March 2021   Keeping Connected

Dear Friends,

Just over a year ago I signed onto a Zoom gathering and said to a screen filled with little boxes: “Mah nishtanah halailah hazeh…? Why is this night different? To these two rhetorical questions I offered some answers.

• “We are not wondering about opening day and Fenway”
• “We are not with family and friends in a physical sense”
• “We are not celebrating the second night seder in our synagogue building for the first time in over 40 years”
• “We may or may not have all the traditional Passover foods in front of us”
• “We are feeling strong emotions and experiencing personal challenges that are new to many of us”
• “We are all learning to use a technology that is new to us”

Ironically that night, I was quickly booted off the internet and could not sign back on without rebooting my router; thereby experiencing a new kind of panic. It was not long after that that I added a new word to my pandemic vocabulary: ethernet cable!More

February 2021  Keeping Connected

Dear Friends,

Most months, for 32 years, I have written a newsletter article for whatever congregation I have been serving. That is a lot of articles! Oftentimes I look to the holidays or happenings in the month ahead for inspiration, which is what I did for this February’s Keeping Connected, and as you all know, February 7^th is the SUPER BOWL! You might be asking yourself, what’s Jewish about the Super Bowl and why would the rabbi write about it. I often challenge myself to see what’s Jewish about things especially when the connection might not be evident. For instance, what’s Jewish about re-cycling? That’s an easy one, because as a Jewish community we are obligated to perform the mitzvah of Shomrei Adamah; to protect the earth. Here’s another one. What’s Jewish about inviting so many people to your seder that your family thinks you are meshuganah? That’s an easy one as well. As Jews we are commanded with the mitzvah of Hachnasat Orchim; to welcome people into your home. Yes, hospitality is a Mitzvah! You might also ask yourself, why is that when someone you love isn’t feeling well, you feel compelled to make chicken soup for them. Of course there is a mitzvah about that as well! Bikkur Cholim is the responsibility of caring for or visiting those who are sick.More

January 2021   Keeping Connected

Dear Friends,

As we enter the new year of 2021, I have been reflective about lessons learned over the past year and there have been many; far too many to fully explore in one short newsletter article! One lesson that is particularly important to me is that the pandemic has taught folks to slow down and appreciate what is close to home. Personally, I have enjoyed feeding and watching birds, taking long walks with our dogs, even in cold weather, learning to make a really good cup of coffee starting with grinding the beans myself and reconnecting with the pleasures of cooking and baking.

I know that these lessons, simple as they are, feel familiar to many of you. We have all heard stories of how folks have taken up cooking with a vengeance during the stay-at-home months. We saw this first hand when in the early days of Covid-19, it was impossible to find the most basic of cooking supplies on the supermarket shelves. I could understand why the shelves with cleaning supplies, anti-bacterial gels and even toilet paper were bare. But flour? Yeast? What did people know that I didn’t? It didn’t take me long to realize that people had come to the conclusion that if they were going to have to spend long hours and days at home, learning to bake bread might be a meaningful and fun activity. There were many days, that flour and yeast were being rationed to small amounts per individual. For the first time in my life, I could empathize with what it might have felt like for my parents and grandparents to use ration cards during the World Wars.More

November 2020  Keeping Connected

Dear Friends,

Elie Wiesel said, “I marvel at the resilience of the Jewish people. Their best characteristic is their desire to remember. No other people has such an obsession with memory.” I share this thought with you because November 9-10 is the 83^rd anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Night of Broken Glass, which was also known as the November Pogroms. On these days of violence, the German Nazis destroyed 1,000 synagogues and more than 7,000 Jewish owned businesses. During the violence more than 100 Jews were killed, mostly in Austria. Although the dates for Kristallnacht are recorded as the 9th-10th of November, the violence lasted much longer in many places.

Dr. Michael Berenbaum, the Director of the Sigi Ziering Institute (Exploring the Ethical and Religious Implications of the Holocaust) and a Professor of Jewish Studies at the American Jewish University, explains “that the violence was ordered by Adolph Hitler through his Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels; and executed by his SA (Sturmabteilung), commonly called Storm Troopers or Brown Shirts. Hitler promised that only he could and would restore peace. Hitler promised the return of law and order.”More

October 2020   Keeping Connected

Dear Friends,

I would venture to guess that right now, most rabbis are thinking about the wisdom of having Sukkot and Simchat Torah just days after the High Holidays, ESPECIALLY on a year with Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur happening through Zoom or other similar technologies. I mean who would think that is a good idea? If it would be appropriate to use emojis in a newsletter article, which it isn’t, I would have put a big smiling face after that question, to be followed by one of the silly faces that looks like your head is upside-down, one eye is open, the other shut and your tongue is hanging out of your mouth!

I know you are aware that for High Holidays to happen this year, there were many technology mountains to climb and hurdles to jump. Despite the challenges, including my loosing electricity and internet two times, one time in the very middle of the Yom Kippur morning service, I think we can all be blessed that things went as well as they did. I’m not sure if you heard the news, but many, many synagogues that use a software platform called Shul Cloud to power their e-mail data base and website, crashed suddenly on Erev Yom Kippur, leaving many, many congregations and Jewish families without the ability to attend services. When I heard about this yesterday I said a prayer of gratitude, in particular for the amazing dedication, commitment and sacrifices made by our members and staff who helped pilot us through the new arena of on-line services for the many. I am also humbled in knowing that it could have just as easily happened on Zoom. It made all our smaller glitches seem minor in comparison.More

September 2020   Keeping Connected

Dear Friends,

Many of you know that I am a word geek! I love to think about the origins of a word and on the rare occasions when I think about retirement, I fantasize about how I will get one of those dictionaries that teach about the history of words; finally having an opportunity to feed this esoteric interest. I know you are probably thinking I SHOULD GET A LIFE and fantasize instead about travel, hobbies, sleeping in and all the free time I would have! I assure you that I think about those things as well, BUT, I am interested in the history of words.

With this in mind, I wanted to share that I have been thinking a lot about the word “enfranchisement”. As you have all seen in the press, this past August 18^th was the 100^th anniversary of the signing of the 19^th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote. As a woman and as a mother of a daughter, I feel hugely grateful for the pioneers and heroines who fought and marched and lobbied to bring about this change in our Constitution. My grandmother Ada became a naturalized citizen of the USA in 1915 and I was recently thinking about what it must have been like for her NOT to have the right to vote. That thought evoked a lot of intense emotion on my part.More