Life moves apace and I am already looking to the next moment on our Jewish calendar, as is our way. Pesach is at the end of this month.
This week’s portion Ki Tissa sees the Golden Calf and Moses (and God’s) ensuing fury. Afterwards, after he’s gone back up Sinai to collect the second set of tablets, Moses is alone with God and asks to see God’s presence, it’s a beautiful request.
In the end he’s hidden in the cleft of a rock and is told, for his own safety, he’ll see just the back of God.
I think of this actually as anticipating Passover.
Why? When former bishop Richard Holloway left his faith because of its empty promises he nonetheless talked of the beauty of “the ritualistic aspect, the way that each day is marked out for a particular purpose, so that we will regularly have appointments with spiritual ideas”.*
Boy, I loved this. And of course our festival year is replete with appointments with spiritual ideas. Whether it’s seeing God in these small dates in our diary, in the seder, the service, the feeding of others. It’s all bound up in the moments that matter for us.
Let All Who Are Hungry Come and Eat, we’ll say on Seder night and before it. This year maybe in as many languages as we can muster. So, if you have customs and minhagim in your families you’d like to see added to our FPS seder and services, do tell me. Let’s expand our appointment with spiritual ideas for everyone.
Rabbi Rebecca
*Leaving Alexandria: A Memoir of Faith and Doubt by Richard Holloway Canongate Books 2012
It’s poignant that last Purim we gathered together without knowing or understanding the virus in our midst. Purim, a relatively minor festival, impacted us profoundly.
This past year has been full of loss and suffering for so many. Some more than others as we know from our communities. Covid has been brutal to health capacity but also to livelihoods. So many had careers, work and income damaged; that has meant real suffering in many homes.
But Purim 2020 also left with us the custom of mishloach manot (sending gifts) and matanonot l’evyonim (gifts to the poor) and these permeated the Jewish year way beyond the festival. We have spent the last twelve months ensuring we send gifts to those that need, both food and cheering. We have had to be more responsive to those who have struggled. Possibly for the first time, some have had to rely on food banks and gifts, when they have hitherto never needed charity. So many of our synagogues have become hubs for local food banks. Our community letters have reminded us since last Purim: that if we are able to give we should. Looking ahead to Pesach we’ll say at Seder “Let All who are hungry come and eat”. It has taken on a piquancy through these months. Gifts and food for those who need has become a necessity rather than an option.
Famously the Book of Esther excludes the name of God. But even more so the word Ester contains the letters s-t-r, which is the root of the word ‘to hide oneself’. Talmudic rabbis play with this, and suggest Esther is from Hester Panim – ‘the hidden face’ of God – Deuteronomy (31.18), when God insists: ‘I’ll hide my face’. It has been a dark year but there is light ahead, as the Megillah ends with Mordechai “seeking goodness and speaking of peace to his descendants.” It’s tough not being together for another Seder; the second in a row. Perhaps we have people in our lives we fear it might be the last? So we hope and pray for a new ease and peacefulness.
Min Ha Meitzar karati yah v’anani v’merchav yah.
So says Psalm 118 which we will recite at Pesach in just a few weeks now;
“From a narrow place I cried to you and you answered me with wide expansiveness.” As we navigate these two holidays so anticipated, may we find that openness in a safe way for our communities and our country.
Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Rebecca
This piece is published in London Jewish News this week.
We are currently renewing and refreshing our work with Barnet Citizens.
As you know, we count ourselves part of an alliance of six institutions in the borough who work together for positive change.
While we are currently not in our building, we know it will be there for us when we are allowed to be there safely – and what a moment to rejoice it will be.
Meanwhile our neighbours, the Markaz (Muslim community centre) in Golders Green have suffered Islamophobic hate throughout their journey to their own holy building, The council took 150 days to validate their application (when their own policy states a maximum of 10 days) and they received over 1000 emails against their application. The council webpage publishing these had to be blocked because of the racist hatred.
We robustly support their campaign along with other local synagogues, and take action with them in this next step on their journey.
V’asu li mikdash v’shachanti b’tocham, “Let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them” These are the gifts . . . and this is how you shall make it. “Exactly as I show you . . . ken ta-asu, so shall you make it” (Exodus 25:8-9).
This week’s Torah portion, T’rumah, details the building of a Holy space – and its specification of each item needed. But notably it isn’t just the wealthy who offer gifts ‘trumah’ to make the building – everyone must add *something*, and that way a true community space is built.
It is our turn to join our neighbours, to stand with them as they fight for their community space.
Join us on Wednesday 24th Feb at 8pm to meet the Markaz leaders and lawyers supporting their campaign.
If you are interested in this campaign, or the other campaigns we’re working on – supporting a faster and better mental health provision for teens in Barnet, and working towards the London Mayoral Assembly – please do sign up to our two fabulous training opportunities below.
I believe it’s vital FPS has leaders for these..
Shabbat Shalom from both of us this week,
Rebecca and Zoe
Rabbi Larry Hoffman came to London several years ago.
