I look forward to these weeks (as we steadily approach the Yomtovim) with a mixture of dread and enormous loving gratitude. Yes, I am all too aware of what an odd combination these emotions reveal.
Right on cue, a rabbi I correspond with, spoke about meeting other Rabbonim at a conference recently, and the conversation amongst them – as it is every year – was what will be the theme(s) of your drashot this year. A wryly noted obsession for us all at this time of year.
Meanwhile we have the enormous privilege of being embedded in the Book of Devarim, or Deuteronomy. This week we read Parashah Eikev, and this week we will be very blessed to have Lis Louwrier chant from the Haftarah, words from the Prophet Isaiah. The inter-textual voices between that of Isaiah and our Torah is important. The seven weeks between Tisha B’Av and Rosh Hashanah are punctuated with Isaiah’s words – every week.
His is known as a voice of comfort, of encouragement, but also of challenge as Jews are forced to contend with enemies from the North (Assyria), and the East (Babylon). Destructions have and will come. His voice sadly feels very contemporary. And very important. We must not lose faith in who we are. This week we read, and will hear Lis chant, the words of this poet, this philosopher, this prophet:
“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the Lord:
Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn;
2 Look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth.
When he was yet alone, he was only one man, and I blessed him and made him many.
3 The Lord will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; He will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing.”
Come and join us in comfort and in song,
Much love,
Rabbi Lynn
Eikev
August 11, 2025 by Rabbi Lynn Greenhough • From the Rabbi's Desk
I look forward to these weeks (as we steadily approach the Yomtovim) with a mixture of dread and enormous loving gratitude. Yes, I am all too aware of what an odd combination these emotions reveal.
Right on cue, a rabbi I correspond with, spoke about meeting other Rabbonim at a conference recently, and the conversation amongst them – as it is every year – was what will be the theme(s) of your drashot this year. A wryly noted obsession for us all at this time of year.
Meanwhile we have the enormous privilege of being embedded in the Book of Devarim, or Deuteronomy. This week we read Parashah Eikev, and this week we will be very blessed to have Lis Louwrier chant from the Haftarah, words from the Prophet Isaiah. The inter-textual voices between that of Isaiah and our Torah is important. The seven weeks between Tisha B’Av and Rosh Hashanah are punctuated with Isaiah’s words – every week.
His is known as a voice of comfort, of encouragement, but also of challenge as Jews are forced to contend with enemies from the North (Assyria), and the East (Babylon). Destructions have and will come. His voice sadly feels very contemporary. And very important. We must not lose faith in who we are. This week we read, and will hear Lis chant, the words of this poet, this philosopher, this prophet:
“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness and who seek the Lord:
Look to the rock from which you were cut and to the quarry from which you were hewn;
2 Look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who gave you birth.
When he was yet alone, he was only one man, and I blessed him and made him many.
3 The Lord will surely comfort Zion and will look with compassion on all her ruins; He will make her deserts like Eden, her wastelands like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing.”
Come and join us in comfort and in song,
Much love,
Rabbi Lynn