11/12 March 2022, 8/9 Adar (II) 5782

The horror of this war continues. This week on International Women's Day Rabbi Julia Gris joined us Liberal rabbis at our monthly conference. To hear what she is holding and managing, and what she and her daughter have lost is heartbreaking. As is the stories of countless others. Mike Freer MP joined us last Shabbat when our own Paul Anticoni spoke to us about his organisation WJR are helping the situation on the ground. Mike promised that our borders will open enough to allow Ukrainian refugees sanctuary here. Family, yes, but he anticipates a scheme for Faith institution to offer sponsorship and provide homing and care. I have had an overwhelming inbox, so many of you offering to help and house folk fleeing. Let's keep writing those letters to your MPs and direct tzedakah to the agencies that are helping.

Managing our lives whilst being continually aware, vigilant and empathetic is important. The balance is there for us.

This week's Parasha is VAYIKRA the first portion of Leviticus, meaning and [God] called. The Torah calls us to understand our own sense of calling, impulse and motivation. What our Judaism calls us to be and do. I think of Rabbi Lionel Blue’s prayer in old age, “Stick around, I need you”.

Our synagogue and our Judaism helps us make sense of the world as well as our own lives. From Monday is 'British Sign Language Week'. I like this reminder of life being fuller, more varied and including more. We are investing time in learning and also connecting with Jewish Deaf Association. See Zoe's blog piece. We are committed to ensuring our Inclusive services become embedded into our synagogue life.

Shabbat Shalom
Rebecca

4/5 March 2022, 1/2 Adar (II) 5782

Our eyes are glued to images, which frankly are reminiscent of those eighty years ago. The writer, scholar and lawyer Professor Philippe Sands encapsulated that this week when he shared his own father's experience of leaving Lviv. Tuesday saw the destruction of the Babi Yar memorial or the 33,771 Ukrainian Jews murdered in the rural ravine in Kyiv 1941. It is terrifying and all the appreciation of the strength, resilience and courage of the Ukrainians both soldiers and civilians does not minimise the intensity of the Russian attacks.

This week, like you I read of the last text message of a Russian soldier to his mother. "We were told they'd welcome us.." I found this both distressing and intensely moving.

As some of you know Rabbis Julia Gris and Tanya Sakhnovich are safely out of the Ukraine, more news of them soon. Rabbi Alex Duchovny continues to lead his community from Kyiv, even Shabbat services from the shelter. Click on the image to see his message to Jewish communities across the World Union.

We have an invitation to join our twinned community in Mogilev, Belarus for their candle lighting at 3.30pm tomorrow and to be in contact with Rabbi Grisha Abramovich. He appreciates our connection deeply.

Over Shabbat as we gather we have the opportunity to hear from two members who are working closely in the field.

Paul Anticoni leads World Jewish Relief and the disaster appeal they have launched. WJR works closely with elderly folk in Ukraine needing support. If you missed Wednesday's event hosted by Emily Maitlis you will have a chance to hear from Paul during our Friday evening service about what is happening and how WJR are attempting to help.

For an extra and special Shabbat morning conversation in person and online our member Max Rebuck will be sharing his understanding of the conflict through media monitoring and speaking to Ukrainians in Ukraine and abroad to publish their stories during the conflict. Since Jan 2019 he's been responsible for designing and delivering media development and counter-disinformation projects on the behalf of the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office's Russia Desk helping independent media in Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and the Baltic States. Now working for Tortoise Media contributing to their journalism on the war.

Being informed and connected is what we need right now. I hope you will join us.

Shabbat Shalom
Rebecca

25/26 February 2022, 24/25 Adar 5782

This is grim day for Ukraine and for the whole of Europe.

Last week Rabbi Julia Gris joined us virtually from Odessa to speak of the Progressive community she has nurtured there. Today she is in the west in Lviv worried for her and her daughter Izolde's safety. Indeed Liberal Judaism is trying hard to extend an invitation to them here by communicating with the British Embassy in the Ukraine.

