“The anticipation is worse than the actual event”. This could be a mantra to my life. From blood tests to interviews, I am an exceptional worrier. I also know it is true for the smaller things in life. I write to do lists every day, and notice that some things stay on my list for weeks because I keep putting them off – too scared or overwhelmed by the mere idea of the task. And yet, thankfully, the anticipation is worse than the actual event. Usually once I start doing whatever it is, it takes less time and is less difficult than I had suspected.
This week I led Lunch and Learn – a fantastic Thursday lunchtime slot of Torah study – in Rabbi Rebecca’s place. I need to prepare for this rather more than she does! I give myself a few hours curled up with various Torah commentaries, and go through verse by verse noticing the interesting word choices, peculiar grammar, or odd structures and repetitions in the text, exploring the various explanations and commentaries that have been written about them.
It feels…holy. A strange word, I grant you. It is all-consuming. I am a poor multitasker at the best of times, but this requires a wholly single-focused attention. If the phone rings the sound feels like it’s coming from a million miles away. I would describe it as meditative except it makes my brain work so incredibly hard. I find it exhausting and thrilling. But I put it off like mad.
It was on my to do list for the start of the week, and yet it was Thursday morning when eventually time pressure forced me into action. I know that once I start it I’ll enjoy it but I still cannot make myself do it. I don’t like the current idea that ‘we all have a shorter attention span nowadays’ – it feels like I’m doing us a disservice. And yet I wonder whether I do shy away from this incredibly intense experience because of the focus it requires, because of just how much I need to turn my back on Twitter, Facebook, text messages and notifications, and let myself sink in to the task.
It feels rebellious, somehow, to give something such undivided attention, particularly now as politics and news feel so all-present. And yet, offering ourselves that time to turn away is so calming, so reassuring. I hope you find a moment this week to give undivided attention to something or someone you love, at synagogue or at home.
Shabbat shalom,
Zoe Jacobs
This is a picture from Simchat Torah last Sunday night. For our celebrations we honoured David and Abigail Dolan as Chatan Torah and Kallat Bereshit in the evening and David Hoffmann and Lesley Urbach in the morning. I don’t think it would be overstating to say ‘we had a blast’. Between Torah limericks, unrolling and over 35 opening verses of parshiot (portions) read, we were astounded by the turn out of our Jewishly literate Liberal congregation. That truly was a joy.
The last letter of Deuteronomy is a lamed and the first letter of Bereshit a bet. Put together lamed and bet and you get lev a heart. I’m reminded of the heart of this community again and again. Throughout these Tishri festivals we have come together again and again. Just as we read as we finished Torah, so may it be for each one of us: strength strength, let us be strengthened.
After this Shabbat, Bereshit, I’ll be taking some time off as we reach the end of the HHD season and head into the quieter month of Cheshvan.
Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Rebecca
Breath of all breaths, said Kohelet, all is breath….there is nothing new under the sun. (Breath is often translated as vanities or futility.)
We have been studying Ecclesiastes, that strange book that offers a rather cyclical or sanguine view of life (depending on who you are). My teacher Rabbi Jonathan Magonet used to say this work was either written by a melancholic teenager or a wise old bird.
We read Kohelet for Sukkot, straight after Yom Kippur when we are raw and open to everything. We know that everything is fragile and temporal. This festival of eating, learning, sleeping (sometimes) in our Sukkah gives us a visceral reminder of all of this. Our beautiful, modest and natural Sukkah also is a call to arms to fight for better housing for those who don’t have firm, reliable and proper homes. Tuesday Night Shelter in our synagogue as we meandered into our sukkah was a stark reminder. Today, through the rabbinic Social Action group TZELEM, rabbis have called on our government to build better social housing using our sukkot as reminders.
Shabbat Shalom and do remember our fabulous whole community UNSCROLLING for Simchat Torah this coming Sunday at 6.30 pm.
