This past Sunday I participated in Congregation Kneseth Israel’s second annual build day for Habitat for Humanity. I have done lots of Habitat projects through the years. In Massachusetts I drywalled a closet on the day after 9/11. The clergy of Lowell, through the Greater Lowell Interfaith Leadership Alliance had scheduled a build day as a show of unity and solidarity. We could not have imagined just how much we would have needed it. As all the world seemed to be collapsing and it was, we were actively building something together. It remains one of the most powerful moments of my life.
I have built in North and South Carolina as part of a trip to Clemson to visit my good friend, the Rev. David Ferner. I have built in Indiana and participated in a unique winter fundraiser, the SouperBowl, where various potters donate soup bowls and local restaurants make soup to taste. I cherish the memories and my two soup bowls from that event.
I have built in New Orleans, three times since Katrina. Twice was with Microsoft and I applaud their willingness to give back to a community that was hosting a convention. The first time I graded a garden to become a pocket park playground in the 9th Ward, badly damaged by Katrina. This neighborhood would become a musicians’ village and it was great fun and back braking labor to move dirt back and forth in wheelbarrows. But the heat didn’t matter because it was so joyous listening to the jazz and interacting with the residents. The second time Linda Gilmore, a native of New Orleans and a dear friend of mine from Chelmsford framed part of a house. Who would think that we could? Certainly not me. Again it was hot. Again the music flowed. The brightly colored houses that Habitat is creating in the 9th Ward should last for a long, long time. Up on pilings, they should not flood again. They remind me of the rainbow and G-d’s promise never to destroy  the world again by flood. Habitat for Humanity is definitely fulfilling the role of being partners with G-d in this creation.

This brings me up to this past Sunday. Bastille Day. A day where the French people stormed the Bastille because they were denied basic needs. Bread is a need. Housing is a need. The ability to provide for a family is a right. Egality. Liberte. Fraternite.  Les Mis is one of my favorite shows. The music is haunting. The lyrics sublime. “To love another person is to see the face of G-d.” gets me every time and fits with the idea that we are all created in G-d’s image. “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables” makes me cry every time thinking about some of the people with whom I have done social justice work. We have worked on issues around jobs, education, hunger, homelessness, quality housing. During my tenure as a board member, one of my favorite organizations started the Merrimack Valley Project, The Middlesex County Housing Court, Refugee Immigration Ministry, the Merrimack Valley Housing Partnership and a Habitat for Humanity affiliate. Did any of our work really matter? Have we ever made a difference?

So Sunday, bright and early while the rest of Elgin slept and my husband once again proposed to me as he did 28 years ago on Bastille Day, we got up, put on our t-shirts and shorts (IT IS HOT HERE!) and joined other Congregation Kneseth Israel members to help build a house. In our 8 hour day with 11 volunteers we managed to build a floor. Really. An entire floor. When we arrived we could see from the stone basement all the way to the ceiling of the roof. No first floor. No second floor. Just lots of lumber and plywood. Somehow with lots of teamwork, lots of measuring, some extra cutting, lots of joking, lots of water, we got a floor built. Is it enough? No. Does it make a difference? You bet.

There is a funny short film, West Bank Story, that is a take off on West Side Story. The Arab  hummus hut owner laughs at the Israeli next door when he starts to build a wall between the two stores. “Jews in construction, ha!”

Now it is Tisha B’av–the saddest day on the Jewish calendar. In 586 BCE the First Temple was destroyed. In 70 CE the Second Temple was destroyed. In both cases large parts of the city of Jerusalem were destroyed, ransacked and the people exiled. They no longer had a home. For two thousand years Jews longed to return. To have decent housing where they could worship G-d they believed best. This year as I continue to search for my dream home in the Fox Valley, I have been thinking a lot about housing and exile. The numbers of foreclosures, pre-foreclosures, bank owned houses, vacant properties, is staggering. While I may wind up being the beneficiary of one of those homes, each home has a unique and sad story. Sometimes people lose a house because of health reasons or because they lost a job. Our society does not provide much of a safety net. One of my partners in social justice was always fond of saying that most Americans are only one paycheck away from homelessness. It is a scary thought.

Habitat for Humanity is doing something right. It is taking the dreams of ensuring affordable, safe housing, through a process of owner sweat equity, volunteerism and no-interest loans to new heights. Thus far they have built 600,000 homes worldwide and helped house 3 million people. I am proud to be a small part of Habitat for Humanity. This build, like all others before touched me deeply. It is about giving back to my new community. It is about building community, both in my own synagogue and the wider Elgin community. It is about building.