31 January/1 February 2020, 5/6 Shvat 5780

Mental Health Awareness Shabbat

• Vayeit Moshe et yado al hashamayim. Vay’hi choshekh-afeilah b’khol erets mitzrayim shloshet yamim. Lo ra’uish et achiv, v’lo kamu ish mitachtav shloshet yamim.
   

  “And Moses held his hand toward the sky and thick darkness descended upon all the land of Egypt for three days. People could not see one another, and for three days no one could get up from where he was….” (Exod 10:22-23)

The last three plagues were said to be the worst; Locusts, Darkness and Death of the First Born. Actually the current locust plague across Africa, the most devastating for 70 years, is described biblically in its immensity. The skies are dark, and the farmers are desperate. It’s surely no coincidence that Darkness followed Locusts in the Exodus narrative. The penultimate plague is the most intriguing for us now.

The description of the plague of darkness has particular resonance with mental illness – the darkness was so heavy, so intense that people couldn’t move from their position. So debilitated by the darkness were they, they couldn’t rise from their beds. Usually other senses kick in when sight is denied; but not here, not now. The darkness is described as afeilah - thick darkness, gloomy. The Torah text suggests it is a psychological darkness as well as physical.

This, surely, we can relate to. Darkness, depression, can descend like a plague. Mental illness has many parallels with this. We are better versed now in understanding the unwelcome periods of darkness many of us experience. JAMI, the Jewish Association for Mental Illness, has done much to raise the profile of the ubiquitous struggle so many go through. They have in my mind single-handedly changed the profile and perception of mental illness. Everyone is on a spectrum of mental health.  Philippa Carr, an FPSnik, works for JAMI. Indeed several of our members have benefited from their Mental Health First Aid training. One might think, when would mental heath first aid be needed, but you’d be surprised. Synagogues and prayer services can unleash all sorts of emotions and many of us have been ready to catch and meet those as they struggle.

Mental Health Awareness Shabbat was a phenomenal initiative. Communities all round the country will be paying attention to this, and raising its profile. We will be marking it at Shabbat b’Yachad this week. We hope our young people will benefit from it too. It wasn’t just the Biblical Hebrews who experienced the paralysing effects of darkness.

Wishing you an easy Shabbat. 
Rebecca 

24/25 January 2020, 27/28 Tevet 5780

I have thrice applied for Rabbinic positions in London. All three times I was exceedingly aware of my colleagues and even friends also going the same post. It was uncomfortable. But we navigated it. The blessing and challenge of our intimate progressive Jewish community is that we know each other so well. Sometimes that is a huge benefit to the way we work together, sometimes it can blind us to a professionalism that we should be managing. We are so concerned with a sense of mutual support, of protecting ourselves from external scrutiny and washing ‘our linen in public’ that we may have resisted hearing the benefits of this.

My colleague across the road Rabbi Miriam Berger referred last week to an Ofsted report for a Jewish Primary school in Hertfordshire, the cosy-ness of staff and students and the interconnected relationships they held made for Ofsted, a blurring of boundaries.

Sometimes the cosy-ness and supportive intimacy of our Jewish community can mean we don’t lift our heads to look at the bigger picture. Sometimes we are working so hard on so many important ways to develop, sustain and progress our synagogues that we might resist seeing and listening to everything we should.

Following allegations of bullying and inappropriate behaviour by a colleague, many have come forward from Progressive Jewish communities to insist on a proper Ethics Committee to both protect and create due processes for complainants and subjects of complaints alike, be it rabbis, teachers, student rabbis or lay leaders. The Union of Reform Judaism in the States has created a robust process for this already. It behoves us greatly to follow. I have signed a letter along with many colleagues committing to safer sacred spaces and both the Liberal and Reform movements are working on this now.

I see an echo and anticipation of this in our Torah portion Va'eira. Getting deeper into the story that defines us, the Israelites are worn down by their avodah kasha, hard labour. So much so that when Moses returns from his visionary and encouraging moment at the Burning Bush, and relays what He and God have planned;  they can’t hear it, let alone believe it.

