One year ago today…
Today is Ta’anit Esther, the Fast of Esther. It’s a day of grief. Of mourning. A day of observance which marks Queen Esther’s fast and sackloth ritual before approaching the King unannounced to reveal her identity and ask for her people to be saved. It also is a day to feel the weight and horror of the end of the Purim story, where after being saved, the Jewish people turn around and kill over 75,000 Persians.
One year ago today on the Jewish calendar, over 200 people gathered in the Bay Area for The Shalom Center’s actifest, the Tent of Mourning - a space of ritualized grief and mourning for anyone whose heart was tender and open enough to be grieving both Palestinians and Israelis.
It was a profound day. We lit a sacred grief fire when the fast began at 5:45 in the morning. The fire was tended silently for the duration of the fast. We had an actual tent, with ritual grief craft and interactive mourning installations. We had over twenty sessions, facilitated by local teachers and practitioners, spanning a wide variety of modalities. We had over twenty organizational partners, some of whom had never been on the same programmatic billing before, but could agree on the importance of shared mourning. We had a spiritual care team of local chaplains and clergy available for the spiritual and emotional needs of attendees. And we had an incredible cohort of ten local leaders who served as co-hosts, co-visionaries, and co-creators.
To get a sense of the day…
It’s impossible to know exactly the impact of that day. It’s not clear the direct or quantitative outcomes that came from convening in that way. And of course, there is still serious violence, devastation, and fear in Palestine and Israel. And yet, something cracked open that day. Something that transformed the people who attended and transformed The Shalom Center itself. In many ways, the pieces still haven’t been put back together, and maybe that’s part of the point.
On this Ta’anit Esther, we send continued care and heartbreak to all those grieving from October 7th and the destruction of Gaza. We pray for a kind of healing and transformation that seems eternally-distant. We uplift and honor all of the people and groups who are practicing the truth that there is no other way other than forging deep and real relationship with one another. And we wonder, what might continue to split open - inside of us and the world - the more we slow down and mourn together.
With blessings that fasts turn to feasts and harm is turned on its head,
Rabbi Nate
Chapter 9 Project
With Purim beginning tonight at sundown, we wanted to make sure you had easy access to the Chapter 9 Project.
In Chapter 9 of the Purim story - as mentioned above - after the Jews have avoided their own annihilation, they turn around and kill over 75,000 Persians. Last year, in the wake of October 7th and the destruction of Gaza, The Shalom Center invited 10 authors from across the Jewish world to re-write Chapter 9, telling new stories of nonviolence, peace, and possibility. Like then, we believe now that a new ending to our story is needed and this resource is a tender, hilarious, provocative, and powerful contribution to that vision that we hope you will read, study, chant, and share this Purim.
