7/8 July 2023, 19 Tamuz 5783

Much is written about the five sisters in this week’s parashah (Torah portion). The daughters of Zelophehad pleaded their case before Moses (and God) to inherit their father’s name and holding as there were no brothers. This had significant impact on inheritance and legacy rulings and Moses and God changed rules because of these daughters. What commentators particularly draw out is the fact they are named, all of them.

…The names of the daughters were Mahlah, Noa, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah. They stood before Moses, Elazar the priest, the chieftains and the whole assembly…(Numbers 27:1)

They were counted. They were named and they stood up and out to present their case. They boldly demanded an inheritance of the promised land and their names are repeated twice. Babylonian Talmud, in Bava Batra 119b praises them in three ways: as intelligent women knowing when was the right time to speak; as being knowledgeable in Israelite (Jewish) law, knowing the legal ramifications of their situation; and lastly, because they were unmarried and stood up for themselves, whatever their ages.

Doubtless they were astute pioneers. But for us as a congregation, I am particularly drawn this year, on re-reading the text, to the naming of the sisters. This week marked our 70th AGM and in all our remembering and praising what we have achieved, I am struck by the names of individuals whose lives have been touched by FPS and in turn leave their mark. We are nothing if not a congregation of individual named people who have shaped the customs, expectations and achievements of this our synagogue. All who step forward to take office carry the responsibility, however briefly, of the health and welfare of our community and the values we hold. I am so grateful this week for our Council and Executive and the passing the baton from our brilliant Chair Tamara Joseph to our next thoughtful and skilled Chair in Beverly Kafka.

And for me, it’s Mahlah, Noa, Hoglah, Milcah and Tirzah who remind me of that.

Wishing you Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca

30 June/1 July 2023, 12 Tamuz 5783

This Shabbat, our teenagers graduating from our Kabbalat Torah group will lead FPS in commemorating Pride Shabbat, and we get great nachas watching these five FPS teens grow up and move into adulthood. Their portion, Balak, contains the blessing we know from Mah Tovu the words we offer every Shabbat morning at the beginning of our prayers:

Mah tovu ohalecha Yaakov, mishk’notecha Yisrael
How lovely are your tents [people of] Jacob; your sanctuaries [people of] Israel.

They feel the blessing of their synagogue and we should be proud of them and us for sustaining their connections.

I am very looking forward to this Shabbat.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca.

23/24 June 2023, 5 Tamuz 5783

We are, as a family, celebrating my father’s 80th birthday this coming weekend. I have been prepared for this moment by watching so many of your rites of passage and moments of joy throughout lives. As we have been exercised in planning our gathering, I have been struck by what it is we want to celebrate and make his legacy to us all: stories he wrote for us as children and the sensibility of literature and football, often at the same time.

Obviously I am thinking about our legacy as a congregation as we mark our 70th. What are we capturing that is important for the next 25 years and beyond? One thing that's clear is that our building is tired and needs repair and renewal. Our spirit is strong but the ‘body’ that houses it is tired and whilst we ‘the family’ love it, we want newcomers and prospective members to be attracted to our home as well. At our AGM on 4th July, we will be able to share the plans we are now working towards. I wanted to remind you that whilst we have not come out and asked you all yet, we have already received extraordinary gifts and pledges and I wanted to get the rest of us thinking.

We knew we needed a few large, meaningful gifts and we have now received one for £50,000 and a pledge for the same. We have successfully been awarded a grant for £78,000 from Barnet Council. We have received several gifts of £5,000 and a couple of £10,000 donations. One courageous member has pledged £4,000 for every one of the next five years and some have given £100, £200, £500. All has been hugely appreciated. We are applying for many, many grants. We have now reached £488,000 but we need much more to be in the position to replace our roof, uplift our synagogue sanctuary, improve our welcoming spaces and upgrade us to an environmentally sustainable building.

I wanted to give you an update because this matters. We want to ensure the future and longevity of the joy we have in our synagogue and all it means for us - and that is what birthday celebrations are: identifying what we love best and ensuring we look after it.

In this week’s portion the Israelites are without water after Miriam’s death: 

וְלֹא־הָ֥יָה מַ֖יִם.

There was no water …[Numbers 20:2]

They are desperate and Moses must access some for the people. I take this as a challenge. We will and should access what we need.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca

16/17 June 2023, 28 Sivan 5783

Americans, I (re)discovered, are very good at celebrating themselves. I found it impressive and not just a little life affirming.

So this Shabbat I am delighted we are honouring our 70th birthday with a summer bbq lunch and musical moment in the sunshine. We will offer appreciation of our outgoing Council members and Chair in the Shabbat service, conveniently the portion is KORACH which has a thing or two to say about leadership and its challenges. Korach and his band of followers criticise Moses and Aaron for leading the people.