Moses spoke thus to the children of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses because of their kotzer ruach and because of their hard labor. (Exodus 6:9)

Rashi helps explain kotzer ruach as “shortness of breath,” When one is stressed, pressed or anxious we feel this difficulty in breathing or rushed breaths.

As Sforno, Italian commentator of 16th century says, “It did not appear believable to their present state of mind … their heart could not assimilate such a promise” (Sforno on Exodus 6).

There are times when we feel beleaguered or downright exhausted in our Jewish communities but this is something that surely should receive attention and commitment.

Wishing you a peaceful Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Rebecca

17/18 January 2020, 20/21 Tevet 5780

It can't fail to strike us. As we read the opening of Exodus and the image of the Burning Bush this Shabbat, that intense theophany, and moment of divine revelation. The description of the bush in flames but not burning whilst we receive images and accounts of Australia's hideous fires raging through the bush. Noel Butler, a Native Australian, who with his wife Trish runs forest camps for troubled indigenous young people, explains:

"Fire in this place is our friend," he says. "Fire has been used to maintain, to look after this whole continent forever." Native peoples called them "cool burns," No longer.  "I think this is a wake-up call not only for Australia but for the rest of the world. You cannot just destroy the land. You cannot destroy what keeps you alive."

His words speak to balance. The Native Australians always understood balance was essential to the bush.

This week I am thinking about spiritual practice, what sustains and guides us, and how it helps us maintain balance in our lives. Moses' moment at the burning bush is considered a peak moment of divine awareness. Perhaps the observations and wisdom of the Native Australian community might inform and instruct our own attempts. May the flames settle.

Wishing you a peaceful Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Rebecca

10/11 January 2020, 13/14 Tevet 5780

2020 began for me in Israel. Despite it being the lesser Shanah Tovah everyone there seemed pretty excited by the entry into Esrim Esrim (TwentyTwenty).

It was a joy there  and full of interest and questions too. Aside from Benjamin Netanyahu being at the top of Israeli politics most other things have changed a great deal this past decade for Jews and the world. Jeremy Corbyn was a back-bencher, David Cameron and Nick Clegg held the coalition government, Brexit was a glimmer yet to be fully articulated let alone realised. The World Cup was held in South Africa, without the uncertainty and apprehension that anticipates the next in Qatar.

The decade began, as we know too well, with the assassination of Qassim Soleimani and conversations of its legality. Trump’s and Iran’s language of disproportionate retaliations begin our year with justifiable concerns.

And yet life goes on. Yesterday I attended with several of our Ivriah teachers and assistants the Liberal Judaism/Movement for Reform Judaism's training day for Religion Schools. The LJY group of 18 years old flew to  Israel for their 6 month stint (Schnat). We always have to continue and build resilience and hopefulness regardless.

Gam Zeh La’Avor is a famous Hebrew expression; this too will pass. Nothing stays the same. Ever.

Here’s to the changes and opportunities 2020 may bring. Wishing you strength to rise to them. Chazak Chazak V’Nitchazak. Strength, strength let us be strengthened. (We’ll say these words as we finish the book of Genesis this week, and they are even more far reaching than usual.)

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Rebecca

20/21 December 2019, 22/23 Kislev 5780

I have retold the Chanukah story many times this past week; to children, to teenagers and to the Finchley Council of Christian and Jews’ group. I love the Greek element to our history and the challenges of assimilation and cultural integration that we have always had. Adjusting to the outside world and renegotiating it is not new.

As contemporary Jews constantly making choices about modern life and our Judaism I find myself having empathy for those Hellenised Jews and wondering where I might have been in the battle led by Judah (known as Maccabis because of the Torah verse and prayer Mi Camochah b’Elohim Adonai ). And that’s the interesting fact about Chanukah, meaning dedication, that we get to rededicate and set priorities every year.  The Greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephesus claimed that one can't step into the same river twice, but Jewish tradition argues otherwise. Things shift and change and we rediscover and re-decide constantly about our Jewish lives.

Alongside the candles, the latkes, the doughnuts and the gifts comes this season for dedicating, prioritising and setting intention. Chanukah is the unlikely holiday for recalibration. Not just an antidote to Christmas but a moment of light. I am so looking forward to spending Chanukah with you all; I hope we have planned something for everyone. Please see here for our Chanukah gatherings and upload your photos to our Facebook page and Twitter account.

