Thanksgiving is a good time to talk about rituals. Because there is very little in the form of set liturgy or tradition (other than menu and travel), it's a great time to see a lot of diversity and difference among families, who cherish those rituals they've inculcated for themselves.
With that in mind, a couple of links to help us.
First, my friend Rabbi Phyllis (of ima on the bima) shares her Thanksgiving 'Seders' on her blog here.
Second is Rabbi Hayim Herring's exploration of new rituals at his blog, Tools for Shuls, here.
And finally, as we at CBE continue to test Mishkan T'fillah, you can find it on Google Books (at least in chunks) here.
Finally, a question: what are the rituals that you look forward to, that make the holiday (or Shabbat, or a different holiday or life cycle event) meaningful for you? What would it mean to change those rituals, either by introducing new ones, or taking old ones away?
May you have a day full of gratitude, family and food.
Showing posts with label ritual. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ritual. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
A first day
So tomorrow's the big day: my official start date. After what seems like a LONG time (oh, wait, it was) I'll be coming into the office not just to have pre-meetings or unpack but to go to work. To say that I'm excited would be an understatement; I've been looking forward to this moment for at least six months.
I'm not going to blather about the importance of beginnings--that fact is self-evident. The question becomes: what do you do with it? What world do you--do I, do we--create as we begin together?
Again, I could repeat anything you could find from a good corporate or self-help manual about beginnings (The First 90 Days is probably as good as anything else out there). Setting the right tone, building relationships, scoring 'early wins', building consensus, etc. all play a role. For me, it all begins with ritual. We have a ritual for beginning and ending the week, beginning and ending Shabbat, beginning and ending the study of Torah, writing a sefer Torah, and anything else one might consider sacred. Likewise, this moment should be one of kedusha, of holiness. So, before the staff meeting (yeah, I'm making us have one of those), before anything else, we'll hang two mezuzot on my office doors. If you're around CBE at 11-ish, feel free to pop by.
"Rabbi Tarfon says: The day is short, the task is great... the reward is
great, and the Master of the house is insistent." (Pirkei Avot. 2:20) Time to go to work.
I'm not going to blather about the importance of beginnings--that fact is self-evident. The question becomes: what do you do with it? What world do you--do I, do we--create as we begin together?
Again, I could repeat anything you could find from a good corporate or self-help manual about beginnings (The First 90 Days is probably as good as anything else out there). Setting the right tone, building relationships, scoring 'early wins', building consensus, etc. all play a role. For me, it all begins with ritual. We have a ritual for beginning and ending the week, beginning and ending Shabbat, beginning and ending the study of Torah, writing a sefer Torah, and anything else one might consider sacred. Likewise, this moment should be one of kedusha, of holiness. So, before the staff meeting (yeah, I'm making us have one of those), before anything else, we'll hang two mezuzot on my office doors. If you're around CBE at 11-ish, feel free to pop by.
"Rabbi Tarfon says: The day is short, the task is great... the reward is
great, and the Master of the house is insistent." (Pirkei Avot. 2:20) Time to go to work.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)