I was sitting in a café this week nursing an Americano and fretting over the news. Someone at a table next to me expresses concern that a man is pacing on a call in front of the window.
Her friend reassures her and even I added my (unasked for) reassurance until the diner comes back and resumes his lunch. I share this because anxiety is high at the moment – for everyone here, of all backgrounds.
This Shabbat is Parashat Lech Lecha, where for the first time we meet Abraham and Sarah, the parents of the Jewish people. As always, I think, Torah speaks to us in this moment of our lives. Abraham is honoured by Jews, Muslims and Christians as the founder of ethical monotheism. Most of all, he is remembered for courage to move into the unknown, Lech Lecha. Rashi insists God meant go for your benefit and for your good. This courage and positivity is important. This week of all weeks, it helps to be reminded of this; there is much we share. Julie Siddiqi, Muslim scholar and teacher and one of the founding members of NISA-NASHIM, (Jewish and Muslim women) spoke of the importance in Islam of not letting outward expressions of loyalty disturb and threaten neighbours. Indeed, she quoted the Koran and explained one who carries a flag that frightens a neighbour is, according to Islam, a non-believer. Brave statements of solidarity like these at this time are immensely welcome.
Moments and connections like these are so critical as is the reminder of what we share here as people of faith in Britain. And despite, or maybe in spite of, the grief and the fear that still permeate we continue to mark time and moments of life in our congregation. We commemorate an admission of someone new into our Jewish community, a Bar Mitzvah on Shabbat and an extra one in the afternoon for an Israeli family who can’t get home. We celebrate with all three families who look to us as a synagogue to enable these moments that celebrate life.
Our attachment to life and being cajoled continually to choose it has never felt more critical than now. It is an act of optimism and hope.
”This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, that you and your children may live,” Deuteronomy 30, means we continue reaching for these moments.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca.
The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other, and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.
James Baldwin, Nothing Personal
I was reminded of this as we prepare for Parashat Noach – the story of the flood which, although our children’s favourite portion, is actually very difficult to read. For us adults, the pairs of animals living on the ark do not soften the massive loss of life. Noah’s family stays together, but there are so few of them – and presumably they witnessed the death and trauma too.
Death is around us right now and it is painful. Part of that pain is the collective amnesia that forgets and relativises the brutality of October 7th. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/13/pogrom-israel-angel-of-death-gaza-hamas-jews
Last night, I attended the memorial service held by LJY Netzer, RSY Netzer, New Israel Fund, Masorti and its youth movement Noam, Yachad and Arzeinu. The organisers reminded us that Memorial in English is for those who have died but Zicharon in Hebrew is more nuanced and full of life and possibility. It calls us to direct our thoughts and memories. In these bleak times, we are thinking of and praying for those families who have lost dear ones, as well as those families in the excruciating wait for the freedom of those captives, perhaps enduring a fate worse than death.
So what to do?
~ To show up, that is for sure, to be connected and in community. So many of you came last Shabbat for just that consolation and it helps
~ To join the collective voice to pray and hope for the safe return of captives
~ To keep our courage in holding onto our humanity in the most difficult of circumstances, to honour the sacred life of every human being, which is exactly what terrorists do not do.
Howard Jacobson in the Observer last Sunday talked of weeping, the immense amount of weeping we need to do. He called on the Yiddish word, rachmones, explaining to readers its meaning of pity. I see that as the greatest challenge for us all now – to hold onto that rachmones, even as we mourn; even as we experience the shocking surprise that those we’ve cared for repeatedly and shown up for have not reached out to us.
It has never been more painful to be a grieving Jew. As Rabbi Sharon Brous said so memorably last Shabbat, amidst this horror and grief, “we must not lose our damn minds.” We must be able to stand in the complexity of rachmones as we mourn. We know that in recognising the suffering of others, it does not diminish the enormous reality of our own pain. We must hold onto our humanity and listen to the moral voice inside us that knows there is no context, no possible way of justifying, the brutality that Hamas wreaked. No context can ever explain such depravity – and we may find ourselves at a loss for words and perhaps it is ok not to rush past that wordlessness. Sometimes uncertainty must reign. I have been asked this week to sign seven petitions already. But as loss deepens, so does the desire to prevent further suffering and death of the innocent.
So Baldwin’s words reinforce our need for each other; to be in conversation, community and care. The moment we cease to hold each other, the moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.