Warm wishes for Shabbat and Chanukah following it and a special Happy Birthday to Lionel, recovered and celebrating his birthday with FPS on Shabbat.

Rabbi Rebecca

13/14 December 2019, 15/16 Kislev 5780

This week I officially started to enter Chanukah spirit. I usually resist until the week before but I gave a talk on our festival of light to Finchley’s Council of Christians and Jews and had to reflect on this ‘minor holiday’. I remembered a story that came out of a small town Billings, Montana in the U.S 1993 a tiny town of 80,000 folk and an even smaller Jewish community of 50 households. There was an anti semitic attack during Chanukah when a rock was thrown through a window at the chanukiah lit in a Jewish home. The next day the Billing Gazette included a cut out chanukiah in its pages and townspeople put them up in their windows as a gesture of solidarity. Quite a story of solidarity, and affecting.

Chanukah means of course not lights but rather dedication. The temple was re-dedicated by the Hasmoneans (Maccabis) in the 2nd century B.C.E. For us in amidst the December intensity of Chanukah, and gifts and chocolate coins and donuts there is an opportunity to consider what it is we dedicate ourselves to. Our Judaism, our families, our work priorities. Indeed our lives. (Perhaps even our vote) I like to consider this as the foundation to the candle lighting this month.

We’ll begin gearing up for Chanukah this Friday for Ivriah students, their families and all our tiny tots as we have a fun way to enter Shabbat from 5.30pm.

We’ll be gathering for 2nd night candle at FPS 23rd December 6pm with a short concert by the Dolans-Light in the Darkness- and wine and cheese (check out the story of Judith and Holofernes!)

And Chanukah lunch and candle lighting 26th December (Boxing Day 1pm) let us know if you would like to join and if you need a lift.

Shabbat Chanukah Friday 27th will be a bring and share latke kiddush.

I look forward to seeing you everyone at FPS at some point !

Wishing you Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Rebecca

6/7 December 2019, 8/9 Kislev 5780

God was in this place, and I, I did not know it.

This exclamation by Jacob on waking from his dream of a ladder ascending to heaven, with angels going up and down has always intrigued us (why were the angels coming from earth?).

Why did he sense the presence of God and if so why was he surprised by it. It anticipates Moses taking off his sandals at the burning bush, or Samuel as a boy wakened by a voice calling him, assuming it was his master Eli and suddenly realising it was God.

We all have those quiet moment, 'the still, small voice of calm' where we sense something beyond us. Sometimes it's deeply personal or spiritual. Sometimes it is in the face of extreme courage or love.

In an extraordinary demonstration of peaceful intent and love David Merritt, father of Jack (who was murdered last Friday at London Bridge), called out those making political gain from his son’s murder. "Jack would be livid his death has been used to further an agenda of hate…"

Jewish narrative in Bible, and in history offers many unexpected sacred moments. I can’t help but feel this moment is one of those. When real life sheds meaning on a biblical verse.

How can we not be touched by such courage and integrity as a parent grieves their child? With such a strange terrible twist that his murderer was someone he had worked with in the rehabilitation he was so committed to, and still that commitment to love and peace.

May we always be open to those moments of sensing:

God was in this place, and I, I did not know it.

Wishing you Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Rebecca

29/30 November 2019, 1/2 Kislev 5780

A shocking portion Toldot (Generations), this Shabbat. The birth of Esau and Jacob and the prophecy that Rebekah helps to fulfill with deceit that the boys will fight. The extremes of parental favouritism don’t show our patriarch and matriarch in a particularly good light. And the family becomes polarised. 

“Two peoples are in your belly; two nations shall branch off from each other [as they emerge from your womb]. One people shall prevail over the other; the elder shall serve the younger. ... When the boys grew up, Esau became a skillful hunter and a man of the outdoors; but Jacob was a homespun man, keeping to the tents.” (Gen 25:23, 27)

It’s a brilliant lesson in how ‘not to parent’.  All so polarised. But not just that. 