Two other rabbis we know well are there trapped in Ukraine; Rabbi Alex Duchovny and Rabbi Tanya Sakhnovich who was visiting her son. They matter no more than all Ukrainian citizens thrown into an unprovoked war, but our intimacy with and knowledge of them makes this situation all the more awful.

People are already trying to cross into neighbouring Poland and other countries such as Slovakia.

Money and support are small gestures right now but for those feeling powerless it is something to do:

We are praying and watching with vigilance each hour of news from Kyiv and beyond.

There is something about the watching about the concern about the fear we are seeing played out on our news channels. The Torah twice refers to the night of the Seder as leil shimurim, a night that is guarded: It is a night that is guarded by God to take them (Israel) out of Egypt, this night remains to God a night that is guarded throughout the generations (Exodus, 12:42).

I think of that watching, of that guarding of that speaking out now.

I look forward to seeing you this Shabbat when we can be together.

Rebecca

18/19 February 2022, 17/18 Adar 5782

This weekend marks the beginning of the anniversary year for Liberal Judaism, 120 years since its creation by the three famous ‘M’s; Israel Mattauck, Lily Montagu and Claude Montefiore. It kicks off with a shared service hosted by the Liberal Jewish Synagogue. Our President Paul Silver-Myer will represent us.

Anniversaries are strange events. They invite us to reflect and consider what passed in a celebratory way, even if we don’t feel part of that celebration particularly. Many of us have joined our congregation Finchley Progressive Synagogue over the years because it felt like the ‘the place’ for us, not necessarily because it is an outpost of Liberal Judaism. And there are also many that were our founding mothers and fathers creating our community as a Liberal Jewish congregation proudly and building it, brick by brick and idea by idea.

We have, grown and transformed over the years. Liberal Judaism has moved from Union of Liberal and Progressive Synagogues.

Creating a movement is brave and yields dividends. The initial intention for a fiercely intellectual and reasoned Jewish expression still stands and yet more has been added; more Hebrew and music and emotional connections and inclusive ideas of who belongs and an expansion of who we are as a Jewish people, into a Jewish family.

This week’s Torah portion contains the unedifying passage of the building of the golden calf, the wretched faithlessness of the people waiting for Moses and needing something tangible and easier to replace Moses and God’s leadership. I’ve often heard the appalling critique of Liberal Judaism being a distraction, a moment of idolatry even that confused and obfuscated the pure message of Judaism. Not only has this not been the case, its longevity and creativity point to its welcome addition to Jewish life and practice.

As Me'ah v’esrim is a traditional blessing on birthdays with hope for health and gathering of years. Liberal Judaism has done that.

There is much to be proud of. From Lily Montagu’s first essay Spiritual Possibilities of Judaism Today to our attempts now to ensure our Jewish practice has integrity, creativity and joy. As she captured so well 120 years ago. "There would be no value in worship services and symbols did they not... serve as aids to right living.”
What an excellent legacy.

We are inheriting well.

Shabbat Shalom and see you at LJS.

11/12 February 2022, 10/11 Adar 5782

Our community meets in different ways. Our Family learning with the B'nei Mitzvah class and their parents-Differences between Sephardi and Ashkenazi Judiasm. Our revived Monday Afternoon Club and our Young Folk in our Delving into Judiasm meeting for an exhibition and coffee last Sunday. Nothing thrills me more than this. We talk of being of 'being busy with the words of Torah' but this is being busy with fellow congregants and learners. How good is this? Parashat Tetzaveh tells us B'nei Yisrael were told to light a Ner Tamid, an Eternal Light as a statute forever, for all generations.

And you shall command the children of Israel, and they shall take to you pure olive oil, crushed for lighting, to kindle the lamps continually...[it shall be] an everlasting statute for their generations...(Exodus 27:20-21)

I wonder if that crushing of olives and illuminating the lights was, in other words, keeping the community running, alight, and connected. The gradual return to our building and the connections that switch us on are key, whether in our classes, our friendships or our services. As Monty often reminds us there is joy in belonging. And so there is.

Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Rebecca

4/5 February 2022, 3/4 Adar 5782

I like this Torah portion very much, situated as it is after the moment at Sinai and before the manuals for building the mishkan, sanctuary.