"You have gone too far! For all the community are holy. . .Why then do you raise yourselves above the Eternal's congregation?" (Numbers 16:3)

… is what they shout at the brothers, who have frankly carried the people tirelessly for years, not just months.

I like that we will read these words and they’ll help us appreciate how much those who lead us do - and as far as I am aware there are no complaints about our Council, who carry us all in a supremely democratic, conscientious and thoughtful way, managing the day-to-day life of our congregation and the visionary parts as well.

This Shabbat will be an opportunity to laud our lay leaders who work so extraordinarily hard for our synagogue and who deserve and need that blessing we say over Torah books endings;

Chazak, Chazak, V’Nitchazek. Strength, Strength, Let Us Be Strengthened. 

They have strengthened FPS and the next cohort will continue to do so.

Shabbat Shalom and see you then.
Rebecca.

9/10 June 2023, 21 Sivan 5783

A quick word from New York. I’ve been here to witness conversations about the challenges facing Progressive Judaism (indeed all paths outside Haredim).

Numbers are apparently down, even here in the relative Mecca of Jewish life. The fight for souls is intense here, the competition with other commitments is fierce, be it soccer, dance or the relatively new pickleball*! Gym membership is infinitely cheaper here than temples' (the charming name for your local synagogue). NYC congregational membership for a family can be $4000 and apparently, that’s not outlandish. Please enjoy the relatively modest dues to FPS in comparison!

I’m thinking a lot about how, at our best, Judaism can and should speak poetically to what matters to us. I visited Ground Zero and my visit was made more moving by a beautiful D’var Torah I’d heard the night before by Central Synagogue’s Rabbi Angela Buchdahl.

Ayn Mukdam Ume’uchar. 
There is no early or late in Torah.

As the deep compression / hole of those memorial pools filled with the water that flowed in and backed up, it made sense. The water flows, time passes, grief continues and new life emerges and none of it is necessarily linear. We take beginnings and endings together.

This Shabbat we’ll be commemorating our Czech scrolls, all three so precious to us at FPS, bringing their past and stories of lost communities of Austerlitz with them, even as our children renew them time and again when they read from them.

I’m looking forward to this and being reminded of this Talmudic verse and its layered meaning for all of us.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Rebecca Birk.

*Pickleball is a fun sport that combines elements of badminton, tennis, and table tennis and is played outdoors on a badminton-sized court and with a slightly modified tennis net. Two or four players use solid paddles made of wood or composite materials to hit a perforated polymer ball, over a net.

2/3 June 2023, 14 Sivan 5783

The people I love the best 
jump into work head first 
without dallying in the shallows 
and swim off with sure strokes almost out of sight. 
They seem to become natives of that element, 
the black sleek heads of seals 
bouncing like half-submerged balls.

I love people who harness themselves, an ox to a heavy cart, 
who pull like water buffalo, with massive patience, 
who strain in the mud and the muck to move things forward, 
who do what has to be done, again and again.  
(To Be of Use, by Marge Piercy)

In turn I love this poem. It captures how I see the world and, well, being of use. But the role of rabbi is more than that. Rabbi Professor Larry Hoffman tells the story of a new rabbi trying to block time for thinking and studying and eventually giving up those spots in his diary for the inevitable and essential meetings of synagogue life. Meetings are indeed critical for the growth and well being of communities but so is thinking! I have the opportunity to attend two rabbinic conferences dedicated to  study (and thinking) and I intend to dive right in with the same enthusiasm I take to work. I'm off to New York today for two days  on Recharging Reform Judaism followed by a Shabbat visiting Manhattan congregations to taste services. And then on to Boston for the Women Rabbis’ Network annual convention. Rabbi Deborah Kahn-Harris and I will representing us British rabbis. I’ll report back and bring much with me on my return, especially just my thoughts.

Shabbat Shalom and more from me next week.  
Rebecca.

26/27 May 2023, 7 Sivan 5783

Shavuot - meaning Weeks - is the poor relation of festivals, or it was when I grew up, somewhat forgotten next to Pesach and definitely drawing less focus than our relatively modern High Holydays. But it’s the best of holidays: study, flowers, fruit, cheesecake, the Book of Ruth, the ideas of conversion and joining Judaism and figuring out what matters.  
It’s not just accessible and enabling but actually celebrates that. As well as the barley harvest, we celebrate Matah Matan HaTorah - the giving of Torah. That’s interesting for us as Liberal Jews who do not rely on Torah as written by God, Torah min Hashamayim.

When Moses descended from Mount Sinai… his face was glowing…. He instructed them… and put a veil over his face. (Exodus 34:29-33)

But for certain we are inspired, challenged, provoked by the reading of Torah every week of the year and this week we get to engage more deeply.

