“At the Corner of Anxiety and Despair is Holiness,” Rabbi Elaine Zecher’s Shabbat Awakenings

May 9, 2025 / 11 Iyyar 5785

Welcome to Shabbat Awakenings, a weekly reflection, as we make our way toward Shabbat. You can listen to it as a podcast here.

Do our leaders read the Bible, not just hold it upside down as if lifting it up means something? With everything going on — and there is so much going on, happening, destroying, demolishing, debilitating our worlds — have they sought inspiration beyond themselves?

I tried to make a list of all the terrible occurrences and behaviors. But then I worried that I missed some egregious episode or initiative because who can really name them all?

Poor leadership, dreadful decisions, demise of democracy, rise of tyranny, and self-serving officials have an all-encompassing devastating impact.

And then there are the scholars and researchers forced to swim in a sea without resources. Studies that must be abandoned and potential cures are left unpursued.

And there are the justices whose lives have been threatened because they do their job to uphold the Constitution and the law.

And alas, we witness the lived experience of antisemitism weaponized not to eradicate it but to use it as an excuse for governmental overreach.

All of us are trying to make our way in the world. We wonder about the future and ponder how the past got us here. Anger prevails, mixed with anxiety and despair. It feels like we are going around and around in a rotary with no exit. We are dizzy from it all.

But we read the Bible. We parse the verses to find meaning and strength. Its teaching brings stability, a plank to hold onto in the rough seas. This week, we learn how to embrace holiness and to use it to hold us steady.

Leviticus 19:9-18

When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not pick your vineyard bare or gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I יהוה am your God.

You shall not steal; you shall not deal deceitfully or falsely with one another. You shall not swear falsely by My name, profaning the name of your God: I am יהוה. You shall not defraud your fellow. You shall not commit robbery. The wages of a laborer shall not remain with you until morning.

You shall not insult the deaf or place a stumbling block before the blind. You shall show honor to your God: I am יהוה.

You shall not render an unfair decision: do not favor the poor or show deference to the rich; judge your kin fairly. Do not deal basely with members of your people. Do not profit by the blood of your fellow: I am יהוה.

You shall not hate your kinsfolk in your heart. Reprove your kin but incur no guilt on their account. You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against members of your people. Love your fellow as yourself: I am יהוה.

How do these commands to be holy sturdy us? The Holiness Code as it is called is deciphered by how we act toward others. Others may be unkind, impolite, disrespectful and thoughtless, but it doesn’t mean that we need to behave in the same way. We receive instruction to be kind, polite, respectful, and thoughtful. These times call for us to find the inner strength as our sacred obligation in the way we live our lives. It may not alter the world around us, but I do believe it can change us to find the courage we need to face what challenges us, and then work together toward repair of this shattered world.

Shabbat Shalom שבת שלום

Connect with me with comments and reflections here.

Rabbi Elaine Zecher