Rabbi Lynn Greenhough

This week in our Torah portion we read of a very critical conversation that takes place between Avraham and Ephraim regarding the purchase of Sarah’s burial plot in the Cave of Machpelah.

We read of the negotiation and intuit the rationale behind the spoken words that Avraham utilizes; he wants to ensure there will no question regarding ownership of this land – for all time.

The question of land ownership – who actually holds title to land – is of course very much in the news today. Is land ownership associated with past usage – from time immemorial, as is stated in the news? Or does title transfer to the mortgage payer? What role does the Crown play here in Canada? Ownership, we are discovering, is far more complicated than we thought when we took out a mortgage on our home.

Avraham was securing this land as a burial site for his future generations – to the degree he imagined possible. Yet. We read in Psalm 24:1 that, “the Earth is the Lords.” Indigeneity, land ownership/title, and religious belief all become complicated in these dialogues. We can certainly look at 87 years of war in Israel to know that religious decree/ownership from millennia is not universally recognized. What are some of the conversations we can have about how we can be stewards and not owners of our lands? Does Ephraim own the Cave? Does Avraham? Do we? Torah faces us with many hard questions and certainly does so this week.

With love,
Rabbi Lynn

Lech Lecha, go forth, go inwards, but go: Lech Lecha is a call for each of us to take steps forward to the plan God has with us – our purpose for our lives. We listen deeply for that call from deep within our souls. We listen, and then we need to make a plan to put that purpose into action.

Every day within our community at Kolot Mayim I am in conversation with people doing exactly this. I am humbled by the commitment of your souls stepping into your dreams, your promise to your deepest soul.

Just as we learned this past Friday night, God’s covenant with us is renewed when we see that promise writ in a colour hued arc across our skies. That blessing for a rainbow is God’s renewal of covenant with us: “Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who remembers the covenant, and is faithful to His covenant, and keeps His promise. Not just a reminder, but a follow through – an action.

So too do our mitzvot enable us to bring our dreams, our promises, our purpose into action.

May these coming days be filled with joy, with work, with prayer and with song.

Much love,
Rabbi Lynn

As I write these words, I know my heart and all of our hearts are full of anticipation, hope and profound relief that the hostages will be returning home in hours. These last two years have brought unimaginable grief to their families, an entire nation, and Jews around the world.More

Sukkot approaches, the joy increases, as we celebrate not only the harvest of our fields, but the harvest of our hearts. Celebrating Rosh Hashanah, Kol Nidre, Yom Kippur together was beautiful, moving, and musically exquisite.

Special thanks to Pamela Highbaugh Aloni, Bruce Vogt, Anabel Wind, Annika Gelman, and of course Tsofit Dori and Jenny Pakman, who led us through much of these services with such joy and tenderness.

Sukkot is on the horizon. And with the end of Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret. We pray that with this new peace deal, that every hostage will be home before Shemini Atzeret. We pray that they will be restored in life, watered in the tears of relief and of joy at their return, just as we have been praying for these past two years.

Much love,
Rabbi Lynn

Very briefly, as the gates are opening with each moment approaching Rosh Hashanah.

May 5786 be a year of new beginnings, deep connection, and joyful moments. May we see peace in our Land and a return home for all the hostages.

Shanah Tovah Umetukah: Wishing you a good and sweet year, and Ketivah Vachatimah Tovah: May you be written and sealed in the Book of Life.

Much love,
Rabbi Lynn

I can almost imagine the anticipation of Jews of millennia ago, walking towards the Temple for the Yomtovim, looking forward to seeing friends and family, bringing precious fruits and gifts with them. The days are hot and dusty, the roadways filled with people all heading uphill to Jerusalem. Anticipation tempered with tiredness. Children run like little goats, and parents trust each other to keep an eye out.More

This past Shabbat three people new to Kolot Mayim walked through our doors. Others returned after an absence. Old friends met new people – it was a lovely and special morning. What a blessing it is to have a place and time where chance can intermingle with scheduled.

Ki Tavo, our Torah reading this week, starts with he phrase, “It will be when you enter…(the Land)”. Every entry moment throughout our lives matters. How we wake up in the morning and enter our day matters.

As we are preparing for Rosh Hashanah, perhaps thinking about what fruits of this New Year might be, what our goals are for the coming year, let’s remember that Kolot Mayim is a place of becoming as well. Learning, engaging, taking on tasks to ensure the work gets done, and sometimes just stepping across a threshold, not knowing yet how you might fit in, all is  important.

I want to thank Lorne Mitchell who put so much time and enthusiastic effort into upgrading our audio and visual systems, with new equipment.

Much love,
Rabbi Lynn

We picked the last fig this week, even as we are able to see many more small figs that could ripen in a second season in a different climate. We hold their promise to next years fig-season.  Such is life, anticipation, full taste, move on.

Ki Tetze provides us with many mitzvot in a manner similar to our figs, and similar to an earlier parashah, Mishpatim. There is a sense of future and present in these commands. What will be, is what is; what is, is what was. The fig theory of life.More

As I write this on Sunday afternoon, I am imagining hearing the shofar blown across the world. Today is Rosh Chodesh Elul, the first day of Elul, a new moon, and very special as it is also Rosh Hashanah L’Ma’sar Behemah (Hebrew: ראש השנה למעשר בהמה‎ “New Year for Tithing Animals”) or Rosh Hashanah LaBehemot (Hebrew: ראש השנה לבהמות‎ “New Year for (Domesticated) Animals”.

Rosh Chodesh Elul is one of the four New Year’s day festivals and while the Beit Ha Mikdash, the Temple stood, it was the day when shepherds would figure out which of their animals had reached maturity and could then be tithed.

Today, we begin to blow a shofar in the morning (except for Shabbat). We are calling in our awareness of this special preparation before we celebrate the New Year of Years – Rosh HaShanah. What to do if we don’t have a shofar?

There are a number of videos available that you could listen to. Here is one option:

https://www.google.com/search?q=shofar+blowing+elul&rlz=1C1RXQR_enCA1078CA1078&oq=shofar+blowing+elul&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCDQxNTRqMGo3qAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:306227fb,vid:C4P5GqzK5zA,st:0

We had a truly joyful Kabbalat Shabbat this past Friday evening, with ruach extraordinaire as new members Jenny Pakman and Tsofit Dori played music and led the service. We are looking forward to their participation during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services, along with Rabbi Lynn.

Much love,
Rabbi Lynn

This week is a week where we are commanded to Re’eh, רְאֵה‎, to See. See can mean a visual command, it can also indicate a question; do you understand? But which ‘you’ is the question.

Let’s look at the first verse: “See, I present before you today, a blessing and a curse.” This is such a thought-provoking verse, but its implications are perhaps not as clear in English as they are in Hebrew.More