30 April/1 May 2021, 18/19 Iyar 5781

Paul Silver-Myer writes:

Emor means ‘to speak’ and this week’s parashah continues the Levitical description of purity rules for the Kohanim (priests) and tells the story of a man who spoke in a blasphemous way and the punishment that followed.

It is fascinating to think that when we start to speak a sentence, we don’t know exactly what we will say. Understanding our thoughts and the courage to try and express them is part of ‘self-actualization’ or achieving one’s fullest potential.

Maslow placed self-actualization at the peak of his hierarchy of needs 'pyramid', though the Siksika teachings - Blackfeet Nation, Reservation of Montana from whom Maslow developed his own theory without crediting them - place self-actualisation at the bottom of their 'tipi.' They view self-actualisation as the basis for development into community actualisation.

Whether the individual or the community is more important came to mind as the synagogue celebrated its 2021 Adult B’nei Mitzvah service last Shabbat. It was an uplifting heart-warming occasion that brought together ‘a wonderful diversity of voices’ and ‘much of what FPS can be proud about’.

One comment in the Zoom chat suggested it was ‘the epitome of the power and potential of community’. Each of the eleven B’nei Mitzvah had followed their own journeys to be able to speak, with courage, about how Leviticus 18 + 19 had challenged them to confront what is abominable and what is holy.

With over 100 in attendance on Zoom, and further viewers via other platforms the ruach (spirit) created a Shabbat synergy demonstrating that when a group of individuals come together, two plus two can make five.

Sadly, Rabbi Rebecca could not lead the service for the group that she had nurtured over the past eight months, whilst she convalesced at home. We wish her a refuah shleimah (a quick recovery) and to her and everyone else involved, grateful thanks are due.

Further words will be spoken this weekend courtesy of the Liberal Judaism community at their / our Biennial.

The theme is Breaking Down Walls and there are over 60 speakers and 30 sessions, including Stephen Bush in conversation with Tamara Joseph on ‘Race, Inclusion and the Jewish Community’, and a session with Rabbi Margaret Jacobi on ‘A time to break down and a time to build’. Please do add your voice to the weekend.

Please note you can click here to sign up for Biennial so that you get the links for this weekend's Kabbalat Shabbat & Shabbat Morning services by email from them. You can view the full Biennial schedule here: https://liberal-judaism-breaking-down-walls.heysummit.com/

Shabbat shalom
Paul Silver-Myer, FPS President

23/24 April 2021, 11/12 Iyar 5781

Zoe writes:

This week's portion is about Holiness. Kadosh (holy) also has a sense of separation - the normal from the special, the clean from the unclean, the holy from the profane.

This week's news is full not of Covid-19 but of copycat caterpillars (I did ponder a copycat-erpillars pun there...) and elite football groups.

Through the lens of holiness, Marks and Spencer believe their Colin the caterpillar cakes are Holy because they stand alone (not be copied by Aldi). Meanwhile, fans believe football is Holy because it stands together.

Certainly this lockdown has pushed us to learn and enjoy the moments we experience alone, while appreciating the times of communal holiness we wish we could reinstate.

I noted the prayer by Rabbi Howard Cooper included in the most recent Reform siddur (Forms of Prayer, 2008) for those lighting Shabbat candles alone:

Two candles, one person
I welcome this Shabbat alone
and join myself to the community of Israel
One candle for me
One candle for my people
Together and alone
we share our heritage
our future
our yearning
for the peace of Shabbat.

For me, this prayer could have been written specifically for Covid life - holding the personal and communal experiences, normally together, in parallel at a distance.

Over these 15 months we've learnt how technology can help us bridge the distance, whether our incredible Shabbat services, morning meditation, or one-off events.

Next Wednesday is - for me - the biggest of the latter. The London Citizens Mayoral Assembly. I have been involved in the planning from the start - for an event that was intended for May 2020 and was, like so much, postponed until now.

We aim to have 6000 people on that call. And I hope one of those 6000 is you.

