Self-Imposed Sabbatical

Newsletter June 9, 2025 Together, we're #keepingitsacred...

Usually, rabbis take sabbaticals after every 7 years or so for about a year. This is in alignment with that sabbatical cycle known as "shmeitah"/"release" outlined in the Torah that would let the land rest every seven years. A time to lay fallow. To regenerate and be restored.

I have never taken a sabbatical, though I have now been a rabbi for 17 years. So, this year, I decided to take 10 days out to try this time-honored practice that is so necessary for spiritual leaders who pour every ounce of love and dedication into their community. A time to pause, reflect, breathe, and refresh. A healing space for the healer. And, really, I recommend sabbaticals for everyone in every profession, but yes especially for those whose job it is to care for the spiritual, social, and/or emotional wellbeing of others. Those who have cultivated the compassion to feel the sadness, despair, and travails of their people. A space to put it all back into perspective. A time to refill the cup to again be able to pour forth. It is important for people like clergy, therapists, teachers, parents, nurses and other caregivers especially to hold some space for themselves every once in awhile.

Time to be like this koala here (in the photo) in a tree whose only concern at this moment is finding the perfect leaf with a lovely balance of water content, flavor and texture, To just be present in the moment. Not thinking about the future at all.

I have felt a lot like this koala during my self-imposed sabbatical. Just focused on the small things. What is right in front of me. Namely, this computer. Time to be with my thoughts. To write and to think about what word I will next put on the page. But without concern for what time I should eat my next meal. I will eat when I'm hungry. To not have to look at the clock and think about my next responsibility. A cleared calendar is a gift. A time to breathe.

Inbetween long sessions of writing, usually at restaurants with a view of the water, I have taken long walks by the beach. I have occasionally punctuated my trip also with visits to the local nature reserves to see animals that only live here in Australia. Time to appreciate the unique features of the natural world, flora and fauna, on this stunning continent. In winter. To break from the sunny days in and out of my life in LA.

Of course I have enjoyed connecting with our KITS community from here. Like gathering for our weekly Healing Circle and Talmud Study and later today, our Spiritual Gentleness Book Club. These build me up. And meeting up with new KITS friends including praying with local rabbis (thank you especially to my colleague Rabbi Jacqueline Ninio ) or go see a rugby match (thank you, Rev. DJ Konz), and to meet up with new members of Keeping It Sacred here (including the very talented Ali Sobel-Read, see below!). All of this is a great gift.

I will say that I have not been immune from the news coming out of LA. Or the Middle East. Namely because of email lists and text chains keep updating me. I pray for peace and the uplift of human dignity everywhere it is threatened.

It has been important to take some time out to relieve myself of some of the daily pressures and to see how people in another country on another continent in another hemisphere do things. To be reminded that the world is organized as it is because people have decided to organize it that way. But also to know that the challenges of the world as we know them don't have to be that way. The world as we see it in our tiny corner are not always givens in other places of the world or in nature.

I am inspired to know that ring-tailed lemurs organize their society as a matriarchy, for instance. And I'm inspired by Australians who drive on the left side of the road, cheer on rugby matches, and generously reply to "thank you," with, "no worries." Very different from what I am used to experiencing. My perspective has literally been turned around each day as Jewish daily prayer, which always faces towards Jerusalem, here, is facing north west! Talk about a perspective change.

I am grateful for this time to refresh and reset. I am grateful to you, my Keeping It Sacred community for helping to make it possible. And of course especially my family who reassured me that they endorsed the purpose of my trip. More photos HERE.

Shabbat literally means "rest." And I am grateful for this sabbatical-- or shall we say "shabbatical"? Finding time to rest and reset, one breath at a time, helps us keep it sacred.

Together, we’re #keepingitsacred…

Rabbi Heather Miller

Founder, Keeping It Sacred

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