Here is where the congregation of Israel is invited to give gifts to the sanctuary if their heart is willing. יִדְּבֶנּוּ לִבּוֹ, the Hebrew comes from נְדָבָה, an expression of willingness as Rashi teaches us.

I believe strongly that none of us, not even the most altruistic do anything without a certain amount of self interest. It's a good thing. We need to want to give of ourselves, our possessions or tzedakah. Torah identifies and anticipates a rather modern idea people will give more of themselves if their heart is willing, if they want, if they experience some joy, benefit or learning from it.

Poster that says Donate food you love this Valentines Day. Drop it in the Foodbank box

I like this reciprocal idea of giving.

I imagine we might think deeply about this as we think more about our synagogue, returning and reuniting with the building and each other as a congregation.

You'll see from the accompanying poster that the whole month of February is dedicated to different ways to support Food Bank Aid who are struggling after a frugal January. It's our opportunity to give. I just dropped off a street collection today and when I mentioned FPS the woman who received our goods exclaimed 'oh my goodness that synagogue does so much for us'. Thank you to all of you who have given.

P.S. donate a laugh, send your jokes for next month's shofar - all on humour and Jewish humour (shofar@fps.org)

Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Rebecca

21/22 January 2022, 19/20 Shevat 5782

I need to share this as we go into our own Shabbat. Shabbat Yitro where we will read the 10 Sayings that are the backbone to our religious and social commitments. There is something about Congregation Beth Shalom that seems similar to us; a mid sized suburban shul dedicated to be welcoming, open and committed to helping in the world. I watched the healing service for the community; it was, as you can imagine extraordinary. Unpolished, open, generous and gracious. We can learn from this and our commitment to training, safety, security and making those cups of tea for strangers as Rabbi Charlie Citron Walker did.

Statement on the synagogue siege in Texas
By Rabbi Rebecca Birk and Rabbi René Pfertzel
Co-Chairs of the Conference of Liberal Rabbis and Cantors

We watched with horror the events unfolding in Colleyville, Texas, where a gunman took hostage Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker and three of his congregants during the Shabbat service. A service where he’d been welcomed.
We were relieved and grateful to see the hostages emerge unharmed after a testing ordeal and we firmly condemn this act, which sadly reflects the madness of our time.
Such a situation is what we’ve all dreaded, when Islam and Judaism are erroneously pitted against each other.
Our thoughts and prayers are with Rabbi Cytron-Walker, his family and his community, Beth Israel.
Places of worship are sanctuaries and everyone should feel safe whilst praying.
Rabbi Cytron-Walker’s words now inspire and inform us all, as he declares his thanks and appreciation for his community, his family, the prayers and vigils and most movingly for being alive.
We pray for a world where weapons will be replaced by words, and loving kindness is the foundation of human relationships.

Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Rebecca

14/15 January 2022, 12/13 Shevat 5782

This Shabbat I'll be chanting from Beshallach, the Song of the Sea. A prayer, an expression of relief and gratitude. but before it the Eternal chastises Moses for telling the people to rely on God. “Mah titzak elai. Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to go forward.”

I like this idea of action and prayer juxtaposed in this way. Rabbi Amy Eilberg, first woman to be ordained by the Conservative movement, writes her idea of prayer and it is interesting as we prepare for the Song/the Prayer of the Sea:

Prayer may work when the thing that we have asked of God indeed comes to be. That's one way we pray...Prayer may also work by significantly connecting us with the Jewish community and with our tradition; It can work by quieting or centring the self. It can work by having momentary transporting us to a place of beauty and transcendence. It may work by helping us focus on the blessings in our lives. It may work by invoking a greater sense of God's presence, giving us strength to face the trials of our lives.

What might it be for you? when is it time for action and when for prayer?

Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Rebecca

7/8 January 2022, 5/6 Shevat 5782

Thoughts for Mental Health Shabbat 2022

The composer Tchaikovsky in 1876 wrote these words to a beloved nephew. 

Probably you were not quite well, my little dove, when you wrote to me, for a note of real melancholy pervaded your letter. I recognised in it a nature closely akin to my own. I know the feeling only too well. In my life, too, there are days, hours, weeks, aye, and months, in which everything looks black, when I am tormented by the thought that I am forsaken, that no one cares for me. Indeed, my life is of little worth to anyone.

