From the Rabbi’s Desk

The first day of Spring is approaching this week. However, in our Jewish calendar we don’t switch from the winter prayer inclusion in the Amidah to the summer inclusion, until the first day of Pesach. There are all manner of inclusions and exclusions found in the fine print in our siddurim. As in life it is important to recognize the importance of these fine print notations!

As we open the Book of Vayikra, of Leviticus, this week, we also notice a variation in the calligraphy in our Torah that is also replicated in our Chumash. In the very first word Vayikra, the final aleph is very small, hanging at the end of the word. Our Rabbis, of course attuned as they are to these variants in the calligraphy, noted that the root of this word is to call. God wanted to call to Moshe specifically and purposefully. Later in Torah the same word is used when God calls to Balaam – minus the tiny aleph. Why the difference?

The Rabbis teach us that this tiny letter is an indication of God’s specific love for Moshe and for the humility Moshe demonstrated throughout his life. Initially Moshe wanted to use the same spelling as when God summoned Balaam, but as a sign of love and affection, God instructed Moshe to dangle the aleph at the end of this word. Similar but different. The aleph then almost becomes a separate word, teaches the Baal HaTurim, a word eleph means to teach as did Moshe Rabbeinu, with humbleness.

We can make ourselves then, into the small print of life, those seemingly minor notations, which can provide insights into how we can share our love for Torah and all it contains, drinking in the Mayim Chayim of life.

With love,
Rabbi Lynn

Last week we read Vayakhel – whose title holds the framework for who we are as Jews, choosing to assemble as Jews – we build a kehal, a kehillah, a community.

We don’t just assemble, we take care of each other; we provide comfort and we share joys. Eilu devarim, one of our opening prayers during Shacharit, morning prayers, lists a number of ways we care for each other, in ways large and small, everyday and special occasions. We are the keepers of our traditions, and even as we assemble and sing and recite Kaddish, we look around the room, and feel gratitude that we are not alone.

Pekudei, our parashah this week is a continuation of previous parshiot, and also a conclusion of the Book of Shemot. Hazak, Hazak, v’nit’hazake, we recite when completing one of our Books. Be strong, be strong, may we all be strengthened. The final paragraph of Pekudei outlines how God’s presence filled the Mishkan, and how the journeys of the people of Israel were predicated on that Presence. When the cloud rested over the Mishkan, they would stay in place, when it lifted, they would continue to travel.

How do we feel that Presence within the Mishkan of our hearts today? How do we feel able to move forward – or rest in place? Do we feel that Presence guiding us as we make the smallest and largest of contributions to each other, to our kehillah?

With love,
Rabbi Lynn

Everyone is welcome to join us for Torah learning on Wednesdays. It helps to have read the parashah, but you are certainly all welcome – come when you can, leave when you have to leave. We have a core group of regulars, but anyone who wants to join our lively discussions is welcome.

I have noticed over my time at Kolot Mayim, that there are a number of congregants who don’t yet have their own tallitot. I am more than happy to meet with you to discuss how you could buy or make your own tallit. It is very customary, even in Reform shuls these days, to put on a tallit if you are present on a Saturday morning for services and Torah reading. I can help you learn the blessing of putting on a tallit, and also help you with learning the berachot, the blessings said before and after the Torah is read. Please call me, and we will set up a time together.

Our minhag, our custom for Shabbat and for an Aliyah is to have your head covered and be wearing a tallit. Let’s talk.

With love,
Rabbi Lynn

Parashat Ki Tissa is a doozy!  It is long and it is packed. We have instructions about a census, further instructions about the Mishkan, we meet the chief artisan, Bezalel, renewed instructions about keeping Shabbat, Moses receives the Two Tablets from God, The Goden Calf, God’s anger, Moses pleading for the people, Moses descends from Sinai – sees the people dancing around the Golden Calf and he gets so angry he smashes the tablets, he returns to ask God what to do with these people, Moses pleads to see God, limits are set as to what Moses can actually see, God then tells Moses to carve two replacement tablets, God reveals God’s Thirteen Attributes, God issues further commands and renews the covenant, and then we read, finally about the radiance of Moses’ face – radiant from proximity with God.More

Many members from Kolot Mayim joined with other Jews and Christian allies in a peaceful rally on the grounds of the Legislature. “A breath of fresh air,” many noted. It is important to remember that we do have allies in communities beyond our own, especially with rising degrees of hatred directed at our own Jewish communities. We need to take heart from the very stalwart friendships that surround us all. These friendships offer light to us all.

