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.
וְעַתָּ֕ה הִנֵּ֛ה צַעֲקַ֥ת בְּנֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל בָּ֣אָה אֵלָ֑י וְגַם־רָאִ֙יתִי֙ אֶת־הַלַּ֔חַץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר מִצְרַ֖יִם לֹחֲצִ֥ים אֹתָֽם׃
Now the cry of the Israelites has reached Me; moreover, I have seen how the Egyptians oppress them. (Ex 3:9)
This week we begin the book of Shemot, Exodus. The story of liberation and the empathy that comes from it is our Jewish story – our leitmotif, if you like, that characterises us and our footprint in this world.
We come back to it again and again, we have known suffering and liberation. And I find myself thinking of our place here, in Britain as Jews, as we begin 2025.
Someone who works in government for an MP reflected, as he was talking to me, about the fact that so many of the British Jewish events over Chanukah had speakers from the Israel Embassy. This created some confusion.
It’s a conundrum that I discussed with our BoD Representatives. The Jewish community goes to great lengths to teach and explain that no Jew should be equated with, or have to explain or justify, Israel policy or governmental decisions.
Jews of Britain in the Diaspora have their own, separate, identity. It’s that which I am concerned with right now – and ensuring that exists for us all. Of course, every Jew has their own personal relationship with Israel, perhaps with family there, as well having perspectives on what is happening.
This seems relevant for this Shabbat when we first encounter the Exodus story that has marked us as Jews. On Shabbat afternoon, we have another Havdalah event and conversation, as we have been offering for the past year – we will talk about the connections and disconnects around this topic. Where are you? Being a Jew right now – what is required of us and what do we require?
Shabbat Shalom and see you soon,
Rebecca
This Shabbat will be Maurice Needleman’s yahrzeit. Maurice was a long-time member of FPS. He lived with his parents until they died and then, with support, stayed in his own home until the end of his life. Paul Silver Myer remembers him walking hand in hand to synagogue with his father. Peggy Sherwood and Alison Rees told me when they visited FPS and saw how Maurice was loved and cared for here, they knew it was the congregation for them.
It is only us, his congregation, who will recall his yahrzeit and say kaddish in his memory.
He loved the portion Parashat Vayechi because Joseph introduced his sons to Jacob, his father. On a Friday night, all Jewish sons are blessed with the names Menasseh and Ephraim. To boys we say May you be like Ephraim and Menasheh and to girls, May you be like Sarah, Rebekah, Leah and Rachel. Maurice loved the melody Dean wrote for this blessing.
Jewish tradition has always asked why our boys do not get blessed in the names of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, but rather in the names of Jacob’s grandsons. Maurice loved answering this question at kiddush. There is a variety of reasons. It’s fascinating that the children from the mixed family of Joseph and the Egyptian Asenath have become the blueprint for our own boys. I love this inclusiveness. However, the most compelling reason offered is that they were the only brothers in Torah who never fought but accepted the shift of blessing, the younger going before the older.
On that day, he blessed them and said, “With your names will the Israelites invoke God’s blessings on their sons, saying to them, ‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh,’” mentioning Ephraim’s name before that of Manasseh. (48:20)
I think about Maurice this week and how much he loved, and was loved by, FPS. He used to say that his two great loves were FPS and the land of Israel and he split all his inheritance split between us – his was our first major legacy – and Israel. His Israel legacy went to the Leo Baeck Centre in Haifa, the school we have since supported, that cares for those of Jewish Israeli and Ethiopian origin, as well as Palestinian and Druze families.
Maurice’s legacy to us was a seed fund to kick start our building works, to which so many of you have added. Even more than his gift, Maurice left to us the memory that synagogue communities can act like family and ensure that those without their own family can find friendship, care and belonging right inside them.
The book of Genesis finishes this week and Orlanna, our Bat Mitzvah, will lead us in Chazak Chazak, V’NitChazeik, Strength, Strength and Let Us be Strengthened.
I look forward to that spirit of love, concern and community continuing from strength to strength.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca
There is a line in this week’s portion that moves me every time I read Parashat Vayigash, which is usually at this time of year.
וְלֹֽא־יָכֹ֨ל יוֹסֵ֜ף לְהִתְאַפֵּ֗ק לְכֹ֤ל הַנִּצָּבִים֙ עָלָ֔יו
וַיִּתֵּ֥ן אֶת־קֹל֖וֹ בִּבְכִ֑י וַיִּשְׁמְע֣וּ מִצְרַ֔יִם וַיִּשְׁמַ֖ע בֵּ֥ית פַּרְעֹֽה:
Joseph could not restrain himself in the presence of all the people standing around him… He broke out into loud weeping; the Egyptians heard it and all Pharaoh’s household heard it as well.
We see the emotional fragility of Joseph as he encounters his brothers again. The complexity of what he feels for family breaks his heart open and he literally can’t control himself.
I think about this at these moments when families gather. This time of year can be wonderful but also challenging. One is either celebrating the surfeit of family ease and connection, or perhaps grieving its deficit. Sometimes it’s a combination of both, as Joseph seems to be experiencing. You can’t always be at ease with the family you inherit. You can’t always be just angry or just loving.
So many – including those among us – have complicated familial stories that make times of enforced togetherness all the more complicated. Some create new family with friends as well as relatives – that’s what the biblical Joseph did with Asenath in his new home of Egypt, even as he longed for his family of origin.
The writer Armistead Maupin wrote;
Sooner or later, though, no matter where in the world we live, we must join the diaspora, venturing beyond our biological family to find our logical one, the one that actually makes sense for us.
Logical Family: A Memoir, Transworld 2017
I’ve seen our synagogue community offer that logical family to many who walk through our doors.
This Shabbat, we celebrate our Emeritus Rabbi Frank Hellner and Valerie Boyd-Hellner as they mark special birthdays with much family around them – the 6 children they share, who grew up here at FPS, and multiple grandchildren, daughters- and sons-in-law. It will be, I imagine, a precious reunion with only happy tears, unlike Joseph’s.
Frank and Valerie have probably become logical family for many in our congregation over the years, which is of course a deep expression of love.
All are warmly encouraged to join us on Shabbat.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca
As the American poet William Stafford once put it years ago— ‘the darkness around us is deep.’
And it is for us all. We are challenged right now as Jews in many ways with all that is happening both in Israel and beyond and of course here on our doorsteps.
Lighting the Chanukiah; bringing light to a great deal of darkness feels not just advisable but necessary. In a declaration of Jewish identity we are told to light our Chanukah candles in the windows of our homes, the more Chanukiot per household the better. Talking with our B’nei Mitzvah families there is a nervousness of such candid declarations of Jewishness whether in Enfield, Wood Green, Kilburn or even Finchley. Being asked to consider this is the task of December as Chanukah and Christmas coincide so precisely. For our mixed families perhaps it makes the season easier or maybe harder as they make choices. Whichever way the bank holidays and closing down gives a chance to retreat from daily life (and the news) and rededicate to what matters, which is the real meaning of Chanukah.
I am laid up after foot surgery. Indeed I bought our copious (the children expect hundreds) chocolate coins in November! So our Chanukiot and candle lighting will be extra specially welcome for me during this period.
Wishing you much peace and possibility in your lighting this year and hope to see you at our community moments together. (See below)
Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca
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