The 36 Righteous Ones!

Dear Hinenu community,

When I was a child, I learned about a group of people that without them, the entire world, all of existence would collapse. They're called the Lamed Vavnikim, a group of people who's name translates roughly to the "36'ers." These 36 humans are first discussed in the Talmud, and they're fundamental to the continued presence of human life on this planet, in every generation.

But--and here's the kicker, we have no idea who they are. And here's the double kicker--they don't even know who they are. Could the person sitting next to you on the bus be a Lamed Vavnik? Could you even be one? 

dfcd9cd8-f7a5-4fba-ace4-8de68a5cd9a4.jpg



I love this teaching about the 36 anonymous beings that hold aloft the world because it tells us of the ultimate cosmic importance of every human being. That we cannot know who holds this role as one of the 36, and so instead we treat every being like the entire future of the world hangs on their well being. The Lamed Vavnikim teach us that we all matter to the whole, that all of us can only exists when each of us are counted.

This is what becoming a member at Hinenu represents to me--the unique importance of each of the members of our community, and the profound power that we have when we come together as a group. 

In our first week of membership we welcomed our first 20 members. Become a member today and help us get to 36 this week!

Since our very beginning it has been clear we are making something special together-- meeting 1-1 in cafes all over the city, cramming together on hot porches in the August heat, or studying Torah about bodies, desire, and fear at Red Emma's. 

I am humbled every day to serve this community as your rabbi, to be graduating from rabbinical school this Sunday and knowing that our community in Baltimore is my calling and work on the other side of that diploma. That as much as I have been dreaming of this shul, so have all of you working and waiting to see our community take shape.

Which is why it is so exciting to watch our first membership drive launch, and formally cement our commitments to one another. In the past week, 20 people have joined as founding members to nurture and shape this fierce community committed to expansive and welcoming Jewish space, creative and passionate ritual, and interdependent community.

Our voluntary dues structure reminds us that every person matters to the well being of this community, regardless of financial contribution. Knowing that there is an abundance in our community, we ask members to pay what they can to support the financial future of Hinenu. I look forward to continuing this work in the years ahead with your support.

Become a founding member of Hinenu as our community grows!

Bivracha, with blessing,
Rabbi Ariana

Why Tyler is Here for Hinenu

Dear Hinenu Community,

My journey with Hinenu starts in the latter half of 2016, when, spellbound by Rabbi Ariana Katz’s podcast Kaddish, I reached out to tell her just how much her words meant to me. As we started talking, she told me about a dream she had for a small shul filled with spiritual reverence and radical compassion that could possibly take root in my hometown of Baltimore. My whole life, I’ve had that same dream. She told me that she was looking for her Jews, and I told her that she’d at least found one.
 
When we first met in person in January of 2017, I felt what could only be described as platonic love at first sight. As our conversation buzzed with hope for the future and brimmed with passion for our faith, our communities, and the issues that we held dear, I said to myself, “This is my rabbi, this is what we’re building together, and we’re in this for the long haul.”

In our first week of membership, we welcomed our first 20 members. Become a member today and help us more than double that number!

 
In the months that followed, I deepened my connections with not only Rabbi Ariana, but other passionate, justice-minded Jewish friends who I’d met throughout the years in Baltimore. In April of 2017, during the week of Passover, I met with a handful of Jewish agitators for good to plan a potluck seder at 2640 Space for the last night of Passover. Leading that seder for a packed house full of Jews and non-Jews of all ages and backgrounds cemented for me my place in a new, vibrant, and hungry community, sometimes a leader, sometimes an organizer, always a nice Jewish girl.
 
The summer of 2017 saw the formation of the provisional board of our yet-to-be-named Baltimore Justice Shtiebel. Rabbi Ariana invited me to join and I enthusiastically accepted. Roughly a year in, I can see that Hinenu is already becoming the shelter that I prayed for trembling under the covers in the abusive household that I grew up in. It’s the spiritual home I yearned for when I felt too disabled, too gay, too transgender, and too outspoken for even the most liberal of synagogues. 
 
Our commitment to financial and physical accessibility means that anyone can become a member and every member counts. As someone living on disability benefits, I know that it’s not about the amount I pay in dues or the hours of work that I’ve put in, it’s about a greater sense of belonging and a culture of mutual aid.
 
 
As we steer the ship of Hinenu forward and prepare to hand over the wheel, I have faith that what started as several separate twinkles in several separate eyes will continue to manifest itself as a cohesive, communal vision and grow to sustain generations of Jews.


Become a founding member of Hinenu as our community grows!

B'shalom,

Tyler Vile
 

Celebrating Rabbi Ariana's ordination on June 10!

Celebrating Rabbi Ariana's ordination on June 10!

Why Owen's Here for Hinenu

Dear Hinenu community,

Today as we launch our membership drive, I am reflecting on what joyful membership in our nascent, blooming congregation means to me. In looking forward to putting in the work and resources required to make our collective dreams a reality, I'm also looking back at why I felt compelled to be a part of this exciting project to begin with. 
 

f49b6abb-42d6-40e2-b5cd-2852551f36e7.jpg

Before I get to all that, please click this link, fill out the membership form, and pledge as generously as you're able: become a member today!
 

