The times are urgent, let’s slow down.

by Rabbi Nate DeGroot

Since the election, these words - which I first heard Bayo Akomolafe speak on a podcast almost five years ago - have been echoing inside of me as the world propels, week over week, in hyperdrive. And inauguration is still over a month away.

There is a strong current that asserts that social justice urgency requires the speediest of responses. That when faced with societal crises, that’s the time for us to kick into high gear. I certainly feel that impulse.

Bayo’s words disrupt that current.

Slowing down in this case doesn’t just mean doing the same things slower, but doing things only slowness can offer. Dropping into a different register. Syncopating with a subterranean rhythm that we whizz by when moving at brisker speeds. More inch wide, mile deep than mile wide, inch deep, as adrienne maree brown teaches.

What might this kind of slowness offer for our work at The Shalom Center? In the space where the current is disrupted, what kinds of ancient and surprising things might burble and bubble up?

This is the space I have been primarily dwelling in for the last month or so, since becoming The Shalom Center’s new Director. Engaging in entangled conversations and thought experiments with soulful collaborators, reflecting on this past year’s actifests and trying to collectively discern how best to do our work of embodied sacred justice Jewish holiday celebrations and observances for the year ahead. And also plotting the soon to launch Reb Arthur Waskow Legacy Fund.

I’m grateful for your support and for the opportunity to turn - and turn again - these potentialities. And I’m nourished getting to be in this process with all of you!

Stay tuned for some timely Hanukah and solstice Torah from me, followed by announcements and sharing around next steps in the new year.

With blessings,
-Nate