Light in Dark Places

Newsletter December 11, 2023 Together, we're #keepingitsacred...

This past weekend, I saw an elementary school play production of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Sitting there in the dark theatre with hard wooden seats, imperfect audio, and a delayed spotlight clumsily following the lead performer, I had a revelation. Throughout the story line, child personifications of the crass, self-absorbed, or entitled were eliminated from the plot, only to leave Charlie, the poor but honest, positive, and truthful child of the bunch as the hero. He taught the children performers that these are the qualities to aspire to, and to minimize yearnings otherwise. The art spoke to these kids in ways that a lecture could not.

And that is the beauty of art. It transcends. It transforms.

But I don't have to tell you that. Keeping It Sacred is a community of some exceedingly talented artists. You have traveled from Hollywood to Jerusalem to show your paintings. You have recorded entire albums and performed online concerts from home during the pandemic. You have produced award-winning films and screenplays and books. You have created work to be shared and held, and used, and even tasted. You have explored themes of transcendence, grief, globalization, identity, terror, redemption, wellness, justice, love, and more.

Our community knows what Jewish artist Barbra Streisand said so well, "Art finds a way to be constructive. It becomes heat in cold places; it becomes light in dark places."

And, we affirm the truth she shared that, "Art does not exist only to entertain, but also to challenge one to think, to provoke, even to disturb in a constant search for the truth."

Take the display of a large shabbat table in Hostage Square in Tel Aviv, one empty chair for each of the missing hostages. This silent display conveys absence more powerfully than any number in a newspaper headline alone.

Take Tara Subkoff's interfaith art show of the clothing store focused on up cycling that didn't simply talk about various spiritual leaders holding sacred space for one another and the planet, but also made it a reality to be experienced and felt. This exhibit showed the possibilities and potential that yet exists in the world more powerfully than any article.

Everywhere, we see the creative energy of the community helping us to grapple with the existential questions of our day, and are moved.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks reflected, "Art in Judaism always has a spiritual purpose: to make us aware of the universe as a work of art, testifying to the supreme Artist."

At Keeping It Sacred, we go deep as we explore the depths of what it means to be human. Bless those who do that through text but also through ritual, song, dance, productions, culinary, and visual art.

Together, we’re #keepingitsacred…

Rabbi Heather Miller

Founder, Keeping It Sacred

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Thanks for your interest, and thanks for #keepingitsacred...