This Shabbat is heavy with significance. We have our last Covid postponed Bar Mitzvah, the first in this family's for generations.
Karen explains her choice to turn from her Jewish secular roots to find a synagogue community, celebrate a Bar Mitzvah and watch her son move through Ivriah into Kabbalat Torah.
I find such journeys back to Jewish ritual and celebration intensely moving. We have made our Jewish lives rich with meaning, in terms of marking personal lifecycle, learning, and creating 'sacred relationships and sacred acts that flow from them' as I learned from Rabbi Larry Hoffman.
I welcome that challenge to keep building a synagogue that fosters sacred relationships and sacred acts. One of them is a responsibility to work for justice. This weekend Jewish Women's Aid marks their annual Shabbat, when synagogues across the land speak about and to the experience of domestic violence and abuse in our communities and how they support those who need and teach the rest of us to be aware and ready. I'm proud this is one of our designated charities. Our own Andrea Collett will share words on Friday night, and Talia Pavell, from university in Liverpool shares her take on the organisation she continues to do so much for.
I know that November traditionally captures a little burn out and exhaustion. How can it not post high holidays and the energised start to the year and stream of festivals we had. But I do hope you will take advantage of all that FPS works on and the opportunities it offers for those sacred relationships and acts that follow them.
Just see our Events Calendar.
With warm wishes to you for a Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca