Return to the Altar
Dear Friends,
As we greet the moon of Elul, the time has come for me to make my way back to the altar. We’ve all been through terrible, strange and trying days this year, and we need each other more than ever.
The heart planted in me cannot refuse its chart.
Though physical distance has been mandated, closeness in friendship and spirit has not. We need to come together in circles of song and prayer, to speak the great tumult of our hearts: joy, gratitude, mourning, love, fear, isolation, generosity. I feel called to bring the circle together, to celebrate the ceremonies that usher with new friends and old.
I do not know what the distant future will hold. Nonetheless, here is my intention. A year from now, September 2021, I’ll launch a non-profit committed to spirituality and the arts. After ten years at The New Shul, two questions disturb me, and I intend to spend the year working them through: 1) Our culture is in profound need of centers of meaning-making that bring communities of difference together. The trend of cultivating homogeneous communities is not palatable to me. How can we open the borders of a spiritual community? 2) I don’t believe we are effectively integrating spiritual principles and practices into the diverse areas of influence where we situate our lives. We preach compassion, interconnectedness, justice and equality. But do we weave these values into our businesses, into the way we consume, into the way we are with our families?
In the interim, here is what I will offer …
High Holiday Services, live with The Epichorus, streamed over Zoom; Shabbat Services a couple times a month, Weekly Wisdom Teachings, a monthly Spiritual Check-Up for members, a weekly Bar/Bat Mitzvah class, and occasional Moon Circles (with Zivar), children’s celebrations, and learning opportunities. Everything will be structured, more or less, pay what you’d like. Check out the Membership and High Holiday info here.
What I offer is not for everyone. I’m very proud of what we created at The New Shul and I’m thrilled to watch and support all that they will continue to build. Spirituality is not a competitive endeavor. The pool is infinite, and I celebrate any work that nurtures the cultivation of spirit.
In my youth there was a mysterious figure who marched the streets of St. Louis’ Central West End daily, dressed in outrageous costumes, launching a sparkling silver baton high into the air, with song spilling from his mouth. Nothing more than the figure’s title was known to me -- The Ambassador of Happiness. It’s something I aspire to, not as simple as you might think, the kind of happiness that contains everything. One eye smiling, one eye crying. I’m excited to feel back into all that I had to leave behind to live in my previous incarnation. I live to make you happy.
With love,
Rabbi Zach Fredman