The arrival of the month of November marks the beginning of a busy holiday season.  We have Thanksgiving and then before we know it, Christmas is here.  It is time for making friends, renewing old ones, celebrating year-long accomplishments, and strengthening family bonds over turkey legs and marshed potatoes with gravy.  We get to share meals, exchange gifts, and create memories of laughter and joy.  We get to say to our families, friends and neighbors ”welcome to my mikdash me-at.”

I have heard it said that in the Near East as in many African cultures, to share a meal with someone is a guarantee of peace, trust, fraternity, and forgiveness.  A shared table symbolizes a shared life.  So, when an orthodox Jew says, “I would like to have dinner with you,” it is a metaphor implying, “I would like to enter into friendship with you.”    To extend a dinner invitation is to say, “come to my mikdash me-at” - the miniature sanctuary of my dining room table where we will celebrate the most sacred and beautiful experience that life affords - Friendship.

Well, to all of you my friends I say this holiday season, “Welcome to my mikdash me-at!” 

JCfan Life Tip:  “I am meant to be a river and not a reservoir, a passage and not a barrier.”  Sammy Wanyonyi

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 6th, 2007 at 9:59 pm and is filed under Faith Matters, Friendship, Missional living. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.