Maybe holiness is one person, in one room, logging on to a Mayoral Assembly - when they could do anything else - knowing they are part of something so huge, making such an enormous difference, by standing up and being there.

And maybe holiness is knowing that we will each be doing that, together.

Shabbat shalom,
Zoe

16/17 April 2021, 4/5 Iyar 5781

We are stronger together is one of those cliches that turns out to be true. When we ended Passover in a brief zoomed Havdalah ceremony with 80 other Liberal Jews we saw that. When we make changes for the better because of stronger alliances and connections with others, in our Citizens UK work, we see that too. Famously it was Martin Buber in his book I and Thou that first expressed the idea of religious meaning through person relationships. It has born out.

All actual life is encounter. The I of the basic word I-You is different from that of the basic word I-It...Persons appear by entering into relation to other persons.

So I wanted to alert you this week to two important events where we should ensure our presence as a community.

1. London's Mayoral Assembly April 28th 6pm, where our own Zoe Jacobs and Adrian Lister will be prominent leaders on the night. Sign up here.

2. Liberal Judaism's Biennial Weekend, a slight misnomer as of course there was one last year too. But taking advantage of online gathering colleagues wanted to create a collective Shabbat learning opportunity for us all. We will participate in the Shabbat services together and there is learning and conversation all weekend from Friday to Sunday. Please book here for free for your easy pass to access everything.

I wish you a Shabbat Shalom and an easy weekend.

Rebecca

9/10 April 2021, 27/28 Nisan 5781

Moufletas at our Mimouna Brunch

This period of the year is intense, Jewishly.

We finish Pesach, see these mufleta from our Mimouna celebrations.

And then on the journey to Shavuot we mark Yom HaShoah and Yom Ha'atzma'ut, both days added to the calendar in modern times.

This addition was and is hugely controversial for the more tradition Haredim but for us they stand as witness to the continuing experience of Jews from ancient times through the extraordinary events of the twentieth century.

Remembering never ceases being a cornerstone of our Jewish experience. Zachor, (memory) wrote Joseph Chaim Yerushalmi is more relevant sometimes than history. “The antonym of 'forgetting' is not 'remembering', but justice.”

I hope you were able to join us for our marking of Yom HaShoah.

This Saturday we are joining East London and Essex Liberal Synagogue for their special inclusive Shabbat service. Virtual visits to other synagogue services is one of the benefits of these strange times!

Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Rebecca

2/3 April 2021, 20/21 Nisan 5781

There was something particularly memorable about our communal Seder last Sunday evening, not least because two Elijah's arrived and a goat. We came together with such warmth and dedication emboldened by our learning and preparations. New members were delivering Passover food to others and we expanded our minhagim to include new Mizrachi traditions thanks to The Fuller Table.

This Sunday at Cafe Ivriah we'll mark Mimouna, a Moroccan Jewish holiday for the end of Pesach gathering increasing popularity in Israel now. It's a chance to translate some of the Pesach commitments let all who are hungry come and eat into the vernacular of our lives.

This holiday may be based on the yahrzeit of Maimon ben Joseph, the father of Maimonides , a scholar in his own right who lived in Fez (Morocco) and wrote on Jewish-Islamic relations. He died around 1170. Or it might be based on the Arabic word, ma'amoun for plenty and good fortune.

Or perhaps even the Hebrew word emunah (belief) and the Maimonidean Ani Ma'amin, I believe as a reassurance after Passover. It's a holiday of commitment and hope for the fertility and fortune of Spring . It's sharing of food, produce and friendship, a return to real food, no longer the bread of affliction. I imagine we will have much to share after this full year of virtual gathering and yet the community has welcomed new members and grown in interesting ways.

Our FPS Mimouna will reflect on this and hopes for the months ahead. See below for the food stuffs to have.

We're going to try it this year, because who doesn't need a serving of blessing and joy. Join us on Sunday for some learning, conversation and virtual eating together but looking to the moment when it will be real.

