Vayera
Hello everyone, long-standing members, new members, those considering joining us – we are always glad to have you stand with us and join us. Last Shabbat service was a packed house; one little girl made our morning when she called out a “Thank you” to us all, as she waved her flag of Israel.
Imagine back to those early days of Avraham and Sarah as they settled down in the land of Israel, trying to see into their future, and make very hard decisions about their family.
They had no crystal balls, just a promise from God, a promise that was and is eternal. On Shabbat, I spoke about how my father taught me a very important lesson when I was 12, even as it was excruciatingly mortifying at the time. I could not see then what I know today.
My father would not let me enter the Miss Luxton Fair contest. He said entering was based on girls popularity and looks, not on their academic merit or service to community. So he refused to let my name stand. He said to me, “You must stand up for your beliefs, even if it means you stand alone.” His words sounded harsh at the time, but there have been many times over the years I have been grateful to my beloved father for teaching me this principle. It is one I hold with today. On Shabbat 40+ people came to services. I was not alone. We are not alone.
With love,
Rabbi Lynn Greenhough
Chaye Sarah
November 7, 2023 by Rabbi Lynn Greenhough • From the Rabbi's Desk
Good morning, afternoon, evening, everyone. This is a week of remembrance, with Kristallnacht on Thursday evening, and Remembrance Day on Saturday morning. I know many of us will be at both services, holding in our hearts the tragedies of too many lives ended.
This week, as we read the opening line of our parashah, we read of the death of Sarah, at 127 years. The reading of her years of life is given in a strange sequence: one hundred years, twenty years, and seven years. Each unit of years – hundreds, tens, and units, each of which held its own particular teaching. We think of what someone has seen in their lifetime, what were the momentous historic occasions that they may have witnessed, who were the family members that were in those countings of years. It is in this parashah that we learn many of the customs of burial and mourning that we hold to this day – a span of thousands of years, still providing the foundational teachings for us.More