History happens all the time. And of course changes are made to laws, customs and ideas.
This month Rabba Dr Lindsay Taylor Guthhartz became the first UK based orthodox woman to receive semicha at the Yeshivat Maharat. (Dina Brawer received hers in the U.S) I can’t stress how important this is for us even though as Liberal Jews it’s been old news. We claim Regina Jon as the first in Europe, 1935 followed by Jackie Tabick in 1976. All of them came from a situation where they asked for more. They asked for greater, fuller Jewish inheritance. Every time that happens, surely we must applaud and encourage.
Indeed it was only 2011 when our Queen, Elizabeth II, changed the laws of succession. Sons and daughters of any future UK monarch will have equal right to the throne. Commonwealth leaders agreed to this progression, so it’s now enshrined in constitutional law.
The desire to receive inheritance equally and equitably is a good one. And it stems from a desire to be alive and engaged.
“The secret of success,” Jackson Pollock’s father wrote to the teenage artist-to-be, “is to be fully awake to everything about you.”
Being awake is what the daughters of Zelophehad famously were in this week’s portion of Pinchas. After appraising their family situation and legacy they saw what was missing, them being able to inherit. And amazingly when they asked, their request was granted. “Zelophehad … had no sons, only daughters” (v26:33). And [so] …The daughters of Zelophehad … came forward. The names of the daughters were Mahlah, Noa, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. They stood before Moses, Eleazar the priest, the chieftains, and the whole assembly, at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting and said… Let not our father’s name be lost to his clan just because he had no son! Give us a holding among our father’s kinsmen!” (27:1-4)
Being fully awake to everything about you is what made our founders and builders insist on a tweak in Jewish inheritance, for all to be open. Let women come down from the balconies, insisted Lily Montagu over a century ago.
Moses needed to confer with God, he was uncertain. Naturally. But the answer was a resounding “yes”. And these daughters paved the way for women. To inherit. And we continue this tradition of being awake and asking for more. Only last month at our shared Shavuot celebrations the scholar and theologian Professor Judith Plaskow reiterated the words in her 1990 book Standing Again at Sinai: Judaism from a Feminist Perspective. “I am not a Jew in the synagogue and a feminist in the world. I am a Jewish feminist and a feminist Jew in every moment of my life.”
I can’t help but celebrate this portion again. The chutzpah of Mahlah, Noa, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah invite us to consider what we might need to ask for next.
That’s what Mr Pollock meant when he told his artist son to be awake. And for us the laws of financial inheritance that Zelphehad’s daughters negotiated, have transformed for us into a keenness for equal inheritance and opportunities for leadership.
It’s always been there. It was Henrietta Szold who captured that [the] Jewish heart has always starved unless it was fed through the Jewish intellect.
Here’s to more audacious asking.
Shabbat Shalom to all.
Rebecca
Mah tovu ohalecha Ya’akov, u’mishk’notecha Yisrael
These words of Balaam offered every Shabbat morning as we gather in prayer, in all synagogues, have become significant for us wherever we are.
And so they are sung to our synagogue buildings and communities. Indeed these words are what bind us at the start of every morning service.
Or as Talmud Sanhedrin suggests,
How goodly are your tents, O Jacob, those places of your spiritual gatherings, and all the places where God’s presence dwells among you…(Sanhedrin 105b).
Now we are returning to our four walls, back in the tent of FPS, the dwelling place of Hutton Grove. It’s this actual week that we read Balaam’s words and this (reluctant) blessing.
‘We’re ‘more than a building‘ we’ve reassured ourselves and each other these past sixteen months. And now we must turn to our building and think how to love it again. It’s a time for those who can, to attend, and for those who can’t let, we Zoom you into your home from on the Bimah, in the Ark, in our synagogue sanctuary.
Next month we plan to lay out an individual personal kiddush plate under every chair so those in the synagogue can eat kiddush alongside those at home. We are slowly tasting what real space and time community feels like again.
As we return, we must do so safely and with care for each other. The most important way is to book your place. It is so easy but without doing that we threaten the numbers we have allocated.
I must ask you to please help us be safe, prepared and confident that we are doing well for each other. Here is the link to make your booking. It couldn’t be simpler.
Each form can book only people from one household, so you may need to access more than one form if you are booking for other family members.
By coming to our ohel, our mishkan, you are agreeing to our Code of Conduct which is the Torah we must abide by for the moment.
