Tag: Collapse

Where now?

The “collapse” series, launched at the close of Tammuz (late July 2025), began with questions and with cisterns that, God complains, “can hold no water.” In the ensuing weeks, we’ve marked institutional destruction with the mourning and introspection of Av and Elul; we’ve focused on relationship repair and building of shaky new structures through Tishrei’s Days of Awe and Sukkot; and we closed out one Torah reading cycle at Simchat Torah, leading once again into exile, murder, communal violence, catastrophic flood, family conflict, and social scattering.

Now, 14 weeks on, as the Torah portion calls “Lekh Lekha [Go for, or to, yourself!]” (Gen 12:1), this series on repentance in a time of collapse comes to its close. I originally imagined the series as leading toward the high holidays, but the new year came with so many uncertainties… and so I held off, waiting for a logical end point. This closing came for me, sadly, when Tzedek Chicago, where I had been an active member for some years, used my “Al Chet for Institutions” at Yom Kippur services without any plans for organizational teshuvah. (For anyone interested, I formally resigned on October 27 and posted a further update on October 31 after the congregation separated with the second of its foundational co-cantorial soloists.)

Lekh Lekha: Go where?

At the beginning of Elul, Jeremiah’s haftarah questions invited us into a wake-up call and conversation for the season of repentance. The haftarah for Lekh Lekha, Isaiah 40:27-41:16, also begins with a question:

לָמָּה תֹאמַר יַעֲקֹב וּתְדַבֵּר יִשְׂרָאֵל נִסְתְּרָה דַרְכִּי מֵיְהֹוָה וּמֵאֱלֹהַי מִשְׁפָּטִי יַעֲבוֹר׃

Why do you say, O Jacob,
Why declare, O Israel,
“My way is hid from GOD,
My cause is ignored by my God”? — Isaiah 40:27

Jewish Publication Society commentary notes how this differs from “the theological motif that God deliberately hides [the divine’s] face from [God’s] creatures as an expression of anger or rejection (cf. Deut 31:18; Ps. 44:25)” and identifies the question as a “quote from a communal lament, bemoaning a lack of knowledge” (The JPS Bible Commentary: Haftarot, 2002. Michael Fishbane, citing Claus Westermann, 1969).

The Torah portion itself asks: “Whence do you come [אֵי־מִזֶּה בָאת]? and where do you go?” [וְאָנָה תֵלֵכִי] (a messenger of YHVH of God to Hagar, Gen 16:8).

Both questions seem fitting for this point in our collapse travels.

In addition, the haftarah offers a kind of bookend for the cistern images which began this series. Back then, God chastised the people for having abandoned “Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, That can hold no water” (Jer 2:13). Now, the people are addressed as “Seed of Abraham my friend” or “…who loved me” [זֶרַע אַבְרָהָם אֹהֲבִי] (Isa 41:8).

We’ve spent weeks considering forms of collapse around us and cisterns that no longer seem to hold water. Now we are reminded that, whatever may be broken around us, the seed of relationship with the divine is still available.

This is the tenth in the series, “Calendar Notes for a Summer of Collapse“

NOTE

UPDATE October 31, 2025: Over the past four months, Tzedek Chicago has separated the congregation from both long-time co-cantorial soloists: in one case, using the vague “intractable differences” explanation often employed in quashing union/labor disputes; in another case, using specific language about misuse of power which seems directly contradicted by structures of the organization. While I do not deny any individual’s experience of harm, I have witnessed enough problematic uses of power within the organization by those making the public declarations to be wary of how these actions have been taken and announcements made. At this point, although I am deeply grateful for individual relationships I have made over the years and cannot rewrite history to remove my contributions to the congregation, I must re-evaluate any association with the congregation as an entity.

