Building Audacious Hospitality Together
Dear friends,
This has been a wonderful first year at Kolot Mayim for me. We have learned Torah together, we have rearranged where we meet (Deli side), we have begun new duties (Char Ashford has taken on being our Gabbai) and last week we started what I hope will be a regular Friday night Shabbat dinner together with our “Shabbat is in the Bag” evening. We have welcomed new members and welcomed returning members; during this coming year we will be working towards continuing that increase in our membership.
I am beginning to make plans for the coming year – for Yontif services and celebrations, for classes and learning together. But the engine we call Kolot Mayim doesn’t run on my fuel alone! We need participation. This week in our Torah reading, Pinchas, another census is taken, to establish rights of inheritance of the Land that the Israelites will soon dwell within. Establishing those numbers and their due was important. Today as we think about building Kolot Mayim, our numbers also reflect our intention to bring our voice into the larger Jewish world. URJ has suggested that each congregation build a voice of “audacious hospitality” and I hope that all of us together are living up to that phrase.
Some ideas for new classes were voiced at the AGM, and new ideas for how we can structure services – but in order for these ideas to move forward we need to work together. We are a congregation of many talents. Please be in touch with me and let me know what you would like to contribute, what you would like to learn to do so that together we truly can make Kolot Mayim truly synonymous with welcome and inclusion and a genuine “audacious hospitality.”
Wishing everyone a wonderful summer of visits and picnics, of some time for renewal and reflection as we look ahead to coming together again in September. I am truly honoured to be Rabbi at Kolot Mayim, and look forward immensely to working with each of you over the coming year.
Rabbi Lynn
Pinchas
July 17, 2022 by Rabbi Lynn Greenhough • From the Rabbi's Desk Tags: balaam, pinchas •
What a week of blessing we have had, with more to come. Being in a community like Kolot Mayim is very much like being in that flowing river that Charlotte Marcovitz mentioned in her d’var about her parashah: Balaam sings in a poem to the nation Israel: “How goodly are your tents O Jacob, your dwelling places, O Israel, stretching out like brooks, like gardens by a river, like aloes planted by God, like cedars by water.” All these plants from aloe to cedar reach for mayim, for waters, as our souls reach with thirst for connection with the Divine and with each other.
These “waters” that sustain us can only continue to delight and refresh us with much needed sustenance – if we provide good stewardship. We have had several occasions recently to witness multi-generational love and guidance during a simcha, with grandparents celebrating alongside parents and siblings. A few tears were shed on these occasions!
A few tears do not a river make, but each tear opens a heart, an opening into life. I can remember my mother hauling buckets of water to each tiny cedar sapling as she worked to secure life for her cedar hedge until all roots were well-established. Bucket by bucket by heavy bucket she hauled water to sustain those saplings. And her labour worked; her vision of a strong and healthy hedge was rewarded; soon those roots took a strong hold and were able to reach into the earth for their source of life.
Being in a community can seem like hauling heavy buckets of water some days. And other days we feel refreshed by the waters of love and connection. So many members of Kolot Mayim ensure our buckets are carried, and our saplings are nourished. Thank you all.
This week let’s try to make a blessing on every glass of water we drink to help us remember how fragile and how necessary mayim chayim, these waters of life are to our very existence.
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה יְ‑יָ אֱ‑לֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם שֶׁהַכֹּל נִהְיָה בִּדְבָרוֹ:
Baruch atah A-donay, Elo-heinu Melech Ha’Olam shehakol nihiyah bed’varo.
Blessed are You, Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, by Whose word all things came to be.