From the Rabbi’s Desk

 We had a remarkable Hannukah party – about 80 people came to enjoy a wonderful dinner and most important for us all, Jewish connection. Thank you to everyone who brought food, who helped set up and make the room so beautiful, who helped serve, and of course those who helped pack up tables and chairs. What a wonderful Hannukah celebration.

Our parashah this week, Miketz, brings more dreams into Torah – this time the dreams of Pharaoh. Joseph is called to interpret these dreams, and in doing so, changes the course of his family’s fortunes, first for better, and then of course, for worse, and then, as we know, for better again as Moses is called to lead his people out of Egypt.

In the smallness of our lives, it is impossible for us to recognize the overall arc of what our choices will bring to our families. Miketz reinforces for us, that each choice however minimal, may have a massive impact on the generations that follow us.

Last week we reckoned with how we touch each person in every encounter, for good, for bad; similarly this week each choice we make rolls our history, our own specific torah forward. Dreams often, albeit eventually, can become reality. As we saw the dreams of millions of Jews over many centuries become a reality on May 14, 1948, we light each candle this week, and we pray and hope for our people wherever they might be. Am Yisroel Chai.

Rabbi Lynn Greenhough

Hannukah begins this week, and as always, we balance between real-politic and miracles. The victory of the Maccabees ensured our survival in our land for another few hundred years; the oil lasted eight days instead of one – a nes gadol!

Today of course, Hannukah resonates more strongly than ever as the war continues. We truly need a nes gadol, and with the return of each hostage we glimpse a miracle of both survival and hope.

Lighting each candle over these coming days is an opportunity for us to hold and protect the souls of those still held hostage. May we see the day soon when all souls are returned to their homeland.

With love, may each candle light hope in our hearts.
Rabbi Lynn Greenhough

Hello everyone, this is your Island reporter from central Vancouver Island!! We gave Major General Andrew Christie a fine farewell at the Courtenay Cemetery where his remains were interred alongside his beloved wife, Barbara. Those of us in Torah Talk knew Andy best; living in Comox and caring for Barbara made trips down Island infrequent at best.

We then drove to Parksville for Shabbat and on Saturday morning had a service with 25 or so mid-Islanders. It was a lovely opportunity for us to meet, share stories, and build connection. Steven Larre and Jon Sanders, KM members, joined us!

Whilst up Island I heard that Kabbalat Shabbat was everything and then some, so clearly KM is in good hands. Wishing everyone good health, and long life.

With love,
Rabbi Lynn Greenhough

Hello everyone, I am finally warming up after our chilly but ever so heartening vigil on Sunday evening. Hundreds and hundreds – and hundreds! of Jews and friends lined Belleville with posters and red balloons, to Bring Them Home. It was a turnout like we have not seen for years. I brought our ‘baby’ Torah, wrapped in a tallit that we should have the presence of Torah, and in particular our reading this week, Vayetze with us all – the opening passage wherein Ya’akov realizes, in an astonished voice, that he is the presence of HaMakom, of God.

At 6 pm voices sang together Hatikvah, along with other songs of hope for those who will, with the help of us all, be released soon.

I am up Island this Shabbat, meeting with the central Island Jews for a Shabbat morning service. Neomi Summers will be leading Kabbalat Shabbat, with the help of all who come.

With love,

Rabbi Lynn Greenhough

Hello everyone, this is such an interesting time at Kolot Mayim, we are growing with young people, young families, and interest in being part of who we are. Come and join us at services this Shabbat morning, and meet some of our younger people who are finding their home with Kolot Mayim.More

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

Lech Lecha, our Torah reading this week, is our introduction to Avram and Sarai. Ten generations after Noach, Avram is called by God to lech lecha, to leave his father’s house, his homeland and go to the Land that God will show him. This Land will become Israel, the land of the Jews for over three thousand years. It is a deep and eternal heritage of land. Most Jews of course suffering through millennia of colonizers from the Assyrians to the Syrian-Greeks, the Romans, the Byzantines, the Ottomans, the British – were exiled from Israel, or not allowed to enter, until that miraculous day in 1948, when Israel became a Jewish homeland again.

The news is full of very worrying events aimed at demonizing Jews today in Canada, never mind Israel. We have increased our level of security at our shul; our students at UVic are doing their best to level the tide of hatred that is focused on them. They need our support and our protection.

We are offering a free bowl of matzah ball soup to any student who needs refuge. The Deli is open Wednesday through Friday, 11 – 1; come, sit together, take a minute and know we love you, and want you to always feel welcome within our walls. I am often at the JCC through the lunch hour, please let me know if you would like to meet, catch up, share some news.

With love, wishing you long life.
Rabbi Lynn

PS:  I invite you to listen to these remarks from Rabbi Anglea Buchdahl after the October 7th massacre: Israel At War: In the Beginning There Was The Word: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAEjbCtZiqw

It has been a week. I have been exhausted and exhilarated, heart-sick and full of pride. Mostly, I have been reminded of when I was 12 and I came to the full realization that the world then, particularly the Christian world, had abandoned its fundamental premise of loving its neighbour. This premise of care and protection, a premise we read in Torah and read weekly in our prayers, a premise that was taught by that Jew called Jesus, was abandoned by most Christians throughout Europe as the Nazis gained foothold in Germany.More

This Shabbat, Hamas terrorized all of Israel with a premeditated and deadly attack on Israel. Civilians, soldiers have been murdered, and kidnapped; countless hundreds of citizens have been wounded in body and in heart.

Even as the Gaza border is under constant and extensive surveillance, this attack happened as Jews were celebrating Simchat Torah and Shabbat, echoing for many the Yom Kippur war. Hamas has never considered brokering a peace with Israel; their very Charter speaks against the very existence of the Israeli state. Yet, for decades monies have poured into Gaza from Europe, from the US, and from Canada. Whilst those monies were ostensibly provided for the Palestinian people living in Gaza, we know that far too many of those millions went to the military and to building the infrastructures of terrorism – the use of which we saw over these past days.

I think it is difficult for us, as Canadians, to imagine living next door to such lethal enemies. Imagine tunnels being constructed so Americans could enter Canadian soil and kidnap and murder Canadians – for being Canadian. One does not want to ever imagine such a circumstance. Israeli citizens have no choice.

Israel is continually under the periscope of the nations of the world, examined for every supposed mis-step, encouraged if not strong-armed by those same nations to utilize caution in military response, even as Israeli citizens are being bombed. Military response from Israel is universally seen as aggression. The crimes that Hamas has and is committing are unspeakable; this is not a government with which Israel can negotiate.

We are not Israel, but we are Jews. We stand with Israel. We pray with Jews everywhere, and we pray with those Palestinian peoples sick and sickened of war, for a mutual and firmly held commitment to peace.

With love, wishing you long life.
Rabbi Lynn