Moadim l'simcha and wishing you a good end to Passover.
Rabbi Rebecca

26/27 March 2021, 13/14 Nisan 5781

I wish you Chag Pesach Sameach, a good and joyful Passover. Could we have imagined we'd be here having another 'virtual' seder a year on? what pain we've witnessed and what losses some of us have endured and yet what resilience we've built. Min Hameitzar Karati Yah, Anani b'merchav yah. Out of the narrow place I called to you, and you answered with wide expansiveness. That's our hope this year more than ever, words from Psalm 118 recited during Pesach. Let us taste some ease, here at home. Let us pray for an opening for us all. And for those oppressed and imprisoned further away too. As we call for freedom and are reminded of its value, may we hold those peoples still under bondage in mind. Let's talk of their plight, as the Uyghurs in China, at our Sedarim this weekend. May this year be a meaningful Passover for us.

Rabbi Rebecca

19/20 March 2021, 6/7 Nisan 5781

Vayikra el Moshe -The Eternal Called to Moses and spoke to him ... Please feel called to join us for our Passover Preparations and celebrations. This week marks a year since the beginning of lockdown life and our moving as a community to online activities.

I doubt any of us thought we'd be holding our second Zoom seder.

So I think preparing together for Pesach will be significant this year. Look out for our Fuller Table session next Wednesday 7pm where we'll expand the customs and practices of Passover to include Mizrachi and Ethiopian Judaism. We will welcome guests to our table; Rabbi Gary Somers, Isaac Treuherz and Desta Shanko. This exploring has rightly come from our work to see Jewish life, tradition and practice as wider than we might have previously. We are waiting very hopefully for the guidance from Stephen Bush's report at the BOD.

Let all who are hungry come and eat... might just be spiritual as well as edible. (Sunday's event on Food Poverty in Cafe Ivriah is just one of these). Do join us for this important step in our Jewish learning and practice.

Rabbi Rebecca

12/13 March 2021, 28/29 Adar 5781

I could talk Royal family this week, Harry, Meghan and Oprah but I won’t.

At least not yet.

Instead I’ll say a census is coming this year. 2021 we will be counted in the U.K.
We know a thing or two about being counted as well as counting ourselves in. This week’s double portion Vayakhel-Pekudei, the last in Exodus, refers to the Census just completed and the 603,550 souls that were included from aged twenty up. At the end of a year of this pandemic sitting so squarely within our lives, we have never before been so dependant on and grateful for data. This data has enabled and informed so many of our decisions and I for one, have find a new found appreciation for counting and record keeping.

We find ourselves in our community truly thinking about our membership right now, at the end of a year when online activity has expanded engagement. Our Chair convened a new Membership team to consider our reach and our remit as a synagogue, who we appeal to and who in fact chooses to be counted amongst us. How do we best sell ourselves as a congregation? What do we do well? What would you like us to do more of? Who could benefit from our services who is not already?

These are ways I consider counting and being counted within FPS. The leitmotif of Jewish experience and community is based heavily on the living in, and leaving Egypt, being a stranger once and the responsibility it places on us now. This will be even more present for us in the coming weeks of our festival year. Similarly, understanding us within Progressive Judaism’s place in Israel is part of that, note our conversation this Thursday with the Embassy.

But most importantly being at home is key to being counted, to contributing to our congregation and being known by it as well. Hard to imagine but Moses had to stop the gifts and the voluntary work offered; he was overwhelmed ‘No man or woman shall do any more work for the offering of the Sanctuary’ (Shemot 36:6).

These are not rhetorical questions! So I so look forward to hearing from you.
Shabbat Shalom to all and see you later?

Rebecca

5/6 March 2021, 21/22 Adar 5781

Life moves apace and I am already looking to the next moment on our Jewish calendar, as is our way. Pesach is at the end of this month.

This week's portion Ki Tissa sees the Golden Calf and Moses (and God's) ensuing fury. Afterwards, after he's gone back up Sinai to collect the second set of tablets, Moses is alone with God and asks to see God's presence, it's a beautiful request.

