Marking the Coming of Spring.
There are official website alerts in Japan for the cherry blossom season. Sakura Watch, a sort of national Spring watch by everyone who wants to see the opening of those pink and white petals/flowers, will anticipate the flowering dates in different cities. This week the first blossoms have been spotted.
I am taken by this collective watching of Spring and what it can teach us – particularly now.
Our collective hearts are breaking at this outbreak of fighting, the escalation of violence in Gaza and in the West Bank and the misery of the last few hostage families waiting and terrified by what it means. Our eyes are glued to the news and the geo-political situations. Our hope is sapped as we witness yet more suffering.
We have good reason for that – paying attention is our responsibility. You are not allowed to be indifferent – Lo tuchal l’hitalem – as Deuteronomy reminds us.
But in all of this we forget to watch for Spring, to keep our eyes looking outwards to nature and the passing of seasons. Yet to watch that is also our responsibility.
Always at this time of year, I remind myself of Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav’s invitation to take time out of doors in nature:
Grant me the ability to be alone; may it be my custom to go outdoors each day among the trees and grass – among all growing things and there may I be alone, and enter into prayer, to talk with the One to whom I belong.
The trees, grass and onset of spring, wherever you are, even without the glorious Japanese sakura, do give energy and nourishment and the capacity for hope. Seasons wait for no-one. We can watch the natural passage of time.
An American synagogue offered an innovation a few years ago of a green thread to be worn during, and even in the build-up to, Passover: green for spring and the thread a reminder of all those not yet free. On Pesach, we’ll offer Hallel, those psalms 113-118, both at synagogue and round our Seder tables – ‘min hametzar karati yah v’ani b’merchav yah,’ from a narrow place I called to You and You answered me in wide expansiveness. What a brilliant, visceral wearing of hope.
I love the integration of both together. It grounds us in the outdoors and the greenery of Spring and yet pulls us to hope for a better, safer future.
From that most familiar of anthems, od lo avda tikvateinu – let us never be without hope, may Spring and its burgeoning blossoms and greens inspire us.
A version of this is being published in London Jewish News this week.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca
Take from amongst you gifts for יהוה; everyone whose heart is so moved or willing shall bring them—gifts for יהוה
This verse is at the start of our portion Vayakhel. It was written millennia ago, yet could be the blue print today of every thriving congregation who understand its health to be predicated on the willingness and desire of its folk to be involved. It is the very best verse.
Rashi explains that everything we do and give is generated by our heart’s impulse. That is why it says here ‘willing heart’. I can think of no better way to describe generosity and intention than a willing heart.
The passage continues with And let all among you who are skilled come and make all that יהוה has commanded.
It’s gifts and skills, time and resources that will make this biblical sanctuary. But we know it also makes contemporary synagogues full of people that care for its present, past and future. In Hebrew, nadiv lev means a generous, a willing heart. It’s the greatest thing about community: having members who care deeply and are invested in the congregation they share. One only had to watch the glorious Purim Spiel to see that in evidence last Shabbat.
I want to remind you how extraordinarily well we have done in raising £1.8 million. We are so close and this next step is being held by many skilled members of FPS, both by those who are able to give so generously and those who are giving their time to organise and encourage us all.
I so hope you will register for this big sponsored walk on 26 April. It is called Walking Home because we will be! At the same time, we will be sharing stories of FPS beginning and history leading us up to today. It is a community-wide event, with the hope that we will ask others in our network to help us. In the email that went out last week, we included short paragraphs to help you put into your own Just Giving page.
Whether you can help materially or not, I still hope your willing heart will bring you to the walk. Share in this community wide event for 1,000, 20,000 or 40,000 steps and anything in between. We are who we are because of generous, willing hearts and because of those who bring their skill, enthusiasm and sweetness into FPS.
Walk as long as you like, join the team, raise funds or just support us on the day.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca
Hillel said: “Do not separate yourself from the community, Say not: ‘when I shall have time I shall study;’ perhaps you will never have time.” Mishnah Avot 2:4
I find these words from Hillel repeated so often. They are taken from Pirkei Avot (Verses of the Fathers) in the Mishnah, which was the first piece of Oral Torah recorded after the Temple was destroyed and a new way of Jewish life under Roman occupation existed for Jews.
What does it mean to be told not to separate oneself from the community? Last week I taught B’nei Mitzvah students and their parents about the concept of minyan, ten Jews needed in certain circumstances for the community to function. Originally, this was for some of the prayers and moments in the service. Now I see it as speaking to all that happens in community and how we need to show up for each other. BM children need to show up for the class to make it viable and to honour each other. We in the community need to show up for each other, for learning together and for key moments in congregation to forge our identity. This week, I sense we need such a reminder. One rabbi I knew loved to say there are Purim Jews and there are Passover Jews. I want to hear which one you are!
Please forgive the infographics but there is much happening right now that I so want you to be a part of.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca
Obviously, I have much to share from my trip to Israel. So much learning in a country deep in trauma and mourning; a longing for the return of every last hostage-felt so keenly as if one whole family. We also witnessed the inspirational work by activist Rabbis and colleagues there-from the services they lead to the peace work they commit to. Saturday evening I was at ‘Hostage Square’ for Havdalah with so many Israeli colleagues who lead in such a humane and hopeful way.
This weekend is Shabbat Zachor, named so as the Shabbat before the festival of Purim. We will read the book of Esther next week as is obligated on the festival. The book turns everything topsy turvy. The Persian Jews were due to be slaughtered and instead, they manage to do the slaughtering. Liberal Judaism banned this festival for much of the 20th century because of the violence described. On this Shabbat (preceding Purim) we are commanded to read from the book of Deuteronomy and the words about Amalek, the proverbial enemy of the Israelites.
“Remember what Amalek did to you on your journey, after you left Egypt. How, undeterred by fear of God, he surprised you on the march, when you were famished and weary, and cut down all the stragglers in your rear. Therefore, when the Eternal your God grants you safety from all your enemies around you, in the land that the Eternal your God is giving you as a hereditary portion, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget”
These verses call us to remember moments of extreme vulnerability and hurt-Biblically and beyond. It doesn’t take much to recall 7th October 2023 as we do so. But it also calls for these memories to be renewed and sustained forever.
This can be tricky. Recalling, renewing and re-committing to anger and revenge is, or course, damaging, like taking poison and waiting for your enemy to die. We’ve seen how this can hurt. As a group of rabbis we experienced settler violence towards us fellow Jews. And the anger was shocking.
We were reminded of another event fuelled by righteous anger over 30 years ago that still has repercussions in the region. February 25 1994, which was also Purim, Dr. Baruch Goldstein, an extreme right ring settler, walked into a mosque, locked the door, dressed in his army reserve uniform, and killed 29 Muslim men and boys at prayer, injuring a further 150, and was then himself killed in the struggle to stop the shooting. The Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin and his government called it a terrible act of brutality-an insult to sensible Judaism and the whole Zionist enterprise. Despite this his grave has been treated as a shrine, even after it was explicitly forbidden do so. The language on the stone describes him as a holy martyr, who died for his people his Torah and his country in honour of God’s name. I have often thought of this event and his actions, but this was the first time I saw his grave. And was again reminded how ancient biblical texts can lead to chaos when read literally.
There is much we can do with this injunction to remember and hold on to pain. Amalek can remind us of hurt, fear and vulnerability, of course very familiar right now. But the verses can also challenge us in how we use them and the assumptions they can lead to. One Israeli Reform rabbi Dana Sharon explained, “So much and so many were taken from me on 7th October 2023. I will not allow my compassion and belief in humanity to be taken as well.”
It is a challenge indeed.
There is much to consider this Shabbat Zachor. I look forward to seeing you and marking Purim together next Friday 14th March.
