Tonight brings in Rosh Hashanah. It is not the New Year we might have wanted or expected. Nonetheless, it’s ours. The fear and trembling that Iran’s attack on Israel has unleashed will be around our tables tonight. Yet we still believe that Rosh Hashanah has huge promise for us. HaYom HArat Olam is another name, this day is the birthday of the world but actually the Hebrew really suggests pregnancy and possibility – of the world and what it can be.
Yom HaZikaron
Rosh Hashanah is also known as the Day of Remembering – R. Eliyahu Ki Tov, in his Book of Jewish Awareness, calls on God who remembers all that is forgotten. May we take seriously our task to remember. May the hostages be freed and fighting end. May safety and security be assured for all and a dignified life be restored in Gaza.
Yom HaDin
The Day of judgement – may we bring our reflective observations with us as we look closely at our own hearts and souls in these first ten days of the year.
Yom T’ruah
May the shofar, sounded this year by both David Hoffman and Ian Kafka, wake us and pull us into a New Year of hope and justice.
May we make this year a good year, filled with sweetness and goodness here in our own homes and community. May our adventure out of the building be easy and interesting. May we be healthy and able to access gratitude in this New Year of 5784.
Shanah Tovah – wishing you a sweet healthy and strong new year.
Rebecca
There is so much ’newness’ to navigate right now, not least negotiating our temporary homes for Shabbat and of course, next week at Shaarei Tzedek Synagogue (see directions and access to them below). Some things stay constant: us, the community, me, our melodies and ways we do things. Managing the balance between New and Unfamiliar is one of life’s best challenges.
The Torah cycle continues and to mark our beautiful weekly Sefer Torah going with us, we will be consecrating its brand-new mantle this Shabbat. This embroidered silk mantle has been a labour of love by FPS-niks throughout the 70th year and into this Autumn, where we might benefit from a dedication especially right now. Designed by Naomi Gould and embroidered and put together by Valerie Joseph, Valerie Boyd-Hellner, Dalia Lyons, Wika Dorosz, Ruth Logue and Bobbie Hood under the supportive tutelage of Kathy Sylvester of Nottingham Liberal Synagogue, this image of the Tree of Life captures the seasons and the promise of peace and all things humane by the Dove and her olive stem, as she rest on the branch of the tree.
On this Shabbat Netzavim, this dedication for the Torah that accompanies us week in and week out feels incredibly symbolic to me. Netzavim is the magnificent telling of the Covenant moment, emphasising the whole community being present, even those who were yet to come for Deuteronomy’s re-telling, Kulchem – all of you -every part of the community, from those at the centre to the visitors at the fringes. This is for all of us and consequently feels extremely important. We talked of the gifts made of scarlet, blue and purple threads with gold and silver that make up the sanctuary. From all ‘whose hearts are willing’ and ‘who are skilled,’ so our temporary sanctuary is nourished and we bring beauty in our portable ark. I am so grateful to this group and the gift they are bringing to our Shabbat community.
See you this Shabbat – and a reminder of our shared Selichot service Saturday evening 9pm at Southgate Progressive Synagogue.
Shabbat Shalom
Rebecca
I found myself at Windsor Castle on Monday – teaching on the same leadership course I attended in 2018. The remit was ‘be brutally honest’ as I shared my good and bad experiences. I might have enjoyed that invitation to truth-telling anyway but I particularly enjoyed it during the month of Elul, when I am particularly focused on self-reflection. I also explained the Jewish impulse to renewal and transformation, especially now, sitting as I was beneath portraits of the late Queen and her mother. Strange juxtapositions, that have a way of sharpening the mind and being truthful about our weaknesses, is just one benefit of these reflective days. We talked a great deal about the balance of one’s own personal integrity and consideration of others.
How does one pay equal attention to both?