On a hot Thursday in July quite a few rabbis, student rabbis and Reform and Liberal lay leadership crammed into our synagogue in Hutton Grove and heard him expound on the essence of Jewish identity. It was, he explained; “Jewish conversation”.
There was a pause, we’d anticipated something more erudite, more esoteric perhaps. But no, it turns out that that is what Rabbi Larry Hoffman believes is “the essence, the heart of Jewish life and identity. Jews talking, friends of Jews talking, all can have a Jewish conversation, and such a discussion, chat or conversation needs to be about something Jewish. That’s it.” He continued to say that the topics can be learning, music, food, memories, Israel, family, preoccupation, even Jewish anxiety. As long as you are talking, then you are engaging. In his clear but far from simplistic way Hoffman captured everything.
Just “keep talking” he told us. Like Tess and Claudia on Strictly… but instead of Dancing, it’s Talking.
I was reminded of that summer as we invite you this week to two very interesting conversations.
The first will be tonight 6pm with, soon-to-be Baroness Gillian Merron, in her final months of leading the Board of Deputies. Do join this conversation about why BOD needs all parts of the Jewish community. And why we as a community should be at the table. We will hear some highlights of her time there, and maybe some of its challenges.
The second conversation will be on Israel, Thursday 7.30pm. My colleague Rabbi Lea Muhlstein in her role as chair of Arzeinu, the Progressive Zionist International organisation has much to say about talking and listening and being at the table. Again please join us for what promises to be an informative and important conversation.
I know many who excel and have excelled at Jewish conversations. Rosita Rosenberg z”l was one. was one. She died this week, and we are poorer for her loss. Rosita led Liberal Judaism for nearly a decade and brought much history, sensibility and menschlikeit to the conversations she enabled. Zichrona L’vracha.
Wishing you Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca
I met the Conservative former immigration minister Caroline Nokes with a group of rabbis two years ago. Mike Freer MP set up the meeting for us to talk about settling refugees and asylum seekers in the UK. He knew we cared about it deeply.
Now a back bencher Nokes has accused the Home Office of trying to make our country seem as “difficult and inhospitable as possible”. She says by using inhumane accommodation like the Napier Barracks in Kent or a new barracks style unit close to Yarl’s Wood; we are causing immense suffering. There is often no running water, food so bad no-one can eat, and obviously huge outbreaks of Covid. In isolated spots the residents have no access to support or connection. Instead they are living in ghetto-like settings where previous trauma is relived and renewed daily.
Why do I write of this in a weekly synagogue message? Our Judaism rests on the pillar of engagement with the world we live in, not separation from it. Lo Tuchal L’hitalem -You cannot be indifferent – Deuteronomy chides us from the archaic conversation of lost oxen, but the challenge has survived. Lily Montagu’s legacy informs and inspires the heart beat of Liberal Judaism, the young women known as her girls who flocked to the afternoon service at West Central. A service she fought to provide for them.
Caroline Nokes is quoted this week saying of her government, “We as a nation can do better than this.” It is true. And calling out is important.
This week in Parashat Yitro the Ten Commandments are given. The rules that guide us as Jews and indeed most people in living a just and safe life, certainly the last five of them speak particularly to this. The portion contains the covenant moment at Sinai and the enthusiastic commitment by Israel to take the commandments on; “naaseh v’nishmah” we will do it and then understand it…
The name is taken from Moses’ father-in-law Yitro, an outsider, a Midianite Priest. Yet he’s the one to feedback to Moses about the congregation and about God “Blessed be the Eternal”.
May we never stop working towards that.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca
You can’t do it all yourself . Italian commentator Sforno c.15th paraphrases Yitro’s advice to Moses. Lo tov hadavar asher ahah oseh, he tells him. Create, he suggests, a team of reliable people anshei chayl to share the leading, the judging and the listening. This must be the favourite parasha for rabbis and synagogue councils. How to create engaged and expansive shared leadership in our congregations, so all are invested and part of the work. Yitro was surely the first management consultant of ancient times, and in ‘not for profit’ religious communities. I intend to open Yitro’s conversation this week and beyond!
Following my sermon last Shabbat on our obligation to support those who need help to feed their families and themselves: First time users of food banks have emerged these past months. People who managed cars, holidays and jobs now in brutally different circumstances and relying on Food Banks, as others are.
Today is Holocaust Memorial Day. The anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and so many Genocides that tragically happened since, despite the Never Again. It is also Tu B’Shevat, the New Year of Trees. So as we anticipate the coming of Spring and the joy of trees and their fruit, we remind the community of what is needed and how to give in the easiest way. We honour those who died and knew well the preciousness of enabling others to eat. Please give: 100,000 victims lost this pandemic and this is a palpable way to help those who have been affected brutally by the collateral damage. It feels profoundly Jewish to look back, to remember and to act.
Bo – The Heart is a Strange Muscle
One of the strangest things these past 10 months or so has been the doubters:
From the flamboyant conspiracy theorists, (‘this virus is fantasy designed to control us’), to the flagrant rejection of science, (as evidenced by those buying bleach to flush their bodies), to those resisting guidelines and safety measures, believing they know better.
