Many families of Dor Hadash have been allowing retired Education Director Barbara Carr into their homes via email for informal conversations about Jewish issues that tweak Barbara's interest and theirs.

Two fairly lengthy email letters go home which are designed to generate further thought and discussion. The emails contain material that Barbara has discovered which might be of interest as well as general musings on what it means to be Jewish and a family in the twenty-first century.

If you would like to receive the emails please register with Barbara. You can email her at cyberconversation1 {at} dorhadash{dot}org [Open your email program and put in the above email address substituting the @ for {at} and . for dot] Or, just bookmark this page and check back every few weeks to see if a new message has been posted. Remember, these are Barbara's personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Congregation Dor Hadash.

If you are a Dor Hadash member and would like to discuss Barbara's musings with other members, please join the Dor Hadash forum <http://dorhadash.org/forum>

Late June 2008

Dear friends,

I am a public library junkie.  I am willing to confess that addiction and have no intention of going into rehab to recover.  I grew up in a small town that had an old beautiful granite library that felt like a sanctuary when I got to go there.  The children’s room (yes, a whole big room devoted solely to children’s books) was huge and comfortable with wooden tables and chairs that were the right size for little browsers, and it had its own separate door if you didn’t want to enter through the “adult” rooms which were really, really quiet.  There were ironwork curved staircases that led to “the upper stacks” and the whole place felt, for me, as if all answers were in the building if I only knew the questions.

As soon as I was old enough, I started volunteering there.  Our town was small so I could walk from my home to the library easily (the whole town was about 2 square miles in diameter) and I arrived at my haven to just spend time with books.  I learned how to file “check out cards” in the big wooden library catalogues where I would take time to flip the stiff cardboard index size cards and read the names of other books and authors I might want to explore someday.  I learned how to repair torn pages with special “library tape” that ultimately hit the market as “invisible tape.”  I learned how to restack books (and look at what surrounded them).  Ultimately I learned the incredible gift the public library was to a community – and to me.

Libraries have changed since I was a young girl.  The biggest change is that they have become electronic.  I miss the big old wooden catalogues and since I’m fairly technologically adept, I am surprised by that sense of loss.  After all, I can sit at my computer and search the library catalogue, order books to be delivered to my branch or renew a book online.  What could be bad about that?  What’s bad is the loss of intimacy with the library itself.  But to touch the cards, to search through drawer after drawer, gave me a sense of how many books my particular haven contained.  The books became connected to each other – either by author, title or subject or just the fact that they caught my eye.  The search was half the fun.

Today, libraries have become community centers, meeting halls, places of learning and sources of movies and music as well as books.  That’s also a good thing.  What has been lost in the process is the sense of silence and intention that old libraries used to bring.  When I was a child, going to the library was almost a holy process.  Now our branch library has a clown come in on occasion to lure the children to read books.  (I’m an anti-clown person – I’m sorry if I offend the pro-clown community.)

So, why am I writing about libraries, of all things?  I think if you haven’t visited your library lately, summer is a great time to do it.  You can check out new writers as well as old friends.  You can push yourself spiritually by exploring writers of faith.  You can learn more about your religion and even more important, you can find out more about other religions.  You can read books that fall under the category of “fun junk” which everyone needs once in a while.  You can even try re-reading some of those classics you were forced to read in college.  This time you might even like them.   You can check out almost anything these days… and wondrously, it’s all free. 

So stretch yourself a bit.  Read something challenging.  Try a new genre.  Pursue an interest you’ve never pursued before.  Check out books about your state.  Read about geology or astronomy or genetics.  Realize that if a library book isn’t working for you, you can just return it and try something else.  Sense the liberation of not being responsible for the wrong choice.  All those books are there for you to try out and then, if you know you want to return to the book again and again, go out and buy it.  Most of all realize that books can open doors you didn’t even know were there for you.

Libraries are holy places in that they do contain answers if we know the questions.  They are the repository of who we are and what matters to us as a civilization.  I want us to learn to acknowledge, in the wonder of our lives, how many holy places there really are out there for us.  I want us to learn to celebrate them and support them and most of all, to use them.  Count your holy places and I think you’ll be amazed.

So as summer begins, as I have in the past. I will be taking the month of July off.  We’re going back east to visit family and so I am declaring a mental vacation.  I’m sure I will return in August richer for the experience… and ready to poke at you, with love and respect, once again.

Still dreaming of peace,

Barbara

Early June 2008

Dear friends,

I was watching a movie the other night and was struck by a scene where a person was praying by herself in a small country church.  She was completely alone and the lights were dim.  That made it more real, somehow.  She was in a space that allowed her to talk to the power she needed.  She was in a space where praying was rational, not out of place.  She had a need and the church offered her a space to meet that need.  This place was her access route to the holy.  We all would be better off if we could identify our own access routes.