Yesterday’s words by Marge Piercy have remained with me:
“Attention is love, what we must give
children, mothers, fathers, pets,
our friends, the news, the woes of others.What we want to change we curse and then
pick up a tool. Bless whatever you can
with eyes and hands and tongue. If you
can’t bless it, get ready to make it new.”The Art of Blessing the Day: Poems with a Jewish Theme
– Marge Piercy
As you pay attention to yourself, do consider joining us for our second Shabbat away from home – it was good last weekend and did not feel at all ‘wilderness’ like.
See the guidance for access to, parking and finding us at QMH and TCC.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca
Lo tuchal l’hitalem. You are not allowed to ignore. This verse in the heart of Ki Teitzei You are not allowed to ignore; you are not allowed to be indifferent. Deuteronomy has this in the context of civic responsibility, literally returning lost animals. But commentators have over the generations understood this to mean cutting yourself off from others. This can mean witnessing injustice or distancing yourself from what is happening.
This past week I can honestly say that our Council and many, many members of FPS have fulfilled this obligation by showing up to help us pack up and organise our moving out of the building temporarily. It has been more than impressive, it’s been extraordinary. We have barely had to pay for our move -members have offered storage spaces, have driven and schlepped and organised, sorted and culled what we own and packed it all ready for the charming removal folk to pick everything up on Monday and Tuesday. We talk of minyan being ten adults at prayer. But it is also ‘showing up’ for each other and goodness that has happened this week. Join us for our first Shabbat in our temporary sanctuaries. It should be special. The caretakers there are working hard to welcome us and make our experience be as sensitive and helpful as possible. I am tired but supremely grateful and looking forward to this adventure. Please remember my new office is in my house and on Wednesdays at the Quaker Meeting House. Call on me as usual I am very much here.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca
We embark today on 29 days of the month of Elul.
Elul’s acronym is I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine (dodi li v’ani lo). Tradition has understood it to be speaking about the individual and God, rather than just romantic love. For us now, it can be how we intuit the sacred and our relationship to it. And so, we are encouraged to undergo a 29-day reflection as we approach Rosh Hashanah.
We do this year in and year out, trying to concentrate our intentions, our self-knowledge, our potential. In the book of Kohelet we read, ‘there is nothing new under the sun’ (1:9). We know these cycles; this is what we do. Yet this year’s High Holy Days will feel different for all of us. The horror of October 7th, as we were winding down to end the of the Tishri season last year, continues to traumatise in so many ways, from so many perspectives. How might we approach this season with this terrible backdrop behind and seemingly in front of us? How will it be when we gather together with all our different responses?
Colleague Rabbi Kath Vardi, on behalf of Reform and Liberal Rabbis and Cantors, suggests, In such circumstances it can be tempting to allow hope to give way to cynicism, to protect ourselves from bitter disappointment and hurt by pre-deciding that there is little point in working towards anything different.
Yet surely that is exactly what we should be doing, so that once again we embark on that internal work that allows these days to carry the grandeur, the possibility and the hope they promise.
So, with a great appreciation for repetition, I share some fragments again for each day of Elul. You’ve seen some of them before but like our prayers, they speak afresh to the person we are this year. We are different – and perhaps they may help us to find the future and hope we look towards.
This exercise is to enable us to arrive readier and more open to the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur journey. Take what you find helpful and leave what you don’t.
It will also be different because we will be out of our beloved building as work begins on our roof. It is a challenge to not be in our home – but what an act of love for our synagogue community this work is.
We are encouraged to read Psalm 27 daily throughout Elul. I’ve found that different stanzas and phrases call out at different times of the month. Print it out for your fridge? I’m sharing a particularly beautiful translation by Rabbi Richard Levy z’l. And here is it set to music by Aly Halpert and Joey Weisenberg.
1 Of David.
Adonai is my light and my victory—
From whom should I feel fright?
Adonai is the stronghold of my life—
From whom should I feel terror?
2 When evildoers approach me in battle to feed on my flesh—
My pursuers, my adversaries—
They have stumbled, they have fallen down.