Rebecca
Thank you to Eden Silver-Myer, Ania Levy, Zoe and Hilary Luder for designing and building our sukkah this year.
The morning after Yom Kippur our hearts are full for many reasons. Not least, to return home and discover the attack on the synagogue in Halle. Two killed, and fear and insecurity unleashed on our Day of Atonement. We stand in solidarity with them and I want to acknowledge with gratitude those who stood outside our synagogue all day yesterday. Our members and our friend Ian Katz who comes back to give so much of his time and expertise every HHD. With heavy hearts we understand why security is necessary.
I am so grateful to all who work so hard in our community in all areas. Those who contribute to the running, security, learning and spirituality of our synagogue . You’ll see why I love Marge Piercy’s poem To Be of Use:
I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart,
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience,
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward,
who do what has to be done, again and again…Hopi vases that
held corn, are put in museums
but you know they were made to be used.
The pitcher cries for water to carry
and a person for work that is real.
Shabbat Shalom and thank you,
Rebecca
Shabbat Shuvah tomorrow and I am thinking of big fish. Despite the walks we are doing every day, with the changing leaves and conkers under our feet, I am thinking of the Jonah story and the image of him swallowed by the dag gadol. No other biblical character is quite as brilliant for considering our own attitudes of stubbornness, ambivalence about choices and faith. Ironically Jonah is the most successful prophet. The only one who has immediate results. Those grudging words he says to the king and people of Ninevah (in 40 days Ninevah will be overthrown) work. They don sackcloth and ashes and repent. He’s the greatest prophet because he is so familiar, so absurd, so human.
What better focus for us than him?
Most of us, like Jonah, at one time or another, avoid our task, choose sleep over wakefulness and sail away if we can. Jonah steps on our toes. Come hear the book read on Yom Kippur.
Shabbat Shalom
Rebecca
It’s been for some of us a good year and a full year. As we approach Rosh Hashanah, we think of our lives but also what we can bring to other peoples’ lives.
Teshuvah U’Tefillah U’Tzdakah ….. Repentance, Prayer and Charity (justice) will avert the evil decree. We will chant this many times over the HHD services. There is much to comment on this verse, and I will be, but for now as we approach Sunday the idea of righteous giving and support is important. Generosity is key.
A friend received a message the other day. His name was mentioned and honoured as his brother made a donation to the food bank in their South African synagogue. Instead of a physical Rosh Hashanah gift, they donated to the food bank in his name. I loved this idea.
We all agree Food Banks are not the answer and we are right to feel ashamed that so many people rely on them here in our affluent United Kingdom. Charity can’t end poverty. But while the need is there, we are responsible for sharing what we have. So please donate money or food in family or friends’ names. We will happily send a Rosh Hashanah email to anyone you donate for.
Join us in the learning and activities we have as we prepare here at FPS for Rosh Hashanah to bring it extra meaning and joy.
Shabbat Shalom
Rebecca
All of old. Nothing else ever. Ever tried. ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail better. Samuel Beckett, Worstword Ho! 1983
We try hard in our lives, seeking to do the best we can and floundering at times. If HHD gives us a chance to reflect then what better way than to consider our failures. What are we proud of and what do we regret?
There is the clear obligation to forgive others as Maimonides reminds in his Laws of Tshuvah It’s forbidden for a person to be cruel and refuse to be appeased. What about the way we look at our own successes and failures?
Join Rabbi Howard Cooper and me to discuss and study together (at FRS) this Saturday night before Selichot service: Fail Better.
Wishing you Shabbat Shalom and so pleased Ivriah is back and Cafe Ivriah filled the Small Hall last week as the children began their lessons and we learned Kiddush. #TheNewTen #LearningJewishSkills.
Rebecca
Rabbi Rebecca writes;
I am busy searching for all texts and anecdotes to open our hearts this month of Elul. This is to signify the journey we begin on 29 September, Erev Rosh Hashanah.
