NEWS
Temple Kol Tikvah Invites Community to Gathering for Peace and Unity
Rabbi Michael Shields of Davidson’s Temple Kol Tikvah announced today that the community is invited to its Solidarity Shabbat (Sabbath) Service and Vigil on Friday, November 2. The Worship service will be at 6:00 p.m. and the Vigil at 7:00 p.m. on the front lawn, weather permitting. (So, folks will want to dress accordingly.) The Temple is located at 605 South Street in Davidson. [NOTE: the venue may change due to the expected number of people expected to attend the service – information will be posted if the current venue is changed.]
Like communities across the nation, Davidson is hurting in the wake of last week’s mayhem, from bombs delivered by mail to deadly shootings at a Kroger Store in Kentucky and at the massacre at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. So many lives threatened or lost while doing routine things – shopping for groceries, visiting places of worship and consolation.
News of Davidson means to highlight the events and people in our community and chooses to be neutral on political matters. We aim to serve all of Davidson, politics notwithstanding. But these recent events, like the myriad school shootings or the Las Vegas massacre, stand in an apolitical realm of existential anguish. Their intensity and frequency have rocked our country and our town.
We cannot look away.
On Kol Tikvah’s website, Rabbi Shields quotes another rabbi in describing what a community can be. The words express what we all hope for in our broader community, no matter the religious affiliation, “The synagogue is a kehilah kedoshah– a sacred community. Like a sukkah [temporary structure], it is constructed of many different branches woven together: the young, the old, the rich and the poor, the married and the unmarried, single parents, grandparents, gays and heterosexuals, non-Jewish spouses. The broader the Sukkah’s reach, the more tightly its branches are woven, the stronger it stands. So, too, the synagogue: the greater variety of people welcomed within it, the closer they feel to one another, the stronger the temple stands.”
This morning a friend emailed to say, in part, “After the tragic event this weekend in Pittsburgh, I am convinced that we need to stop talking and start doing something to try to make a difference — however small —in our country.
Starting today until Thanksgiving, I propose that we try to do a good deed every day in memory of the lost lives in Pittsburgh. Maybe we can start a chain of good deeds.”
We can’t see into the darkness that perpetrated these terrible events, and we can’t ease the pain for those who have lost more than can be fathomed. But maybe we can begin a chain of good deeds here in Davidson to lighten the dark and honor those lost lives.
If you join in, we invite you to let us know about deeds you have done or experienced, so we can multiply the joy by sharing these stories in the Voices of Davidson column.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Meg Kimmel
A professional communicator with a long career in higher education, Meg now consults and volunteers in areas where words and images work together to tell a story. She's a proud member of Davidson's Class of 1977 and lives nearby with her husband, Don, Davidson professor emeritus of biology, with whom she shares a family grown by kinship and choice.
Marguerite Williams
Marguerite (Margo) Williams is a novelist ("Madame President"), editor, and business owner of A Way With Words. A 16-year member of the Davidson Town Board, she has lived in Davidson since 1977. Visit her at her website.