Rebecca
I am in Israel. I arrived only on Sunday and for the next four days, I am travelling with a group of Liberal, Masorti and Reform rabbis on a tour arranged by Yachad. Today, as I write this, we have spent the day in the South. We travelled through the Gaza Envelope, as it is known, the stretch of land that borders Gaza, the several kibbutzim that experienced the most profound losses on 7th October 2023.
We planted an olive tree of remembrance in Kibbutz Nirim and heard from resident Rabbi Avi Davush, who leads Rabbis for Human Rights. Standing on the hillside of Sderot, we could see into Gaza and its devastation. We were with ten rabbis from the organisation RHR. One of them, Orthodox rabbi Jesse Burke, lost his son three months ago. He was serving in the IDF. Jesse shared a living hesped (eulogy ) for him, even as he spoke of the loss of children in so many Jewish and Palestinian homes. Each of these rabbis told extraordinary stories of resilience and loss these past sixteen months and they also described a strengthening of their commitment to humanity and the values they see underpinning their Judaism. They dedicate themselves to this. Meeting Rabbi Gilad Kariv at the Knesset, the first Reform Rabbi MK, he described his commitment to the hostage deal holding, the fighting stopping and to a just democracy here in Israel.
Today we hope to be meeting with families of hostages. I will be in Hostage Square on Saturday evening for Havdalah.
The Torah portion for this week, Parashat T’rumah, describes building the mishkan, the sanctuary in the desert.
God says to the people:
Asu li Mikdash v’Shachanti b’Tocham.
Build me a sanctuary and I will dwell amongst you.
Not in it but amongst the people, God is saying.
Being here and meeting those who are dedicated to building a safe, just and fair society, I am so struck by these words. It is not always easy for them but I am overwhelmed by the endeavours of those here working for this. In that way a ’sanctuary’ is built.
At home, services are being led by able and gifted FPS folk building our sanctuary of community (even as our building progresses) and I am so grateful for that.
Refugee Shabbat is being marked by many synagogues in the UK and there will be a special service this Saturday with B’Yachad and guests. See below.
Shabbat Shalom and looking forward to seeing you next week and sharing more.
Hannah
| When I spoke to one of the mourners at a Shiva this week, we talked about people who resist ’smart phones’ and choose to communicate more carefully.
In January, I noted with interest, as maybe many of you did too, that Facebook, indeed all of Meta , announced they were stopping ‘fact checking’ before allowing things to be posted. They explained that they now saw this as a form of censoring. The ability just to ‘be’ is not so easy anymore. The frantic and intense nature of online information is something that must concern all of is at various moments. I think about it a great deal, as I know many people, especially our children, glean much information in this way. It is often hard trying to escape from the ensuing chaos. Buffeted as we are by information, entertainment and general distraction, it is harder than it used to be to think and reflect and commit and even to just rest. So imagine this week’s portion Mishpatim, following the intensity of the gathering at Sinai in last Shabbat Yitro, containing this extraordinarily calm moment as God calls Moses and Joshua , to come up to God at the summit of the mountain again and just be there. וַיֹּ֨אמֶר יְהֹוָ֜ה אֶל־משֶׁ֗ה עֲלֵ֥ה אֵלַ֛י הָהָ֖רָה וֶֽהְיֵה־שָׁ֑ם And God spoke to Moses and said Come up to me on the mountain and just be there. How rare it is ‘to just be’. And how noticeable this invitation is. The anagram of וֶֽהְיֵה ‘be there’ is of course יְהֹוָ֜ה ‘divine’. Whatever that means to you, it is an invitation to go deep and quiet to find the holy. Moses was there for 40 days and 40 nights with God as he wrote all the details on the Tablets. Sometimes we have to shut off the cacophony of voices, of information, of facts (not checked) and just be quiet with ourselves and just be present. I welcome this reminder. I hope you might too. Shabbat Shalom and see some of you for just such a moment over Shabbat. |
This week’s portion, even before we get to the 10 commandments, offers a pretty compelling message.