He could have been referring to the plague of darkness in this week’s Parashat Bo. So keenly does he identify the blackness of depression and melancholy. Torah describes this darkness as palpable. 

[so] thick [that ] people could not see one another, and for three days no one could get up from where he was. 

One can feel the heaviness and de-pressing nature of this ‘darkness’ that the poet Jane Kenyon described so memorably, pressing the bile of desolation into every pore.

Darkness may have been just another of the ten plagues but it’s possible meaning and resonance reaches out of Torah to us now. To our young people struggling through Covid, to each of us weighed down by the isolation of mental fragility of all kinds; anxiety, depression, confusion and alienation from the life we are ‘expected’ to lead with ease. 

Such dislocation resonates profoundly this year after the months we’ve endured and the continuing challenges that are still so real. 

Our synagogue is focusing on empathy this Shabbat, on the power of empathetic concern and connection, of meeting people truly where they are. This is a skill we can all develop. We are also working with Barnet Citizens (CUK) clear requests for our Borough’s Mental Health provisions to ensure both more and better empathy in all such services in Barnet. From better sign posting to someone there when you need it.

We all need and can give empathy; ready to be present for when, as Exodus 10 describes; no one can get up from where they were.

Shabbat Shalom
Rabbi Rebecca

17/18 December 2021, 13/14 Tevet 5782

Shabbat Shalom all.

It's strange to be in a similar although not identical place this December as we were last year. We are newly concerned and vigilant and most us want to be as responsible as considerate as we can be. It's hard to avoid what's happening around us, although be reassured FPS is doing all it can to make gathering with each other as safe as possible. As rabbis we keep asking, can we reflect on all this yet? But 'this' continues.

On Monday, Rabbi Charley Baginsky and I were invited to tea with chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and his chief of staff Ari Jesner. It was just the four of us and we were discussing what we, the Jewish community, have been through and what we have learned. They were interested to hear what's been happening in our communities, as we were in theirs. It was an astonishingly respectful tea party in his library.

I was so pleased that FPS member, Paul Richman wrote this reflection as a doctor, after the excellent Cafe Ivriah last Sunday on the Purpose of Life. It helps us make sense and anticipate what is next, and I wanted to share it with you.

Rebecca

A Reflection

Alpha, Gamma, Delta, Omicron.  Familiar household names now….they sound (to me) a bit like stars.

“Jupiter and Saturn, Oberon, Miranda and Titania.
Neptune, Titan, Stars can frighten”  wrote Syd Barrett.

And so with our newest Covid 19 variant of concern.

We felt we’d almost won. We were sensing a kind of normality. Back in the synagogue.  Planning a holiday.  A dinner party.   A meet-up with friends.

But we’d forgotten: viruses mutate.  All the time. They don’t have much else to do. Their purpose is to proliferate.

Worry.  Depression.  A sense of panic; these stars definitely frighten.

Last week, Anne and Adrian led us in discussion to consider our own purpose in life. What are we here for? There were many views and opinions.  We discovered lots of angles and ways of looking at it. But, when the going gets tough, underpinning all, there is a sense that we are here to look after each other and that if we can strive for that, we can achieve our goals, we can find contentment, we can prevail over adversity.

And so, together, we shall prevail over Covid in all its many forms. The vaccines are helping. More and better ones are in the pipeline. There are also treatments which can help. We do understand better how it spreads and behaves and how it causes such serious disease. We’ve conquered viruses before and we shall do so again. We can recover our composure, retain our faith, and go forward together. Perhaps to reach the stars.

Paul Richman, December 2021

10/11 December 2021, 6/7 Tevet 5782

Zoe writes: In one of our, many, Chanukah quizzes I asked ‘how many candles do you need to celebrate chanukah?’*.

What I didn’t ask was ‘how many people do you need celebrate chanukah’?

And truly, the answer is 1. You - and a candle.

But with more people comes more joy. (And more latkes, more doughnuts, more chaos…!)

“Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the single candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.” (Buddha).

