Elul, Rosh Hashanah, & Repair During Times of Genocide
Carol Chaya Barash, PhD
Building community through storytelling. Healing trauma, dissolving conflict, creating spaces where all people are safe, liberated, and free. Author ?? Speaker ?? Teacher ?? Coach
?? Happy Rosh Hashanah! This week's newsletter focuses on meditations I wrote during the month of Elul while navigating repair during a year of genocide. Elul is the Jewish month of repentance and repair leading up to the New Year and Day of Atonement. There is a rhythm to this full month of repentance in Jewish tradition that I have found quite healing over the years. I’m using Elul this year to introduce you to Story Asana? — my daily practice that combines meditation, storytelling and writing.?
Later in this newsletter, I share a piece written by Reverend Dr. Jacqui Lewis about navigating difficult conversations. I am very interested in exploring how we can engage in conflict with compassion and use dialogue as a tool for change, even when the world feels overwhelmingly heavy. How can we move from conversations to action? How can we get to a place where more people are pressing our governments to stop mass destruction and genocide?
?? What difficult conversations have you been having with people around you? Let me know in the comments below!?
? A story I told
This month I focused on writing Elul Meditations. Elul is considered a period of self-reflection, introspection, and repentance. During this month, Jewish people traditionally engage in personal and communal practices to prepare for the upcoming days of judgment and renewal.
As we approach the new Jewish Year, we also approach the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s violent attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 and Israel’s relentless, genocidal response that has decimated schools, mosques, hospitals and homes throughout Gaza and the Israeli-Occupied Palestinian Territories in the West Bank.?
I specifically wanted to use the Jewish month of Elul and Story Asana together with the intention of opening my own listening to more Israelis – both Jews and Palestinians –? as well as American Jews, to build a wider community, with more momentum, more people pressing our governments to stop the mass destruction that is currently strangling all possibilities of peace.?
Story Asana? is a daily practice that combines spoken storytelling, meditation, and writing. I developed Story Asana in the fall of 2008 to help me shake off judgements, criticisms, interpretations, and all the other types of meaning-making that were getting in the way of my talking honestly about my own life experience with people whose experience was different from my own.?
How can we honor the belief of so many religious traditions that all humans are created equal with the drive that often flares up inside us to see ourselves and people like us as better than other people?
?? You can explore and engage with the full meditations here:?
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? A story that inspired me
This week, I read a post by Reverend Dr. Jacqui Lewis that deeply resonated with me. The piece addresses the presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and Former President Trump. However, as I read it, I couldn’t help but draw parallels to the genocide happening in Palestine?and my own Elul mediations and conversations with people who view the world differently from me.?
Reverend Dr. Lewis writes,?
“I’m not conflict adverse. I think conflict is constructive. I think whenever we tell the truth to each other—the absolute truth—we might get into conflicts because we are different; our experiences, ideas, yearnings, hopes, disappointments and dreams make us different. When we speak the truth to each other, even if conflict results, I believe something good can happen. There can be clarification. There can be learning. There can be distancing, and there can be coming together. James Baldwin said, ‘Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.’...?
I’m going to stand up and fight back. Not with fists but with conversation. Not with guns, but with curiosity. Not with violent words but with words that express the truth I believe to be true. Fierce love demands that kind of engagement.”?
I too, feel I have been fighting back with conversation. I have been sitting with this concept of fierce love requiring difficult conversations.
You can view Reverend Dr. Lewis’ full article here. Curious to know how you feel after reading - Let me know in the comments below!?
? A storytelling tip
?? ?? Storytelling and meditation can be a powerful tool for our mental health and our well-being.? If you are ever writing a story about past trauma, try to focus on creating a safe space where you feel heard and validated. Allow yourself to share your experiences at your own pace, and without judgment. Remind yourself that you are safe at this moment as you write. All of these steps can help you release emotions and foster a deeper connection with your writing and any potential audiences.
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