Indeed, it is widely understood to be the first Management Consultancy advice when Yitro, Moses’ (non-Israelite) father-in-law, offers his observations on the way that Moses is running his community. He sits alone in judgement for hours each day, forcing long, snake-like queues of people desperate for his attention (think 1980s Harrods’ Sale).
“The thing you are doing is not right; you will surely wear yourself out, and these people as well. For the task is too heavy for you; you cannot do it alone” (Exodus 18:17-18).
It’s not insignificant that the most important portion of Torah that contains the revelation at Sinai is given the name of a Midianite priest.
I take two vital ‘learnings’ from this and they really inform my life and my Jewishness.
The decision to merge, or better co-create, a larger Progressive Judaism out of Liberal and Reform Jewish movements is responding to just this. As Dr. Ed Kessler, committed Liberal Jew and Chair of the Advisory Board, describes, we have been ‘punching below our weight for a long time’ and this coming together allows us to be a greater force to be reckoned with, transforming the contours and landscape of British Jewry in ‘the most exciting Jewish initiative since the war.’
Change always brings uncertainty but in terms of our synagogue experience, things will remain the same. Our movement’s contributions may be even more cost effective. We also stand to benefit from being better seen on the wider stage, so that our young people see their Judaism represented more publicly.
I am truly optimistic for this ‘better together’ move forward and I take Yitro’s advice seriously.
It is not just that each of us was present at Sinai, but that revelation is ongoing; we continue to receive Torah throughout our lives. These words are from the Hasidic leader known as the Kotzker Rebbe (1787-1859, from Martin Buber, Tales of the Hasidim). And they feel pretty compelling right now.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca
“If a tree falls in the forest there are other trees listening”
The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben.”
I don’t usually begin a weekly message by quoting from last week’s parasha (Torah portion) but there is a good reason for this. We are marking Mental Health Awareness Shabbat this week – in alliance with JAMI we are highlighting and amplifying the responsibility of each of us and the Jewish community to be mindful, sensitive to and connected with each other. Everyone is, we now know, on a spectrum of psychic health and capacity to manage our emotions and anxiety. Some of us more fragile than others but all of us have an understanding now, thanks to organisations like JAMI, that we all have the capacity to fragment and unravel. Some have lost beloved family to this the most pernicious of illnesses because it is so much harder to identify and treat. And sometimes the worst of the symptoms is not being able to share them.
Last week’s portion describes the plague of darkness, the penultimate plague in its profundity. And this darkness was more than a night’s sky.
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וַיֹּ֨אמֶר יְהוָ֜ה אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֗ה נְטֵ֤ה יָֽדְךָ֙ עַל־הַשָּׁמַ֔יִם וִ֥יהִי חֹ֖שֶׁךְ עַל־אֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרָ֑יִם וְיָמֵ֖שׁ חֹֽשֶׁךְ׃ |
| 21: The Eternal said to Moses, “Hold out your arm toward the sky that there may be darkness upon the land of Egypt, a darkness that can be touched.” |
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לֹֽא־רָא֞וּ אִ֣ישׁ אֶת־אָחִ֗יו וְלֹא־קָ֛מוּ אִ֥ישׁ מִתַּחְתָּ֖יו שְׁלֹ֣שֶׁת יָמִ֑ים וּֽלְכָל־בְּנֵ֧י יִשְׂרָאֵ֛ל הָ֥יָה א֖וֹר בְּמוֹשְׁבֹתָֽם׃ 23: People could not see one another, and for three days no one could get up from where he was; but all the Israelites enjoyed light in their dwellings. This was an extra special kind of darkness – so thick that it was palpable. It kept you from seeing or reaching out to your neighbour, even when they were standing right next to you. It was a darkness that held you paralysed in your place, enveloping and incapacitating. Rabbi Harold Kushner said this darkness meant people couldn’t see or “feel the pain of their afflicted neighbours.” This is the darkness of isolation. This week’s portion echoes this with now the Hebrew, the Israelites paralysed with fear and the lack of trust or vision that things could be better. ‘Did we not say to you in Egypt, “Leave us alone and let us serve the Egyptians? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”’ Sometimes Torah’s prescience dazzles. We will let its words speak to us now. So this Shabbat morning, we will have a Service for the Soul culminating with a Tu B’Shevat Seder that connects trees and mental health. We will speak to and about this plague of isolation and darkness – metaphorical and literal. What prevents connection and what creates paralysis for us and those we may love? What tools does our Jewish community offer? What ritual, what awareness, what relationships strengthen us? I am so pleased we will be supporting JAMI (Mental Health for our Community) and hearing from members who work with them. Shabbat Shalom Rebecca |
