Page 11 - Harlem Shavuot Companion 2020

Between Sinai and Eretz Yisrael: A Wedding in Process
By Chelsea Garbell, Research Scholar & Program Manager@NYU Applied Research Collective
for American Jewry

Shavuot is often referred to as the wedding of God and the Jewish
People, brought together in love and commitment at Mount Sinai and
sanctified through matan Torah, the giving of the Torah. In Midrash
Song of Songs Rabba, we learn that the love between God and B’nei
Yisrael was crystalized in that moment, in the shadow of the mountain
(2:1). The Pahad Yitzhak explains that our love for God compels us
to “walk in God’s ways,” to emulate God in order to be as close as
possible to our beloved (Shavuot 11).

On May 19, I climbed up a large rock in Central Park with my fiance
Paul and, at the crest, with our families on Zoom, two friends to witness, and my Rabbi and his
three youngest children holding up hand-made signs, we were legally married. We worked
backward, recounting our choice of location, the story of our engagement, and the holy moment
we met over a year and half ago at break-fast after Yom Kippur. We talked about what we had
looked for in a partner, and what we had found in each other. We imagined our future years from
now, and the foundation we were laying atop that rock. We signed the marriage license on our
knees on the rock’s flat back, and stood again to be pronounced husband and wife in the eyes of
the State of New York. I have never been so happy as I was at that moment.

We descended from the rock married and joyous and yet, like B’nei Yisrael, into a period of
unknown. With COVID-19 raging, we have made the painful decision to postpone our
August wedding, waiting to hold our religious ceremony and celebration with family and friends
until a time when we can do so with closeness and without worry. We do not know how long the
journey in the desert may last, but we now have a foundational moment to guide our way.

On Shavuot we read the story of Ruth, a story laced with loss and redemption. Ruth and Boaz have
both lost their partners, but they come together and, in their union, usher in the promise of
redemption, with the birth of Obed, the grandfather of King David. The future may look uncertain,
but Paul and I are redeemed together in this moment through our love and commitment to building
a bayit ne'eman b’Yisrael, a faithful home amongst the people of Israel, in a world we hope to
improve when the danger passes. We had our wedding day, our Shavuot, but we have not yet
reached our Eretz Yisrael; we remain in a liminal space until the transformation can be complete,
with chuppah and dancing and everyone we love surrounding us.

My love for Paul compels me to learn from him and to emulate the best in him, and him me, just
as the Jewish People seek to walk in God’s ways. This is a moment of loss and plague for the
whole world. What does it mean to walk in God’s ways as we look at the injustice and devastation
that COVID-19 has uncovered? What does our union with God compel us to do? How can we feed
the hungry, clothe the naked, and tend to the sick, but also fight for the oppressed and ensure just
courts and marketplaces?

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