Home is Where the Eyes, Ears, Mouth, and Nose Are (Shoftim 5777)

See No, Speak No, Hear No, Smell No by Angela Quitoriano

Greeting the largest entering class ever at JCHS, I was excited yesterday to "welcome home" all of our students.

Coming home from summer vacation, whether one travels near or far, or simply changes one's daily routine can be both exciting and confounding. It is comforting to be back with things that are familiar, and it can time time to readjust and fit back in. Friends got accustomed to getting along without us -- and us without them. Others sat in the places that we used to call ours. It is a time of mixed feelings. 

When I was in high school, a dear friend moved out of state to attend a special arts school. He would be living in a dorm. As he was packing, he talked about how much he was going to miss home. Then, as if on cue, his mom walked in and handed him a card. On the cover was a drawing of a hamsa (the stylized outline of a hand). 

Framing the hamsa was a home blessing. Inside the card his mom wrote, "Wherever you go, you will be at home! You make a home for yourself in your heart and in the community you create with others." She hugged him and reassured him that he always had a home with her and he would be creating new homes wherever he lived. 

That resonates with this week's Torah portion, Shoftim, which includes a few references to building a home. The Torah begins this week, by instructing the community of Israel to put judges and officers at their gates. (Deut. 16:18) The word it uses for "gates" is the same Hebrew word that was used on the card my friend received. This verse typically is read to encourage the community to establish fairness and justice at its borders. To protect and maintain the community's norms and standards. 

In that sense, every community has its gates. Some gates are inviting, encouraging, creating a warm sense of welcome. Others are intimidating, off-putting,  discouraging strangers from entering. Some gates project ignorance, injustice, or hatred. Others embody justice, kindness, and love. [More about the national debate about the 'gates' we use in a later blog.]

Still, there is a different way to read "gates," to read it as deeply personal. My teacher, Alan Lew, of blessed memory, spoke about this verse in those terms in his beautiful book, This Real and You Are Completely Unprepared. For Lew, referencing the 20th century Mandatory Palestine/Israel commentator the Iturei Torah, the gates mentioned by Torah are the gates to each soul. The eyes, ears, nose, and mouth act like seven gates that mediate between the soul inside our bodies and the world outside our bodies.

Two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, and one mouth. The seven gates that through which our inner spirit is moved. Those gates move us to rise up when we hear the spew of hatred, to reach out when we hear someone stumble, to walk away when we catch the smell of dishonor, or to speak out when we experience the bitter taste of injustice.

In a way, we are guarding our gates whenever we rise up, reach out, walk away, or speak out. 

Welcome Home to school, a place to call home. Welcome Home to school where each day presents opportunities to use all seven of our gates to extend wisdom, kindness, and affection for ourselves, our friends, and for everyone with whom we share our "home."