In the end he's hidden in the cleft of a rock and is told, for his own safety, he'll see just the back of God.

I think of this actually as anticipating Passover.

Why? When former bishop Richard Holloway left his faith because of its empty promises he nonetheless talked of the beauty of "the ritualistic aspect, the way that each day is marked out for a particular purpose, so that we will regularly have appointments with spiritual ideas".*

Boy, I loved this. And of course our festival year is replete with appointments with spiritual ideas. Whether it's seeing God in these small dates in our diary, in the seder, the service, the feeding of others. It's all bound up in the moments that matter for us.

Let All Who Are Hungry Come and Eat, we'll say on Seder night and before it. This year maybe in as many languages as we can muster. So, if you have customs and minhagim in your families you'd like to see added to our FPS seder and services, do tell me. Let's expand our appointment with spiritual ideas for everyone.

Rabbi Rebecca

*Leaving Alexandria: A Memoir of Faith and Doubt by Richard Holloway Canongate Books 2012

26/27 February 2021, 14/15 Adar 5781

It’s poignant that last Purim we gathered together without knowing or understanding the virus in our midst. Purim, a relatively minor festival, impacted us profoundly.

This past year has been full of loss and suffering for so many. Some more than others as we know from our communities. Covid has been brutal to health capacity but also to livelihoods. So many had careers, work and income damaged; that has meant real suffering in many homes.

But Purim 2020 also left with us the custom of mishloach manot (sending gifts) and matanonot l’evyonim (gifts to the poor) and these permeated the Jewish year way beyond the festival. We have spent the last twelve months ensuring we send gifts to those that need, both food and cheering. We have had to be more responsive to those who have struggled. Possibly for the first time, some have had to rely on food banks and gifts, when they have hitherto never needed charity. So many of our synagogues have become hubs for local food banks. Our community letters have reminded us since last Purim: that if we are able to give we should. Looking ahead to Pesach we’ll say at Seder "Let All who are hungry come and eat". It has taken on a piquancy through these months. Gifts and food for those who need has become a necessity rather than an option.

Famously the Book of Esther excludes the name of God. But even more so the word Ester contains the letters s-t-r, which is the root of the word ‘to hide oneself’. Talmudic rabbis play with this, and suggest Esther is from Hester Panim – ‘the hidden face’ of God – Deuteronomy (31.18), when God insists: ‘I’ll hide my face’. It has been a dark year but there is light ahead, as the Megillah ends with Mordechai “seeking goodness and speaking of peace to his descendants.” It’s tough not being together for another Seder; the second in a row. Perhaps we have people in our lives we fear it might be the last? So we hope and pray for a new ease and peacefulness.

Min Ha Meitzar karati yah v’anani v’merchav yah.

So says Psalm 118 which we will recite at Pesach in just a few weeks now;

“From a narrow place I cried to you and you answered me with wide expansiveness.” As we navigate these two holidays so anticipated, may we find that openness in a safe way for our communities and our country.

Shabbat shalom,

Rabbi Rebecca
This piece is published in London Jewish News this week.

19/20 February 2021, 7/8 Adar 5781

We are currently renewing and refreshing our work with Barnet Citizens.

As you know, we count ourselves part of an alliance of six institutions in the borough who work together for positive change.

While we are currently not in our building, we know it will be there for us when we are allowed to be there safely - and what a moment to rejoice it will be.

Meanwhile our neighbours, the Markaz (Muslim community centre) in Golders Green have suffered Islamophobic hate throughout their journey to their own holy building, The council took 150 days to validate their application (when their own policy states a maximum of 10 days) and they received over 1000 emails against their application. The council webpage publishing these had to be blocked because of the racist hatred.

We robustly support their campaign along with other local synagogues, and take action with them in this next step on their journey.

V'asu li mikdash v'shachanti b'tocham, "Let them make me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them" These are the gifts . . . and this is how you shall make it. "Exactly as I show you . . . ken ta-asu, so shall you make it" (Exodus 25:8-9).