Raba Nathalie Lastreger from the north of Israel shared these powerful words: “Along with needing each other we also need both oz va’anavah, that is robust strength and inner humility at this terrible time.”
Rebecca
This week has been unbearable.
The week following Simchat Torah is usually a quiet one for the Jewish world. Sukkot get taken down and synagogues get tidied after the heavy footfall of the High Holidays. But this year, we awoke last Shabbat-Simchat Torah to the news of Israel at war. 1973’s Yom Kippur has permeated everything, only this time it’s been citizens, not just military, who were caught by this surprise attack.
The Jewish world unequivocally condemns this attack on Israeli civilian life. Across Liberal Judaism and the wider Jewish family, we stand with Israel and its citizens during this terrible time. In this small world of ours, it seems no-one is exempt from knowing someone who is lost or missing. Attacking innocent civilians is always fundamentally wrong and will never do anything to bring about a better future for Israelis or Palestinians. I am thinking especially of those with family and children in Israel, particularly in the army. It is an unimaginable suffering for them.
I am keenly aware of our families navigating how to talk to children about this so they know it is not their responsibility to explain events in Israel and Gaza; similarly, I am mindful of our students at university, nervous on campus. This week we are offering several opportunities to connect and reflect together.
I will send families resources to aid conversations at home and I will endeavour to ensure that all feel as equipped, supported and comforted as is possible.
Rebecca.
During the week leading t
o Simchat Torah, I can never resist looking at the now-famous entry in Samuel Pepys diary of October 14th, 1663. He and his wife are guests of the tiny synagogue Shaar Hashamayim, the forerunner to Bevis Marks which opened formally in 1701. He describes himself as completely aghast at the joyous scene before his eyes.
… my wife and I, by Mr. Rawlinson’s conduct, [went] to the Jewish Synagogue: where the men and boys in their vayles, and the women behind a lattice out of sight; and some things stand up, which I believe is their Law, in a press to which all coming in do bow; and at the putting on their vayles do say something, to which others that hear him do cry Amen, and the party do kiss his vayle. Their service all in a singing way, and in Hebrew. And anon their Laws that they take out of the press are carried by several men, four or five several burthens in all, and they do relieve one another; and whether it is that every one desires to have the carrying of it, I cannot tell, thus they carried it round about the room while such a service is singing. And in the end they had a prayer for the King, which they pronounced his name in Portugall; but the prayer, like the rest, in Hebrew. But, Lord! to see the disorder, laughing, sporting, and no attention, but confusion in all their service, more like brutes than people knowing the true God, would make a man forswear ever seeing them more and indeed I never did see so much, or could have imagined there had been any religion in the whole world so absurdly performed as this. Away thence with my mind strongly disturbed with them, by coach and set down my wife in Westminster Hall, and I to White Hall,
I remember being similarly amazed by the dancing in the street with Torah scrolls, Sifrei Torah, in Cambridge, Massachusetts where I was for my Master’s degree. Growing up in modest UK it was anathema to me and pretty extraordinary to witness such confident and joyful expressions of Judaism – in the street no less!
Whilst I have to work hard to feel the abandon that the festival of Purim asks for, I love Simchat Torah. As a religious Progressive Jew, I do indeed live my life intricately involved with Torah and love nothing more than its ability to speak to our lives here and now.
We are celebrating the ending and beginning of Torah this Friday and Saturday – Shabbat and Simchat Torah 5784 happily combine – and we are honouring seven pairs of FPS folk as we do so. The Midrash on Numbers (BaMidbar Rabbah) says Torah has 70 faces – everyone has their own personalised message from it. 70 years of FPS and 70 faces of Torah. Join us to celebrate and enjoy the seventeenth century take on Simchat Torah as well.
Chag Sameach!
Rebecca.
Z’man Simchateinu
This is the festival that insists on joy – and I intend to grab it this year, when it’s so easy not to, from the cup of coffee inside the sukkah to the end of our flowering plants in our autumnal fading gardens, to the re-read of Keats’ ‘Ode to Autumn’ to the last few outdoor swims I can manage (I am not yet an all-year-round cold water swimmer!).
