Dear friends,
We had a lovely Purim celebration on Sunday evening. Jessica Pratezina organized a crafts table for the children; crowns were decorated, hamantaschen eaten and groggers were grogged!!More
This week our Torah reading is Tetzaveh. We read about the garments that will be worn by the Kohanim, the priests during Temple services. Last year I wrote about how we bring an iteration of these garments forward in our burial practices, where members of the Chevra Kadisha dress our metim, the dead, in traditional shrouds or tachrichim.
Even as we move through the cycle of readings in Torah, I am struck by how often these ancient words have relevance to our lives today. As Ben Bag-Bag advised, “Turn it and turn it again, for everything is in it. Reflect on it and grow old and grey with it. Don’t turn from it, for nothing is better than it.”
This week we are reading Parashat Terumah; we are building the Mishkan, the Sanctuary, that will be the house for the Aseret HaDibrot, the Tablets with the Utterances given at Sinai.
Mishpatim is a very special parashah for me. It is also known as Shabbat Shekalim and it was on Shabbat Shekalim that I read Torah for the very first time in 1993. I am attaching a link to a podcast from R. Alex Israel who is with PARDES, who speaks about the history of the half-shekel: https://elmad.pardes.org/2018/02/the-half-shekel/
Boker tov, dear friends,
This week we are walking through the seas – with all the rain we have been having, perhaps also, unfortunately, wet basements. B’Shallach is a particularly gorgeous parashah visually when we come to the Song of the Seas –
Shavua tov,
Many of us have had a very emotional week: Today, Monday marks the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. Rabbi Victor Reinstein journeyed back to Victoria from his home in Boston to speak at the presentation on Sunday at the JCC. He titled his words, Defying Hatred. What does it mean to defy what has been directed towards us for millennia? Sometimes reviewing our history can be devastating – a litany of expulsion and exiles, accusations of blood libels and desecrations. Language reflects our very unique experience of Jew-hatred with specific words: blood libel, pogroms, ghettos, Shoah. The Shoah was preceded by massacres in every century going back to the destruction of the Temple by Rome. And yet. We survived.
Busy days and getting busier at Kolot Mayim! Orders are coming in for Chumashim which is truly rewarding. And we have had a most generous offer from a friend to buy a sturdy bookshelf for our new Chumashim, the set of Talmud I have ordered, and various study manuals/books that will all enhance our learning. There is a most enthusiastic group of people learning in the Intro to Judaism class as well. Thank you to everyone who in every way – be it coming to services, engaging in Torah learning, helping on committees and the Board, offering to help drive some of our elders as will be needed, helping me on the Religious Services committee, and more – all of this participation is re-building Kolot Mayim into a most engaged and caring community. I feel very blessed to be amongst you – even when I look at a long list of tasks and appointment for the day! All this is testament to a profound willingness and desire for building connection. So yasher koach, may we all be strengthened together.
Passover
April 7, 2020 by Rabbi Lynn Greenhough • From the Rabbi's Desk Tags: Covid-19, passover, seder 5780 •
Shavua tov dear friends,
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