We wanted to celebrate Chanukah with as many people as possible. Each night I wanted to spotlight one area of our community, honouring new community spaces like Morning Meditation, holding transition moments for others like Rosh Chodesh, and providing much needed in person parties for our families and the Delving group.

From our smallest crowd of just 10, to our largest of 60, each night was special.

We had some events online and others in person. Did they feel different? Yes.

Was one better than the other? Actually no. The moment 50 Community Makers each showed their chanukiot (we’re supposed to put them in our window for the world to see, is the 2021 update putting it by our Zoom screen?) as we lit together was so special.

Dean leading the singing with Chanukiah lit on the final night of Chanukah.

Thank you to those who facilitated: Maayan who must have fried 200 latkes for our families, to the 4Bs (Beverley, Barry, Barbara, and Bobbie) who handed out, and washed up, 60 cups of tea and plates of doughnuts, to Dean and Franklyn, Natasha and so many more.

On Havdalah we reflect the candlelight in our fingernails. I saw the chanukah candlelight reflected in 250 FPS-ers.

On telly I've seen an entire primary school on electric bicycles, finding that if everyone peddles together they can turn on the school lights with their leg work.

This week, we could have powered all our chanukiot with our joy and light. Our own miracle is 250 people came out, showed up, sang and laughed together. Thank you.

*in case you were wondering, it’s 44.

Shabbat Shalom.
Zoe

3/4 December 2021, 29/30 Kislev 5782

Rabbi Rebecca writes:

I lit candles this week at Akiva School. It was lovely to see some of our FPS children there delighted to be recognised by their rabbi.

I always ask children what is the real meaning of Chanukah. They are surprised to learn that it is not candles, nor oil, nor lighting or even miracles. The meaning of the word Chanukah is dedication, the root of the word is chinch- from education.

The Temple was rededicated after having been out of action for Jews under the Greek Seleucids and that created this moment of memory and celebration every year for eight days at this time of 25 Kislev, since then.

I like this reading of the festival, a dedication or re-dedication. This year feels particularly apt, as in a way we rededicated our synagogue this past Monday, on the second day of Chanukah with a tea where 65 of you came back to the building, some for the first time, and you ate latkes and donuts but more importantly you saw each other and felt safe in our synagogue once again.

It was a moment of great joy tinged with some trepidation, I am sure for some, but there was a great deal of love in the room. That is what our synagogue (synagogues replaced the Temple after 70c.e) is for; a place of meeting and relationships - Beit Knesset.

We will continue to go carefully and thoughtfully as we welcome you back, responding always to the latest government advice.

To that end we wondered if any of you would like to join together for lunch on 25th December after the Shabbat service, if you fancy company and (I’m afraid) a non Turkey meal. Please, please do let us know.

I wish you your remaining days of Chanukah to be joyful and uplifting. There is lighting every night with us @FPS. Remember Chanukah gifts of underwear and socks are much needed for the Afhgani refugees in the great Western hotel in Hendon, I’ll be doing a drop there next Wednesday.

Shabbat Shalom.
Rebecca

26/27 November 2021, 22/23 Kislev 5782

Chanukah begins on Sunday. The festivals has two foci for me; dedication and seeing miracles. Chanukah means dedication, when we bless and establish hopes for our home we call it a Chanukat habayit.

Chanukah was a rededication of the second temple, put out of use for a while. For us generations past the temple the idea of dedicating ourselves afresh still carries weight and meaning. Chanukah may be a minor festival but it does invite us to rededicate ourselves to what matters most, what part of Jewish life has meaning and intention for us. What part of synagogue or our home needs and deserves attention? What will you be dedicated to?

The second part of Chanukah remembers miracles; she'asah ism l'avoteinu be'yamim ha-hem barman ha-zeh. Who performed miracles for our ancestors in those ancient days, at this time.

The first recounting of the Chanukah story didn't even mention the miraculous oil lasting eight days, both Books of the Maccabees focus on military might and religious commitment. It was the Talmudic rabbis who added that gloss! But now for us how do we, in our intellectually charged Jewish way of life, make space for the miraculous? Perhaps it's no longer the supernatural but it may be just as miraculous. As the poet and liturgist Marge Piercy wrote in The Hunger Moon;

We walk all over the common miracles
without bothering to wipe our feet.

