Finding your Makom (place)
Vayetze 5785 - Va'anochi Lo Yadati - The "I" Gets in the Way
Shalom!
It’s been a while! I’ve missed you. I just wanted to connect and reach out and let you know I’m here. It’s been an incredible time of connection, momentum, music, and engagement at my synagogue (Agudas Achim) in Columbus, OH. We are working here to create our “Makom,” a place where everyone belongs. We have a brand new Jewish Learning Hub on Sundays with 60 students. We started a Bexley Lunch Club where every month I pick up 65 Jewish middle and high school students in the town shuttle bus and drive them three blocks to our shul for free Kosher lunch. We just hosted the incredible Rabbi/Cantor Danny Maseng as our artist-in-residence. In the midst of a beautiful Havdalah experience for over 200 community members where he shared incredible stories and music, we gathered 30 choir members from five different synagogues across Columbus to sing his Mah Tovu together with him.
And amidst all of that, I wanted to let you know that I am still coming to visit and sing with you! I have 5-6 (not to be confused with six seven) tour dates each year to beautiful communities around the country. Check out this link to see where I’m headed in the next few months. We are engaging and finding ways to encountering each other for good every single day.
And that’s what this week’s Torah portion is about. Encounter. “וְיִפְגַּע בַּמָּקוֹם” “And Jacob came upon a certain place (Breishit 28:11).” Rabbi Aharon of Karlin taught that vayifga, “Came upon” is both a term used for prayer and also for happening upon a specific place. What this is means is that a person must focus and enter their a special and particular place for themselves. And this isn’t just about connecting to heaven, rather, they must connect to a specific frame of mind or reference or place here in order to enter prayer. And the Anochi, the I, sometimes gets in the way. Va’anochi lo yadati, “And the ‘I’ doesn’t know.” When we can get past our own ego, or our own imposter syndrome, or our own whatever is holding us back, we find a way to truly enter the space we hope to experience.
I’d love to stay connected and hope to continue to write more, but if you’d like to hear from me on a more regular basis, we now have a podcast for my sermons! Check them out here or search “Josh Warshawsky” wherever you find your podcasts. The most recent two sermons are reflections on our JewishColumbus trip to Israel with almost 200 members of our community. I would love to hear your thoughts and continue to be in conversation.
Grateful for your friendship, for your voices, for your presence, and for your time!
Shavua Tov,
Rabbi Josh