Why is Nehemiah 8 my favorite chapter in the Bible?

What’s more enduring - a wall, or a story? Walls are what we need for security and safety. And they sometimes crumble and topple and fall. Stories endure and they require review and updates to make sure we do not only recycle what’s sacred and helpful but also revisit and challenge what’s toxic and outdated in our reservoir of values which is what stories are.

We need both - walls and stories, physical and spiritual structures to help individuals and nations survive and thrive, grow and evolve.

On our Below the Bible Belt journey we are now reading the critical chapters in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah that describe the rebuilding of Jerusalem as a national home both with bricks and with social boundaries -- that includes harsh borders that were not popular back then -- and are challenging to many of us today.

What we are about to read about next week is not only the building of walls but the invention of the story -- the revival or perhaps invention of the collective story of the Jews -- the move from temple to torah, from space-based Judaism to time-bound religious life that can be celebrated everywhere -- we are about to read about the birth of the bible as the central narrative and beating heart of a nation that relearns, again and again, how to evolve, how to live, and how to love.

To read these chapters during these difficult days of ongoing war and suffering, as the Jewish people are divided yet again between grief and rage, empathy and fear, lack of love, growing gaps and deeper divides -- is to understand how we got here, and also what we can do to bridge divides, talk back to our trauma-based texts of terror, and reclaim the Torah of our ancestors on our terms and with what we need to be better at being Jewish and human, caring and courageous, wiser and kinder - with and for all people.

Next week, on May 21st at 5pm NY time, I’ll be getting on a zoom to read with you my favorite chapter in the Hebrew Bible - Nehemiah 8. It’s a riveting story about what happened in a central square in Jerusalem 2,500 years ago and it contains the recipe for how we get to transmit our sacred story from one generation to another - and how we can do so with equal commitment to transformation - it gets us to ask the question -- what in our stories, values, ethics and laws evolves along with us, and in order to be relevant must evolve and change - to echo our fast shifting realities?

These are questions about the Jewish stories of survival we chose to tell and which ones we are telling, questioning and challenging right now.

I’m excited for this conversation - and invite you -- all subscribers and viewers - all are welcome -to join this conversation - for free. I usually reserve these talks to this blog’s paid subscribers, with gratitude for generous and kind support. I hope it’s ok that I’m opening this important conversation about the moment in our history that not only birthed the bible as a public text and ritual performance but also gave us the lesser known but critical tools with which to keep honoring the sacred legacy -- and also adapt, translate and update our scriptures to meet our messy modern needs.

Sign up here to join the conversation on 5/21/25:

https://labshul.shulcloud.com/form/below-the-bible-belt-may-2025.html

It’s all there in this chapter that I’ve first encountered 25 years ago, fell in love with, and continue to carry and cultivate as the origin story for the Storahtelling method that was invented in 1999, the Maven Method and the Lab/Shul community - all ways to reimagine Jewish life -- co-created by beloved creative souls who also got what the essence of this chapter is about and how it gives us keys to understand our past, perfect our present and plants seeds of change and hope for the future.

Sounds dramatic? Well it is.. And it is such a great story about a pivotal moment in time, lesser known, yet rich with implications.. So critically needed right now as so many people in the name of sacred texts and dogmas sow so much sorrow and desecrate the holiness of humanity and the core commandment of the Torah - to love beyond our narrow selves and borders and to keep learning how to help, heal, hope, and love.

Below the Bible Belt’s 3 ½ year journey to read through the entire Hebrew Bible is now only two books and three months away from completion. What a trip! This next conversation will help us begin, in slow motion, our descent, as we begin to wrap this journey up and plan to process what are the main takeaways, life lessons and learnings. Look out for invitations soon to help reflect, process - and plan ahead!

May each day bring us closer to our core of love, and to each other.

May we be kinder. Let stories heal.

Thank you for joining me below the bible belt.

Shabbat shalom