As a keen rule follower I’m intrigued.
Parashat Bo this week continues the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart even as he watches those ten plagues ravage his people and country.
Last week’s “Pharaoh hardened his heart” (Exodus 8:28) and now
“God says “I have stiffened his heart and the hearts of his courtiers.” (Exodus 10:1)
It meant he refused to respond to the suffering reality around him. As Dr Aviva Gottleib Zornberg observed, ‘a kind of spiritual rigor mortis set in’ for him. Pharaoh couldn’t empathise. Have we seen something similar during ‘our’ plague of COVID? It’s striking that so far that there have been over 2 million deaths worldwide and over 89,000 in the U.K alone. Yet many hearts remain hardened to this.
What’s an antidote to a hardened heart? The silent prayer at the end of the Amidah can give some encouragement. Mar bar Ravina, a fourth century sage wrote Patach Libi: “Open my heart (to Your teaching)”. An open heart responds to learning. An open heart responds to the news from the COVID wards, to data, medical evidence and to the uncontroversial hope the vaccines bring.
Pharaoh, with his hardened heart, is an unlikely teacher as he refuses to see a possible end to suffering. It’s surely incumbent on us to welcome the vaccine with an open heart and an open arm outstretched. As Winston Churchill declared November 1942 three years into the war, eighteen months after the Blitz “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” The vaccine is just that. Be ready for yours.
Shabbat Shalom to all,
Rebecca
My co-chair Rabbi Rene Pfertzel and I chaired our first CoLRaC this week; the monthly meeting of Liberal Clergy so essential to the activities of Liberal Judaism. There were several firsts; Rabbi Charley Baginsky CEO, and Shelley Shocolinsky-Dwyer shared their vision for Liberal Judaism for the next two years. They are looking towards a financially stable, vibrant and expansive movement that builds on partnerships with its congregations and the superb youth movement at its heart. It was an auspicious start to 2021, with the added request of rabbis taking part in a collective stance of encouraging the vaccine.
We heard also today that Gillian Merron, great friend of FPS will be stepping down from the Board of Deputies at the start of April. As the BOD is a non political organisation, her recent elevation to the House of Lords as a Labour Peer presents a conflict. So Gillian, after six years in post, will step down. I am sure you will all join me in warm congratulations to her and gratitude for her time at the helm of the Board of Deputies and the important work she did there.
These past ten months have demanded such close attention to our own members and the structures within our community, it is a nice moment to recognise our place within Liberal Judaism and indeed British Jewry. We have much to appreciate.
I couldn’t be prouder of Gillian, or more hopeful for this new period for Liberal Judaism where Rene and I hope to play our part in leadership and collaboration. This week’s Haftarah from Ezekiel finishes with the words from God to Moses about his role with the Israelites: I will give you courage to speak in their midst. Then shall they know that I am the Eternal. (29:21)
Let’s hope for the elevation of our voices and LJ going from strength to strength.
Shabbat Shalom to all,
Rebecca
I’m always struck by the first line of the Book of Exodus; A new king arose in Egypt who did not know Joseph. Torah gives us this verse as an explanation for the change of mood and attitude towards the Hebrew population living in the suburb of Goshen. For me it’s redolent of the power of memory to hold in mind gratitude or resentment. This is so relevant for our contemporary existence too. This new king, for some reason, decides that this guest nation is a threat and wants to suppress them. And Moses, this child saved from the water by the king’s daughter, who defies her father and raises this ‘hidden child’ in the palace as an Egyptian.
Then comes a very significant moment. We’re told Moses grew up, vayigdal, as if there are stages of maturing. There comes a certain moment where things open up for him and he notices what has been there all along. He is connected viscerally with the people now hated and abused in Egypt. This is our story, not just the coming out of Egypt but the idea of growing up to notice and have a mature view of the world. To see suffering and to see the complexity of who we are.
Despite his maturity Moses is reluctant, he describes himself as slow to speak kaved peh which is literally heavy mouthed. the same adjective to describe Pharaoh’s heart when he repeatedly says no.
These next few weeks of reading Exodus (Shemot) go to the heart of our Jewish story, our Jewish identities and our Jewish conversations. What’s more we have a great deal of time (at home) to do so. v’at p’tach lo Open for them, we say about the child at the seder asking about identity.
Maybe this is a moment for all of us. As we work communally to be responsible and safe. As we have the time to consider our Jewish lives. As we wait for the Board of Deputies much awaited Commission by Stephen Bush on Racial Inclusivity in the Jewish community.
Shabbat Shalom to all,
Rebecca
Winnie the Pooh (a very wise leader) said “People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day”.
It feels like we have been told to do the impossible this past week. To do nothing – even when all we want to do is celebrate the small joys this year has brought. But instead we are doing very little, sitting tight, and knowing that this too shall pass.
This Shabbat we get the opportunity to celebrate a huge joy from the safety of our homes. It is the 10th anniversary of Rabbi Rebecca’s work with FPS. Please join us on Saturday for a celebratory service – with some surprises along the way!
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