This week's Torah portion, T'rumah, details the building of a Holy space - and its specification of each item needed. But notably it isn't just the wealthy who offer gifts 'trumah' to make the building - everyone must add *something*, and that way a true community space is built.

It is our turn to join our neighbours, to stand with them as they fight for their community space.

Join us on Wednesday 24th Feb at 8pm to meet the Markaz leaders and lawyers supporting their campaign.

If you are interested in this campaign, or the other campaigns we're working on - supporting a faster and better mental health provision for teens in Barnet, and working towards the London Mayoral Assembly - please do sign up to our two fabulous training opportunities below.

I believe it's vital FPS has leaders for these..

Shabbat Shalom from both of us this week,
Rebecca and Zoe

12/13 February 2021, 30 Shevat/1 Adar 5781

Rabbi Larry Hoffman came to London several years ago.

On a hot Thursday in July quite a few rabbis, student rabbis and Reform and Liberal lay leadership crammed into our synagogue in Hutton Grove and heard him expound on the essence of Jewish identity. It was, he explained; "Jewish conversation".

There was a pause, we'd anticipated something more erudite, more esoteric perhaps. But no, it turns out that that is what Rabbi Larry Hoffman believes is "the essence, the heart of Jewish life and identity. Jews talking, friends of Jews talking, all can have a Jewish conversation, and such a discussion, chat or conversation needs to be about something Jewish. That's it." He continued to say that the topics can be learning, music, food, memories, Israel, family, preoccupation, even Jewish anxiety. As long as you are talking, then you are engaging. In his clear but far from simplistic way Hoffman captured everything.

Just "keep talking" he told us. Like Tess and Claudia on Strictly... but instead of Dancing, it's Talking.

I was reminded of that summer as we invite you this week to two very interesting conversations.

The first will be tonight 6pm with, soon-to-be Baroness Gillian Merron, in her final months of leading the Board of Deputies. Do join this conversation about why BOD needs all parts of the Jewish community. And why we as a community should be at the table. We will hear some highlights of her time there, and maybe some of its challenges.

The second conversation will be on Israel, Thursday 7.30pm. My colleague Rabbi Lea Muhlstein in her role as chair of Arzeinu, the Progressive Zionist International organisation has much to say about talking and listening and being at the table. Again please join us for what promises to be an informative and important conversation.

I know many who excel and have excelled at Jewish conversations. Rosita Rosenberg z''l was one. was one. She died this week, and we are poorer for her loss. Rosita led Liberal Judaism for nearly a decade and brought much history, sensibility and menschlikeit to the conversations she enabled. Zichrona L'vracha.

Wishing you Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca

5/6 February 2021, 23/24 Shevat 5781

I met the Conservative former immigration minister Caroline Nokes with a group of rabbis two years ago. Mike Freer MP set up the meeting for us to talk about settling refugees and asylum seekers in the UK. He knew we cared about it deeply.

Now a back bencher Nokes has accused the Home Office of trying to make our country seem as "difficult and inhospitable as possible”. She says by using inhumane accommodation like the Napier Barracks in Kent or a new barracks style unit close to Yarl’s Wood; we are causing immense suffering. There is often no running water, food so bad no-one can eat, and obviously huge outbreaks of Covid. In isolated spots the residents have no access to support or connection. Instead they are living in ghetto-like settings where previous trauma is relived and renewed daily.

Why do I write of this in a weekly synagogue message? Our Judaism rests on the pillar of engagement with the world we live in, not separation from it. Lo Tuchal L’hitalem -You cannot be indifferent - Deuteronomy chides us from the archaic conversation of lost oxen, but the challenge has survived. Lily Montagu’s legacy informs and inspires the heart beat of Liberal Judaism, the young women known as her girls who flocked to the afternoon service at West Central. A service she fought to provide for them.

Caroline Nokes is quoted this week saying of her government, "We as a nation can do better than this.” It is true. And calling out is important.

