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Rabbi Linda's Weekly Message |
October 23, 2024
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Dear Friends,
Tohu wa-bohu or Tohu va-Vohu (תֹ֙הוּ֙ וָבֹ֔הוּ) is the state of the universe at the very beginning. The King James Bible translates it as “without form and void”. The JPS translates it similarly as “unformed and void." Everett Fox translates it as “when the earth was wild and waste” while Robert Alter’s recent translation continues along the same lines with “the earth then was welter and waste." Tohu on its own means emptiness or futility. This phrase appears elsewhere but only in reference to the original text in Genesis. I have commented on this phrase before. It has always caught my attention.
Why focus on this phrase, which appears within the very first sentence of our Torah? The music of the phrase has always captured me. I invite you to say it out loud and allow yourself to go with the feeling that it evokes. For me it has always evoked a sense of messiness -- untidiness in the most chaotic manner. It evokes an image of things swirling around in a random manner. If ever there was a time where this was true, it is now. Here is Robert Alter’s translation (and yes, all translation is interpretation and I am choosing this one): “When God began to create heaven and earth and the earth was then welter and waste and darkness over the deep and God’s breath hovering over the waters, God said, “Let there be light."
Mitzvah of the Week
We live in a moment when it feels like it is difficult to make a difference in the world. Fortunately, living in a democracy means that each of us can make a difference by voting. Americans vote more in national elections, but voter turnout is still smaller than in most democracies. Voting, whether in national elections or local ones, makes a difference. If you're looking for how you can make a difference, show up and VOTE.
It is really a rather simple two-step process.
Step 1: See if you are registered to vote.
Go to VOTEAMERICA. The website has an array of nonpartisan tools and resources for voters in all 50 states and DC - everything you need to register to vote, cast your ballot, and make sure it's counted.
Step 2: When you have checked your own status, take some time to encourage those around you to do the same.
Sometimes we forget that voting is a privilege and that the right to vote was not originally extended to all. Remember, a woman’s right to vote was finally ratified a little over a hundred years ago in 1920 with the 19th Amendment. And although African American men were first given the right to vote in 1870, they were rapidly disenfranchised in the years following Reconstruction. Those rights were finally restored in 1965 with the Voting Rights Act, but continue to be assailed today.
It is easy to forget the importance of each and every vote.
I urge you to do your part and go to the polls for early voting or on Election Day.
| Oseh shalom bimromav, hu ya'aseh shalom aleinu ve'al kol Israel, ve'imru, Amen. |
| May the One who makes peace in the heavens, make peace for us all and all the people of Israel. |
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