What was missing in my Jewish life before Hinenu was born? Why-- like a few of you, I'm guessing-- hadn't I been active in a synagogue since my bar mitzvah at Congregation Sons of Israel in Nyack, NY 18 years ago? As if my parents' shul's name doesn't say it all... While I was showing up in Jewish spaces like JVP and JUFJ, I wasn't showing up to services because two of my values, two parts of my identity, weren't reflected in any of the temples I wandered into. I couldn't find a shtiebel that equally valued Palestinian lives; nor could I find one that truly celebrated interfaith couples. That's why I'm elated to have worked with all of you over the last year to fill that space by building Hinenu!

Still reading? Did you hit the link, become a member, and set up a recurring contribution yet? 
 

Laying Hinenu's foundation on radical inclusion-- and working through the process, language, and values that give meaning to that concept-- with all of you has been heart warming, empowering, vulnerability-inducing experience. I love hanging out, davening, and noshing with y'all! 


Let's build on that foundation. Let's continue the adventure of realizing why and how we need to be here for each other and for our larger community. A big part of building our little house is claiming membership-- and furnishing it with our communal resources as well as our collective vision. Please join me in becoming a member of Hinenu: the Baltimore Justice Shtiebl today!

Peace/shalom,

Owen Avram Silverman Andrews

Let the waves wash over me

Beloved community,

A meditation for those of us feeling rocked by the news the past few weeks:

Join me in the ocean. We're in the warm water right on the shore, the sand is squishy below you, and your whole self is being rocked by the tides. You smell of salt and sweat and sunscreen. You close your eyes, and feel the next wave lap your ankles. Your face is warmed by the sun, and you are able to anticipate the next wave as it comes. Your bend at the knees, or shift your weight, to brace against the tide as it rolls in.

This is the heartbeat of the world, this ocean.

You notice the sound of gulls, or children running and playing, and wave by wave, the tide rolls in. Not so powerful you are knocked over, not so weak it dies out before it reaches us as we stand at the shore.

Beloved community, the ocean waves are getting stronger. In the past week, we have mobilized, organized, shown up, and been bereft reading the terrifying news coming out of the Supreme Court, orchestrated by the president of this country, enacted by border patrol, ICE, the police.

Beloved community, with each day we fear that what we see ahead of us is a great big wave. One that won't just lap our ankles, but will crash upon us, all who we love, all who are most vulnerable.

Let the waves wash over me/
let the waves wash over me/
I am already under/
Let the waves wash over me.

My dear friend taught me the words of this song by the band Miner as a chant, and we'll sing it this Friday at Shabbat services. I invite you to listen to this song, to let the wave of this music be the one that crashes down upon you.

We are braced for another giant ocean wave, and we know that waves have come through that have hurt and destroyed and separated families with borders, jail, travel bans. We see how the rising tide is all connected. We feel it in our bodies.

Come back to the calm ocean with me. The sun is warm, the water is too. A cool breeze comes by and ripples across the sand. You are free. You are safe. The people near you on the beach are free and safe. The water is calm again.

In these times we are not sure what is ahead, but we fear the worst. In these times the only way we see out is to split the entire sea, or something just as miraculous. 

In these times when our whole bodies are anticipating the next wave, when we're unsure what comes next, what we have is each other, the communities we are a part of, the kinship that buoys us. Look around, see who else is standing on the shore with you. We will keep organizing, keep fighting, keep keeping each other as safe as we can.

Let the waves wash over me/
let the waves wash over me/
I am already under/
Let the waves wash over me.

 

If you are feeling alone on the shore, seeing these waves rush in, please reach out.

With love,
Rabbi Ariana

Spread over a shelter: message, ritual, prayer for Gaza

It is devastating that as we turn our hearts, eyes, and prayers to the East we see untold heartbreak and death in the past 48 hours in Gaza--at least 55 unarmed protestors have been killed, and more than 2,700 people wounded by the Israeli Defense Force since the beginning of the Great Return March. On the 70th anniversary of the founding of Israel, the commemoration of the Nakba, and yesterday's moving of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, we may feel helpless, infuriated, frightened, and unsure of what to do next. There is so, so much violence.

Read More

Background on Hinenu

In the fall of 2016, Student Rabbi Ariana Katz began talking with Jews in Baltimore about their communal lives and vision for our home (or adopted) city. People have come to the beginnings of this project from various types of Jewish life: religious, secular and political--a collection of heterogeneous identities and opinions, which we consider crucial not just to the formation of this group but its long term commitments. Together we have begun imagining community that has a physical space, shares resources, and houses multiple projects and communities.

Brought together by the desire for a space where Jewish life and justice work could meet, this vision has evolved to include dreams of a beit midrash (house of study), religious education for children and teens, lending library, direct services like food pantry or crisis housing, skill training for religious engagement and political organizing, and most importantly, a place to be, land, feel safe, and welcome.

This space we are dreaming of is built by the community that needs it, and is well aware of all the treasures that Baltimore offers, wonderful synagogues and havurot, collectives and non-profits, projects and other dreams in the works.A synagogue community that celebrates

Shabbat, holidays, and lives in Jewish time together, where there is radical inclusion of left politics, queer and trans identities are rejoiced, converts are welcomed, interfaith families are cherished, and Jews of color are honored.

A Jewish community that marks life cycle moments together, celebrating joyous occasions and supporting each other during healing and hard times, that navigates diverse practices together.

A Baltimore community that shares space, that hosts a synagogue alongside mission aligned projects, like organizing collectives, tool libraries, independent churches, masjids, meetings.