Shabbat Shalom to all.
Rebecca
The town of Austerlitz had one of the oldest Jewish populations in Moravia dating back to the twelfth century. Relatively peaceful for several centuries Jews paid tribute to local nobles but by 1757, Empress Maria Theresa issued an edict restricting the number of Jewish families in Moravia to 5000. Austerlitz was allowed to shelter 72 of them. This is where one of our Czech scrolls are from. A community that was decimated by the Shoah, deported on 4 April 1942 to Terezin on transport Ah. (Those in neighbouring Kolodeje were deported on 18 April of the same year.)
Torah scrolls were gathered from all over Czechoslovakia and Moravia and left in the Michle synagogue, many rotting in damp and neglected conditions. The extraordinary story of their rescue by Ralph Yablon, a British Jew who brought 1,564 to Westminster synagogue in February 1964 is the stuff of legends. As is the Sofer (scribe) David Brand knocking on the synagogue’s door looking for scrolls to mend and staying 25 years.
We as a community are fortunate to have three of these precious scrolls on loan including one of their binders, our Emeritus Rabbi Frank Hellner brought one back from the Knightsbridge synagogue on the tube, carrying his precious cargo with care.
Our Bnei Mitzvah read from these scrolls and learn of their provenance.
This shabbat we rededicate them in our shabbat service. Torah is still the heart of our Jewish lives, the rhythm of the scroll read every shabbat, the stories and insights in its columns still speak to us.
We are blessed to have this connection to our past and be the guardians of these and the history they hold.
Join us this shabbat as we bring out our three scrolls, one known as an orphan scroll and so tiny it has been used as a children’s Torah. We will read from one and recite the names of those lost in the community that owned them once upon a time. It’s a profoundly important moment for us a congregation.
Do join us.
Shabbat Shalom to all.
Rebecca
This week I attended an international conference for Women Rabbis, WRN. I met many rabbis from around the world, some of them the first in their own countries. All of the women I met described their youth movements enticing them into deeper learning and eventually the rabbinate. We don’t expect all our children to become rabbis. But I do hope that many get to experience their Youth movement and what it offers in terms of challenging and thoughtful Jewish identity.
I’m sorry this message is especially for parents and grandparents but it’s important just this week. Finally after the year of uncertainty we’ve had our youth movement LJY Netzer has confirmed our Summer Camps. They have worked so hard to adapt and craft newly safe and Covid compliant camps.
Please see the poster, if you have children 7-17 and consider sending them to one of our brilliant LJ camps. I wanted to lend as much support and encouragement as I can to our Youth Movement, who support us in raising thoughtful, happy and proud Jews. Please consider camp this summer.
There is now a camp for years 11 &12, just one week at the start of the holidays. The regular Kadimah at the end for 2 weeks for our years 5-10 and a new one week camp for young children aged 7-11.
I’m sending my children along with other FPSers. And I am happy to chat to anyone who needs to learn more.
Shabbat Shalom to all.
Rebecca
p.s please check out Liberal Judaism’s events for Refugee Week.
I wonder if we are more or less religious than our Liberal ancestors. It used to be that very few tallitot or indeed kippot were worn in synagogue. Now maybe it is quite a few more. We certainly have more Hebrew now. But does that say anything about prayer itself and our attitudes to it. Have our beliefs and doubts changed through the generations?
This week’s portion Shelach Lecha mentions the tallit, prayer shawl or tallis depending on your preference.
The Eternal One said to Moses as follows: Speak to the Israelite people and instruct them to make for themselves fringes on the corners of their garments throughout the ages; let them attach a cord of blue to the fringe at each corner. That shall be your fringe: look at it and recall all the commandments of the Eternal and observe them…Numbers 15:37-39
The text goes on to say these tzitizit, the cords that are knotted on all four corners, are literally aides-memoire to stay true to God and the commandments that tie us to Godself. Some of us may say we don’t need or choose such outward dressing of our internal commitments. After all, as the feminist theologian Judith Plaskow notes, “why should the creator of the universe care whether we put a ‘tassel on the corner of our clothes in every generation’ and what possible difference can it make…?” (Mentioned by Rabbi Lisa Grushcow and quoted in Lawrence Hoffman, ed., My People’s Prayer Book, vol. 1 [Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights, 1997], p.115).
What possible difference does faith make to our decisions and choices as Jews?