2023 is the year we are joining with Southgate Progressive Synagogue for Shavuot. Rabbi Danny Rich and I are sharing the learning, the praying and the facilitating and will be exploring the ideas of human connectedness.

Our fate is bound up in each other (Babylonian Talmud Shevuot 39a)

This will be our programme on Thursday evening at SPS:
6.30pm            Bring and Share Supper 
7.00pm            Shavuot service  
7.45pm            The Book of Ruth, Thomas Hardy and Rembrandt 
8.35pm            Cheesecake and Coffee 
8.50-9.40pm    The Torah of a New Progressive Judaism  
9.40-10.20pm  Jewish Attitudes to Conversion  

Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca.

19/20 May 2023, 29 Iyyar 5783

If people feel they share values with a company, they will stay loyal to the brand, so wrote Howard Schultz when he began Starbucks coffee.

This is an interesting moment for those of us who have identified with Liberal Judaism over these past 60 years and more, indeed for anyone who has been drawn to its values these past 120 years. The Biennial conference of 2023, the first togetherness for 4 years or so, is entitled Liberal Judaism Matters, intended as a clever pun the matters / business of Liberal Judaism but also to engage with the idea that Liberal Judaism does matter and will continue to matter. The progressive expression and experience that has underscored our bit of Jewish real estate is still relevant, meaningful and important.

All the values of our Liberal Judaism and the stories that have brought us here and enabled so many of us to integrate our secular lives and our Jewish sensibility will permeate what our hopes will build when our ideologies and movements come together to build what’s next. As the beginning of the Book of Numbers calls for...   

שְׂא֗וּ אֶת־רֹאשׁ֙ כָּל־עֲדַ֣ת בְּנֵֽי־יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל לְמִשְׁפְּחֹתָ֖ם לְבֵ֣ית אֲבֹתָ֑ם בְּמִסְפַּ֣ר שֵׁמ֔וֹת

Count all the congregation of the children of Israel, by families following their family houses; a head count of every person according to their names and how many of them.

We will all be part of this.  

For those wanting to be part of this shared Shabbat service with all of Liberal Judaism, do come along to FPS to share the streamed service at 11am as usual, to be together - or of course watch from home. I’ll be preaching there, so it may feel familiar. Our own Ben Combe, Gordon and Jane Greenfield, Howard and Valerie Joseph, Josie Kinchin, Alex Kinchin-Smith, Sharon Michael, Paul Silver-Myer and Susanne Szal will be representing FPS. 

Shabbat Shalom,

Rebecca.

12/13 May 2023, 22 Iyyar 5783

“The Eternal One spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai” (Lev. 25:1)
וַיְדַבֵּ֤ר יְהֹוָה֙ אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֔ה בְּהַ֥ר סִינַ֖י לֵאמֹֽר

This week’s double portion Behar Behukotai ends the Book of Leviticus and in so doing sets us a challenge that all our Judaism - however different, however contemporary, irreverent or iconoclastic - relates to the moment of Sinai.

A beautiful midrash tells the unlikely story that Moses had a dream, a disassociated vision, where he imagined being thousands of years in the future sitting in a classroom of the yeshiva of Rabbi Akiva. Sitting in the back row while Akiva taught, Moses was utterly confused. His spirits fell as the arguments spun around in circles. He just couldn’t follow anything, from comments on the crowns of the letters of Torah, to the commentary that surrounded them. He was, the midrash suggests, forlorn and lost. One of the other students raised a hand and asked “Rabbi, where in the Torah did you learn this?” Akiva answered: Halachah l’Moshe MiSinai, “Oh this is the law given to Moses at Sinai.” Then Moses’ mind was set at ease. This was connected to him. M’nachot 29b 
I love this story.

Because it basically reassures us that every new thing we do, every new expression and manifestation of Judaism, is connected to what has gone before. I think of this as we mark the next FPS Bar Mitzvah of Sam Fields, a most committed Bar Mitzvah student, who plays guitar in our shabbat service, accompanies me on social justice outings to represent us at the Barnet Citizens Assembly, who has waited on our seder tables for the past two Passovers and is generally a great kid in our synagogue, and I see that same line of connection flow through these past 70 years of FPS life to this moment and two weeks later to our next Bar Mitzvah in Zac Zalkin.

I’m compelled by continuity as well as courage in being different and inspired. As we finish the book of Leviticus and bless ourselves in the process, may these words be real for us.
Chazak Chazak  V’NitChazek.  
Strength, Strength, Let us be strengthened.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca.