As you like candles this year, a flame in the darkness, do bring these two ideas to your Chanukah. What miracles are you overlooking? What fresh energy might you bring about these two.

With warm wishes to you for a Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca

19/20 November 2021, 15/16 Kislev 5782

Mitzvah Day took the British Jewish community by storm several years ago.

For us as a community we have discovered that a relationship of longevity with organisations and the good works gemilut chasadim that accompany them suits us best here, so our mitzvot are ongoing and strong.

This Saturday we will be visiting the new Food Bank Aid hub - taking more needed supplies. We'll be shown how we are, and can continue to, make a difference.

Another group will be representing FPS at Sunday's AJEX march at the cenotaph, and include prayers in our shabbat service.

The need to care about what has come before, about the commitment of Jewish ex-servicemen and women is something important for us to mark every year.

Join us on Saturday at 1pm or Sunday 2pm.

With warm wishes to you for a Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca

12/13 November 2021, 8/9 Kislev 5782

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

29/30 October 2021, 23/24 Cheshvan 5782

Your great mistake is to act the drama
as if you were alone.

These are the words of poet David Whyte and they feel so apposite at the moment. Many FPS folk are contracting Covid despite being vaccinated and some even boostered. We are all so linked and with that in mind I wanted to reassure that we are being careful and responsive in 54 Hutton Grove as and when we welcome you in.

We will continue to watch and respond closely to changing guidelines and to the safest way for us to be together in the synagogue. Masks are still compulsory and we still mark over 1 metre between households. Please feel reassured and reach out if you have any questions.

Much appreciation to Dean, Michael Lassman, John Rubinstein and Paul Silver-Myer who will lead Shabbat services this weekend. We are fortunate as a community to have such skilful and willing members.

This week’s parasha is Chayei Sarah narrating the death, and life, of Sarah. But the words that penetrate are about Isaac mourning his mother and being comforted when he finds and loves Rebekah.

Isaac took Rebekah, and she became his wife, and he loved her. And Isaac was comforted after [the death of] his mother.

We are none of us alone there is always someone to comfort and to share. I hope that is true in our community. David Whyte continues in his poem, Put down the weight of your aloneness and ease into the conversation…Everything is waiting for you.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca

22/23 October 2021, 16/17 Cheshvan 5782

Last weekend we had an amazing visit to Nottingham's Beit Shalom's Holocaust museum. Our children met with a survivor and throughout learned about kindness of individuals that meant lives were spared. They understood this as allyship. They are familiar with this term of empathetic friendship and care.

I write with a certain fire of frustration this week. How can one not feel that in the face of racial injustice. We learned yesterday in London Jewish News that Hillsong Mega Church have bought the former Hippodrome building in Golders Green. This is just weeks after the approval for Islamic use of the building was shamefully halted. It seems so blatant so discriminatory that a mega church with huge community is given approval whilst a Muslim centre is not. I’m shamed that all the work of supportive Barnet institutions and their superb legal team failed in the face of this prejudiced decision.

Yesterday many marched to oppose the new Borders Bill, a bill that threatens the humane and decent way to offer asylum and means for refugees and migrants to find a home here. Only ‘worthy’ refugees will find asylum on our shores, many will be declared inadmissible and all of this will hamper integration.

I know there are those that suggest our Jewish faith not tread into areas political, but I cannot understand such a separation of concerns. The prophetic voice is part of our contemporary Judaism. This week’s parashah Va'eira so nuanced and challenging sees Abraham send Hagar and Ishmael ostensibly to die in the wilderness. They don’t, after God reassures they will be saved and Ishmael will father a great nation himself. But medieval commentators criticise Hagar freely as a mother. The tension is there.

I see our constant re-interpretations of Torah and religious texts as directly informing and inspiring our Judaism. We learned this week in our Delving class of Rabbi Michele Brand Medwin who says God is whatever power, history being, ideal or consciousness that inspires us to mitzvot.