I look forward to a conversation during this Shabbat morning about our attitudes to prayer, to doubt and to belief. I’ll be joined by our Life President Sheila King Lassman, who very much chose Liberal Judaism.
Where we find ourselves now is the theme of this week’s Shabbat service.
Shabbat Shalom to all,
Rebecca
This past week or so we have reached out to our students, teens and children within FPS.
We know that social media is stoking the fire of the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis and their leaders. We know that some of our young people are being asked to comment, explain or even defend a situation they barely can understand themselves. LJ Netzer has offered supportive sessions, we used Ivriah time last Shabbat and Streetwise connected with CST offered a session for teenagers last night to attempt to unpack and find thoughtful language to navigate what is happening and the inevitable overflow into life here in schools and universities. I hope this is a time when LJ and us as a Liberal synagogue can respond and support.
Even we adults know the complexity of opinion and strong seated feelings about the matzo, the situation as Israelis often refer to the political moment.
This week’s Torah portion Be’halotecha captures a moment of dissent, argument, even prejudice between Moses and his siblings. They criticise him for his ‘Cushite wife’, commentaries are divided. Was this a reference to a new wife he took, or perhaps to Zipporah’s skin colour. Either way it is perceived as offensive and Miriam is punished. It gives much food for thought about difference, tolerance and acceptance. We’ll read this section on Shabbat. But it’s a good reminder of the damage words can do and the febrile and inflamed way one can hear them.
El Na Refa Na La, Moses pleads to God in the shortest verse in Torah. Heal her please.
These words gave me pause for thought this week.
Rebecca
This is a week of heightened tension and awareness both for what is happening in Gaza and Israel but also here, naturally and the consequences that spill over into UK diaspora life.
Zoe and I wrote to our students on university campus, to support them navigating the events and the need to express and articulate themselves.
It’s interesting that this week we return to our building, open its doors, and I hope, will rededicate our house as a community home. Yes we are so much more than a building as these past 15 months have demonstrated but our building needs our love and attention too.
It will be a Chanukah Ha’Bayit of sorts, a [re]dedication of our our home.
This week’s portion of Nasso tells of the life of the Nazir, the one (male or female) who is set apart for God, dedicated to the service of the community. Samson is our most renowned Nazirite, with his long hair and strength. Hidden at the end of the description of this person is the Priestly blessing given to Moses and Aaron for the people. This has become so integral to Jewish life, to Shabbat, to the comfort of generations at signification milestones as well as regular Friday nights.
I can’t think of a week we need this more;
May God bless you and keep you; May God’s face shine upon you and be gracious to you;
May God reach out to you in tenderness and give you peace.
Shabbat Shalom
Rebecca
Rabbi Rebecca writes:
What a week this has been for us all, watching the violence and devastation and terror unfold in Israel and the Palestinian Territories. I am sharing part of the message from our friend Rabbi Ofek Meir in Haifa, which I received yesterday.
The last few days have brought deep challenges upon us. We are dealing with the many conflicts, and voices of racism, harassment and violence.
The role of education in our eyes is to remind students and communities of our shared destiny, and the power and beauty of living together.
We in Haifa know how to live together in our schools and in the city’s neighbourhoods. This should be remembered even now as the flames increase. Soon the flames will be forgotten and we will all remain, to continue our lives together. (See his full message here).
U’fros aleinu sukkat shlomecha, cover us with the shelter of Your peace, Dean sings these words for us every Friday night and it takes on new resonance and hope this week. In light of the grim and frightening situation in Israel and Palestine, which we know will have long ranging repercussions for us all as well as those caught up there, I’d like to share with you two events that you may wish to join enabling conversation and understanding:
Just before our fantastic and long awaited Beit Midrash 7.30pm tonight with Dr Agnes Kaposi and Richard Greene. At 7pm there is an opportunity as LJ communities to join our Israeli sister movement, IMPJ, for a special briefing for international supporters at 7pm. The program will include briefings by Yair Lootsteen (chair of IMPJ) and Anna Kislanski (Acting Director General) on how the IMPJ is dealing with the situation on the ground and in their congregations and short briefings by congregational leaders from most impacted areas. Please register in advance for this meeting by clicking here.