This week in Parashat Yitro the Ten Commandments are given. The rules that guide us as Jews and indeed most people in living a just and safe life, certainly the last five of them speak particularly to this. The portion contains the covenant moment at Sinai and the enthusiastic commitment by Israel to take the commandments on; "naaseh v’nishmah" we will do it and then understand it… 

The name is taken from Moses’ father-in-law Yitro, an outsider, a Midianite Priest. Yet he’s the one to feedback to Moses about the congregation and about God “Blessed be the Eternal”.

May we never stop working towards that.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca

You can't do it all yourself . Italian commentator Sforno c.15th paraphrases Yitro's advice to Moses. Lo tov hadavar asher ahah oseh, he tells him. Create, he suggests, a team of reliable people anshei chayl to share the leading, the judging and the listening. This must be the favourite parasha for rabbis and synagogue councils. How to create engaged and expansive shared leadership in our congregations, so all are invested and part of the work. Yitro was surely the first management consultant of ancient times, and in 'not for profit' religious communities. I intend to open Yitro's conversation this week and beyond!

29/30 January 2021, 16/17 Shevat 5781

Following my sermon last Shabbat on our obligation to support those who need help to feed their families and themselves: First time users of food banks have emerged these past months. People who managed cars, holidays and jobs now in brutally different circumstances and relying on Food Banks, as others are.

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day. The anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and so many Genocides that tragically happened since, despite the Never Again.  It is also Tu B'Shevat, the New Year of Trees. So as we anticipate the coming of Spring and the joy of trees and their fruit, we remind the community of what is needed and how to give in the easiest way. We honour those who died and knew well the preciousness of enabling others to eat. Please give: 100,000 victims lost this pandemic and this is a palpable way to help those who have been affected brutally by the collateral damage. It feels profoundly Jewish to look back, to remember and to act.

22/23 January 2021, 9/10 Shevat 5781

Bo - The Heart is a Strange Muscle

One of the strangest things these past 10 months or so has been the doubters:

From the flamboyant conspiracy theorists, (‘this virus is fantasy designed to control us’), to the flagrant rejection of science, (as evidenced by those buying bleach to flush their bodies), to those resisting guidelines and safety measures, believing they know better.

As a keen rule follower I’m intrigued.

Parashat Bo this week continues the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart even as he watches those ten plagues ravage his people and country.

Last week’s “Pharaoh hardened his heart” (Exodus 8:28) and now

“God says “I have stiffened his heart and the hearts of his courtiers.” (Exodus 10:1)

It meant he refused to respond to the suffering reality around him.  As Dr Aviva Gottleib Zornberg observed, 'a kind of spiritual rigor mortis set in’ for him. Pharaoh couldn’t empathise. Have we seen something similar during ‘our’ plague of COVID? It’s striking that so far that there have been over 2 million deaths worldwide and over 89,000  in the U.K alone. Yet many hearts remain hardened to this.

What’s an antidote to a hardened heart? The silent prayer at the end of the Amidah can give some encouragement. Mar bar Ravina, a fourth century sage wrote Patach Libi: "Open my heart (to Your teaching)". An open heart responds to learning.  An open heart responds to the news from the COVID wards, to data, medical evidence and to the uncontroversial hope the vaccines bring. 

Pharaoh, with his hardened heart, is an unlikely teacher as he refuses to see a possible end to suffering. It’s surely incumbent on us to welcome the vaccine with an open heart and an open arm outstretched. As Winston Churchill declared November 1942 three years into the war, eighteen months after the Blitz “Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” The vaccine is just that. Be ready for yours.

Shabbat Shalom to all,
Rebecca

15/16 January 2021, 2/3 Shevat 5781

My co-chair Rabbi Rene Pfertzel and I chaired our first CoLRaC this week; the monthly meeting of Liberal Clergy so essential to the activities of Liberal Judaism. There were several firsts; Rabbi Charley Baginsky CEO, and Shelley Shocolinsky-Dwyer shared their vision for Liberal Judaism for the next two years. They are looking towards a financially stable, vibrant and expansive movement that builds on partnerships with its congregations and the superb youth movement at its heart. It was an auspicious start to 2021, with the added request of rabbis taking part in a collective stance of encouraging the vaccine.