5/6 May 2023, 15 Iyyar 5783

Whether Republican or Royalist or somewhere in between, this coming Shabbat will be a memorable one. My mother leads a reminiscing group at Hammerson House care home and this week’s topic was recalling the last coronation in 1953, 70 years ago. I wonder whether our children will recall this weekend’s coronation of King Charles III. I like being reminded that the prayer for the Royal family given in most synagogues has the historical significance of being the first vernacular prayer in any synagogue here. We noted with interest when it was skipped in the Shabbat service of Brighton and Hove Progressive Synagogue. At my Shabbat table with FPS congregants last week, we were full of talk of the coronation and its cost - right down to the hand-made buckles on shoes.

I am always drawn to the prophet Jeremiah’s insistence to his people in the 6th century . . . seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.

And so this week my colleague and president of LJ Rabbi Alexandra Wright has written a prayer for us all for this Shabbat for the coronation of King Charles and it is hard to disagree with her thoughtful words and hopes for him.

May he foster an environment in which people of all faiths and beliefs may live freely.  
May he find the freedom and strength to speak out against cruelty and injustice and to lead by example, living in harmony with nature, conserving its resources, diversity and beauty for future generations so that they too may reap in joy.

May his reign be governed by truth, judgement and peace, as it is said, ‘These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to one another, render true and perfect justice in your gates’ (Zechariah 8:16).

  אֵ֥לֶּה הַדְּבָרִ֖ים אֲשֶׁ֣ר תַּֽעֲשׂ֑וּ דַּבְּר֤וּ אֱמֶת֙ אִ֣ישׁ אֶת־רֵעֵ֔הוּ אֱמֶת֙ וּמִשְׁפַּ֣ט שָׁל֔וֹם שִׁפְט֖וּ בְּשַׁעֲרֵיכֶֽם

Along with other LJ and MRJ synagogues, we will bring our Shabbat service earlier to 10.00 am and follow with a shared kiddush and opportunity to watch the coronation together if you so wish. Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis Chief Rabbi if the United Synagogue has been invited to stay the night at Clarence House for Shabbat so he and his wife can walk to the Abbey. It will be Shabbat as usual for us here at FPS and those who want to mark this moment can do so.   
 
Shabbat Shalom,  
Rebecca  

28/29 April 2023, 8 Iyyar 5783

Of the making of books there’s no end. So wrote the author of Ecclesiastes which we studied in our Torah group last term. We have now begun Song of Songs and are intrigued to get to know it.

A book or perhaps magazine intrinsic to our community has been SHOFAR. In my eleven years I have seen consistently impressive writing and editing. It has been always a critical mouthpiece for us and a reminder to all what happens chez nous at FPS. I love the idea that we as a congregation get to be noticed on members’ kitchen tables and in their living rooms. 
Since Monica Rabinowitz ended her tenure at the helm we have been looking for a new editor who might enjoy this task with lots of support from us in the office and brilliant Lea Jagendorf our designer. Do join Tamara and me for Cafe Ivriah this week 10am to discuss Shofar and its future. I look forward to seeing you there.

There is a verse within this week’s double portion of Acharei Mot-Kedoshim that has always compelled me:

                          לֹא־תְקַלֵּ֣ל חֵרֵ֔שׁ וְלִפְנֵ֣י עִוֵּ֔ר לֹ֥א תִתֵּ֖ן מִכְשֹׁ֑ל וְיָרֵ֥אתָ מֵּאֱלֹהֶ֖יךָ אֲנִ֥י יְהוָֽה

Do not curse the deaf or make a stumbling block before the blind. (Leviticus19)

Just enable, Leviticus is saying. Don’t sabotage, don’t make things difficult for people and impede their understanding. Be decent. Be a mensch. I love the simple profundity of these images. And they, alongside so much of Jewish text, remind me why I choose to be a religious Jew, pulling out such meaning continually.

As I promised last week, it is very much business as usual at Liberal Judaism despite the forward planning of a shared Progressive movement. That pulling out meaning for a Jewish life is the theme of this year’s Biennial weekend 19-21st May (please peruse publicity). The guest speakers of Rabbi Dr Larry and Dr Joel Hoffman are a draw in themselves, encouraging us to think keenly how we live our lives as jews in the wider and smaller worlds we occupy. It has never felt more relevant than now.

Be in touch if I can talk further with you. It is an excellent weekend away - I promise.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca.

21/22 April 2023, 1 Iyyar 5783

As we continue on the journey of counting the Omer between Pesach and Shavuot, I’m very aware of progress and moving forward. Every year it is the same but different, as it reflects the new generation and times we live in. Liberal Judaism has this week announced a new collaboration with the Movement of Reform Judaism that will see, in time, the creation of a new Progressive Movement.  It is a moment that has been a long time coming and will put us in line with other countries, notably the U.S and Israel. We will be stronger and be able to create more influence and effect. It is a remarkable achievement and one that our own Rabbi John Rayner z’l prophesied all those years ago to increase and strengthen the progressive Jewish voice. As always, it is the detail that will be important and as Co-Chair of COLRAC, I have been part of the thinking and articulating of what comes next.

