This year, we celebrate the Jubilee anniversary of women being officially recognized as Reform Jewish clergy (Rabbi Sally Priesand was ordained by the Hebrew Union College in 1971). My kavannot this week will highlight some of the unique and inspirational female voices from our tradition.

Only a month ago, and thankfully unlike the previous year, we were able to gather on our campus in person for our High Holy Day services. I cannot say enough how personally meaningful and prayerful it was to be able to gather and sing safely together in person (knowing also that so many were praying with us from home). There is nothing else I could call it but a Divine Presence that existed here on this magnificent mountaintop when we gathered together to celebrate, to listen, and to worship on the most sacred days of the year.

Indeed, it can be easier to feel deeply connected to God and our tradition during those Days of Awe when we spend so much time in contemplation and prayer with our community. How do we sustain our relationship with God (and just as importantly, with one another) throughout the year? Certainly, our tradition encourages us to ask ongoing questions about the meaning of life, our relationship with God, and our place in God’s universe. We are called to be Yisrael, to be the descendants of those who struggled every day with many of the same questions. I hope that you will continue to join us throughout the year—in person and online—for services and community experiences, engaging together in question asking and meaning making.

I love this poem by Else Lasker-Schuler, German-Jewish poetess, who was one of the most prominent European poets of the early twentieth century and whose books were tragically burned by the Nazis. In her poetry, she records her greatest questions, sharing with us those very same attempts to understand the struggle of what it means to be Jewish and to seek an ongoing, never simple, but truly sacred connection with the Divine.

To God
You do not hinder the good and the evil stars;
All their moods stream forth.
In my brow a furrow throbs,
A deep crown with dusky light.
But my world is still–
You never hindered my mood.
God, where are You?
I’d want to listen closely at Your heart,
In our most distant nearness to find my counterpart,
If, from Your kingdom’s endlessly blessed light,
Goldenly transformed,
All the good and the evil fountains rush.

— Else Lasker-Schuler circa 1920 (translated from the German by Audri Durschlag)