Sukkot, the next holiday of our HHDs, pulls us back to the corporal. Despite this festival calling on us to consider impermanence, fragility and temporary shelter, I am thinking of what lasts. Inspired by Paul Silver-Myer’s beautifu
l words on Yom Kippur, I am thinking of all those who stood inside the sukkah at Finchley Progressive Synagogue over these past 70 years. I am thinking of those who decorated and ate and squashed in for an outdoor service with the chill of Autumn and the wide night sky above. I am thinking of David Hoffman’s huge quantities of skach – the greenery for the roof and walls – which he and Ruth would always bring. I am thinking of Hilary Luder’s fairy lights and decoration. I am remembering years where we hung allotment harvests and years we have been rained out. I am thinking of last year’s car park sukkah that happily trapped many of us until festivities were finished. And this year Eti, Susanna, Annabel and Bobbie have returned to our traditional spot and made it ready for us this Friday. We will fill it with our waving of the Luluv and Etrog. The etrog is called pri etz hadar, “the fruit of a splendid tree” (or a goodly tree) and the scent of it lives up to its name. Exhausted you may be from the spiritual intensity of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur but the physicality of Sukkot has its place.
I am thinking of the first Sukkot celebration in the first building in 1963 – and how everyone managed and whether there are surviving photos recording the day.
I am remembering every year I sat in a sukkah, in other people’s before I constructed my own. Mine always have my drying pink hydrangea heads as decoration and some 1950’s vintage tea cloths from Israel adorning the walls. This year I have hangings from Zambia to add to the decor.
Although Sukkot is about tasting impermanence I’m thinking of longevity and where our sukkah will be when we have renewed our building and completed our renovations. It’s exciting and daunting and right.
See you on Friday evening,
Rebecca.
This week sees us reading the last portion of Deuteronomy as we hover between the new year and Day of Atonement over Shabbat Shuvah. As Moses, prepares for his own death, he recalls and reminds the Israelites, on God’s behalf of their past and their future. The tension is touching
If they were wise, they would understand this; they would reflect upon their fate.
ל֥וּ חָֽכְמ֖וּ יַשְׂכִּ֣ילוּ זֹ֑את יָבִ֖ינוּ לְאַֽחֲרִיתָֽם
Rather than considering their lives, they are urged to consider their past and the temptation they had and then they are given a reminder of why regret followed by commitment is so critical
כִּי לֹֽא־דָבָ֨ר רֵ֥ק הוּא֙ מִכֶּ֔ם כִּי־ה֖וּא חַיֵּיכֶ֑ם וּבַדָּבָ֣ר הַזֶּ֗ה תַּֽאֲרִ֤יכוּ יָמִים֙ עַל־הָ֣אֲדָמָ֔ה
For it is not an empty thing for you, it is your life, and through this thing, you will lengthen your days upon the land.
As I said on Rosh Hashanah, building for our next seventy years of Finchley Progressive Synagogue life is just this. Don’t forget to join us for the first of the Renewing our Home evenings Saturday 23rd at 5.30p.m.!
How extraordinary to read these words now as we hover in this time and place, considering our lives. Rashi comments on the weight of the word ‘empty’ and suggests the people were being reassured of the importance of this reflection and its life–giving properties.
On Saturday morning, before the service, we will have Book Club – reading the first part of Danya Ruttenberg’s Making Amends in an Unapologetic World and a chance to reflect a little before Yom Kippur begins. Then our Shiur on Yom Kippur will continue such conversations on the themes of regret and return. Yom Kippur will be filled this year with opportunities for conversation and also reflection through music. Our own beautiful musicians have been preparing and honing our liturgy and Daniel Dolan will play Bruch’s Kol Nidrei with his father David accompanying him at the start of Sunday evening’s service. Abigail Dolan will bring reflective pieces on her flute for marking the stages of the Musaf in the Additional Service on Monday.
I so look forward to sharing this all with you.
Rebecca
Last Saturday night, our synagogue echoed with the melodies of the familiar HHD tunes. We gathered late, at the end of the evening.
It is an auspicious year, with Rosh Hashanah falling on Shabbat, and we look forward to welcoming you all to our family and traditional service this Saturday morning and Erev Rosh Hashanah Friday 6.30p.m.
Even those amongst us who are not service goers may find something from this past month catching their attention. Our preparations will help us arrive at the Jewish New Year ready for change and growth. The world is complicated right now and much energy is needed to navigate its ebbs and flows. I pray for both its energy and ease.