As Rabbi Michael Holzman taught; But the Torah knows us too well. Human societies tend toward entropy not creative tension. So immediately we see Jacob and Rebekah team up against Esau and Isaac. And through all the machinations, what results? Extortion over a bowl of soup? When Jacob and Rebecca turn polarization into demonization, brokenness and the threat of violence are the only results.  (I’ll speak more on that this Shabbat.)

What a week to read this portion when we are reminded such extremes of feelings are not just for our domestic dwellings but the wider wold.  Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis spoke such truth when he commented on a human problem rather than a procedural one, but I am not sure such polarised pronouncements help us. There are issues of prejudice and poor behaviour in both major parties. I agree with the Reform movement this week; it would be deeply regrettable for 2019 to be remembered only for the conversations about anti-semitism.  We are not in the business of telling people how to vote, I think I have covered that previously, but we do hope everyone feels the preciousness of their vote and engages with conscience.

Wishing you a Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Rebecca

22/23 November 2019, 24/25 Cheshvan 5780

We did interesting outreach last Sunday when FPS was represented at the AJEX Remembrance March 2019, as the photo of Melvyn Newman and Stanley Volk shows. We were also volunteering in Highgate Cemetery planting bulbs on rather ancient graves, creating eco bricks and then joining the Somali Bravanese Welfare Association in their new building on Tarling Road.

A modest crew attended MITZVAH DAY from our synagogue, perhaps because we are engaged in reaching out to the wider community all year. It's of interest nonetheless and Zoe and I will explore this to understand better, all the time, what our community wants to be doing.

This Shabbat our member Richard Greene will read from the portion Chayyei Sarah when Sarah dies and Isaac is comforted after the death of his mother. Zoe and I will be away for the weekend taking our Kabbalat Torah class to Amsterdam; this year our class is so big, 12 children and 10 travelling, that we are not combining with another synagogue. Our young people have been studying this term in our new course, Rabbi Harry Jacobi Memorial Project, where they are learning about the Holocaust and framing it around Harry’s own journey. Amsterdam will be a culmination of their learning; and we’ll be visiting where he lived in the orphanage in Dam Square.

Some of you will have joined us on Tuesday for our conversation with Mike Freer MP and Ross Houston, the Labour Party candidate for Finchley & Golders Green, has confirmed he will come at 8.00 pm on Tuesday 3 December and told me he was keen to discuss ‘everything' (candidates have full schedules and we are taking the dates they have available!).

Wishing you a Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Rebecca

15/16 November 2019, 17/18 Cheshvan 5780

Over the Summer Reb Irwin Keller wrote a poem I am a disloyal Jew. It went viral. It was in response to a comment made by his president about Jews being disloyal citizens.

I am a disloyal Jew.
I am not loyal to a political party...
I am not loyal to taunts or tweets...
I am a disloyal Jew...
I am a loyal Jew.
I am loyal to the inconveniences of kindness.
I am loyal to the dream of justice....

Historically as Jews in the country we have been engaged and concerned with the world around us. Since the introduction of the prayer for the Royal Family and the Government, the first in the vernacular, into traditional liturgy here we have seen citizenship as part of our faith. As synagogues we are political every time we attempt to repair the world Tikkun Olam. At the moment at FPS we are engaging with our elected officials and those who might be elected. Our strong relationship with the former leader of Barnet Council Richard Cornelius enabled much of our successful justice work. Three weeks ago Rabbi Danny Rich talked to us about his role in Labour Party work, and his perspective as an activist on the claims of antisemitism. Tonight we welcome Luciana Berger MP, next week Mike Freer MP and we await confirmation of Ross Houston the Labour candidate's visit.

It is right we engage in this way, never party political as a synagogue but strengthening the lines of communications with all possible elected representatives from all three major parties. After 12 December we will work with our MP to continue the contribution we make to the Borough of Barnet.

This is what we are loyal to.

Rabbi Rebecca

8/9 November 2019, 10/11 Cheshvan 5780

This week at Delving into Judaism I had planned a session on Judaism and Social Justice, exploring the texts that inspire us - or command us - to make a just society, and a better world. Hillel said 'do not separate yourself from the community' (Pirkei Avot 2:4).

