Poland Pilgrimage #4
The morning after the heaviness of Lublin and our visit to Majdanek concentration camp, we wandering pilgrims boarded our bus and rolled north to welcome Shabbat in the beautiful village of Kazimierz Dolny.
Winding past vast fields of ripe wheat, sunflowers, and hops, the lush generosity of the earth bolstered our hearts. This is the land where our ancestors harvested mushrooms and berries in the forest, fished in the Vistula river, prayed in the woods, and felt the soft summer rain on their faces.
Kaziemierz Dolny was a thriving center of Jewish life for hundreds of years. And now? The old synagogue reduced to rubble by the Germans has been rebuilt and serves as a tiny museum with a gift shop. Not a Jew left in the entire town.
Until WE arrived!
Rolling our suitcases from the bus through the old cobblestone streets to reach our hotel on the banks of the mighty river, like a band of klezmerim (jewish folk musicians), we came to embody Shabbat in a place where our songs would echo off the stones and remind the trees of melodies they once heard and danced to.
We were guided through the town for a quick hour by a tour guide who showed us where tombstones from destroyed Jewish cemeteries (everywhere in Poland!!) were used to build stables for the German soldiers’ horses, pave new military roads, and make wheels for sharpening tools.
This town being a tourist destination for Poles seeking a little R and R, there were many many kitschy souvenir stands with all the usual things; name magnets, cheap jewelry, chatchkes galore! Then I saw the strangest thing….”Lucky Jew” magnets. Magnets with a picture of an old Jewish man with a long white bead counting his piles of money. People buy these as good luck tokens, to attract abundance and wealth. Is it offensive…? Yes.
But there are no Jews here to be offended. This is complex. This is part of the reason we are here. To build relationships, to give some context. To see how our ancestral culture has been remembered, and forgotten.
After our tour we made our way back to the hotel to bring in Shabbat. After a week of non stop activity and learning we were so ready for it!
We welcomed the Shabbos Queen with Yiddish songs, Zol Zeyn Shabbos and Gut Shabbos Eich. We danced and sang until our spirits soared and then Leslie Zeiger lit candles for us. We had a tall white candle on the left and right and in the middle a golden beeswax Neshome Licht/Soul Candle that we made in the old cemetery of Tarnow.
The flame of the ancestors danced in the center of us and the wax rolled down like tears.
My beautiful co facilitator Julie Wolk raised her grandfather Jacob’s Kiddush Cup which he had brought to the United States from Poland and she carried back with her on this trip. We blessed Challah that we had baked that morning (before we left Lublin) in a Polish Bakery going back three generations. The bakery was a Jewish bakery that was demolished in the bombing of WW2. All that remained were the ovens.
They graciously invited our group to bake challah (6 strand braid!) czyboja and bagels!! We left stuffed full of baked goods, and with bags of fresh challah for our Shabbat celebration. We danced out into the fading light of the courtyard welcoming the Shabbat Queen, offered prayers of unity and loving action in the world, then feasted and reflected until the candles were burning low. We all slept well that night.
The next morning in Kazimierz Dolny I led a Shabbat circle in the restored (destroyed by Nazis) synagogue. It is now a museum with a gift shop. We sang and wept. We wondered how long it had been since Shabbat had happened in this space.
The Torah reading we learned from was the story of Balaam who is given the charge to curse the encampment of the Israelites. He says he’s willing but will only if that’s what Goddexx wants him to do. After three times trying from different perspectives Baalam says that he can not curse but must BLESS.
That has been a theme of our trip. There is so much we could curse but instead we will bless. The spiritual energy of this group of humans is stellar and the blessings are strong. This is a spiritual muscle that takes exercise and practice. And here we are in the midst of it all working out, high intensity, power lifting
I’ll leave this post there in the sweetness of Shabbat.
Oh but wait,one more thing! After our morning Shabbos prayer circle, I walked to the old Jewish cemetery tucked up on a forested hill. There I knelt and prayed at the stone of a “righteous woman” who “opened her hand and home to the needy” and “studied holy books.” I prayed while Polish tourists pulled up in electric trams and appeared in waves chatting casually and briefly walking through the site as tourists before they returned down the hill to their trams. They might’ve found it strange to see a real LIVE Jew praying in this place. I wonder. I’ll practice my Polish this year so I can better communicate next time (;
If you would like me to pray for you in this sacred land let me know, and if you have a specific need, send me a message and I will use the portal of all the holy places we are visiting to lift you up.
to be continued…..
