Rabbi Lynn Greenhough

About Rabbi Lynn Greenhough

Posts by Rabbi Lynn Greenhough:

Acharei-Kedoshim

April 24, 2023 by • Tags: , , •

Spring is truly with us, even as many days feel wetter and greyer than we might like! That said our garden is full of colour – purple magnolia, tulips, daffs, bluebells, clematis – all bursting throughout our yard, each blossom a blessing. Our yard is full of food too – a window box is full of Miner’s lettuce waiting for that first springtime salad – karpas of sorts. As I write this, the world is observing Earth Day, a universal Yom Kippur, both a day of atonement, a day of at–one–ment (thank you, Reb Louis), and a day of renewal and new beginnings.More

Yom HaShoah

April 16, 2023 by • Tags: , •

The last few weeks we have been struggling to have a minyan at our services, Friday night and Saturday morning. We need an in-person minyan to enable certain prayers to be recited, Torah to be read, and very importantly Kaddish to be recited. Please come and join us, as you are able, for our sakes, and hopefully for yours.

Yom HaShoah was observed this past Sunday with a very moving ceremony that also involved our beloved Arlette Baker. Yom HaShoah will also be observed this week at the Legislature. I will be there along with a number of other local Jewish representatives.

Even as Arlette spoke on Sunday, most of the memories we will hear in the future will be from second, third and now even fourth generations removed from survivors. We are, as Arlette put it so movingly, in each other’s DNA; we hold each other’s stories in our own. Even Torah embeds itself in our DNA, whether we come to our Judaism by birth or choice. What we learn becomes us; what we do becomes us. We are one.

Kol tuv,Rabbi Lynn

Shemini

April 9, 2023 by • Tags: , , , , •

We are in a very special season these days between Pesach and Shavuot – and no, not tax season, though taxes do loom!!

We are counting the 7 x 7 days and weeks between these two Festivals, between leaving Egypt and arriving at Sinai, preparing ourselves to receive Torah. Here is a link where you can about this practice and maybe begin to consider some of the more mystical/practical intentions this practice provides:  https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/276672/jewish/Daily-Spiritual-Guide.htm

Shemini, our Torah reading this week, begins with what will happen on the 8th day. We love counting, we love all things numbers, even including counting songs at our Seder. We have a system called gematria which indicates through numerical value associations between words, so for example, aleph = 1, bet = 2, etc.

“Much of gematria focuses on the various names of God and the powers of these names. The name Elohim adds up to the number 86, which equals the value of the word ha’teva (Nature). This equivalence leads to the conclusion that Elohim refers to the divine presence as it manifests in the physical world, as opposed to the name YHVH, which connects to the heavenly universe.” See: https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/gematria/

Numbers, letters, calculations and verses – all lead us to a deeper understanding not only of God, but of ourselves. May be written and counted with many acts of chesed, throughout our lives. And may our tax bills be light.

Kol tuv,

Rabbi Lynn

Pesach

April 2, 2023 by •

Aaron and I are both beyond grateful for the many, many messages of condolence you have sent us, for the visits, for the food with which you have nourished us.

In the middle of unbearable loss, we have felt the love of home and the sweetness of your kindnesses.

We use the language of Hebrew to describe kindness – chesed – and wrapped in chesed we have been. Interestingly when we speak of our mitzvot we open up and expand that word and speak of gemilut chasidim, acts of loving kindness, as it is usually translated. However, if we look closely, we see a plural – acts of loving kindnesses. Gemilut chasadim has punctuated our lives since we left Victoria for Edmonton. I will never forget the small gestures, the quiet presences, the words, “I’ve got this” that enabled us both to focus on whatever was an immediate need.

As we celebrate Pesach this year, God willing, kindness will continue to be our leitmotif for not only the season, but hopefully for the months to come.

Thank you, Chag Pesach sameach, and may we all grow in kindnesses, and in joy.

Rabbi Lynn

Vayakel-Pekudei

March 14, 2023 by •

This coming Shabbat morning is Shabbat Mevarchim Chodesh Nisan. What does this mean? The Shabbat before the start of a Jewish month (Rosh Chodesh) is known as Shabbat Mevarchim, “the Shabbat when we bless.” So, on Shabbat we bless the coming month of Nisan. Nisan is the first of our months, and the month when we celebrate Pesach, and our redemption, our freedom from Egypt.More

Ki Tisa

March 7, 2023 by • Tags: , •

Our Purim party was such a delight – and now we prepare for Pesach and our Seder. I hope you will register to join us – Seder is just a few weeks away!

