From the Rabbi’s Desk

Bamidbar

May 15, 2023 by • Tags: •

Bamidbar – we are now in the wilderness, we are wandering with no GPS in sight. So many jokes about Moses et al, lost but not really lost.

When time came for the shelichim, the spies, to go into the Land to check out the cities (walled or not), fertility of the Land, etc, they had no problem at all finding where they were supposed to go. But an attitude adjustment was clearly in order. Except for two of the men, Joshua and Caleb, their collective denial of the wisdom of entering the Land was punished by God, and the ‘wandering’ of the people Israel resumed.

How often have we made a decision based on fear? How often have our decisions been made by listening to others, influenced by others? Fear can blind us, can severely limit what we can see directly in front of us. One of our morning blessings is a blessing of gratitude to God “…Who opens the eyes of the blind.” May we all listen and be guided by our capacity for deep listening, deep gratitude, and the capacity to see the blessings all around us. And may that vision allow us to step beyond our preconceived limitations. Gam zeh l’tovah.

My love to all,Rabbi Lynn

Behar-Bechukotai

May 9, 2023 by • Tags: •

We had a lovely Shabbat morning service last week – Tammy Vladar and her family celebrated her Bat Mitzvah with us. These celebrations are felt with such warmth by us all – they mark in real time the continuity of our particular traditions.

Neomi Summers read a short piece that morning acknowledging similar confirmation of traditions with the ceremonies of coronation for King Charles, many of which date back to the time of King Solomon and Zadok the High Priest.  Here is an article that focus on the oil used for anointing King Charles during the coronation: https://aish.com/coronating-king-charles-iii/

I will be back in Edmonton from the 17th – 21st of May – we are going to celebrate our grandson’s graduation from high school. Clearly May is Celebration month! Classes may be winding down, and wedding season begins! I will be back for Shavuot on the 28th – with blintzes.My love to all,

Rabbi Lynn

Emor

May 1, 2023 by • Tags: , •

This past Shabbat morning we had the great honour and pleasure of having two young men, Sean and Micah, with us at services, both former Bar Mitzvah students of mine. And joining in the service, as she continues her preparations for her Bat Mitzvah, was Tammy Vladar. The morning was already blessed with sunshine – but the presence of these three young people truly filled our hearts with light.More

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

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