But our conversation turned instead to our beloved Hilda, whose funeral took place on Tuesday - and from that the session turned into a rich discussion on death and the customs around burial and cremation. We looked at how the burial (or cremation) itself are sewn into the fabric of the funeral service, and our reactions and experiences of these moments. We discussed Tahara, the traditional ritual washing of a body - now generally not practised in Liberal Judaism.

Throughout the conversation we returned to the thread that unites so many faith practices around death - respect for the person who has died, and their body. It made me think of our chosen Mitzvah Day project - cleaning and tidying at Highgate Cemetery. We uphold our Jewish values by offering respect to people we have never known by keeping their graves beautiful.

Mitzvah Day is an extraordinary custom in its own right. Created only 10 years ago it now is celebrated across the world, as Jews (and now friends of other faiths) come together to give our time, rather than our money, to make a difference.

For those who would rather make a difference in the warm, we are continuing our 'Cleaner and Greener' theme by making 3 eco-projects in Holly Lodge, the community centre right next to the cemetery:

- Ecobricks
- Toys for dogs in rescue centres
- Ecoplanting

For these we need plastic bottles and all your non-recyclable plastic (cleaned, please!), old T-shirts, old tennis balls and jam jars.

Whether you would like to be gardening, crafting, or a bit of both please do join us next Sunday, 17 November, at 11 am at Holly Lodge Community Centre, 30 Makepeace Avenue, Highgate, London N6 6HL. Bring cake, gardening gloves, warm clothes, craft resources and tea!

Shabbat shalom
Zoe Jacobs

1/2 November 2019, 3/4 Cheshvan 5780

“The anticipation is worse than the actual event”. This could be a mantra to my life. From blood tests to interviews, I am an exceptional worrier. I also know it is true for the smaller things in life. I write to do lists every day, and notice that some things stay on my list for weeks because I keep putting them off – too scared or overwhelmed by the mere idea of the task. And yet, thankfully, the anticipation is worse than the actual event. Usually once I start doing whatever it is, it takes less time and is less difficult than I had suspected.

This week I led Lunch and Learn – a fantastic Thursday lunchtime slot of Torah study – in Rabbi Rebecca’s place. I need to prepare for this rather more than she does! I give myself a few hours curled up with various Torah commentaries, and go through verse by verse noticing the interesting word choices, peculiar grammar, or odd structures and repetitions in the text, exploring the various explanations and commentaries that have been written about them.

It feels...holy. A strange word, I grant you. It is all-consuming. I am a poor multitasker at the best of times, but this requires a wholly single-focused attention. If the phone rings the sound feels like it’s coming from a million miles away. I would describe it as meditative except it makes my brain work so incredibly hard. I find it exhausting and thrilling. But I put it off like mad.

It was on my to do list for the start of the week, and yet it was Thursday morning when eventually time pressure forced me into action. I know that once I start it I’ll enjoy it but I still cannot make myself do it. I don’t like the current idea that ‘we all have a shorter attention span nowadays’ – it feels like I’m doing us a disservice. And yet I wonder whether I do shy away from this incredibly intense experience because of the focus it requires, because of just how much I need to turn my back on Twitter, Facebook, text messages and notifications, and let myself sink in to the task.

It feels rebellious, somehow, to give something such undivided attention, particularly now as politics and news feel so all-present. And yet, offering ourselves that time to turn away is so calming, so reassuring. I hope you find a moment this week to give undivided attention to something or someone you love, at synagogue or at home.

Shabbat shalom,

Zoe Jacobs

25/26 October 2019, 26/27 Tishrei 5780

This is a picture from Simchat Torah last Sunday night. For our celebrations we honoured David and Abigail Dolan as Chatan Torah and Kallat Bereshit in the evening and David Hoffmann and Lesley Urbach in the morning. I don’t think it would be overstating to say ‘we had a blast’. Between Torah limericks, unrolling and over 35 opening verses of parshiot (portions) read, we were astounded by the turn out of our Jewishly literate Liberal congregation. That truly was a joy.

