Birkat Hamazon: becoming us, again

Community is not a building nor a house. It is our extended Jewish family, our home away from home, it is the place where we share our moments of joy, where we find comfort when we mourn, where we affirm our Jewish identity among other Jewish people doing Jewish things. A community is a sense of longing and belonging. Longing for God’s presence in our lives and belonging to our people.

Birkat Hamazon, grace after a meal, is recited after a meal containing bread made from the five grains. Aside from Birkat Cohanim (the Priestly Blessing) it is the only blessing of biblical origin in our tradition, as per the instruction: “And you will eat, and you will be satisfied, and you will bless the Lord your God, upon the good land that God has given you”(Devarim 8:10).

The fascinating thing about this blessing is our sages’ sensitivity to the circles of community and belonging.

Typically, the blessing is recited individually. One should express his or her gratitude to God for the mundane just as for the profound. Eating, however, on many occasions like Shabbat and festivals, is a family or a social gathering.

When three adults or more eat bread as part of a meal one should invite the others to join the blessing (the Zimmun). This will usually happen among the family or among an intimate group of people.

When there are more than 10 adults we add an extended Zimmun b’Shem (an invitation with God’s name included in the introductory phrase). This time we are in a bigger social construct as part of a community.

During the past year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have experienced a tremendous change in our individual and communal life. The individual and the family spheres have become our work, study and dwelling spaces. The public spheres, and our batei knesset among it, were out of reach.

We learnt to form Zoom minyanim, to attend shiurim online, to sign up for weekly divrei Torah and to log in to livestreamed services.

We had to find a way to be Jewish on our own. To say the blessing on our own. And we did.

We had to find a way to be Jewish within our family units at home. To form a mini community and add the Zimmun. And we did.

But as lockdowns (hopefully) end and we can gradually attend our synagogues as houses of prayer, study and assembly, we need to make sure that they can still serve their purpose.

I will be blunt.

Your minyan needs you. Your congregation needs your help.

Your membership fees and your financial contribution are more important than ever for the survival of your synagogue.

Flash lockdowns will continue to happen. Masks, social distancing and other regulations will continue to come and go. Jewish communities have experienced harder times before and yet we inherited the wisdom, the legacy and the covenant of generations before us.

Whether or not our children and our children’s children will inherit strong communities of faith, is in our hands. Each and every one of us.

When the Israelites built the Tent of Meeting, God’s instructions were: “And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them” (Shemot 25:8).

A community is a sense of longing and belonging. Longing for God’s presence in our lives and belonging to our people. Now is the time to rebuild our sanctuaries, to strengthen our communities, to support our religious leadership so that we and the generations to come can say a blessing in a minyan with a Zimmun b’Shem.

To have a spiritual home where we can feel God’s presence dwelling with us.

Go to your congregation this Shabbat, if you are allowed to; otherwise as soon as it is permitted.

Recite a blessing.

Make sure it will be there for years to come.

Rabbi Adi Cohen is to be installed as the new rabbi at Temple Shalom Gold Coast, this Sunday, August 8.