I need to share this as we go into our own Shabbat. Shabbat Yitro where we will read the 10 Sayings that are the backbone to our religious and social commitments. There is something about Congregation Beth Shalom that seems similar to us; a mid sized suburban shul dedicated to be welcoming, open and committed to helping in the world. I watched the healing service for the community; it was, as you can imagine extraordinary. Unpolished, open, generous and gracious. We can learn from this and our commitment to training, safety, security and making those cups of tea for strangers as Rabbi Charlie Citron Walker did.
Statement on the synagogue siege in Texas
By Rabbi Rebecca Birk and Rabbi René Pfertzel
Co-Chairs of the Conference of Liberal Rabbis and CantorsWe watched with horror the events unfolding in Colleyville, Texas, where a gunman took hostage Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker and three of his congregants during the Shabbat service. A service where he’d been welcomed.
We were relieved and grateful to see the hostages emerge unharmed after a testing ordeal and we firmly condemn this act, which sadly reflects the madness of our time.
Such a situation is what we’ve all dreaded, when Islam and Judaism are erroneously pitted against each other.
Our thoughts and prayers are with Rabbi Cytron-Walker, his family and his community, Beth Israel.
Places of worship are sanctuaries and everyone should feel safe whilst praying.
Rabbi Cytron-Walker’s words now inspire and inform us all, as he declares his thanks and appreciation for his community, his family, the prayers and vigils and most movingly for being alive.
We pray for a world where weapons will be replaced by words, and loving kindness is the foundation of human relationships.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Rebecca
This Shabbat I’ll be chanting from Beshallach, the Song of the Sea. A prayer, an expression of relief and gratitude. but before it the Eternal chastises Moses for telling the people to rely on God. “Mah titzak elai. Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to go forward.”
I like this idea of action and prayer juxtaposed in this way. Rabbi Amy Eilberg, first woman to be ordained by the Conservative movement, writes her idea of prayer and it is interesting as we prepare for the Song/the Prayer of the Sea:
Prayer may work when the thing that we have asked of God indeed comes to be. That’s one way we pray…Prayer may also work by significantly connecting us with the Jewish community and with our tradition; It can work by quieting or centring the self. It can work by having momentary transporting us to a place of beauty and transcendence. It may work by helping us focus on the blessings in our lives. It may work by invoking a greater sense of God’s presence, giving us strength to face the trials of our lives.
What might it be for you? when is it time for action and when for prayer?
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Rebecca
Thoughts for Mental Health Shabbat 2022
The composer Tchaikovsky in 1876 wrote these words to a beloved nephew.
Probably you were not quite well, my little dove, when you wrote to me, for a note of real melancholy pervaded your letter. I recognised in it a nature closely akin to my own. I know the feeling only too well. In my life, too, there are days, hours, weeks, aye, and months, in which everything looks black, when I am tormented by the thought that I am forsaken, that no one cares for me. Indeed, my life is of little worth to anyone.
He could have been referring to the plague of darkness in this week’s Parashat Bo. So keenly does he identify the blackness of depression and melancholy. Torah describes this darkness as palpable.
[so] thick [that ] people could not see one another, and for three days no one could get up from where he was.
One can feel the heaviness and de-pressing nature of this ‘darkness’ that the poet Jane Kenyon described so memorably, pressing the bile of desolation into every pore.
Darkness may have been just another of the ten plagues but it’s possible meaning and resonance reaches out of Torah to us now. To our young people struggling through Covid, to each of us weighed down by the isolation of mental fragility of all kinds; anxiety, depression, confusion and alienation from the life we are ‘expected’ to lead with ease.
Such dislocation resonates profoundly this year after the months we’ve endured and the continuing challenges that are still so real.
Our synagogue is focusing on empathy this Shabbat, on the power of empathetic concern and connection, of meeting people truly where they are. This is a skill we can all develop. We are also working with Barnet Citizens (CUK) clear requests for our Borough’s Mental Health provisions to ensure both more and better empathy in all such services in Barnet. From better sign posting to someone there when you need it.
We all need and can give empathy; ready to be present for when, as Exodus 10 describes; no one can get up from where they were.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Rebecca
Shabbat Shalom all.
It’s strange to be in a similar although not identical place this December as we were last year. We are newly concerned and vigilant and most us want to be as responsible as considerate as we can be. It’s hard to avoid what’s happening around us, although be reassured FPS is doing all it can to make gathering with each other as safe as possible. As rabbis we keep asking, can we reflect on all this yet? But ‘this’ continues.
On Monday, Rabbi Charley Baginsky and I were invited to tea with chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and his chief of staff Ari Jesner. It was just the four of us and we were discussing what we, the Jewish community, have been through and what we have learned. They were interested to hear what’s been happening in our communities, as we were in theirs. It was an astonishingly respectful tea party in his library.