More at “Stepping Away“




Summer Breather, Toward Fall

Calendar Notes for a Summer of Collapse

Part 1 (of 10)

Download PDF version — Summer Breather, Toward Fall


The Jewish calendar’s springtime is full:

  • Purim, Passover and the Omer Period, then Shavuot;
  • The months of Adar, Nisan, Iyar, and Sivan mark, on the one hand, winter’s overturning, the early (barley) and the later (wheat) harvests; on the other:
  • unveiling of hidden power, the beginnings of Liberation, the path to Sinai, and Revelation.

After all that, Tammuz holds one minor fast day.

The 17th of Tammuz starts the semi-mourning period of “The Three Weeks” (see below). And that period leads into preparations for the High Holidays and “THE festival” of Sukkot in the fall.

Tammuz itself offers a kind of breather. And For Times Such as These suggests it is a good month to ask:

What’s growing in your garden now?
What is feeding you? What does the sun have to offer?
Where do you see signs of what’s been destroyed in your communities?
What destruction needs attending to?
How are the hurts of your communities/histories manifesting in the collective body?
What grief is unresolved and impacting your community?
— Rabbi Ariana Katz & Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg. For Times Such as These: A Radical’s guide to the Jewish Year (Wayne State University Press, 2024), p.249

As Tammuz comes to a close — the month ends this year on July 25 — we can still ponder, carrying our answers or remaining questions into the next phase of the calendar.

The new month of Av begins on Shabbat, July 25-26 (2025) and For Times Such as These suggests that we ask:

NOTE: Av questions relating to love and sex seem better suited to the post-mourning days of the month; again, see calendar notes below, and check out For Times Such as These for more on the Jewish year.

God’s Questions and Ours

God has a lot of questions for us, according to the prophet Jeremiah*:

1) what? [מַה, mem-hey, mah] — Jeremiah 2:5

2-4) where? where? where? [אַיֵּה, alef-yud-hey, ayyeh] — Jer 2:6, 2:8, and 2:28

5) why? [מַדּוּעַ, mem-dalet-vav-ayin, madua‘] — Jer 2:14

6-7) whatsoever? or what-in-any-way? [מַה־לָּךְ, mah+lamed-kaf] — twice in Jer 2:18

8) how? [אֵיךְ, alef-yud-kaf, eikh] — Jer 2:23

Interrogatives are not unusual in biblical Hebrew. But eight in the space of 24 verses has an impact. Together, the piled up questions turn this passage into a kind of awareness demand.

Three of these interrogatives — what, where, and how — are part of questions we might already be asking ourselves, and each other, for the months of Tammuz and Av (see page 1).

In addition, the final question, Eikh [How?], hints at a theme in the next week’s readings, which are dominated by “Eikhah / How?!” as lament.

It’s important to ask specific, seasonal questions — and lean into the lament they raise. And it can be oddly comforting to know that the Jewish calendar is designed to stress this need. But it can also be helpful to imagine a less specific dialogue with the divine, one centered around questions as wake-up call: What? Where? Why? What-in-any-way? How?

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*Jeremiah 2:4-28 plus 3:4 is read as the second “haftarah of affliction” in preparation for Tisha B’Av. When, as in 5785/2025, the reading comes on Rosh Chodesh Av, two verses about new moons are added to close the haftarah: Isaiah 66:1, 66:23.

** For language geeks and trivia lovers: The form of “where” in Jeremiah 2 is lengthened from the simpler alef-yud, אַי. The Brown-Driver-Briggs biblical dictionary adds about this form:

used of both persons & things (but never with a verb [contrast אֵיפֹה (eifo, alef-yud-pei-hey)]; oft. in poet. or elevated style, where the answer nowhere is expected…

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Broken Cisterns, Holding Water

Amid all the questions, this chapter of Jeremiah includes the following divine complaint:

כִּי־שְׁתַּיִם רָעוֹת עָשָׂה עַמִּי
אֹתִי עָזְבוּ מְקוֹר מַיִם חַיִּים
לַחְצֹב לָהֶם בֹּארוֹת בֹּארֹת נִשְׁבָּרִים
אֲשֶׁר לֹא־יָכִלוּ הַמָּיִם׃

For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, That can hold no water.

