One is the recent atrocity in a Pittsburgh synagogue. Standing out in my mind in particular, a woman named Joyce Fienberg who was just one of the 11 murder victims whose voice has been silenced. According to news accounts, Joyce "spent time volunteering at Family House, a nonprofit that provides a place to stay for people traveling to the Pittsburgh area for medical care. Fienberg’s role was to help guests get comfortable in an unfamiliar city, March said. She was known around the nonprofit for her sense of humor."
Sadly for me, I did not know Joyce, having never been to Pittsburg. And in all honestly, this post is not specifically about the murders or Mrs. Fienberg, per se. Rather, I want to talk about the silent voices whose lives affected our own.
In reading this week's devotional and commentary about the death of the matriarch Sarah, it was pointed out: "...never underestimate the value of a matriarch... Matriarchs are the glue that hold a household of faith together." I simply want to chime in with my 2¢ on that subject. (This is not to devalue or diminish the important role that fathers have in our lives.) By their presence or by their absence, be they supportive or abusive, fathers and mothers both have life-long influences on those of us who are still topside.
My second thought is in regards to the statement that [mothers] are the glue that hold a household of faith together. I would venture to elaborate on that and say that mothers are the glue that holds the whole family together. PERIOD. In my case, my father-in-law was the first to leave us, but when my mother-in-law left, that had a measurably different effect on the family. No longer was there anyone to nag us into having family get togethers, no longer were we drawn together to celebrate special days. It could get occasionally annoying, because without being a Jewish mother, she totally had the guilt trip stereotype down. And now, we miss it, and have become painfully aware of how fragmented our family is becoming without someone being intentional to draw us back together.
When my own mother passed, another void was created in our extended family. Since her memorial service, no event has had the power to draw everyone together from our far-flung daily lives. We still see each other as we are able and have the time and money to travel, but no more coordinating of the gatherings to celebrate her birthday, which had become an "almost-annual" tradition.
Despite the fact that their voices have been silenced, the roar of their influence in our lives, the echoes of their love and admonishments have shaped who I am today, for better or for worse.
And so it was with Sarah and the lasting effect she had in the lives of Abraham and Isaac. So it was with the effect she continues to have in our own modern day lives as well, as we consider our place in the story of faith. Her silent laughter of incredulity aside, what faith and trust she must have had to trek off with her husband into the unknown... to agree to participate in the deception with her husband of a pharaoh and a king...
Or, as Bill Bullock states in this weeks "Rabbi's Son" devotional: "As Abraham is recognized as the father of all who believe, Sarah is rightly considered the mother of all who follow after God."
For those of us who have been blessed to be mothers, it is a faith challenge to consider the Sarahs, the Joyce Fienbergs, the mothers and mothers-in-law who, by their lives, their wisdom, their kindnesses, their simply being present, have had a lasting influence and so shaped the lives of the generations that followed.
So, whose voice do you have echoing in your head? Their voices are not really silent if there is someone still listening.
Haftorah: I Kings 1:1-31
B'rit Chadesha: John 4:1-42
