Kinus 2022: A Walk of Discovery
“Leave your land, your place of origin, your father’s house, to the land that I will show you.”
(Genesis, 12:1, Torah, a modern commentary, PLAUT, G., SP: UJR, 2021)
Judaism is movement. It’s a walk towards discovery – in itself and for another. This look is renewed in matches and meetings, and Kinus is a decisive moment in this journey. Kinus 2022, held in Argentina after two years of a pandemic and virtual contacts, represented for me, like Judaism, an act of courage. In an uncertain and tumultuous world, which has prioritized the tenuous virtual connections, which create the false idea of presence in the mirrored sharing of the screen, this meeting rescued a profoundly Jewish meaning: the exchange of experiences and experiences that need to be heard directly.
In an intense week, I was able to live with colleagues from different countries, with also diverse backgrounds. These were days of intense learning – theoretical studies, textual analyses, tefilot, creative expansions and moments of laughter and socialization. It is a breath of energy for the participants, as the change of scenery always opens a new look at the questions and doubts that plague those who work directly with the community. Paradigms are broken, routines are broken, there is discussion, debate, reflection…
Kinus 2022 was the synthesis of the Jewish world, in its colorful kaleidoscope that brings out new compositions between the lines of ancient texts. I leave this experience enriched and strengthened: new ideas, new projects, a support network to face the challenges I face when working in a community in formation.
Thus, this displacement, this movement of leaving and meeting was the moment to intertwine the threads of the activities developed by the Institute during the last two years, creating a unique fabric. I return to Santa Catarina, Brazil, carrying this fabric of flexible weaves, but that does not break, inspired to create new forms and to sew, together with my community, a current and vibrant Judaism because, as João Cabral de Melo Neto puts it,
“A rooster alone does not weave a morning:
He will always need other roosters
Of one that catches that cry he
And throw it to another.”[1]
On kinus, this cry was launched and spread through many communities.
Ethel Scliar Cabral,
Rabbinate student and mentor at UNIVRI, União Israelita do Vale da Região do Itajaí (Santa Catarina, Brazil)