We are exceedingly fortunate to have our movement led by Rabbi Charley Baginsky, who is clear about the culture of Liberal Judaism being preserved and the way we both respect and are audacious with tradition. Our President Rabbi Alexandra Wright writes: 

 Liberal Judaism is in a strong position because of our rabbinic leaders and this has given us the confidence to be able to exert a special kind of leadership and role in British-Jewry. 

Updates and news will be shared regularly over the next 18 months or so as this idea becomes a reality. It will move slowly and carefully, safeguarding all that we hold dear including our LJY Netzer camps etc. But transparency and collaboration is the way forward. This week, I got to tell our news to the Archbishop of Canterbury at Westminster Abbey at the launch of the Big Lunch.

We will be sharing updates and news over the next 18 months or so as this idea becomes a reality. We will be having an information evening at FPS very soon.

It seems most appropriate we are thinking of ourselves during the week that marks Yom HaShoah and we look back vertically to our history as well as exercising our horizontal connections in our Shabbat trip to a sister synagogue in Brighton. I do hope you are thinking of joining us. Several of us will be taking the train from London Bridge 9.15am Saturday morning and Sam King will drive with spaces in her car, as will Bobbie Hood. Do let Caroline in the office know which way you will be travelling and/or Sam King if you require a spot in the car. This is a much anticipated FPS outing and an opportunity to see Jewish Brighton. I look forward to sharing it with you and to our Yom Hashoah commemoration where our Kabbalat Torah class will introduce Joan Salter and her story of occupation and arrival here in the UK. Every story, every testimony adds to our sense of memorial and witness.

In our invitation and responsibility to listen to Joan, I’m reminded of the verse from Pirkei Avot which Rabbi Rene Pfertzel and I will begin on Wednesday evening:

 Yose ben Yoezer used to say [learning from Shimon the Righteous]: let thy house be a house of meeting for the Sages and sit in the very dust of their feet, and drink in their words with thirst. 

I look forward to drinking it all in with you.

Rabbi Rebecca

7/8 April 2023, 16 Nissan 5783

I want to wish you all Chag Pesach Sameach - a good and meaningful Passover.

We are obligated to pull meaning from this holiday - and we must consider whatever narrow place that Egypt represents for us in our day.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel dared to declare in 1963 that the contest between Moses and Pharaoh which began in that mythical Egypt had still not ended, but was being carried on between those who struggled for civil rights in America and those who resisted those rights. For us, we must consider where the struggles are now. The piece below is written by my colleague and friend Rabbi Igor Zinkov for the Four children of your Seder, reflecting on the war in Ukraine and the suffering that has ensued. I remind you also of that most poignant of verses deep in the Haggadah in Hallel’s psalm 118:

.מִן-הַמֵּצַר, קָרָאתִי יָּהּ; עָנָנִי בַמֶּרְחָב יָהּ

From a narrow place I called to God and I was answered with wide expansiveness.

Communally and personally the story of liberation cannot fail to resonate.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca

31 March/1 April 2023, 9 Nissan 5783

In each and every generation, a person must view themselves as though they personally left Egypt, as it is stated: 

“And you shall tell your child on that day, saying: It is because of this which the Lord did for me when I came forth out of Egypt” (Exodus 13:8). 

. בְּכָל דּוֹר וָדוֹר חַיָּב אָדָם לִרְאוֹת אֶת עַצְמוֹ כְאִלּוּ הוּא יָצָא מִמִּצְרַיִם, שֶׁנֶּאֱמַר (שמות יג), וְהִגַּדְתָּ לְבִנְךָ בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא לֵאמֹר, בַּעֲבוּר זֶה עָשָׂה ה' לִי בְּצֵאתִי מִמִּצְרָיִם.

 This week is Shabbat HaGadol, the Shabbat before Pesach. As we prepare the synagogue for Passover and empty our cupboards of Chametz, we also are collecting Easter eggs for families at the Rainbow Centre - our partner charity. I see Pesach being about radical empathy. We are the children of slaves and wanderers and so shouldn’t that guide our principles now?

It seems most fitting that we would celebrate a Baby Naming this Shabbat as we gear up to emphasise “In each and every generation we must tell…” and so we will welcome him into the covenant and community. 

 I’m also reminded of the four children, of the questions, not just of the four Mah Mishtanah questions, but questioning our traditions that permeate the whole Seder. Why does this story matter to us so much? 