— Jer 2:13, (JPS 1917 translation — a little old-fashioned, but chosen for its rhythms)

Water is often linked with Torah and with healing. So God’s complaint might be understood as accusing the people of failing to value God’s teaching and healing, and of creating faulty containers, unsuitable for gathering and preserving God’s life-giving offerings.

A related passage in Proverbs is used for much commentary on Torah, water, and healing:

שְׁתֵה־מַיִם מִבּוֹרֶךָ
וְנֹזְלִים מִתּוֹךְ בְּאֵרֶךָ׃

יָפוּצוּ מַעְיְנֹתֶיךָ חוּצָה
בָּרְחֹבוֹת פַּלְגֵי־מָיִם׃

Proverbs 5:15) Drink water from your own cistern [borkha],
Running water from your own well.

16) Your springs will gush forth
In streams in the public squares. [Revised JPS 2023]

These teachings, attributed the Talmud’s Rabbi Akiva, focus on the idea of bor [pit/cistern]:

In this season of contemplating all that is broken, in and around us, the Jeremiah and Proverbs images and Rabbi Akiva’s teaching are worth reflection. Here are some questions for this particular season:

  • In what ways have our Torah-containers broken, over time and more recently?
  • Are all such breaks “bad”? How might cracks help us move forward differently?
  • Have we (individuals, communities, society) forsaken divine teaching? How? And, if so, how might we remedy that?
  • What kinds of containers do we need for communal Torah today?
  • What kind of work is required to build what is needed?
  • How does the imagery in Prov 5:15-16 differ from that found in Jeremiah?
    • — Is one vision more universal than the other?
    • — Is either more hopeful?
    • — Many translations, including RJPS, opt for “your own cistern” and “your own well” rather than just “your cistern” and “your well.” What is “ours” or “our own”?
    • — Does sticking to our (own) Torah caution us from “bad” teaching? limit us in some way? Or does it encourage us to bring out our (own) Torah?
    • How does Akiva’s imagery differ from that in the biblical passages?
  • — How does Torah/water get into the cistern in the two sets of images?
  • — A pit may contain no water to start with, but is all Torah poured in by scholars?
  • — Consider, too, this story about Akiva himself, water, and a bor:

Speaking of Broken Things

Akiva (c. 50 – 135 CE) is a huge figure in the Talmud and later lore. For this summer of collapse, it’s particularly worth noting that Akiva was a controversial figure in the politics of responding to Roman occupation and that two of the most quoted stories about him involve major tragedy: his 24,000 students who died in a plague of disrespect (B. Yebamot 62b), and “the four who entered Paradise” (B. Chagigah 14b: Wikipedia’s basic page on the legend of Pardes is pretty useful).

The latter story brings us back to stones and water — in a strange, mystical way:

[Akiva told his fellow travelers:] When you reach the stones of pure marble, don’t say, “Water! Water!” As it states, “One who speaks falsehood shall not endure before My eyes” [Psalms 101:7] — Babylonian Talmud, Chagigah 14b

Four men entered pardes [paradise]: Ben Azzai, Ben Zoma, Acher ([“Other”], Elisha ben Abuyah), and Akiva. We are told: “Ben Azzai looked and died; Ben Zoma looked and went mad; Acher destroyed the plants [became a heretic]; Akiva entered in peace [or wholeness, “shalom”] and departed in peace” (B. Chagigah 14b again). Many teachers assume that this means Akiva was of superior mind or spirit. But the story does raise the question: What does it mean to survive in wholeness amid such disaster, for near friends and so many others? Returning to the For Times Such as These questions for Tammuz:

Where do you see signs of what’s been destroyed in your communities?

What destruction needs attending to?

How are the hurts of your communities/histories manifesting in the collective body?

What grief is unresolved and impacting your community?


Toward Tisha B’Av, “Within the Straits,” and Then Beyond: Calendar Notes for Tammuz and Av and Elul — here as PDF (if anyone needs another format for accessibility, please advise) —

Toward Tisha B’AvDownload

Download Toward Tisha B’Av