Community Blog

Shabbat Shalom! This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Pekudei, in which we conclude the Book of Exodus with the final descriptions of the finished Mishkan and priestly vestments. At Torah Study on Monday evening, we spent some time talking about the different approaches to religious art amongst different faith traditions, especially between Jews and Christians, and how that has influenced the architecture of our houses of worship over the generations. 

The Mishkan and the priestly vestments are described in thorough detail and are clearly ornate. They use dyes which would have been very expensive at the time, fabrics which should have been impossible for this newly-freed nation of slaves to access in the desert, lots of gold and silver, and the priests’ breastplates in particular are studded with precious gems that are still expensive to this day! There is a high value in creating a beautiful place for God to dwell, and an importance to how the priests are clothed for their sacred work. However, in last week’s parasha, there is an explicit call to cease donations once enough gifts have been made to build the Mishkan and the priestly vestments according to God’s directives. There is no interest from God or Moses to go above and beyond what was intitially requested to make these holy items even fancier, and there’s no motivation for the artisans to continue accepting the gifts on the sly to line their own pockets. 

There are some beautiful synagogues in the world, with ornate mosaic tiling, bright colors, gorgeous stained glass windows, crystal chandeliers, gold inlays, huge sanctuaries with balconies, and so on. But on the whole, Jewish communities have put more energy into creating the space so as to elevate prayer rather than to show off wealth or the power and talent of its members. Ner Shalom is quite modest, and needs some updates to its building, but think about our high windows that allow for a lovely stream of natural light for daytime services, and how the shape of our ceiling offers great acoustics. I won’t go further into detail about some of our discussion in Torah study about the austerity of some houses of worship and the ostentation of others; I’m not here to judge anyone else’s tastes or what elevates their prayers. But this conversation and concept resurfaced for me this morning as I was exercising and thinking back on my trip last week to Yosemite National Park. 

We stayed in heated tents in a campground called Curry Village within the Yosemite Valley section of the park. It was just the right combination of rustic and comfortable for not-so-experienced campers. Walking out of our tents and toward the lodge building, which housed a supply shop, a dining hall, and shower rooms, our view was immediately of a wall of majestic mountain side. Walking out of the campground, toward the roadway to trailheads and overlooks, we were immediately entrenched in the forest. A short drive through these pine forests and we arrived at trailheads that would take us up to breathtaking views (not that we hiked any of the difficult trails on the highest mountains, but we still got to some decent summits - even if Philip was right and hiking while pregnant was harder than I thought it was going to be), or into groves of ancient giant sequoia trees. One night, we attended a “Yosemite After Dark” session which walked us through a paved trail between another cabin-studded campground and a section of pine forest, and we learned about the actual science behind forest-bathing. I had heard of forest-bathing before, and it certainly resonated with me as a mindfulness or spiritual practice, but it turns out that trees actually release air borne chemicals called phytoncides that increase your body’s lymphocytes - cells that boost your immune system. Various pines are particularly high in phytoncides, and the ponderosa pine in Yosemite is one such species. Taking the time to sit in darkness in the pine forest and focus on what we can still see in the dark, as well as what we hear, smell, feel, and even the taste of the air, literally killed off bacteria and viral cells in our bodies. 

Experiences like this give us little wonder at how many people feel closer to God in nature than in an elegantly decorated house of worship. In our Adult B’nai Mitzvah class we are currently reading The Art of Public Prayer: Not for Clergy Only by Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman, and in the chapter we are currently on Rabbi Hoffman says, “[Some] people find faith … in flashed of eternity when nothing seems more certain than the radiant joy of life - a glimpse of the sunset over the Grand Canyon or the moment of a child’s miraculous birth.” He goes on to explain that such people will often never come to worship services because “they doubt they can find the Grand Canyon in their liturgies.” 

A look at our holidays, how we rely on both lunar and solar calendars to mark our months and our seasons, to celebrate seasonal change and agricultural rebirths, makes clear that Judaism absolutely has a naturalistic bend to it. In many ways, we are absolutely a land-based religion, even if more than half our world population no longer lives in the land that informs our holiday themes of seasonal shifts. But it’s undeniable, based on this week’s Torah portion, that physical buildings and decorative trappings to our places of worship have also always been important to our people.

I think Ner Shalom strikes a good balance between these concepts and values. As I said, we have a great structurally sound building. While we desperately need some refurbishments in and around our building and grounds, the lighting and acoustics, the basic architecture of our space, is perfect. There’s a reason our friends at Dar Al Noor wanted to bring their building committee to our property when they were planning their new education wing. Yet, it’s not overly fancy - it’s heimish and it’s easy to find your way around the space. It’s mostly decorated with art made by or specifically for the community itself. And, we have great outdoor space. The field on the hill and the wooded area behind our parking lot have offered so much for our Gan Teva Outdoor preschool since it opened in Fall 2021, and even to our religious school students who have enjoyed playing outside together over the years. We are working on getting our accessibility boardwalk built so everyone can enjoy the upper grounds, and we are starting a community garden on part of the upper grounds. We have our hiking/meditation walk group that meets on the second Saturday of every month, and hopefully will soon have a Rosh Hodesh group that will meet under the New Moon each month for some indoor creative activity relating to the theme of the coming month, as well as some outdoor meditation activity.

I’m not sure any of that is enough to equal the physiological benefits of forest-bathing, but I hope it’s enough to find spiritual meaning in our various services and community engagement options. May we all find peace in our surroundings, comfort in our trappings, and spiritual elevation in our prayers. Amen and Shabbat Shalom.