For us as a community, I wish renewal and ambition in our exciting new projects that mark our hope for the next seventy years. And I wish for each one of us that the year ahead be a sweet and a strong one.
With warmest wishes to you all for 5784 and an offering from the late Rabbi Harold Shulweis,
Rebecca.
It’s never too late
to change my mind
my direction
to say “no” to the past
and “yes” to the future
to offer remorse for regrets
to ask and give forgiveness
It is never too late…
to feel again
to love again
to hope again.
And suddenly, or not so suddenly, it’s September and summer gives way to the New Year for us. Children return to school and work starts up against in earnest. Those fortunate to have had some time off, or those already retired, know the joy of the second cup of coffee over the novel you’re reading.
September means the beginning of our High Holidays. This Saturday night will be our Selichot service – a play on the word S’LICHAH, atonement, apology. It will remind us of the melodies and liturgies so particular to the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur prayers. As it is intended to be a candlelit service, we will begin at 9.30p.m. with tea and cake from 9 p.m.
You have already had charity pledge forms for our HHD appeals – all of them continuing from last year except Leo Baeck Education Center in Haifa, a progressive school community that impacts Jewish, communal and inter faith life in the city. This is a charity close to Jane and Gordon Greenfield’s heart and proposed by them when we asked for suggestions from the congregation. Of course, as always, our FPS community is part of our appeal and you will have heard separately from us about the progress of our building plans and appeal.
This time of year is always important to a rabbi but this one even more so than usual.
As it’s our 70th year, I wanted our services to reflect this milestone. With the theme of 70 years, we have invited our President Paul Silver-Myer and member Richard Greene to speak, with me, on the significance of the past 70 years.
Richard, who is now Bureau Chief for CNN in Jerusalem, will speak of Israel these past seven decades on EREV ROSH HASHANAH. On ROSH HASHANAH MORNING, I will speak of Jewish life and meaning these past 70 years and then moving closer to home, Paul will speak of Finchley on YOM KIPPUR MORNING. I will speak on KOL NIDREI and again in the YIZCHOR service later in the afternoon on Yom Kippur. As we go inwards on the day, my themes will be compassion and accountability.
I am looking forward to leading the SHIUR on Yom Kippur afternoon. This will be on the F word project and the power of restorative justice in making amends. I look forward to sharing that with you. The exhibition will be up from Rosh Hashanah. Feel free to visit even if services are not your thing.
It is powerful and truly resonates on the themes of the season.
See you there and Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca.
It’s interesting watching Luis Rubiales, Spain’s Football Association Chief, resist making a fulsome apology for kissing the Spanish player, Jenni Hermoso, on the lips as he congratulated the team’s win at the World Cup. His team, FIFA and indeed the whole world wait and watch for his real apology. This moment sparked outrage after their win against England’s Lionesses. Hermoso explained she felt vulnerable and the victim of machismo aggression. In turn, Rubiales spoke of false feminism and social assignation.
As we approach our season of atonement and making amends, seeing such public situations play out only adds piquancy to the challenge of truly making amends. Maimonides, whose five step processes of atonement informs Judaism’s understanding of apology, said the first stage is properly owning your mistake and failure. Owning the harm. The second is beginning to change; the third, making amends; only then followed by apologising and going on to make different choices.
There is always so much to learn from others making mistakes on the global stage, but even more so how they respond to and manage such failures.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca.
This is a newly written poem by Rabbi Elli Tikvah Sarah for this month of Elul and I wanted to share it. Elli is Rabbi Emeritus of Brighton and Hove Progressive synagogue and a pioneering thinker for Liberal Judaism. Her book Trouble Making Judaism offers a challenge to consider the power of our tradition in new ways.
Elul
the moon
between
seasons
North
and South
between
the fierce intensities
of Summer and Winter
between
the winds of change
that stir Autumn and Spring
the moon
between
nature’s rhythms
that shines
as it waxes and wanes
a solitary beacon
in the night
searching us out
insinuating pale light
into our minds’
tight crevices
revealing us
to ourselves
in the space
between
the old year
and the new
reminding us
to turn
inward
to listen
to our hearts’ broken beat
of hurts and regrets
to turn
outward
to those around us
to all that lives and breathes
and prepare
for the work of renewal
the repair of our relationships
our communities
our world.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca.
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