Our daily, weekly, and annual practice of Judaism trains us to wake up with gratitude, count our blessings, and pray and fight for a better world like it depends on us. Because it does.
Wherever this year takes us, we’ll meet it with the Jewish values and community that have kept our people strong for 3,000 years. We were built for this. You were built for this, too.
L’shannah tovah u’metukah — may this year be sweet, good, and filled with reasons to find hope, connection, and joy.
Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann
Rabbi Steven Philp
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Read the rest of this year’s State of the Mishkan to learn more about the health, size, and vibrancy of our community.