The last letter of Deuteronomy is a lamed and the first letter of Bereshit a bet. Put together lamed and bet and you get lev a heart. I’m reminded of the heart of this community again and again. Throughout these Tishri festivals we have come together again and again. Just as we read as we finished Torah, so may it be for each one of us: strength strength, let us be strengthened.

After this Shabbat, Bereshit, I’ll be taking some time off as we reach the end of the HHD season and head into the quieter month of Cheshvan.

Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Rebecca

18/19 October 2019, 19/20 Tishrei 5780

Breath of all breaths, said Kohelet, all is breath….there is nothing new under the sun. (Breath is often translated as vanities or futility.)

We have been studying Ecclesiastes, that strange book that offers a rather cyclical or sanguine view of life (depending on who you are). My teacher Rabbi Jonathan Magonet used to say this work was either written by a melancholic teenager or a wise old bird.

We read Kohelet for Sukkot, straight after Yom Kippur when we are raw and open to everything. We know that everything is fragile and temporal. This festival of eating, learning, sleeping (sometimes) in our Sukkah gives us a visceral reminder of all of this. Our beautiful, modest and natural Sukkah also is a call to arms to fight for better housing for those who don’t have firm, reliable and proper homes. Tuesday Night Shelter in our synagogue as we meandered into our sukkah was a stark reminder. Today, through the rabbinic Social Action group TZELEM, rabbis have called on our government to build better social housing using our sukkot as reminders.

Shabbat Shalom and do remember our fabulous whole community UNSCROLLING for Simchat Torah this coming Sunday at 6.30 pm.

Rebecca

Thank you to Eden Silver-Myer, Ania Levy, Zoe and Hilary Luder for designing and building our sukkah this year.

11/12 October 2019, 12/13 Tishrei 5780

The morning after Yom Kippur our hearts are full for many reasons. Not least, to return home and discover the attack on the synagogue in Halle. Two killed, and fear and insecurity unleashed on our Day of Atonement. We stand in solidarity with them and I want to acknowledge with gratitude those who stood outside our synagogue all day yesterday. Our members and our friend Ian Katz who comes back to give so much of his time and expertise every HHD. With heavy hearts we understand why security is necessary.
I am so grateful to all who work so hard in our community in all areas. Those who contribute to the running, security, learning and spirituality of our synagogue . You'll see why I love Marge Piercy's poem To Be of Use:

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...Hopi vases that

held corn, are put in museums

but you know they were made to be used.

The pitcher cries for water to carry

and a person for work that is real.

Shabbat Shalom and thank you,
Rebecca

4/5 October 2019, 5/6 Tishrei 5780

Shabbat Shuvah tomorrow and I am thinking of big fish. Despite the walks we are doing every day, with the changing leaves and conkers under our feet, I am thinking of the Jonah story and the image of him swallowed by the dag gadol. No other biblical character is quite as brilliant for considering our own attitudes of stubborness, ambivalence about choices and faith. Ironically Jonah is the most successful prophet. The only one who has immediate results. Those grudging words he says to the king and people of Ninevah (in 40 days Ninevah will be overthrown) work. They don sackcloth and ashes and repent. He's the greatest prophet because he is so familiar, so absurd, so human.

What better focus for us than him?

Most of us, like Jonah, at one time or another, avoid our task, choose sleep over wakefulness and sail away if we can. Jonah steps on our toes. Come hear the book read on Yom Kippur.

Shabbat Shalom
Rebecca

27/28 September 2019, 27/28 Elul 5779

It's been for some of us a good year and a full year. As we approach Rosh Hashanah, we think of our lives but also what we can bring to other peoples' lives.

Teshuvah U’Tefillah U’Tzdakah ….. Repentance, Prayer and Charity (justice) will avert the evil decree. We will chant this many times over the HHD services. There is much to comment on this verse, and I will be, but for now as we approach Sunday the idea of righteous giving and support is important. Generosity is key.

A friend received a message the other day. His name was mentioned and honoured as his brother made a donation to the food bank in their South African synagogue. Instead of a physical Rosh Hashanah gift, they donated to the food bank in his name. I loved this idea.