This week I listened to Malcom Gladwell’s new book Talking to Strangers. His premise: we can never really know the stranger and often as humans make catastrophic errors of judgement about people we meet. We rely on feelings and instinct and sometimes are very wrong. How prescient of the BBC to broadcast this Book of the Week now when mistrust and suspicion is palpable in our parliament and filters down to others.
Gladwell recounts one of the greatest ‘follies’ in 20th century history, Neville Chamberlain’s catastrophic misreading of Hitler. But he softens judgement by demonstrating how difficult it is to read others.
A tiny verse in the portion this week Ki Teitze captures this unease and mistrust:
When you go out [as an army] against your enemies, be on your guard against anything untoward in them. (23:10) and yet is somewhat contradicted by a later one: You shall not subvert or abuse the rights of the stranger… (24:17)
I invite you to consider trust this week, and the way we offer and withhold it. Shabbat will be 14 Elul, almost half way through the month. I am reminded of Barbara Crooker’s poem In the Middle of a life that’s as complicated as everyone else’s, struggling for balance…
Good luck with Elul and look out for our new learning beginning next week and our shared Selichot service at FRS on 21 September, beginning with my study session with Rabbi Howard Cooper entitled Fail Better.
Shabbat Shalom to all
Rabbi Rebecca
Zoe Jacobs writes:
I spent the bank holiday weekend on Brighton beach. The extraordinary sunshine warmed the pebbles around me, and – when I wasn’t swimming – I enjoyed hours of picking up and cradling warm, smooth stones.
They felt so permanent in a moment where everything from our weather to our politics seems frighteningly impermanent. It is calming to have solid, ancient things around us as we navigate through this storm.
Our Judaism, our Torah and our wonderfully dependable festivals offer us this anchor as we transition into September. Join us through Shabbot or Chaggim, through Ivriah or Delving into Judaism. Our roots keep us stable.
And, if on your wanderings, you also find stones warmed by the sunshine please inspect them to see if there is a hole through them. Please also look out for conkers, shells and other rain-proof, natural decorations we can use for our – impermanent – sukkah. Collection jars are ready in the synagogue.
Shabbat shalom,
Zoe
History, as we know, as a way of repeating itself. How can it not?
As the M.S. St. Louis cruised off the coast of Miami in June 1939, its passengers could see the lights of the city glimmering. But the United States hadn’t been on the ship’s original itinerary, and its passengers didn’t have permission to disembark in Florida. As the more than 900 Jewish passengers looked longingly at the twinkling lights, they hoped against hope that they could land. Those hopes would soon be dashed by immigration authorities, sending the ship back to Europe. And then, nearly a third of the passengers on the St. Louis were murdered. Most of the ship’s 937 passengers were Jews trying to escape Nazi Germany.
And so we watch with horror the waters off Lampedusa, Italy. The same island of Lampedusa where that extraordinary fisherman made crosses out of life boats, one of which resides in Pembroke College Chapel, Cambridge.
Italy’s far-right interior minister, Matteo Salvini, has reluctantly authorised 27 migrant children rescued at sea to disembark from the charity vessel OPEN ARMS anchored in limbo off Lampedusa Island for days.
He agreed to save the ‘alleged’ minors despite it being “divergent to my orientation”. And the remaining 105 adults and 2 accompanying children are to stay on the boat the NGO says is not fit to hold them. They are considering flying them to Spain but their options are limited. Immigration is challenging. We would be naive to believe otherwise, but there are moments when the word ‘No’ is inhumane. Both in stories and in real life. Proactiva Open Arms says the situation is untenable, visiting doctors agreed.
The iconic verse “A human being does not live on bread alone,” found in this week’s portion, Eikev (Deut. 8:3) invites us to think of all in this scenario, those that rescue and those that are rescued.
May a safe solution be found speedily.
Shabbat Shalom
Rebecca
PS. 2 hours ago the boat was ordered to disembark and the refugees allowed to enter Lampedusa. May they and the Islanders find safety and ease.
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