We heard also today that Gillian Merron, great friend of FPS will be stepping down from the Board of Deputies at the start of April. As the BOD is a non political organisation, her recent elevation to the House of Lords as a Labour Peer presents a conflict. So Gillian, after six years in post, will step down. I am sure you will all join me in warm congratulations to her and gratitude for her time at the helm of the Board of Deputies and the important work she did there.

These past ten months have demanded such close attention to our own members and the structures within our community, it is a nice moment to recognise our place within Liberal Judaism and indeed British Jewry. We have much to appreciate.

I couldn't be prouder of Gillian, or more hopeful for this new period for Liberal Judaism where Rene and I hope to play our part in leadership and collaboration. This week's Haftarah from Ezekiel finishes with the words from God to Moses about his role with the Israelites: I will give you courage to speak in their midst. Then shall they know that I am the Eternal. (29:21)

Let's hope for the elevation of our voices and LJ going from strength to strength.

Shabbat Shalom to all,
Rebecca

8/9 January 2021, 24/25 Tevet 5781

I'm always struck by the first line of the Book of Exodus; A new king arose in Egypt who did not know Joseph. Torah gives us this verse as an explanation for the change of mood and attitude towards the Hebrew population living in the suburb of Goshen. For me it's redolent of the power of memory to hold in mind gratitude or resentment. This is so relevant for our contemporary existence too. This new king, for some reason, decides that this guest nation is a threat and wants to suppress them. And Moses, this child saved from the water by the king's daughter, who defies her father and raises this 'hidden child' in the palace as an Egyptian.

Then comes a very significant moment. We’re told Moses grew up, vayigdal, as if there are stages of maturing. There comes a certain moment where things open up for him and he notices what has been there all along. He is connected viscerally with the people now hated and abused in Egypt. This is our story, not just the coming out of Egypt but the idea of growing up to notice and have a mature view of the world. To see suffering and to see the complexity of who we are.

Despite his maturity Moses is reluctant, he describes himself as slow to speak kaved peh which is literally heavy mouthed. the same adjective to describe Pharaoh's heart when he repeatedly says no.

These next few weeks of reading Exodus (Shemot) go to the heart of our Jewish story, our Jewish identities and our Jewish conversations. What's more we have a great deal of time (at home) to do so. v’at p’tach lo Open for them, we say about the child at the seder asking about identity.

Maybe this is a moment for all of us. As we work communally to be responsible and safe. As we have the time to consider our Jewish lives. As we wait for the Board of Deputies much awaited Commission by Stephen Bush on Racial Inclusivity in the Jewish community.

Shabbat Shalom to all,
Rebecca 

• Tier 5 means we will be even more careful as we stream our services from our synagogue. We will take each week and make any decisions necessary. For this Shabbat we'll see you from the Bimah.

• Thank you for such a beautiful start to 2021 with that glorious service last Shabbat and my 'book' to treasure.

1/2 January 2021, 17/18 Tevet 5781

Winnie the Pooh (a very wise leader) said "People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day".

It feels like we have been told to do the impossible this past week. To do nothing - even when all we want to do is celebrate the small joys this year has brought. But instead we are doing very little, sitting tight, and knowing that this too shall pass.

This Shabbat we get the opportunity to celebrate a huge joy from the safety of our homes. It is the 10th anniversary of Rabbi Rebecca's work with FPS. Please join us on Saturday for a celebratory service - with some surprises along the way!

25/26 December 2020, 10/11 Tevet 5781

Christmas coincides with Shabbat; We look forward to seeing you for a Shabbat service on Friday 25th December.

I'm very aware that the new restrictions under Tier 4 mean some of you will be unexpectedly alone this weekend, please let us know if you need anything. I'm around this week and over Christmas.

