{"id":9802,"date":"2019-08-09T15:36:09","date_gmt":"2019-08-09T19:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kulanuarchive.kulanu.org\/?page_id=9802"},"modified":"2019-11-04T14:43:08","modified_gmt":"2019-11-04T19:43:08","slug":"kulanu-across-the-globe-readings","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/kulanu.org\/archive\/get-involved\/kulanu-across-the-globe\/kulanu-across-the-globe-materials\/kulanu-across-the-globe-readings\/","title":{"rendered":"Kulanu Across the Globe Readings"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’ve selected short readings that represent different community experiences.\u00a0 These pieces can be shared during the service or as part of a discussion.<\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n
<\/div>
<\/span>Thank you letter to Kulanu from Rabbi in Madagascar<\/strong><\/div>
\n

Shalom Uvrakha to all of you! I\u2019m Rabbi Moshe Yehuda Musan Gilay from Belgium, and it has been two years now that I took the decision to settle here in Madagascar. I\u2019m truly honored to share a few words for the 25th anniversary of Kulanu, your wonderful organization.<\/p>\n

When I came here two years ago, I found a community fuelled with Torah and Mitzvot, and you could feel how proud they were to be Jewish, and see how their Jewishness infuses their daily lives. There is a teaching in the Talmud that says that one reason of our exile is so that we will bring with us a lot of converts. When I see what the Malagasy Jewish community is becoming and the path they are following, I\u2019m more and more convinced that you took the best decision by opening to them the doors of the Jewish family. If you hadn\u2019t decided to be involved with them long ago, it\u2019s not an exaggeration to claim that most of them, if not all, would have been lost to Judaism. But you gave them life. What they are is all thanks to you! You believed in them and are supporting them in so various ways, that their gratitude to you is eternal. So, on behalf of all the Malagasy Jewish community, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for all the care and love you\u2019re showing them.<\/p>\n

This year, you\u2019re celebrating your 25th anniversary. It was at the age of 25 that the Levites had to begin serving God, and through this they were also serving the people. On Elul the 25th began the Creation of the world. And finally, on Kislev the 25th begins Chanukah. The common point between these three events centered on the number 25 is light. One of the tasks of the Kohanim, belonging to the tribe of Levy, was to kindle the Menorah, whose light was reverberated to the outside despite being lit inside the Beit HaMikdash.<\/p>\n

Concerning the Creation of the world, the first sentence ushered by God was \u201cLet there be light\u201d. And we know from the Meforshim that we\u2019re speaking of a special, spiritual light. As for Chanukah, its connection with light is obvious.<\/p>\n

What I can wish you for your 25th anniversary is that you will receive throughout this year Siyata DiShmaya to kindle more lamps in other remote places of the world, where people longing for Judaism could be found. And may your light continue to give its bright Ad Ki Yavo Shiloh, Bimehera V\u2019Yameinu. Amen, Ken Yehi Ratzon!<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

<\/span>From Rabbi Scott Glass about the Abayudaya Jewish Community in Uganda<\/strong><\/div>
\n

\u2026we rabbis work all our lives to instill Jewish values and practices. We minister to people who are generally secure, educated and comfortable, and we are so often thwarted by just that comfort, safety and enlightenment. Our people are often hard-pressed to see their tradition as something to be treasured and appreciated. And here, in the poorest corner of the world, under the worst conditions, were people who expressed, with simplicity yet with eloquence, their great devotion to God, Torah, Israel, and Shabbat. Nothing I have read, nothing I had heard, could have prepared me for this heartfelt, unquestioning, unwavering faith. There are some who would attribute this to a lack of sophistication, education, and literacy. Nothing can be further from the truth. What we would find is that while there were many, especially among the older Abayudaya, who lacked formal education and some who were illiterate, they were, almost without exception, possessing a keen intelligence, unexpected sophistication and a surprisingly high level of Jewish literacy.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

<\/span>Kibbutz Galuyot (Gathering of Exiles)<\/strong><\/div>
\n

\"\"<\/a> Source.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

<\/span>Your Reflection in my Mirror (Poem by Schulamith Chava Halevy)<\/strong><\/div>
\n

By Schulamith Chava Halevy<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0(Click here for the Spanish version.)<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

As toward a stranger I was destined to wed<\/p>\n

Tentatively I approached —<\/p>\n

Hope and trepidation.<\/p>\n

I prayed that as in ancient legends<\/p>\n

Perhaps we knew each other in a different life.<\/p>\n

For long parted souls look not into the future,<\/p>\n

But the past.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Our eyes met and immediately we knew<\/p>\n

