Jewish Women International has published “Rethinking Sukkot,” a meditation on healthy relationships just in time for the holiday. Utilizing Jewish texts, the guide explores issues such as family, protection, spiritual growth, peace and kindness, but not merely to celebrate the obvious. The real intent is highlighting healthy relationships to help women recognize — and extricate themselves from — abusive ones.
Women in loving relationships feel safe and valued. But those who have never experienced this peaceful sanctuary can mistake controlling behavior for affection or a fist for true devotion. You can’t see through a glass darkly if you’ve never walked through a lighted room.
Abuse, which targets women, men and children, scars the soul before the body. Fighting back is often not an option because repeated criticism annihilates self esteem. In time, a victim of abuse believes she or he deserves to be punished.
The Jewish community is not immune to abuse in all its nefarious dimensions. It exists in screams audible through an open window, in a child’s tears at recess, in bruised arms and psyches.
“Rethinking Sukkot” asks Jews to talk about abuse with each other under the sukkah, the symbol of G-d’s peace. We don’t have to point fingers, just point the conversation in a different direction.
This Sukkot, turn on the light of shalom in your sukkah so others might find their way in the darkness.
Copyright © 2012 by the Intermountain Jewish News