Saturday 15th May 8-9.15pm: Eilu v’Eilu: Havdalah and Discussion
Join Liberal & Reform Rabbis for an open space to hear one another and hold on to what is sacred after this terrible week of events in Israel & Palestine followed by a special Havdalah ceremony. “These and these are the words of the Living God” We will follow in this teaching and study all perspectives with humility.The session will include prayer, text study, and guidance from Rabbis at this divisive moment. Click here to register.
I’m so looking forward to SHAVUOT this year, our last opportunity for a purely online shared event with several other LJ communities and rabbis. I love this festival that asks us to consider fidelity and choice in our Jewish life. I get to interview Professor Judith Plaskow, [possibly the person who most influenced my decision to be a Rabbi.] And I’ll be teaching the Book of Ruth at Rabbis at Midnight on Sunday night Is Ruth an Agent of Change?
All this is congregational life marking Jewish moments of time and space. I wish a hearty Mazal Tov to our reconfirmed Deputies for the Board; Stanley Volk and Janet Tresman after our EGM election. We look forward to your renewed representation.
I’m delighted to be back and missed you all. I hope to see you over this busy weekend.
Shabbat Shalom and a Chag Shavuot Sameach.
Rebecca
Zoe writes:
“3:1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: 3:2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted”
Has there been a moment before when the Government has dictated our next actions, our seasons, so minutely? The dates I hold in my head are the dates of each easing of lockdown. From 17th May the rule of six moves indoors, and perhaps from 21st June all restrictions will be lifted. Finally we will move back to “a time to embrace” after our long “time to refrain from embracing“.
These dates are cemented more clearly in my head than friends’ birthdays or celebrations. Indeed, birthdays and celebrations have moved to be in line with lockdown easing so that a greater celebration can take place.
Whether lockdown has been a fallow period, or a time for creativity, it will (please God) soon be over.
This is both exciting and scary. Just as the transition from normal life to lockdown made the country anxious, the journey back might have more positive consequences, but it’s not without fear. After over a year of minimal stimulation, crowded shops, bustling streets and noisy restaurants will take some getting used to. Let us be kind to ourselves, re-entering the world gently.
There is a new season approaching – hopefully it’ll be full of joy and reunion.
Wishing you Shabbat Shalom,
Zoe
Paul Silver-Myer writes:
Emor means ‘to speak’ and this week’s parashah continues the Levitical description of purity rules for the Kohanim (priests) and tells the story of a man who spoke in a blasphemous way and the punishment that followed.
It is fascinating to think that when we start to speak a sentence, we don’t know exactly what we will say. Understanding our thoughts and the courage to try and express them is part of ‘self-actualization’ or achieving one’s fullest potential.
Maslow placed self-actualization at the peak of his hierarchy of needs ‘pyramid’, though the Siksika teachings – Blackfeet Nation, Reservation of Montana from whom Maslow developed his own theory without crediting them – place self-actualisation at the bottom of their ‘tipi.’ They view self-actualisation as the basis for development into community actualisation.
Whether the individual or the community is more important came to mind as the synagogue celebrated its 2021 Adult B’nei Mitzvah service last Shabbat. It was an uplifting heart-warming occasion that brought together ‘a wonderful diversity of voices’ and ‘much of what FPS can be proud about’.
One comment in the Zoom chat suggested it was ‘the epitome of the power and potential of community’. Each of the eleven B’nei Mitzvah had followed their own journeys to be able to speak, with courage, about how Leviticus 18 + 19 had challenged them to confront what is abominable and what is holy.
With over 100 in attendance on Zoom, and further viewers via other platforms the ruach (spirit) created a Shabbat synergy demonstrating that when a group of individuals come together, two plus two can make five.
Sadly, Rabbi Rebecca could not lead the service for the group that she had nurtured over the past eight months, whilst she convalesced at home. We wish her a refuah shleimah (a quick recovery) and to her and everyone else involved, grateful thanks are due.
Further words will be spoken this weekend courtesy of the Liberal Judaism community at their / our Biennial.
The theme is Breaking Down Walls and there are over 60 speakers and 30 sessions, including Stephen Bush in conversation with Tamara Joseph on ‘Race, Inclusion and the Jewish Community’, and a session with Rabbi Margaret Jacobi on ‘A time to break down and a time to build’. Please do add your voice to the weekend.
Please note you can click here to sign up for Biennial so that you get the links for this weekend’s Kabbalat Shabbat & Shabbat Morning services by email from them. You can view the full Biennial schedule here.
Shabbat shalom
Paul Silver-Myer, FPS President
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