The Gathering | Seeing beyond the darkness

As the sun sets earlier and we spend more time in darker hours, we can come to feel more isolated, more afraid of the dangers that might be just beyond what we can see. For just this reason, cultures all over the world have winter holiday celebrations and festivals, opportunities to gather by fire or under pretty lights to eat, drink, and sing together—reminding us of our interconnected communal energy, and how the joy of it can support us all.

The violent attack at Club Q last month just hours before Trans Day of Remembrance was yet another reminder that there are indeed all-too-real dangers out there, that the homophobic and transphobic rhetoric used by politicians and pundits has deadly consequences. And yet, we can look at the way that the club patrons protected each other and how activists continue to work tirelessly for gun reform in the wake of increased mass shootings for reminders of how we can keep each other safe. 

Last month, I attended Race Forward’s Facing Race conference, where I heard a similar tone: on the one hand, a vigilant anger toward white nationalists and others who threaten our multiracial safety; on the other, a constant thrum of faith in one another, an unceasing commitment to toward realizing a shared vision of just, loving and accountable society.  

Kislev (the current Jewish month) is sometimes known as the “month of dreaming”—there are 10 dreams described in the Torah, and nine are read during Kislev. Some of those visions end up dictating the political policies of their time, not only impacting how the dreamers understand their own leadership, but also what different paths forward might look like. The authors and artists below offer visionary perspectives to help us imagine and sustain the ongoing work of protecting each other. Let’s look to them, and to others, who help us find warmth. And may we hold each other more fully as winter begins and the longest nights set in.

— Sarra Alpert, Director of the Avodah Institute for Social Change