MESSAGE FROM RABBI REBECCA
These days continue to be so strange. Our executive board are working flat out to prepare for a safe and responsible return to the building. We all want to be together. I know for many, zoom services provide a strong and meaningful substantiate for being in our beloved Hutton Grove. For some maybe not so much. And I empathise with how everyone is feeling.
Re’eh anokhi nothin lifnaichem hayom beracha u’klalah. Behold I set before you blessing and curse. This is the opening verse of this week’s portion (Deut 11). The Torah text implies listening and observing the commandments or not designated a blessing or curse. Generations later we appreciate fuller way of understanding the choice in our response to life. Indeed our preparation for the New Year is all about that wrestling we all have to manage. It’s not easy.
We will try our first Car Park drive-in service on Friday 4th September and then again 11th September. We are allowed up to 30 people either in their cars or seated outside the Small Hall doors. We will be outside so singing will be permitted. Dean and I will lead from outside the Small Hall and it will be streamed to Zoom and Facebook as usual. This will be a first step for us!
Do book in to join us. We will manage a first booking system, and will particularly reach out to some of you who have not been using Zoom.
Today I officiated at my first wedding since lockdown. There were 6 guests and many more on the screen from Paris. It was strange to be doing that amongst people. Be called Rabbi by folk in real time next to me; sign a ketubah and stand under a chuppah. It reminded me we will be back, we will return and things will be as they were and maybe a little bit better.
Shabbat shalom,
Rabbi Rebecca