We are people who return. Each year we return to the beginning of the Torah and (re)-cycle our calendar, and each week Shabbat returns to us.
There are places each of us returns to. As a people we left the land of Israel, went on a long, challenging journey, and then returned a different people.
I am thinking about the people and places that call me to return.
When I was 16 years old I fell in love with Israel on a summer trip, and I have felt called to return. I am writing this piece now from Israel. It’s the place where I feel most alive, most connected, and most compelled to think about and to act on the responsibility that we all have to make a difference in the world. I asked my wife to marry me here, and two years ago we shared Israel with our daughters over the course of a sabbatical year. It’s where Jews, Christians, and Muslims were called … called to be connected to one another and to be in relationship with God. It is a place of deep complexity and challenge and at the same time a place of richness and strength. It is more than a place. It is also a people … a people struggling to bring more justice into the world. Israel means “the one who struggles with God.” I know that I need to keep returning to this sacred struggle. This approaching year we are commanded to give the land a rest – the land this year takes a sabbatical. Every time I return I learn new things, meet new people, and face different challenges. I am blessed to be part of a people so committed to returning and to finding new ways to bring hope and peace into the world. Our work is not yet done.