I was so pleased that FPS member, Paul Richman wrote this reflection as a doctor, after the excellent Cafe Ivriah last Sunday on the Purpose of Life. It helps us make sense and anticipate what is next, and I wanted to share it with you.
Rebecca
A Reflection
Alpha, Gamma, Delta, Omicron. Familiar household names now….they sound (to me) a bit like stars.
“Jupiter and Saturn, Oberon, Miranda and Titania.
Neptune, Titan, Stars can frighten” wrote Syd Barrett.
And so with our newest Covid 19 variant of concern.
We felt we’d almost won. We were sensing a kind of normality. Back in the synagogue. Planning a holiday. A dinner party. A meet-up with friends.
But we’d forgotten: viruses mutate. All the time. They don’t have much else to do. Their purpose is to proliferate.
Worry. Depression. A sense of panic; these stars definitely frighten.
Last week, Anne and Adrian led us in discussion to consider our own purpose in life. What are we here for? There were many views and opinions. We discovered lots of angles and ways of looking at it. But, when the going gets tough, underpinning all, there is a sense that we are here to look after each other and that if we can strive for that, we can achieve our goals, we can find contentment, we can prevail over adversity.
And so, together, we shall prevail over Covid in all its many forms. The vaccines are helping. More and better ones are in the pipeline. There are also treatments which can help. We do understand better how it spreads and behaves and how it causes such serious disease. We’ve conquered viruses before and we shall do so again. We can recover our composure, retain our faith, and go forward together. Perhaps to reach the stars.
Paul Richman, December 2021
Zoe writes: In one of our, many, Chanukah quizzes I asked ‘how many candles do you need to celebrate chanukah?’*.
What I didn’t ask was ‘how many people do you need celebrate chanukah’?
And truly, the answer is 1. You – and a candle.
But with more people comes more joy. (And more latkes, more doughnuts, more chaos…!)
“Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the single candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” (Buddha).
We wanted to celebrate Chanukah with as many people as possible. Each night I wanted to spotlight one area of our community, honouring new community spaces like Morning Meditation, holding transition moments for others like Rosh Chodesh, and providing much needed in person parties for our families and the Delving group.
From our smallest crowd of just 10, to our largest of 60, each night was special.
We had some events online and others in person. Did they feel different? Yes.
Was one better than the other? Actually no. The moment 50 Community Makers each showed their chanukiot (we’re supposed to put them in our window for the world to see, is the 2021 update putting it by our Zoom screen?) as we lit together was so special.
Thank you to those who facilitated: Maayan who must have fried 200 latkes for our families, to the 4Bs (Beverley, Barry, Barbara, and Bobbie) who handed out, and washed up, 60 cups of tea and plates of doughnuts, to Dean and Franklyn, Natasha and so many more.
On Havdalah we reflect the candlelight in our fingernails. I saw the chanukah candlelight reflected in 250 FPS-ers.
On telly I’ve seen an entire primary school on electric bicycles, finding that if everyone peddles together they can turn on the school lights with their leg work.
This week, we could have powered all our chanukiot with our joy and light. Our own miracle is 250 people came out, showed up, sang and laughed together. Thank you.
*in case you were wondering, it’s 44.
Shabbat Shalom.
Zoe
Rabbi Rebecca writes:
I lit candles this week at Akiva School. It was lovely to see some of our FPS children there delighted to be recognised by their rabbi.
I always ask children what is the real meaning of Chanukah. They are surprised to learn that it is not candles, nor oil, nor lighting or even miracles. The meaning of the word Chanukah is dedication, the root of the word is chinch- from education.
The Temple was rededicated after having been out of action for Jews under the Greek Seleucids and that created this moment of memory and celebration every year for eight days at this time of 25 Kislev, since then.
I like this reading of the festival, a dedication or re-dedication. This year feels particularly apt, as in a way we rededicated our synagogue this past Monday, on the second day of Chanukah with a tea where 65 of you came back to the building, some for the first time, and you ate latkes and donuts but more importantly you saw each other and felt safe in our synagogue once again.
It was a moment of great joy tinged with some trepidation, I am sure for some, but there was a great deal of love in the room. That is what our synagogue (synagogues replaced the Temple after 70c.e) is for; a place of meeting and relationships – Beit Knesset.
We will continue to go carefully and thoughtfully as we welcome you back, responding always to the latest government advice.
To that end we wondered if any of you would like to join together for lunch on 25th December after the Shabbat service, if you fancy company and (I’m afraid) a non Turkey meal. Please, please do let us know.