| Message from our Ivriah teachers:
Last weekend, the FPS community joined Southgate Progressive Synagogue for a Holocaust Memorial Day service led by our Kabbalat Torah students. The students led the service entirely on their own, incorporating reinterpreted blessings, original poetry, and writings inspired by their experience with the Harry Jacobi memorial syllabus that we used to study the Holocaust. We were also honoured to have Jacqueline Luck give an incredible presentation on her Grandmother Lela’s story. This Saturday the 1st of February, we will celebrate the Bar Mitzvah of Henry. His family are new to FPS, having approached us at the beginning of the academic year looking for a community who would enthusiastically support a Bar Mitzvah student with learning differences. Natasha and I have been working with Henry for the past several months, and the big day is fast approaching! He will be reading Parshat Bo – the story of the ten plagues. We are delighted that this family feel at home here at FPS. Ensuring that every child has access to an open and welcoming Jewish education is central to our vision at Ivriah, and Natasha and I feel strongly that a B’nei Mitzvah should be possible for any child who wants one. We encourage you all to come welcome this family into the community with us by attending Henry’s Bar Mitzvah this weekend. Mazal tov, Henry! |
I have heard my people’s suffering.
I have also heard the Israelites’ groaning…
Hearing, listening and responding to anguish is the theme of this week’s portion, Va’era – and right now in Israel and Gaza. If this is the beginning of the end of suffering, then these are auspicious days, full of fragile hope. But we know too well that hope alone will not suffice. This week’s inauguration of the 47th President may strengthen or diminish the chances of a true cessation of fighting, safe return of the hostages, aid being allowed into Gaza and establishing security. We watch with bated breath to see whether he will grow into and live out his word.
In a direct echo of this week’s portion, Moses, who finds his words hard, delivers a clear message:
וַֽאֲנִ֖י עֲרַ֥ל שְׂפָתָֽי
I am a man of blocked lips
I find his description of himself so intriguing.
The specifics of his difficulty are much discussed. Rashi uses the noun balbus, stuttering or stammering (from which comes the modern French verb balbutier, to stutter), to describe this ‘blockedness’ of lips.
More interesting is the idea of communication. Moses recognises swiftly what is important to say, to articulate and to pass on.
His message through the next four books of Torah will be consistent. We have heard and watched your pain and want to ensure safety and contentment for you in the future. The people know they can rely on Moses’ words.
Words matter.
Our breakfast shiur this Shabbat will be with Paul Harris (bio below). He has harnessed the words of his late wife, Rina Wolfson, on parenting, Jewish life, synagogues and what matters in life. He has published them for their young daughters and also for posterity. This is what she left, what she stood for.
In this moment when we think with great anticipation of the power and integrity of words, do come and be with us on Shabbat. It feels just what we need.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca
10am Breakfast Shiur
With Paul Harris. Sharing the life and work of Rina Wolfson. ‘Being Rina: The Collected Writings of Rina Wolfson’
Senior Partner at a leading London law firm, Paul Harris is a highly renowned criminal defence solicitor, and has worked on cases connected to the Hillsborough disaster, Extinction Rebellion protests, and the Post Office sub-postmasters. Serving as a Masorti Judaism Trustee and deputy on the Board of Deputies, Paul is an NNLS member, and most importantly, father to Ava and Grace and stepfather to Bz.
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