When I was active in the anti-war movement in the sixties and seventies, many churches offered sanctuary to young men fleeing the draft on religious or moral grounds.  The concept of holy space broadened for me.  Not only could one speak to the holy in these spaces, but the holy protected you as well.  What a marvelous image.  What an important mission.  Sanctuary developed a whole new meaning for me – not at all the image of my synagogue growing up.

The synagogue, as it exists today, is a substitute for the Temple in Jerusalem when Judaism, to some, was at its most pure.  When the Second Temple was destroyed and the rabbinic period in Judaism began, schools of learning and personal observance of the holy days and festivals were the paths to holiness. Since the Jewish community often was ghettoized, living in proximity to each other made the need for a specific holy “space” unnecessary.  Nothing could substitute for the great Mishkan, the holy of holies, the Temple in Jerusalem.  Learning Torah and observing the mitzvot or commandments was what Judaism was about.  The place where that happened was irrelevant.

(A disclaimer here – this is just me thinking out loud – I am not a scholar of religious architecture)

In a parallel universe great churches were rising in honor of God.  The rituals of the early Church demanded specifically trained priests and if possible, a place for them to function.  Since Christianity at the time required intercession by a priest for prayer to reach the Other, sanctuaries became essential for a religious life.  Priests were required for all sacramental acts and they happened at the church.  Religious education beyond ritual behavior was focused on the priests and the monks who studied the Gospels and incorporated their vision into holy writings that kept learning alive throughout the dark ages.  For centuries, the Roman Catholic Church was also a mentor of all the great arts, since secular artists were almost unknown and certainly disavowed.  Churches celebrated great art by decorating their spaces exquisitely and enlisting great composers to write their amazing music in honor of God.

The development of the mosque seems to follow the path of the synagogue rather than the Christian church.  There are holy places in the Middle East that are returned to again and again but the mosques out in the western world are mostly simple inside.  They were designed as cultural gathering places as well as spaces to pray communally and listen to the words of the Koran.  The western mosque is not a monument. 

Today, the easy identifiers and most religious ghettos are gone.  There are synagogues that are monuments, churches that are simple storefronts and mosques that offer vastly more than just a place to pray.  We are often confused about the purpose of these buildings and their connection to our communication with the Other.  We carry historical imagery about what these spaces offer us but we each find our own solutions to the identity of holy space. 

Religious life is no longer bound by history in the way it once was.  We continually redefine what we want from our religious communities and if we aren’t happy, we vote with our feet.  We leave and look and sample and often make decisions to participate in a community based on what we don’t want rather than what we want.  We are always clearer about the “don’t wants” then affirming what we are seeking.  I wonder about that a lot.  I think it is because we’re not sure what will meet our needs.  We don’t know what we want.

So I go back to that woman sitting in the pew in her empty sanctuary.  She was absolutely sure about what she wanted.  She wanted to be in a dedicated holy space.  She didn’t need a priest or a minister intervening for her.  She simply needed to be in a space made ready for the conversation she had to have. 

Places where God (or whatever you call Her) is welcomed are everywhere.  Sanctuaries make the conversation more legitimate for some – make it easier – make it focused – make it specific.  Assumptions are made based on the space you choose.  But sometimes we don’t have a choice.  Sometimes our sanctuaries don’t work for us.  Sometimes our sanctuaries are locked up and only open when clergy are leading services.  That’s when we have to find the sanctuary within.  The more we know about why and how we converse with the Power that Makes for Salvation the easier it is to carry that sanctuary within us.  I can sit in a church, a mosque or a synagogue and find a way to converse with my God.  I can sit along a river bank, look across a canyon or sit still in my yard and my sanctuary is with me. 

We each need to stretch ourselves and find our own sanctuaries.  Certainly the traditional religious space has its place, but that space is not always available.  We need to celebrate the continuity that holy places have given us and continue to build these places and support these places and participate in these places.  However we also know that the need for holy conversation is not limited to Friday or Saturday or Sunday.  The purpose of the buildings within which holy communities are housed has changed over time and so have we.

Over the years one of the things I have learned is that the more comfortable we are with our souls the easier it is to celebrate the connection we have with the Other.  The more we know about where we are trying to go, the easier it is to look to the Other for support.  The more we declare that sacred space is where we are, the easier it will be to communicate with those who may be on different but similar paths.  We need to put aside our trappings – honor our history – and get on with the celebration of being part of holy change – within and without.

Still dreaming of peace,

Barbara

© Barbara R. Carr

For previous month's (2007-08) cyber conversations, please go here.

	Cyber-archive postings 2007-08
	Cyber-archive postings 2006-07		Cyber-archive postings 2003-04
	Cyber-archive postings 2005-06		Cyber-archive postings 2002-03
	Cyber-archive postings 2004-05		Cyber-archive postings 2001-02

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