I wish you your remaining days of Chanukah to be joyful and uplifting. There is lighting every night with us @FPS. Remember Chanukah gifts of underwear and socks are much needed for the Afhgani refugees in the great Western hotel in Hendon, I’ll be doing a drop there next Wednesday.
Shabbat Shalom.
Rebecca
Chanukah begins on Sunday. The festivals has two foci for me; dedication and seeing miracles. Chanukah means dedication, when we bless and establish hopes for our home we call it a Chanukat habayit.
Chanukah was a rededication of the second temple, put out of use for a while. For us generations past the temple the idea of dedicating ourselves afresh still carries weight and meaning. Chanukah may be a minor festival but it does invite us to rededicate ourselves to what matters most, what part of Jewish life has meaning and intention for us. What part of synagogue or our home needs and deserves attention? What will you be dedicated to?
The second part of Chanukah remembers miracles; she’asah ism l’avoteinu be’yamim ha-hem barman ha-zeh. Who performed miracles for our ancestors in those ancient days, at this time.
The first recounting of the Chanukah story didn’t even mention the miraculous oil lasting eight days, both Books of the Maccabees focus on military might and religious commitment. It was the Talmudic rabbis who added that gloss! But now for us how do we, in our intellectually charged Jewish way of life, make space for the miraculous? Perhaps it’s no longer the supernatural but it may be just as miraculous. As the poet and liturgist Marge Piercy wrote in The Hunger Moon;
We walk all over the common miracles
without bothering to wipe our feet.
As you like candles this year, a flame in the darkness, do bring these two ideas to your Chanukah. What miracles are you overlooking? What fresh energy might you bring about these two.
With warm wishes to you for a Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca
Mitzvah Day took the British Jewish community by storm several years ago.
For us as a community we have discovered that a relationship of longevity with organisations and the good works gemilut chasadim that accompany them suits us best here, so our mitzvot are ongoing and strong.
This Saturday we will be visiting the new Food Bank Aid hub – taking more needed supplies. We’ll be shown how we are, and can continue to, make a difference.
Another group will be representing FPS at Sunday’s AJEX march at the cenotaph, and include prayers in our shabbat service.
The need to care about what has come before, about the commitment of Jewish ex-servicemen and women is something important for us to mark every year.
Join us on Saturday at 1pm or Sunday 2pm.
With warm wishes to you for a Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca
This Shabbat is heavy with significance. We have our last Covid postponed Bar Mitzvah, the first in this family’s for generations.
Karen explains her choice to turn from her Jewish secular roots to find a synagogue community, celebrate a Bar Mitzvah and watch her son move through Ivriah into Kabbalat Torah.
I find such journeys back to Jewish ritual and celebration intensely moving. We have made our Jewish lives rich with meaning, in terms of marking personal lifecycle, learning, and creating ‘sacred relationships and sacred acts that flow from them’ as I learned from Rabbi Larry Hoffman.
I welcome that challenge to keep building a synagogue that fosters sacred relationships and sacred acts. One of them is a responsibility to work for justice. This weekend Jewish Women’s Aid marks their annual Shabbat, when synagogues across the land speak about and to the experience of domestic violence and abuse in our communities and how they support those who need and teach the rest of us to be aware and ready. I’m proud this is one of our designated charities. Our own Andrea Collett will share words on Friday night, and Talia Pavell, from university in Liverpool shares her take on the organisation she continues to do so much for.
I know that November traditionally captures a little burn out and exhaustion. How can it not post high holidays and the energised start to the year and stream of festivals we had. But I do hope you will take advantage of all that FPS works on and the opportunities it offers for those sacred relationships and acts that follow them.
Just see our Events Calendar.
With warm wishes to you for a Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca
Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone.
These are the words of poet David Whyte and they feel so apposite at the moment. Many FPS folk are contracting Covid despite being vaccinated and some even boostered. We are all so linked and with that in mind I wanted to reassure that we are being careful and responsive in 54 Hutton Grove as and when we welcome you in.
We will continue to watch and respond closely to changing guidelines and to the safest way for us to be together in the synagogue. Masks are still compulsory and we still mark over 1 metre between households. Please feel reassured and reach out if you have any questions.
Much appreciation to Dean, Michael Lassman, John Rubinstein and Paul Silver-Myer who will lead Shabbat services this weekend. We are fortunate as a community to have such skilful and willing members.
This week’s parasha is Chayei Sarah narrating the death, and life, of Sarah. But the words that penetrate are about Isaac mourning his mother and being comforted when he finds and loves Rebekah.
Isaac took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her. And Isaac was comforted after [the death of] his mother.
We are none of us alone there is always someone to comfort and to share. I hope that is true in our community. David Whyte continues in his poem, Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into the conversation…Everything is waiting for you.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca
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