 Every year Pesach and the story it tells takes on different emphases.  This year I am drawn to this charming statement in the midst of tractate Sotah:

 Sotah 11b:4 Rav Avira taught: In the merit of the righteous women that were in that generation, the Jewish people were redeemed from Egypt.

A shout out to Shifra and Puah, those brave midwives, to Miriam and her mother Yocheved who took such risks for that baby Moses (not unlike refugee families do today for their children, hoping for a better and safer life), and Batsheva, Pharaoh’s daughter who took the baby in and gave him opportunities in life. The midrash says that Israelite women at that time insisted and compelled the men to carry on as usual and to live with hope and joy even when they were downtrodden. There is so much in this story that never fails to lift us, and indeed other peoples who find it the stuff of liberation. 

 I love this season and am so looking forward to celebrating Pesach with everyone. Don’t forget to book into our Seder. 

 Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca

P.S The Passover story of courage and resistance - truly speaking truth to power is poignant during these days of watching demonstrations on the streets of Israel and the diaspora in support. The Jewish world and citizens of Israel care deeply about it. As Israel is so much on everyone’s lips right now, including in international news, it feels a good time to remind the community that we will be choosing a new HHD Israel charity this year. We have enjoyed such a productive and inspirational relationship with the New Israel Fund and we invite you to send in your nominations for a new charity that captures the values of FPS and allows us to be in a supportive relationship with an institution there in Israel.

24/25 March 2023, 3 Nissan 5783

We just visited Bordeaux for the weekend. How can one not be restored by French cheese, wine and architecture? What I hadn’t anticipated was how intriguing I’d find the churches and religious buildings. The intricate spire of Cathedral Saint-Andre was visible in detail from our attic room terrace. The central window would guide us home at night. I’m taken, as you know, by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s insistence that Judaism creates palaces of time rather than space, Shabbat being the most impressive. But here in Bordeaux these buildings speak of a conversation with God.

This week’s parasha begins the Book of Vayikra, Leviticus. It’s known to contain a great deal of dry minutiae of sacrifice and other laws but its name means to call out.

וַיִּקְרָ֖א אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֑ה וַיְדַבֵּ֤ר יְהֹוָה֙ אֵלָ֔יו מֵאֹ֥הֶל מוֹעֵ֖ד לֵאמֹֽר

And God called to Moses, and spoke to him out of the tent of meeting.

Leviticus is the book in which we are called to our religiosity, whatever that is for each one of us. And certainly that is what I experienced in Bordeaux. Indeed, in the cathedral, there were life size story boards of individual young people who’d taken the path of service to God, next to the stained glass windows and chapels.

"Et toi, que veux tu?" "And you, what do you want?" asks Pierre, a newly ordained Dominican wearing Ray Bans and a beret.

So I was ready for the Great Synagogue to be a similar expression of reaching towards God. It was the first major synagogue built after the emancipation of Jews by Napoleon. It was finished in 1812 then destroyed in a fire in 1873, and rebuilt by 1882 to be France’s largest synagogue at the time, costing 660,000 francs all which came from donations (and some grants from local and national government).

There are two towers, similar to bell towers on church facades; I read some Jews at the time were worried it looked too like a church, even with tablets of the ten commandments on the top. Even then community disagreed on building plans and ideas!

But it was an expression of pride and religiosity. I captured the dark green of the stained glass and it was beautiful. Movingly, the synagogue was used for internment before deportation to the camps. The building was pillaged and desecrated. But since the war, it has been lovingly restored to a living, breathing synagogue again.

Faith buildings always tell a story. Ours does at Hutton Grove. It may not be grand with towers and buttresses but it is ours and it has contained so much within its walls over these last 65 years or so. We now need to mend and restore it (our roof is in dire need) to enable its future life and a continuation of our story.

You are cordially invited to attend either Saturday evening 5.30-7pm or Tuesday 28th 7-8.30pm to begin this process; hear how we will be raising funds, asking for your gifts and applying for grants (as they did in Bordeaux). It is our calling. I so hope to see you there.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca

17/18 March 2023, 25 Adar 5783

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
….For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free. 

from  Peace of Wild Things

       – Wendell Berry

So three years ago exactly as our world closed in, a group of our members asked for a morning service, an online shacharit (Hebrew for morning service). And so it began. Four days a week we created an online congregation. We saw it as an alternative to the Today programme and offered instead morning blessings, Shema, Psalms and alongside Dean’s voice, we wove in poetry to lift our spirits, to comfort and to offer the kavannah (direction of the heart) alongside traditional fixed liturgy, keva.

There were so many midwives to this project-Valerie Joseph, Bobbie Hood, Mandy Carr and Janet Tresman all lead the services now as well and Patricia Hinson writes new poetry for it. The words of this week’s portion Parashat Vayakhel - Pekudei talking of building and decorating the mishkan (sanctuary) capture something we did.

