There is a line in this week’s Torah portion, Tetzaveh, that has particular resonance during this particular moment – chukat olam l’doratam, “a statute forever and ever throughout the generations.” How utterly audacious for our ancestors to declare that anything (in this case, pure olive oil) will be around forever.
This Shabbat marks the one-year Yahrzeit or Jew-aversary of the beginning of the pandemic in Buffalo, New York. As we put away our Purim decorations, we are reminded that it was only a year ago on the Hebrew calendar that our sanctuary was filled to the brim with almost two-hundred-fifty participants to view our spiel. We stood and laughed together, snapped pictures in costumes and silly backgrounds, enjoyed one another’s company, not thinking for an instant that this would be the last time for a long time that we would gather in a meaningful way again. The concept of doing something forever seems utterly implausible knowing that everything we love and care about in the world can be taken away from us in an instant.
The truth is our ancestors understood this much more clearly than we do. Having just made the Exodus from Egypt and had to adjust to continual changing circumstances as they made their way through the wilderness, forever was just a dream that they hoped to achieve. And, that is exactly the point of the line – chukat olam l’doratam, “a statute forever and ever throughout the generations.” It was never meant for them, but a hope that sometime later, at a future unknown date, that our people would be able to authentically think about forever as a possibility. We, too, hope that we will once again gain the equilibrium to dream that life as we understood it up until a year ago will return to normal. Ken Yehi Ratzon – may such days come to pass for all of us in the very near future.
BONUS – My article in Thursday’s Buffalo News
Happy end of Purim and Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Alex