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It is flu and cold season. I should know. My wife had the flu, then each of my kids caught it from her and they were all generous enough to share it with me. While the flu is gone, the sniffles and cough that always seem to accompany the winter are hard for me to shake.
The word infection and the idea of sharing infections often connotes a negative feeling. We have our guards up, we use extra hand sanitizer and we pop vitamins and ecchinacea all to protect us from getting infected.
But, occasionally, getting infected is a good thing. Not all things contagious are bad.
Next week, after careful planning, our Temple is launching Shabbat Yachad; a program where members of our community will invite others for Shabbat dinner. However, Shababt Yachad at Temple Emanu-El has one variation. If invited by a host of Shabbat Yachad and you agree to the Shabbat dinner invitation, you therefore agree to host a Shabbat dinner in the coming weeks on our next Shabbat Yachad. We ask you to invite people that did not invite you rather, new people in our community or your social orbits. Our hope is that Shabbat Yachad will infect you positively and make Shabbat dinner contagious in our Temple community.
We will begin with three families that will invite 1-3 families each for Friday night Shabbat dinner. Then, for the next Shabbat Yachad, a few weeks later in March, those families that were guests will invite 1-3 families to their home for Shabbat dinner and so on and the amount of families celebrating Shabbat dinner and welcoming members of our community to break bread with them will grow exponentially. It will be contagious.
My teacher, Micha Goodman of the Hartman Institute, taught me that breaking bread together is a sign of elevating a friendship to a new level. There are countless examples throughout the Bible of relationships elevating because of sharing meals together. Dining together breaks barriers and allows people to learn about one another and encourages us to grow as a community. Our goal is to do just that. The invitation is for families (children are welcome) and our goal is to create a relaxed and meaningful experience.
When we read Parshat Terumah this week, we learn about the reciprocity of giving; that by giving we receive as well. I posit, that by celebrating Shabbat with guests and being a guest in another's home will enable us to feel the benefits of giving and receiving, like in Terumah, and allowing us to grow as family units and as a wholistic community.
I want to thank Leon & Toby Glazer, Lorin & Jonathan Cook and Felice & Alan Popper for being our first hosts and I want to thank Marilyn Steinthal for her support and partnership along with Toby, Felice and Lorin for helping to make this project launch and be successful.
It is OK to fight the flu but do not be afraid of being infected by the contagious nature of Shabbat Yachad. With your team work and participation, within the next 18 months, our Temple community will invite new and long time members to our Shabbat table and we will grow in countless ways.
Shabbat Shalom.
Rabbi David Kirshner
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