וְכׇל־חֲכַם־לֵ֖ב בָּכֶ֑ם יָבֹ֣אוּ וְיַעֲשׂ֔וּ אֵ֛ת כׇּל־אֲשֶׁ֥ר צִוָּ֖ה יְהֹוָֽה׃

And every wise hearted person among you shall come and make everything the Eternal has commanded. Ex 35:10

And so this group did in building and beautifying our congregation. They built a community within a community and the skills of prayer and mindfulness have been honed and polished like precious materials and jewels mentioned in this portion.

We are only now tentatively making sense of what happened to us all during COVID, the loss, fear and changes we sustained. In some corners we built and grew and this is certainly one of them.

Join us for our anniversary service Tuesday 21st March 8.30am. (Please contact the office for the Zoom link)

10/11 March 2023, 18 Adar 5783

We come out of Purim shaking off the violence and aggression however playful and we are met with Exodus 33 of Parashat Ki Tissa. This week’s portion is about love. It is about love and intimacy and the request to learn and know the others. It is Martin Buber’s seed, if you like, for his I and Thou and the understanding of true intimacy through seeing the other.

And so we stumble into this scene at Sinai when God tells Moses, 

וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יְהֹוָה֙ אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֔ה גַּ֣ם אֶת־הַדָּבָ֥ר הַזֶּ֛ה אֲשֶׁ֥ר דִּבַּ֖רְתָּ אֶֽעֱשֶׂ֑ה כִּֽי־מָצָ֤אתָ חֵן֙ בְּעֵינַ֔י וָאֵדָעֲךָ֖ בְּשֵֽׁם׃

“I know you by name and you have pleased me.” 

וַיֹּאמַ֑ר הַרְאֵ֥נִי נָ֖א אֶת־כְּבֹדֶֽךָ׃

And Moses asks “Please may I see your glory?” 

In this intimate moment between God and Moses, Moses is desperate to see, feel and experience God and God is warm towards Moses as well - and of course, it is all about love. And the message for us reading it now is how we choose to be open and part of things, and to understand that that desire to know and investigate is an expression of love.

In it, we see that Divine love triumphs over Divine anger, as Moses has no difficulty persuading God to abandon the plans for violence after the Golden Calf incident. So we see as Rabbi Professor Yochanann Muffs put it,

"Love is an act of bravery and tolerance at the same time.”

With great poignancy, this moment of Torah speaks to us now, this week, as we stand paralysed with fear and anguish at what is happening in Israel, not just that tiny land between Jordan and Egypt and Syria in the north, but the whole Jewish story that is ours here in the diaspora as well.

I speak with love even though my words may be hard for some.

The lack of knowing, of investigation and concern into the other, has possibly led to the extremists now holding power, people who once were considered too niche, too extreme to join the dialogue, who are now at the heart of the government of Israel. This is not a case of right, left, young, old. Even those at the traditional and hawkish end of the spectrum are calling for justice and what is right. We want to be awake and responsive to this moment now and to be part of this protest that seeks to protect the judiciary, democracy and human rights of Israel - and we can’t do that without love: without love for the land of Israel, ‘inspired by an age-old dream’ and all who live in it; without love for the Jewish journey and the challenge to ensure our own suffering makes us open and responsive to our neighbours; without love for the others as Torah reminds us 36 times "not to oppress the stranger because you were strangers in the land of Egypt.”

Without love we would miss out on the extraordinary work of Tzedek Center, the NGO we are supporting through the NIF, that trains and enables collaborative work across all citizens. Without love we would miss the fact that the future of Jewish Israelis is bound up with the security and ease of their Palestinian neighbours. Without love we would miss out, as Dr Cornell West wrote “Never forget that justice is what love looks like in public” and without it we are an impoverished version of ourselves.

These verses of Torah remind us of all of that. It matters.

Here is the link to the protest here in London on Sunday which I will be attending. Sometimes one needs to show up for love. 

Shabbat shalom,
Rebecca

3/4 March 2023, 11 Adar 5783

לַיְּהוּדִ֕ים הָֽיְתָ֥ה אוֹרָ֖ה וְשִׂמְחָ֑ה וְשָׂשֹׂ֖ן וִיקָֽר

The Jews had light, happiness, joy and honour. (Esther 8:16)

Purim is a festival of the diaspora and we are nothing if not that. Here we are celebrating our own longevity, 70 years’ presence of a Jewish community here in our city of Finchley (Shushan!) So this Sunday we will taste a little of that light and happiness we are so good at creating here.

Our musicians will give us a concert capturing the last seven decades - an Anglo Jewish cream tea with hamantaschen of course. Those turning 70 this year will tell the story of Esther [and Vashti!), our children will sing and we will celebrate having sustained a liberal Jewish community, sometimes against the odds, right here in N12 - and yet we are here and hope to be at least for another 70 years.