3 If a camp encamps against me, my heart will not fear;
If a war arises against me,
In this I would trust:
4 One thing have I sought from Adonai—how I long for it:
That I may live in the House of Adonai all the days of my life;
That I may look upon the sweetness of Adonai,
And spend time in the Palace;
5 That You might hide me in Your sukkah on a chaotic day,
Hide me in the hiding places of Your tent,
Raise me high upon a rock.
6 Now my head rises high above my enemies roundabout,
And in Your tent I’ll offer offerings to the sound of t’ruah.
I shall sing and chant praises to Adonai!
7 Hear, Adonai, my voice—
I am crying out!
Be gracious to me, answer me!
8 My heart has said to You: “Seek my face.”
I am seeking Your face, Adonai—
9 Do not hide Your face from me.
Do not turn Your servant away in anger,
You have been my help—
Do not forsake me, do not abandon me, God of my deliverance!
10 For my father and my mother have abandoned me,
Yet Adonai gathers me up.
11 Make Your path apparent to me,
Guide me in the upright road
Because of those up ahead who lie in wait for me.
12 Do not hand me over to the lust of my adversaries—
For false witnesses have risen against me, puffing violently!
13 Had I not the faith
That I would see the goodness of God in the land of life . . .
14 Wait for Adonai—
Fill your waiting with hope in Adonai;
Let your heart be strong and of good courage,
And wait hopefully for Adonai.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca
These quiet weeks of August have been anything but here in our synagogue as we pack, plan and proceed. However, as a few vital folk take holiday these next few days, we will be offering this week’s as a double email. Your next email will arrive on 1st Elul which is Wednesday 4th September and we will begin the Elul entry into the High Holidays together.
If not now when…. begins the famous learning from Pirkei Avot. This considering and reflecting on our past year and its enormity on the world stage will certainly take some thought. But so do our own smaller lives – and as always, it starts with where we are now.
So in these remaining days of summer, wherever you are, whatever you are remembering, recalling or looking at right now right here, I wish you time and meaning as you do so. I share a blessing based on tradition and inspired by our good friend Rabbi Professor Larry Hoffman:
Baruch Ata Adonai Melech HaOlam, she’kacha lo b’olamo
Blessed are You…whose world is filled with beauty.
Wishing you Shabbat Shalom and if you need anything during these days while Caroline is away, do be in touch with me or Beverley.
Rebecca
This week, we will celebrate our Resouled Band with a special kiddush to show our gratitude for all the music they have created for us. Resouled will be a little smaller and more modest in the coming months but the tunes and the music will remain with us. Please join us this Friday to celebrate with them. Shiru L’Adonai Shir Chadash, Sing to God a New Song, said the Psalmist and so said Dean Staker and Rabbi Neil Janes over 16 years ago. The power of song and prayer are central to the spirit of FPS and Resouled is critical to that.
This week’s portion, V’Etchanan, contains the second version of the Ten Commandments. It is different particularly in the reason for keeping Shabbat. This one suggests gratitude for the Exodus from Egypt rather than the work of creation that God made.
For me this week, it speaks of repetition: the opportunity of iterations and the chances to try things again and differently. FPS has been known for its creative music and famously for Resouled which was exactly that: Shir Chadash – a new song.
Change can be daunting, sometimes even paralysing, but we must remember that newness springs from it.
Shiru L’Adonai Shir Chadash
Shabbat Shalom and see you on Friday night.
Rebecca
Helen Keller said; “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.”
We know the difference between sight and the capacity to see and have vision. These past ten months, the need to see, watch and bear witness has been huge since the horrific events of October 7th and events in Israel, Gaza and the Occupied Territories have unfolded through the following months. It has felt a Jewish obligation to pay attention carefully and watch responsibly. This has extended to life here. I haven’t taken this responsibility to keep eyes open lightly.
When we’ve offered the Morning Blessings, pokeach ivrim, the one who opens the eyes, feels very live and very real.
This week’s Parashat BALAK has Balaam the sorcerer failing to the see the obstruction in his path and it takes his donkey, after he has whipped it three times, to help open his eyes so he can see the Angel of God. B’nei Mitzvah students love this portion with the talking donkey, but there is something very adult as well about the opening of his eyes to the reality. It’s compelling in this story and it has been extraordinarily compelling these past ten months.
