For Pink Shabbat this October 2025 we put out some big plastic partitioned plates as part of the themed decor. Didn’t realize that people have such strong opinions about them! Evidently people know this type of plate from school lunches, from certain parties, or from take-out containers, and evidently some developed strong feelings for and against the partitioning within the plate…
Pink Shabbat is a cancer awareness Shabbat, an initiative of Sharsheret, a Jewish organization which supports Jewish women going through cancer, and their families.
So maybe using partition plates this particular weekend has a relevant message:
In times of anxiety and uncertainty, in times of crisis and challenge, it can help to have mental and emotional partitions. There are times and places for different feelings, or even mixed/multiple feelings at the same time. And it’s healthier, too.
As Tanya 34 teaches, there’s room in the heart for multiple emotions, tears lodged in one side of the heart and joy in the other. Both emotions can be very valid and necessary. Even if it feels contradictory or hypocritical.
Those who know me (Mendel) know I don’t like to separate and compartmentalize. I like integration and connection, I deeply appreciate and seek out the interconnectedness of life, and the unifying elements underlying and connecting all the fragments. Yet – even with that desire and effort and goal of seeking unity and connection, still there’s an very important role for compartmentalization: parameters, limitations, a fitting appropriateness, a time and place for things. Not a hodge-podge cholent.