We all agree Food Banks are not the answer and we are right to feel ashamed that so many people rely on them here in our affluent United Kingdom. Charity can't end poverty. But while the need is there, we are responsible for sharing what we have. So please donate money or food in family or friends’ names. We will happily send a Rosh Hashanah email to anyone you donate for.

Join us in the learning and activities we have as we prepare here at FPS for Rosh Hashanah to bring it extra meaning and joy.

Shabbat Shalom
Rebecca

20/21 September 2019, 20/21 Elul 5779

All of old. Nothing else ever. Ever tried. ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail better. Samuel Beckett, Worstword Ho! 1983

We try hard in our lives, seeking to do the best we can and floundering at times. If HHD gives us a chance to reflect then what better way than to consider our failures. What are we proud of and what do we regret?

There is the clear obligation to forgive others as Maimonides reminds in his Laws of Tshuvah It's forbidden for a person to be cruel and refuse to be appeased. What about the way we look at our own successes and failures?

Join Rabbi Howard Cooper and me to discuss and study together (at FRS) this Saturday night before Selichot service: Fail Better.

Wishing you Shabbat Shalom and so pleased Ivriah is back and Cafe Ivriah filled the Small Hall last week as the children began their lessons and we learned Kiddush. #TheNewTen #LearningJewishSkills.

Rebecca

13/14 September 2019, 13/14 Elul 5779

Rabbi Rebecca writes;

I am busy searching for all texts and anecdotes to open our hearts this month of Elul. This is to signify the journey we begin on 29 September, Erev Rosh Hashanah.

This week I listened to Malcom Gladwell’s new book Talking to Strangers. His premise: we can never really know the stranger and often as humans make catastrophic errors of judgement about people we meet. We rely on feelings and instinct and sometimes are very wrong. How prescient of the BBC to broadcast this Book of the Week now when mistrust and suspicion is palpable in our parliament and filters down to others.

Gladwell recounts one of the greatest ‘follies’ in 20th century history, Neville Chamberlain’s catastrophic misreading of Hitler. But he softens judgement by demonstrating how difficult it is to read others.

A tiny verse in the portion this week Ki Teitze captures this unease and mistrust:

When you go out [as an army] against your enemies, be on your guard against anything untoward in them. (23:10) and yet is somewhat contradicted by a later one: You shall not subvert or abuse the rights of the stranger… (24:17)

I invite you to consider trust this week, and the way we offer and withhold it. Shabbat will be 14 Elul, almost half way through the month. I am reminded of Barbara Crooker’s poem In the Middle* of a life that’s as complicated as everyone else’s, struggling for balance…

Good luck with Elul and look out for our new learning beginning next week and our shared Selichot service at FRS on 21 September, beginning with my study session with Rabbi Howard Cooper entitled Fail Better.

Shabbat Shalom to all
Rabbi Rebecca

*https://poetrydispatch.wordpress.com/2007/11/04/barbara-crooker-in-the-middle/

6/7 September 2019, 6/7 Elul 5779

This is a photo of the entrance to our synagogue. Rarely a person arrives nowadays without commenting on its beauty. Sasha Conroy is responsible for this and her gardening helpers, most notably David and Sam. There is even an irrigation system in place to sustain its bloom. Many of us who come often to FPS might have ceased to notice this impressive addition to our garden. It is universally acknowledged that joy and appreciation diminishes after the initial spike. During the month of Elul why not look again at things we often forget to appreciate, looking up or out at sights that bring us joy.

Gratitude can always be sharpened, indeed focusing on the good is a skill. Elul, the preparation month before the HHD gives opportunities to reflect and consider.

In Musar, the system of ethical improvement created by Rabbi Israel Salanter, a later rabbi Rav Wolbe turns the idea of judgment of ourselves, so necessary for Elul into something appreciative too. (Alei Shur II p. 160): We find that in order to regret one’s transgressions, it is first necessary to know the enormous positive qualities which reside naturally within us. Looking for the good, out and in, is undeniably beneficial

It’s the 5th day of Elul, today Thursday 5th September, do check out all of our Elul activities as we gear up to Rosh Hashanah.

Shabbat shalom
Rabbi Rebecca