Synchronicity is the idea that coincidences can have greater significance, not be coincidences at all. Many of us experience these kinds of things - thinking of a person right before they call us, talking about a particular subject and then seeing it come up over and over in multiple other settings, etc. When things happen once and then keep happening, we often seek out deeper meaning.
This past week was a week of synchronicity for me. It started early in the week, when I heard from an old friend, someone I used to teach with. He left our former school to pursue theological studies and is about to be ordained as an Episcopal priest. He sent me a text message inviting me to his ordination ceremony. We hadn’t been in contact in months, but it was delightful to hear from him. The timing of his message was also a lovely coincidence. I’ve been working this summer with another former colleague and mutual friend from the same school who has a personal training business. The message came in right in the middle of a training session. We were both tickled to see it and learn about the upcoming celebration. One of the things I had been discussing with my trainer friend in between circuits was my plans to spend this Shabbat with another former colleague and mutual friend. With my connections and friendships from this former position on the brain, it wasn’t really all that surprising that more and more reminders of those connections kept bubbling up. Later that day, an old friend who lives in Israel messaged me out of the blue to ask about something happening in her former community here in the States. She’s a close friend, someone I’ve known since college, but we don’t have the chance to speak that often, so it was a joyful surprise to hear from her. Our conversation naturally turned toward catching up on our own lives and checking in on other friends from our college circle. Not even 24 hours later, I met someone new to me - or so I thought. This person looked sort of familiar, but I couldn’t quite place him, so we played a game of Jewish geography. We quickly figured out that we had both lived in the Boston area around the same time 15+ years ago and shared a friend in common from that time, which meant that we certainly ran into each other socially and at shul during those years. The common friend - one of the people from my college circle that my Israeli friend and I had been discussing. Synchronicities are all in the eye of the beholder. Certainly they can simply be explained as coincidences, with no causal relationship whatsoever. The meanings we choose to ascribe to them are what give them deeper meaning. What I see in my synchronous experiences from this past week is the inevitability of connections between people. We can never not be in relationship with each other. The threads of our lives are always tied together at some point. I see the same phenomenon when we gather together as a minyan for tefillah. People are sometimes surprised to learn that the rabbinic explanation for why we need a minyan of 10 people derives from this week’s parashah. The Talmud (Megillah 23b) connects the idea of a community (עדה - edah) to the description of the community of 10 spies (also called עדה - edah) who cast aspersions on the Land of Israel and lead the people astray in Parashat Shelah. 10 spies, 10 people for a minyan. A minyan is an edah, a community. Coming together as such connects us to each other and in that connection is power. In our parashah this week, that power was used to sow chaos and discontent. Thankfully, our experience of minyan is quite the opposite. When we gather together in a minyan, we prioritize the way that the threads of our lives are tied together. We utilize those connections to nurture spaces of song and yearning. We hold each other during tender times and lift each other up during moments of celebration. We enable those among us who know grief to say Kaddish, and allow us to teach and hear Torah in the fullest way possible. Over the past few weeks, I have noticed in shul the power of our minyan, of our community. I will miss being with us this Shabbat and look forward to reconnecting when we next gather for services. Shabbat shalom.
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