Today is April 20, 2024 /
- (508) 877-2540
Dear Friends,
There is so much happening in March, it’s hard to know where to begin!
I am particularly excited about our “Open Book Shabbat” on Saturday mornings for the month of March. We use the Siddur every week, but we can always use a refresher on what’s in it. On these three Saturday mornings, I’ll be teaching throughout the service, highlighting the history and meaning of some of our most important prayers.
I am also looking forward to our Havdallah celebration at the Framingham State University McAuliffe planetarium. As you know, Shabbat officially ends when we see three stars in the night sky, and on March 14 we will see them up close.
Tu B’Shvat is one of the most under-celebrated Jewish holidays, in my opinion. It gained a special place in my heart in Mrs. Weisman’s kindergarten class, where we watched the cartoon version of The Lorax (the old one!) and has remained one of my favorite holidays to this day. As a child, I thought the idea of having a birthday for trees was so silly, but I’ve come to appreciate just how special trees are to us, and just how much we take them for granted.
Like Passover, Tu B’Shvat celebrations include a seder. The Tu B’Shvat seder includes a lot of mystical traditions, like mixing red and white wine to represent the progression of seasons, eating different kinds of fruits to represent inner and outer beauty, and many other embodied experiences that connect us to the natural world.
Dear Friends,
As I am writing this letter, in the final week of December, I am reflecting on three fantastic events I attended this past week.
First, our community hosted Rabbi Josh Warshawsky as our musician in residence for an evening of Singing as a Spiritual Practice. We had over 50 people gather to learn about the ways we connect to music, and experience the way new melodies “taste” in our mouths. It is amazing how music invokes such meaningful memories, or sets the mood for special occasions like Shabbat. as Rabbi Warshawsky said, there are times when we have something inside of us and music is just the only way to let it out.
Dear Friends,
As November comes to a close, I continue to be thankful for your support, hard work, and great energy.
There are so many fabulous things going on, but I’d like to draw your special attention to a few of them. First, MetroWest Monday Minyans have been happening one Monday/month and are going great. We are blessed to have the Day School as our partners in this building, and love every opportunity to share programs with them. All are welcome at our monthly Monday minyan, and it is a lovely way to start your week. Second, our Wednesday morning adult ed class is continuing our deep investigation of Jewish Bioethics.
Dear Friends,
Many thanks to everyone who made our High Holy Day season so successful. Norma Kramer, Dianne Wolpert, and the HHD and Ritual Committees were such wonderful leaders and you should extend a very sincere thank-you next time you see them. I was also honored to share the bima with Rav-Hazzan Sokol for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and with Jessica Woolf for Sukkot and Simchat Torah. It is lovely to have people with such beautiful voices leading us in song.
Now that the holidays are behind us, I’d like to wish you a very happy Chesvhan! Cheshvan is the Jewish month we’re in now, and it’s traditionally known as MarCheshvan, the bitter month of Cheshvan, because there are no holidays.
Dear Friends,
Thank you for the very warm welcome you have extended to me and my family in our first months here at Temple Beth Sholom. We already feel so at home here, and are settling into our new house, neighborhood, and community.
I am enjoying getting to know all of you and learning about all the things that make this community special. I bet you already know that the “Sholom” part of Temple Beth Sholom means “peace,” but did you know that it comes from the word that means “complete” or “whole?” The idea is that we are truly at peace when we are complete, when we are able to bring our whole selves to the community.
SHALOM AND LIHITRAOT
Thank you to the Temple Beth Sholom community for welcoming me and my family with such open arms during this year as your interim rabbi. This has been a year of making new friends, learning from wonderful students and having the opportunity to experience the blessings (and some of the frustrations) of being an “interim” rabbi. In many ways, the role of the rabbi makes being interim especially hard. Rabbis enter people’s lives at moments of loss and celebration; we learn about the intimate details of people’s personal histories and visit people at home, over meals, and at the hospital bed.
ISRAEL: THE PLACE TO WHICH I RETURN
I first travelled to Israel with my family in the summer of 1968 as a twelve year-old. That winter I returned with my mother as a guest of the young state for my bar mitzvah at the Kotel in a newly reunited Jerusalem. We were chosen to be the millionth and million and first passengers to arrive at Lod Airport that year, the first time that number was reached. We returned again the following summer and throughout my high school and college years, most summers were spent in Israel, eventually on trips with my girlfriend and later life partner, Lori.
The highlight of the month of April is the celebration of Passover. Our Seder nights are April 19th and 20th. To help enhance your experience as you prepare to lead or join in at a Seder, I offer some thoughts to stimulate conversation.
Acknowledging Slavery/Celebrating Freedom: HA LACHMA ANYA
One of the first readings in the Haggadah is HA LACHMA ANYA, this is the bread of affliction, during which we symbolically open our doors to the poor, a gesture that acknowledges our communal priority that every Jew who wishes to should have the means to celebrate the Seder meal.
Why We Need Purim
Judaism does not have a lot to say with certainty about what the messianic world to come will be like, but there is one thing we know – in a perfect world we will no longer need the holidays, except for one, Purim! Why Purim? Let’s start with why we won’t need the other holidays. In a world of peace, human behavior will be transformed for the good, so no more Yom Kippur with its emphasis on repentance. We will be living with a constant awareness of the Divine, so no more Rosh Hashanah with its theme of Divine Kingship.