But so is the need to look and gaze elsewhere at times. So is the need to take rest and look at the stars, greenery, the sea and your beloveds.
Mary Oliver wrote in The Song of the Builders:
On a summer morning
I sat down
on a hillside
to think about God –
a worthy pastime.
I hope to manage this during my break from work and although watching the tragedies that surround us, I will be focusing my attention elsewhere briefly. As the poet Amanda Gorman explains;
For there is always light,
if only we’re brave enough to see it
if only we’re brave enough to be it.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca
I was very moved on Sunday to witness the ordination of 5 new rabbis; joining the progressive rabbinate and ready to take on communities.
Rabbis Daisy, Eleanor, Nicola, Martina and Matt who studied through the Pandemic and the closures all spoke of their trepidation of what it might mean to lead, to give direction, to know where to go – one even asked us the congregation exactly what to do; he felt so uncertain. They spoke of hoping for encounters with congregants and the opportunities to grow relationships. The senior librarian at Leo Baeck College gave a brilliant address, during which she reminded the congregation that becoming an accountant is very not like becoming a rabbi.
Because, she said, it is far more intimate, you are bound up with people constantly. The prospect of all those waiting relationships was daunting for each one of the ordinands. 23 years since my ordination I can say that it has been the best part of my role.
The great Civil Rights rabbi German/American Joachim Prinz reflected this understanding when he said, “You cannot be a rabbi unless you love people. You don’t have to like them, but you have to love all of them. [God] says, ‘Thou shalt love the neighbor as thyself.’ [God] doesn’t say, ‘Thou shalt like them.’ I have loved all the people with whom I’ve come into contact. Even those with whom I have disagreed and whom I have disliked because I think God wants us to love people.”
This week we read about the waters of Meribah where the children of Israel argued. They argued so badly that they ignored Moses grief for his sister’s death, they caused Moses and Aaron to lose their right to finish the task.
הֵ֚מָּה מֵ֣י מְרִיבָ֔ה אֲשֶׁר־רָב֥וּ בְנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֖ל
And we know as we read that disagreement is not the sign of indifference, as Prinz identified there can still be love there. And at the end of this story it strangely says as interpreted by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz with these Hebrew words et vahev b’sufa” (Numbers 21:14) “In the end, there was love.”
That is at the heart of these stories and the ones in our own lives and communities.
Why vote?
I have studied attitudes to civic engagement with our teenagers this past month. Jewish tradition has a great deal to say on involving ourselves with the welfare of our cities and the wider community in which we live. As Jeremiah wrote in the 8th century BCE to his anxious and exiled people: But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you [into exile,] and pray to the Eternal on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find your welfare. [Jeremiah: 29:7]
This feels particularly apposite this week.
In a delightful twist of fate and time, our synagogue Annual General Meeting was booked for the day we will turn out to vote in our General Election. And the effects of living in a democratic society benefits us all.
Our community is a microcosm of our wider society. No organisation is sustained healthily without its members caring for it. In all the 12 years of my serving FPS, I have seen that demonstrated every day – a full, if miniature, democracy. On Thursday, I imagine we will feel similarly about the leadership of our local areas and the country at large.
In Mishnah Avot, we learn that Rabbi Hanina, the vice-high priest insisted: Pray for the welfare of the government, for were it not for the fear it inspires, every person would swallow their neighbour alive. We need good governance – we know what the alternative is – and we do more than pray for it. Thanks to our new BoD representative Tim Seyner-Harness, our community had access to a local hustings for the candidates for Finchley and Golders Green and those in neighbouring constituencies have had access too. It is deeply Jewish to care what happens around us – Lo Tuchal L’hitalem – Do not become indifferent, says the Book of Deuteronomy in Ki Teitzei.
I welcome this opportunity as you may also do. Do join us on Thursday evening – in between your voting and watching results for the General Election – by expressing your views on our synagogue, its plans and its governance. You are critical to that process too.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca
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