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
Zoe writes:
This week’s portion is about Holiness. Kadosh (holy) also has a sense of separation – the normal from the special, the clean from the unclean, the holy from the profane.
This week’s news is full not of Covid-19 but of copycat caterpillars (I did ponder a copycat-erpillars pun there…) and elite football groups.
Through the lens of holiness, Marks and Spencer believe their Colin the caterpillar cakes are Holy because they stand alone (not be copied by Aldi). Meanwhile, fans believe football is Holy because it stands together.
Certainly this lockdown has pushed us to learn and enjoy the moments we experience alone, while appreciating the times of communal holiness we wish we could reinstate.
I noted the prayer by Rabbi Howard Cooper included in the most recent Reform siddur (Forms of Prayer, 2008) for those lighting Shabbat candles alone:
Two candles, one person
I welcome this Shabbat alone
and join myself to the community of Israel
One candle for me
One candle for my people
Together and alone
we share our heritage
our future
our yearning
for the peace of Shabbat.
For me, this prayer could have been written specifically for Covid life – holding the personal and communal experiences, normally together, in parallel at a distance.
Over these 15 months we’ve learnt how technology can help us bridge the distance, whether our incredible Shabbat services, morning meditation, or one-off events.
Next Wednesday is – for me – the biggest of the latter. The London Citizens Mayoral Assembly. I have been involved in the planning from the start – for an event that was intended for May 2020 and was, like so much, postponed until now.
We aim to have 6000 people on that call. And I hope one of those 6000 is you.
Maybe holiness is one person, in one room, logging on to a Mayoral Assembly – when they could do anything else – knowing they are part of something so huge, making such an enormous difference, by standing up and being there.
And maybe holiness is knowing that we will each be doing that, together.
Shabbat shalom,
Zoe
We are stronger together is one of those cliches that turns out to be true. When we ended Passover in a brief zoomed Havdalah ceremony with 80 other Liberal Jews we saw that. When we make changes for the better because of stronger alliances and connections with others, in our Citizens UK work, we see that too. Famously it was Martin Buber in his book I and Thou that first expressed the idea of religious meaning through person relationships. It has born out.
All actual life is encounter. The I of the basic word I-You is different from that of the basic word I-It…Persons appear by entering into relation to other persons.
So I wanted to alert you this week to two important events where we should ensure our presence as a community.
1. London’s Mayoral Assembly April 28th 6pm, where our own Zoe Jacobs and Adrian Lister will be prominent leaders on the night. Sign up here.
2. Liberal Judaism’s Biennial Weekend, a slight misnomer as of course there was one last year too. But taking advantage of online gathering colleagues wanted to create a collective Shabbat learning opportunity for us all. We will participate in the Shabbat services together and there is learning and conversation all weekend from Friday to Sunday. Please book here for free for your easy pass to access everything.
I wish you a Shabbat Shalom and an easy weekend.
Rebecca
Moufletas at our Mimouna Brunch
This period of the year is intense, Jewishly.
We finish Pesach, see these mufleta from our Mimouna celebrations.
And then on the journey to Shavuot we mark Yom HaShoah and Yom Ha’atzma’ut, both days added to the calendar in modern times.
This addition was and is hugely controversial for the more tradition Haredim but for us they stand as witness to the continuing experience of Jews from ancient times through the extraordinary events of the twentieth century.
Remembering never ceases being a cornerstone of our Jewish experience. Zachor, (memory) wrote Joseph Chaim Yerushalmi is more relevant sometimes than history. “The antonym of ‘forgetting’ is not ‘remembering’, but justice.”
I hope you were able to join us for our marking of Yom HaShoah.
This Saturday we are joining East London and Essex Liberal Synagogue for their special inclusive Shabbat service. Virtual visits to other synagogue services is one of the benefits of these strange times!
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Rebecca
There was something particularly memorable about our communal Seder last Sunday evening, not least because two Elijah’s arrived and a goat. We came together with such warmth and dedication emboldened by our learning and preparations. New members were delivering Passover food to others and we expanded our minhagim to include new Mizrachi traditions thanks to The Fuller Table.
This Sunday at Cafe Ivriah we’ll mark Mimouna, a Moroccan Jewish holiday for the end of Pesach gathering increasing popularity in Israel now. It’s a chance to translate some of the Pesach commitments let all who are hungry come and eat into the vernacular of our lives.
This holiday may be based on the yahrzeit of Maimon ben Joseph, the father of Maimonides, a scholar in his own right who lived in Fez (Morocco) and wrote on Jewish-Islamic relations. He died around 1170. Or it might be based on the Arabic word, ma’amoun for plenty and good fortune.
Or perhaps even the Hebrew word emunah (belief) and the Maimonidean Ani Ma’amin, I believe as a reassurance after Passover. It’s a holiday of commitment and hope for the fertility and fortune of Spring . It’s sharing of food, produce and friendship, a return to real food, no longer the bread of affliction. I imagine we will have much to share after this full year of virtual gathering and yet the community has welcomed new members and grown in interesting ways.
Our FPS Mimouna will reflect on this and hopes for the months ahead. See below for the food stuffs to have.
We’re going to try it this year, because who doesn’t need a serving of blessing and joy. Join us on Sunday for some learning, conversation and virtual eating together but looking to the moment when it will be real.
Moadim l’simcha and wishing you a good end to Passover.
Rabbi Rebecca
I wish you Chag Pesach Sameach, a good and joyful Passover. Could we have imagined we’d be here having another ‘virtual’ seder a year on? what pain we’ve witnessed and what losses some of us have endured and yet what resilience we’ve built. Min Hameitzar Karati Yah, Anani b’merchav yah. Out of the narrow place I called to you, and you answered with wide expansiveness. That’s our hope this year more than ever, words from Psalm 118 recited during Pesach. Let us taste some ease, here at home. Let us pray for an opening for us all. And for those oppressed and imprisoned further away too. As we call for freedom and are reminded of its value, may we hold those peoples still under bondage in mind. Let’s talk of their plight, as the Uyghurs in China, at our Sedarim this weekend. May this year be a meaningful Passover for us.
Rabbi Rebecca
Vayikra el Moshe -The Eternal Called to Moses and spoke to him … Please feel called to join us for our Passover Preparations and celebrations. This week marks a year since the beginning of lockdown life and our moving as a community to online activities.
I doubt any of us thought we’d be holding our second Zoom seder.
So I think preparing together for Pesach will be significant this year. Look out for our Fuller Table session next Wednesday 7pm where we’ll expand the customs and practices of Passover to include Mizrachi and Ethiopian Judaism. We will welcome guests to our table; Rabbi Gary Somers, Isaac Treuherz and Desta Shanko. This exploring has rightly come from our work to see Jewish life, tradition and practice as wider than we might have previously. We are waiting very hopefully for the guidance from Stephen Bush’s report at the BOD.
Let all who are hungry come and eat… might just be spiritual as well as edible. (Sunday’s event on Food Poverty in Cafe Ivriah is just one of these). Do join us for this important step in our Jewish learning and practice.
Rabbi Rebecca
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