How could we forget!<\/p>\n

Six hundred years ago we basked together<\/p>\n

In the Spanish golden sun.<\/p>\n

We sang the same romances, shared our wine.<\/p>\n

In the splendor of Granada<\/p>\n

How peacefully we sailed upon the dream<\/p>\n

Of harmony and cultures shared,<\/p>\n

Of human paradise.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Then the storm hit.<\/p>\n

Stunned and confused we ran<\/p>\n

And as we fled<\/p>\n

Our hands tore apart<\/p>\n

And torrential waves<\/p>\n

Of people and events<\/p>\n

Swept over us.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We lost one another<\/p>\n

Five hundred years ago.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

We took another step,<\/p>\n

My feet still unsure,<\/p>\n

The sands so soft and wet still<\/p>\n

From the ebbing tide<\/p>\n

How dare I look?<\/p>\n

I could not know what’s left to recognize<\/p>\n

In the wreckage<\/p>\n

And how to make the leap<\/p>\n

Across half a millennium.<\/p>\n

But even as our frames held on to solid ground<\/p>\n

We could hear the flutter of our souls,<\/p>\n

Never minding time or place<\/p>\n

They embraced in a flight of fantasy.<\/p>\n

Soaring high above the anger and the fears<\/p>\n

And all the distances and walls<\/p>\n

That five hundred years apart have built<\/p>\n

We whirled by new landscapes<\/p>\n

Of lives we might have lived,<\/p>\n

People whom we might have been.<\/p>\n

We wept by one another’s sorrows<\/p>\n

Gathered flowers in one another’s childhood fields.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When it came time for me to go,<\/p>\n

I discovered that you<\/p>\n

Had polished my spirit into<\/p>\n

A brilliant gem<\/p>\n

And from each of its myriad facets<\/p>\n

You shine<\/p>\n

To the farthest reaches of my<\/p>\n

Ancestral memory.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When it came time for me to go,<\/p>\n

I did not know yet to thank you enough<\/p>\n

For the many new lives,<\/p>\n

All the joy and the pain<\/p>\n

Your courageous voyage gave me<\/p>\n

To hold me till we meet again.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Nineteen ninety-three<\/p>\n

Five hundred and one years.<\/p>\n

Where are you now?<\/p>\n

What new stations did you cross<\/p>\n

In your lonely pilgrimage?<\/p>\n

And did you mend your heart<\/p>\n

— I recall the ripping sound, when it overfilled<\/p>\n

Above the graveyard<\/p>\n

Did it heal soft and large, with room enough for me<\/p>\n

That I may always walk with you<\/p>\n

(I could not hear your answer when I called).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Five hundred years and one, how is your strength<\/p>\n

Do you walk always with your soul<\/p>\n

And do you travel in your conscious hours or your sleep?<\/p>\n

For stay, we know, our spirits will no more.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Five hundred and one years.<\/p>\n

Do you still look for my reflection in your mirror?<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

<\/span>Jewish in Africa (Poem by Kokasi Keki)<\/strong><\/div>
\n

Poem by Kokasi Keki*<\/p>\n

Kintu\u2019s family lives in a village called Nangolo<\/p>\n

Kintu is a teacher<\/p>\n

He is reading<\/p>\n

Kintu, he counts the days<\/p>\n

When six days pass,<\/p>\n

he celebrates Shabbat with his family<\/p>\n

Naome, our mum, learning to be a cook and caterer<\/p>\n

is cooking matoke on a charcoal stove<\/p>\n

Kokasi, the first born, is 11, and in P5 class<\/p>\n

He helps his mother carry water from the borehole<\/p>\n

Katalima, the second born, is 8, in P2 class<\/p>\n

She sweeps the room<\/p>\n

Deborah, last born, is soon to be three<\/p>\n

and walks in and out of nursery class<\/p>\n

Deborah sings songs for Chanukah<\/p>\n

Today we are celebrating Chanukah<\/p>\n

Today, we are going to light seven candles<\/p>\n

Katalima lights the candles<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*This poem is the First Prize Winner from the 2002 Kulanu International Competition for Young Writers.\u00a0 The author was 11 when the poem was written.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n

Click here to print out all the readings: Google Doc |\u00a0 <\/b>PDF<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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