Tetzaveh opens with a command to make a ner tamid – a light that will illuminate us for all time. An eternal decree for all generations – to bring light into the world. This is a command that we can hear in many ways – but we can certainly hear it with hope in our hearts today. We have a ner tamid on our Aron haKodesh, but we can also light ourselves from within. In prayer, in song, in learning, in sharing a meal – all these aspects of Jewish life bring light.

What can you do, what can I do, this week to illuminate the world?

With love,
Rabbi Lynn

You may have noticed that Aaron and I will be sponsoring our oneg this coming Friday evening. Mishpatim is a very special parashah for us both, but particularly for me, as it is my conversion parashah. Interestingly, Mishpatim is also the first parashah where we learn many of the ‘civil’ mitzvot after standing at Sinai. We learn what we are to do and what we are not to do as Jews.More

Yitro is that reading that reminds us all that not only are we not alone, but that we should never think we can do it all by ourselves. Yitro is the father-in-law of Moses. He watches a long line of people approaching Moses day after day, hour after hour with their problems. And finally Yitro says to Moses, “This is not a good thing.” He then advises Moses to set up a court of elders who can problem-solve with the people.

During Tu B’Shevat Lis passed around index cards for people to fill in with how they thought KM could best blossom and grow. There were a number of requests – from more community dinners to more opportunities for learning prayers to Jewish cooking classes to a weekly support group to starting a community garden. All great ideas! And hopefully we can put some, if not all of these ideas, into action.

And, how can you help? Are you a gardener or have garden space but no longer have the koach to garden? Do you have a basic repertoire or Jewish recipes that you might love to share – and teach the basics of making good knishes and rugelach? You can see where I am going!!

If you have particular skills, talents and/or interests and would like to share those talents with other KM members, please be in touch. Let’s set up a skills bank and begin to meet with each other outside of shul. Let’s build our community with each other. Yitro was right – no-one can do this alone. I look forward to hearing from you.

With love,

Rabbi Lynn

This week we cross the sea! We read within the pages of our texts what might be an example of a very early concrete poem.

The crossing is beautifully written in what comes to be called ‘brick’ fashion.

Not only is the text written in this exquisitely imagined layout, it is also sung in alternating cantillations. And of course, those words are telling our story in song – the Song of the Sea. The song ends with the words, “Children of Israel walked on the dry land amid the sea”. Now the work begins, as the Israelites begin to not just walk towards Sinai, but to understand the miracle of their freedom. Our freedom is bound to our covenant. That covenant was a Yes: We will stand together, we are a people.

This is perhaps the most difficult of tasks, and the most evident of the miracles that surround us. We said yes then to becoming a people, k’lal Yisroel. Today as Israel the nation defends her people, we say yes again. We stand within that eternal covenant.

May we see another miracle soon.

With love,
Rabbi Lynn

Did we just move to Winnipeg? We had a cold (COLD) snap for a few days here this past week. It may have been cold outside, but there is nothing quite like sharing a Shabbat service with each other, welcoming new people into out midst to bring warmth into the room.

Our calendar often seems to coincide with the calendar of Israel, given the (usual) temperate, if not Mediterranean zone we inhabit here on southern Vancouver Island. Palm trees, kiwi, even citrus can grow in the right location in our gardens. Tu B’Shevat is often this calendar and blossom reminder for me. I hope you will come and join us – please see the announcement in this newsletter.

Parashat Bo concludes the plagues that finally ensure Pharaoh banishing the Israelites from Egypt. We read of the beginnings of their journey from Ramses to Sukkot; we read of the preparation of the pesach-offering, and the people Israel leaving in b’chodesh aviv, the month of springtime. Springtime is a month of renewal, of hope, of emerging from underground depths and bud-wrappings of blossoms. May the coming days also be a reminder of hope to each of us, that this time of darkness may bloom into days of renewal and hope and shalom. Amen.

With love,

Rabbi Lynn