By Miriam Abramovich
This week’s Torah portion, Ha’azinu (Listen!), contains one of Moses’ final messages to the Israelites. After recounting our forty years in the wilderness and the laws we are to follow, Moses shifts his approach from sermon to song. In poetic verse, he calls on heaven and earth to hear his message, portraying our covenant with God in dramatically opposing ways – tender and nurturing, yet also harsh and vengeful.
“Like an eagle who rouses its nestlings, gliding down to its young, so did [God] spread wings and take them… [God] set them atop the highlands, to feast on the yield of the earth; nursing them with honey from the crag.” (Deuteronomy 32:10–13)
Only a few verses later, we read:
“[God] said: I will hide My countenance from them and see how they fare in the end. For they are a treacherous breed, children with no loyalty in them.” (Deuteronomy 32:20)
Early in his song Moses refers to God as HaTzur “The Rock” capturing both a steadiness and also unyielding judgment. That blend of God’s reproach and nourishment, of warning and blessing, mirrors this remarkable four-day stretch we are in, between Yom Kippur and Sukkot.
On Yom Kippur, we turned inward. We fasted, prayed, confronted our mistakes, and sought forgiveness. It was a day of awe, seriousness, and limits. And now, almost on a dime, we turn to Sukkot, Z’man Simchateinu, the season of our rejoicing. In the days to come we will celebrate under open skies, expanding outward into joy and possibility. If Yom Kippur is about walls, Sukkot is about open space. If Yom Kippur contracts, Sukkot expands. Judaism insists we need both.
Just as Sukkot invites us out of the walls of our homes and into an expansive, joyful space, this season can also be an opportunity to be expansive in how we joyfully engage with Jewish life. One of the most powerful ways to do that is through Jewish learning. Across Jewish Buffalo, opportunities for this kind of learning abound. From weekly study at our congregations to Federation’s Women and Men Gathering cohorts, there are many ways to explore – opening ourselves to questions that stretch us, ideas that inspire us, and conversations that connect us.
Each month for the last two years, I had the privilege of facilitating a Women Gathering cohort. The content shifts with the season, but at its core, it’s a space where thoughtful, curious women come together to wrestle with ideas that matter in our lives. We read Torah with a big T and a little t. We ask hard questions. We laugh, we challenge, and we stretch – not just intellectually, but spiritually and emotionally.
These days between Yom Kippur and Sukkot invite us all into that same possibility. As you hammer the first nails of your Sukkah or sit beneath the stars with a meal or a song, consider also stepping into a Jewish learning practice. Like Sukkot itself, learning calls us beyond walls – into expansiveness, joy, and possibility. And like Moses’ song in Ha’azinu, it holds both the tenderness of nourishment and the toughness of challenge.
Learn more or register to participate in one of the Federation’s Jewish Leaning gatherings here.
Miriam Abramovich is the CEO of the Buffalo Jewish Federation.
