“Come dress yourself in love. Let the journey begin.”
-Francesca da Rimini immortalized by Dante
Dear Lab/Shul Community,
Dress for success. You are what you wear. Express yourself, don’t repress yourself. (Madonna) How we dress can feel personally significant. When I chose to weara football jersey for my 1st grade school
picture and refused to don a frilly dress, I was expressing that for me being a girl didn’t involve gender prescribed clothing. As a teenager, wearing all black in my pseudo-goth/Smiths/Depeche Mode era, I was expressing my teen angst. (That’s what my mom called it; I just thought I was acting cool). When I zipped myself into a 70s disco jumpsuit for my wedding, I was finding the joy and fun in sacred lifetime-vows.
Just over the horizon (in less than 1 week!), we welcome the holiday of Purim. How we dress is a pretty big deal. We mask ourselves and engage in sacred dress-up play, commanded to bring more joy into our lives.
Dressing up can feel playful, but it’s not just silly fun. It is a divine act of joy that can activate one’s inner sense of sacredness and perhaps, also, the world you want to be in or create. It can be thrilling to bring that kind of intention. RuPaul invites us to “become the image of your own imagination, it’s the most powerful thing you could ever do.”
This Friday night 3/3, as we celebrate Shabbat with our monthly SHABasics program in collaboration with the Storahtelling community of artists and educators, we will welcome you into the tales of ancient priests and their special dress (Exodus 29:5-9) and explore how divine dress-up brings in the sacred. Register to join us for this virtual evening of joy and self-expression. We can’t wait to witness your most joyously divine design online!
And as we head into Purim, we invite you to explore the delight of dressing up with Lab/Shul! Families with children and tweens are invited to join us in costume on Sunday afternoon, 3/5, at our raucous Purim celebration Make Some Noise! Over 21? Join us for a night of unexpected performances and radical ritual on Monday 3/6 at House of YES for Purim from the Crown Down!
Through dress-up we have the opportunity to not only transform external appearances, but to connect with our innermost selves. This act of self-expression is an opportunity to let go of inhibitions and embrace our inner authenticity.
May these challenging times be met with communal joy to fuel us forward with resilience towards more liberation.
In sacred joy and jest,
Naomi Less
Co-founder, Ritual Leader and Associate Director
