Announcing Potluck Sundays
In the beginning there was the story… How does the world begin after all? With Gd’s story. Gd said: Let there be light! And there was light. What a great story.
This is the kind of energy we want to bring to Oy Vey’s new space in Makom. Big Word Energy. Jewish space made with stories and discussions. It’s a reminder that we come from a long oral tradition that continues to this day.
Mark Your Calendars for the Last Sunday of the Month for Potluck Sundays at Makom
On the last Sunday of every month, starting on August 30, you can join us from 16-19 for a potluck of food, stories, and discussions.
These Sunday’s will be a real potluck. Not just because we will be sharing food, but because we will be sharing ideas, stories, and knowledge.
Potluck Sundays are not entertainment. They are made up of you. Each Sunday, we will alternate between storytelling and discussions. Who knows? We may even mix the two. Spice it up a bit…
The afternoons will feature a mix of Dutch and English and all of our other languages. So feel welcome to participate the way that is most comfortable for you. And if you don’t want to miss a thing, maybe try DeepL’s voice translation.
The First Session: The Values of the Joods Manifest
The first event is Sunday, August 30, hosted by Esther Kornalijnslijper and Tori Egherman. During this session, we will discuss the values of the Jewish Manifesto. We want to know what strikes you as important? What resonates with you? What can we do as a community to live those values? If you don’t have your own copy, you can read it or listen to it online:
- In Dutch https://joodsmanifest.nl/het-joods-manifest-3/
- In English: https://joodsmanifest.nl/en/the-jewish-manifesto/
Let us know if you can make it.
Upcoming Sessions
Sunday September 27, storytelling hosted by Tori and Esther.
Sunday, October 25, Simcha Zijlstra will guide us in a discussion based on the Jewish Manifesto. Topic to be determined.
Mighty Oaks from Little Acorns Grow
We didn’t pick the oak by accident, either. Abraham pitches his tent by the Eloni* Mamre (אֵֽלֹנֵ֜י* מַמְרֵ֣א) — *oaks, or terebinths, nobody’s ever agreed. It’s there that he talks to Gd and the covenant is renewed. And it’s there that he shows great hospitality to three strangers. He washes their feet and invites them to rest under the oaks. Some commentators got nervous about the idea of an oak grove: it sounded too much like the tree-worship that was popular in the day, so they translated the trees away into a safer “plain” or “valley”. We’re keeping the trees.
The oak has long been a symbol of strength, a symbol of resilience — but our tradition also plants an oak at grief. When Deborah, Rebecca’s nurse, dies, she’s buried under an oak that gets a name of its own: Allon-Bakhut (אַלּ֥וֹן בָּכֽוּת), the oak of weeping. Even mourning gets rooted in something that keeps growing. Also, do you see the word for El for God echoed in Allon – aleph lamed…
That’s the acorn we’re planting this season — a little deviant, a little slow, and still holding.
(Thanks to Rav Lievnath for this beautiful musing on the mighty oak)