This week’s Torah portion Tetzaveh affirms all of this when it begins with the instruction to keep a light burning always - in the sanctuary - a ner tamid.

And that is what we’ve been too.

חֻקַּ֤ת עוֹלָם֙ לְדֹ֣רֹתָ֔ם מֵאֵ֖ת בְּנֵ֥י יִשְׂרָאֵֽל

An everlasting statue for all generations from the Children of Israel. (Exodus 27:21).

Purim for me this year has a new meaning, a chidush, (newness) that I am rather enjoying and very much looking forward to.

I hope to see you for this rather special afternoon on Sunday.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca

24/25 February 2023, 4 Adar 5783

This week I opened an email from Boots, the Chemist, offering an opt out of Mother’s Day publicity, if one’s heart wasn’t willing. I was impressed by the sensitivity for those without mothers, those who mourn not being mothers or indeed just having uneasy relationships with mothers or children. We might think this level of sensitivity is new, but it’s not. There is evidence in Torah, this week’s parasha even, that ultimately everyone is motived by their own desires and comfort levels. Boots, the Chemist appreciates that and so did God in talking to Moses appealing gently to the hearts of others.

Speak to the children of Israel and have them take for ME a gift from every person whose heart inspires them to generosity….

Rashi explains this expression of the person whose heart inspires refers to willingness, openness etc.

Rashi explains that in old French, this refers to willingness, openness, “an expression of good will in French,” all to be given voluntarily, that is the most important thing.

We in the business of community organising, of enabling and empowering others to be part of things, understand that everyone gives of themselves when they want to, when they feel seen and their hearts motivate them. In other words, there must be self-interest. I think a great deal about that and how we nurture a congregation that should inspire this and be a place where we operate sensitively and ultimately, encourage willing hearts.

This Shabbat Rafael and I will be visiting Ruben in Scotland and our services here at FPS will be led by our phenomenal lay leaders whose hearts are very much willing and able.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca

17/18 February 2023, 27 Sh'vat 5783

There is one tiny line in this week’s portion that caught my eye.

מְלֵאָתְךָ֥ וְדִמְעֲךָ֖ לֹ֣א תְאַחֵ֑ר בְּכ֥וֹר בָּנֶ֖יךָ תִּתֶּן־לִֽי

 You shall not put off (lo te'aher) the skimming of the first yield of your vats….

Why should Torah be concerned with timeliness in the midst of so many other mitzvot? What does God mean by not putting off and more to the point why does God care? I read some learning by Rabbi Jonathan K. Crane where he identified great interest in this sense of doing things with alacrity, not delay. Rashi, French commentator of the 11th century says don’t disturb prescribed order-Spanish Ibn Ezra a generation later goes a little further by suggesting this phrase speaks to couples not delaying their time together. Either way the message is seize the day, carpe diem. Moments don’t always last.

For me I am intrigued by this call to promptness. As someone as prone to procrastination as the next person I understand well the truth; if you know you want to do something good, why delay? How often I have had a good idea, or instinct for an act of kindness and I put it off momentarily and the moment passes? Amidst the sea of mishpatim-laws in this parasha the learning about focus and timeliness is useful.  Last term our Taste of Torah class wrestled with the words of Kohelet; 

כַּאֲשֶׁר֩ תִּדֹּ֨ר נֶ֜דֶר לֵֽאלֹהִ֗ים אַל־תְּאַחֵר֙ לְשַׁלְּמ֔וֹ כִּ֛י אֵ֥ין חֵ֖פֶץ בַּכְּסִילִ֑ים אֵ֥ת אֲשֶׁר־תִּדֹּ֖ר שַׁלֵּֽם׃

 When you make a vow/commitment, do not delay (lo te'aher) in fulfilling it for God has no pleasure in fools, what you vow, fulfil. Ecclesiastes 5:3. 

 Within the busyness of our lives how easy is it to put things off and be constantly caught up with other obligations. This is the reminder to us to approach and give time to everything we can - and to do so with alacrity.

We have so much to respond to in the life of our synagogue. This week we are called upon to support the rescue and support efforts in Turkey and Syria. World Jewish Relief as they so often do are leading the community to do so. Click here to donate.

Dear friend of the congregation Nsreen Kaa who came to Barnet with VPRS, has asked for financial support for her family caught up with the disaster in Northern Syria. Reach out if you would like to help her family. This on Shabbat Shekalim when we are called upon to think about our home and what we need to sustain it. Please see below invitations to join us for our first 'Sip and See’ evenings for Renewing our Home. We want you all to be part of this.

Shabbat Shalom
Rebecca