If you were part of a post code group, you'll receive a message offering support. Change of expectation is is always hard to negotiate, this year has been full of uncertainty.

I attended the community briefing this morning with the Chief Nurse of the NHS (intriguing title), explaining the processes of vaccinations and who will receive when. Vaccination in earnest is likely to begin fully in February. He said he, his family and colleagues breathed a sigh of relief at the new restrictions put in place over Christmas.

Following Saturday's announcement, we have decided the best course of action is to return to exclusive streaming of services. Although places of prayer are technically allowed to be open we believe this decision is the safest and most prudent for our congregation at this time. Join us as you have been doing.

We manifestly coped well as a Jewish community through all our festival restrictions and the new congregation we built online, I'm hoping our Christian colleagues manage similarly over Christmas.

This is our penultimate message of 2020 so I wanted to thank those in particular who have reached out and supported during the year.

Thank you so much to Jacqui Fawcett and Corinne Oppenheimer for the dedicated phone calls they make to many FPS folk, reinforcing their connections to our congregation.

Thank you to those who led in our postcode groups and reached out when you could.
Thank you for the meals and cakes delivered by the Laikin family.
Thank you to our Chanukah deliverers who brought homemade treats to so many.
Thank you to those who have enabled online services, learning and events and made us grow into that phrase "more than a building".
Thank you to Dean and Franklyn for our phenomenal music.
Thank you to our wonderful and flexible teachers who took Ivriah online so thoughtfully .
Thank you to Zoe and Pauline for all they do to enable FPS to function well and with warmth.
Thank you to our Council who guide and keep FPS going.
And thank you to our Exec who have steered us through so much this year with such dedication.

I'm so grateful.
Wishing you Shabbat Shalom and a safe end of the year.
Rebecca

18/19 December 2020, 3/4 Tevet 5781

Chanukah
I keep thinking of Andrew's words as we finished our Chanukah party last Sunday; "this extraordinary community wishes you Happy Chanukah". Thank you to all for this most unusual and frankly extraordinary Chanukah. Thank you to all those who led lighting and who contributed such joy to these past eight nights. Zoe's creativity knows no bounds. We did usher in a little light into these dark days. Chanukah Sameach to all and thank you. (Do click on our video highlights).

This Shabbat

And Joseph was overcome with feelings towards his brother and wanted to weep, so he went into his chamber and wept there. And he washed his face and came out, and now in control of himself said; "Serve the food.”

Genesis 43:30-31

וַיְמַהֵ֣ר יוֹסֵ֗ף כִּֽי־נִכְמְר֤וּ רַֽחֲמָיו֙ אֶל־אָחִ֔יו וַיְבַקֵּ֖שׁ לִבְכּ֑וֹת וַיָּבֹ֥א הַחַ֖דְרָה וַיֵּ֥בְךְּ שָֽׁמָּה:

וַיִּרְחַ֥ץ פָּנָ֖יו וַיֵּצֵ֑א וַיִּ֨תְאַפַּ֔ק וַיֹּ֖אמֶר שִׂ֥ימוּ לָֽחֶם:

I’m moved by these words that finish the portion of Miketz. Joseph demonstrates such familiar emotions, it all gets too much for him as he reunites with his brothers (but doesn’t yet reveal himself). His tears are described with such attention, his washing of his face to hide evidence of his distress, his effort to restrain himself. Torah captures this scene with such sensitivity.

Can you say you have not known similar moments in your life, possibly even during this past year? A yearning for family or just the experience of overwhelm whilst trying to protect others. Reading this scene in its intimacy affirms and even amplifies our own emotional lives. I can safely say these past months, unprecedented in so many ways, have evoked such moments.

As we go back into Tier 3, and do a lot more restraining and restricting ourselves to keep family safe, I wish you strength and calm. 

Shabbat Shalom
Rebecca

A warm Mazal Tov to the Beach family on Rafi’s Bar Mitzvah, we are delighted to celebrate, in a restricted fashion, in the synagogue this Shabbat.