These mitzvot include standing up against injustice and encouraging others. We're teaching it to our children and we are learning all the time.

Anger precedes action sometimes.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rebecca

15/16 October 2021, 9/10 Cheshvan 5782

“Leave your land, your birthplace and your father’s house and go to the land that I will show you. (Gen. 12:1)” We talk a great deal about this portion of Lech Lecha symbolising change, redirection and courageous new moves. Avram and Sarai were told to move from all that was familiar to a place initially unrecognisable. They are promised blessing and abundance on doing so. Robert Frost 's poem captures the choice of paths we all take:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.

I'm interested that we applaud this biblical couple's bravery yet contemporary migration and moving to new lands can be fraught with suspicion and a reluctant welcome.
The idea of moving and changing one's life is an old one. It gives us pause this week to consider attitudes to those that move because they know they must for a safe life of blessing.
And that is good. Conversation with Torah should give us pause and opportunity to consider life; our own and others. Next week we have an opportunity to protest peacefully against the new Borders Bill that threatens such migration we read Abraham and Sarah undertaking.
Everything is connected.

You'll see some of us are gathering at the Refugee Welcome Solidarity march next Wednesday-see below. If you are bringing coats to FPS, please bring hangers too. Many thanks.

Shabbat shalom,
Rebecca

AFTERNOON RALLY- BORDERS BILL
Refugee Welcome Rally,
[Meet at the Millicent Fawcett Statue 4pm]
Wednesday 20th October, 4:30 - 6:30 p.m.
Parliament Square, London SW1P 3. Join with other FPS members and LJ folk to stand up for refugee rights, spread the message that refugees are welcome here and protest against the cruel and unfair new Nationality and Borders Bill. Just when the UK needs to uphold its commitments to refugees, the new Bill is progressing through parliament and moving closer to becoming law. Come and join us to show solidarity with refugees.

8/9 October 2021, 2/3 Cheshvan 5782

I love these photos from our past month of Tishri. We managed real community moments together. This new month of Cheshvan sees a focus on learning, as you saw in Shofar. The promise of second chances gets reinforced by Noach and the rainbow coming this Shabbat. “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”

TftW 20211008.jpg

Here are the FPS learning opportunities ready for this fresh academic year. Hebrew reading with some modern Ivrit as well with Eti Wade on Wednesdays at 1pm (for those interested in evening Hebrew class please let us know). Were you struck by the camaraderie and learning of our our Adult B'nei Mitzvah group? A taster meeting will be next week 13 October 6pm. Delving into Judaism will be asking this term Is God Compulsory? Cafe Ivriah promises stimulating chat and connections. And look out for more in the coming weeks.

We'll channel the poet William Blake.

“In seed time learn, in harvest teach,
in winter enjoy.”

Shabbat shalom,
Rebecca

1/2 October 2021, 25/26 Tishrei 5782

Zoe writes:

With 24 hours behind me, I can take a breath and look back at the High Holy Days of 2021, 5782.

We truly weren't sure what it would be like. With so many changes to normality; pre-booking, mask-wearing, social distancing, we didn't know whether our FPS-ness could come through these obstacles.

But it was wonderful. Wonderful to be together in the building. So many of you told me you were anxious before your first visit back to the synagogue. And yet, once here, it was all okay. An embrace from an old friend, someone said.

I encourage you to come when you feel ready. We are here - and we know we can make not just Shabbat, but even our High Holy Days, meaningful in these strange times.

During the HHDs I become a citizen of FPS, of my spirituality, of my body. But as the cacophony of Tishrei festivals ebb away, the noise from the outside world becomes louder. I return as a citizen of the world. And it's sometimes a difficult place to be. The reports from the Sarah Everard case are hard to read. The ongoing and urgent need for support for Afghan refugees is horrifying.

In a Barnet Citizens meeting just this morning we were looking at how the Barnet Refugee Welcome Board - set up to support Syrian Refugees - is now turning to Afghanis. We will continue to update you as we have more information, for the moment please do drop off children's and adult's coats to FPS.

May the joy of these festivals, our community, and celebration, lighten us as we continue along the road.

Shabbat shalom,
Zoe