This week we read Ki Tisa, and read about the infamous incident of the Golden Calf. Our Torah is never afraid to look straight at our failures – be they collective or individual failings. And yet.More

Purim

February 26, 2023 by • Tags: , , •

Our first experiment at opening our doors an hour early (6 pm) on Friday evening was a wonderful success. We lit candles, drank tea, ate cookies, and schmoozed – it was hard to break things up for our service to begin. Kai Morsink led us with a heartfelt and joyous Kabbalat Shabbat, what a pleasure it is to be in shul with such joyful singing.

Please join us for Purim and the reading of Megillat Esther. Bring some goodies – I have a very easy way to make hamantaschen if you would like to try your hand. Wear a costume of your choice, come and join the raucous merriment!

We read through the whole Megillah and encounter all manner of characters – but One. The Divine One, by any name, is missing from this story. Are the Persian Jews the first of the secular humanists, one asks? The meaning of Esther’s name gives us a hint – her name means “hiddenness”; perhaps God is in the story – but hidden. God reveals God’s self in all manner of ways, in silence sometimes, and sometimes, hidden from view. We all make choices about the masks we wear on Purim, and the masks we wear in life, balancing revealing and hiding ourselves.

We can look at the sequence of events in this story and say God is absent, ergo, there is no God. Or, we can see we will only recognize God exists if we observe BIG miracles. Or, we can find in the natural order of events in this story, and in our day to day lives (that include sleeplessness, eavesdropping, joyful song and courageous risk-taking) that God’s Presence is with us all, in all, guiding us all. Always. Chag Purim sameach!

With love,
Rabbi Lynn

Terumah

February 21, 2023 by •

Many of us – many – have been down this past week with colds, flu, pneumonia even, and to everyone we wish a refuah shlemah, a complete healing. The ‘bugs’ even caught up with me and I was quite unable to lead Shabbat services this past Shabbat morning. Thank you, kol hakavod to Lis Louwrier and Marilyn Wolovick, who responded to my plea for help on very short notice. They co-led services very capably from all reports.

This is an invitation to all to participate in learning and leading – be it Shabbat morning prayers, Torah reading, Kabbalat Shabbat – a favourite prayer/song. Please let me know what you would like to learn. The very first verses in our parashah this week, read, “God spoke to Moses saying, ‘Speak to the Children of Israel and let them take for me a portion, from every person whose heart motivates them you shall take My portion.’” Couldn’t have said it better myself!

While the portions mentioned in Terumah were of material goods, (wool, skins, spices and stones), we can certainly bring that same intention of offering into our davening, and bring contributions towards our collective health as a congregation. Looking forward to hearing from you.

With love,
Rabbi Lynn

Mishpatim

February 13, 2023 by • Tags: •

Snowdrops and forsythia and crisp morning breezes…Spring is coming. Mishpatim brings its own verses of hope and a big dose of that everyday pragmatism we call Judaism. Again, Judaism is not a religion per se, but a code of conduct. Religion can be found in all realms, from family life and our homes, to how we conduct our business deals. Religion is not separate from our lives, it is our lives, and Mishpatim makes this clear in abundance.

We are one. Ehad. Our souls are not separate from our bodies until we die. In life we turn to our teachings to guide us towards honesty, wisdom and gratitude. Torah teaches us – in relentless detail – to put a sensibility of all that is sacred front and centre. For this, I am very grateful.

Those first flowers blooming in spring, bulbs pushing their green spears into the ever increasing light, anticipation in the air reminds us we too live in cycles – daily, weekly and annually. May we be blessed with hope and with diligence as we do the work of our tradition.

Love,

Rabbi Lynn

Yitro

February 6, 2023 by • Tags: •

Yitro, the man of many names. Yitro (in English, Jethro) had seven names: Re’uel, Yeter, Yitro, Chovov, Chever, Keini, Putiel. Revenue Canada might have had something to say about all those names!

Most of us have our English names and our Jewish names, but we may also have pet-names, or titles (Bubbe, Zeyde, Rabbi, Savta (Hebrew, grandmother), Sabba (Hebrew, grandfather), Shver (Yiddish, father-in-law) and Shvigger (Yiddish, mother-in-law). We may also be known to particular people with a particular name, perhaps from our childhood, or a time living in another country. Noah, our Bar Mitzvah this week, will be teaching us about who Yitro was, and how we deeply honour his memory. Yitro in many ways was the father of democracy! Yes, even back then, thousands of years ago, Yitro held an ideal that we utilize to this day.More

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