Welcome from Dayan Binstock
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
WELCOME FROM DAYAN BINSTOCK Dear Friends Welcome to our Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services at St Johns Wood Shul. Whether you are one of our regular attendees at our services on weekday or Shabbat; whether you are an occasional visitor; or whether you simply turn up for a bit on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, may I take this opportunity to wish you and your family a happy, healthy and peaceful New Year. The service on Rosh Hashanah is, of course, longer that the average Shabbat. Nevertheless, we intend to finish by about 1.15pm. This book has been prepared to assist you in the Synagogue. It contains essays and explanations on different aspects of the service which we hope will pique your interest. We are grateful to Rabbi Ari Shainfeld and David Burr for all the effort they have made in compiling this book. This year, we are again running a special Explanatory Services which will take place in the David Weisz Hall (the ‘Succah’). On the first day of Rosh Hashanah the service will start at 11.15am and On Kol Nidre the service will follow Dayan Binstock’s sermon. Following from last year’s success, on Yom Kippur at 11.15am, there will once again be The Big Debate, the topic in question this year is “Does one need to be practicing to be a good Jew?” The debate will start at 11.45 am followed at 12.45pm by an explanatory service. The services will be conducted by Rabbi Ari Shainfeld and davening led by Rabbi Yossi Binstock. They will offer an opportunity for a more informal service with a chance to stop and discuss aspects of the prayers. This year, the Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur experience for many people will immeasurably be enhanced by the new Koren Machzor with the translation and commentary by Emeritus Chief Rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks. A number of copies have been generously donated to the shul for the use of members. Make sure you take the opportunity to look at this new Machzor! Your time will be well rewarded! A key part of the service on Rosh Hashanah is to hear the sound of the Shofar. I plan to use two Shofars! For the first thirty notes I will blow a traditional ram’s horn. Then later I will use the long curly horn of a kudu antelope. The combination of what I hope will be both shrill and powerful sounds should stir us into reflecting on our lives. The shofar is first sounded at about 9.50 am and the final sounds will be about 12.30pm. If you know of someone who is unable to come to Synagogue and would appreciate hearing the shofar, do let me know and we will do our best to see of someone can visit them and blow the shofar for them. In his commentary to the new Machzor Lord Sacks writes that “the shofar is the wordless cry at the heart of a religion of words. Judaism is a profoundly verbal culture, a religion of holy texts, impassioned conversation, and ‘argument for the sake of heaven.’ Yet there is a time for emotions that lie too deep for words. The sounds of the shofar break through the carapace of the self-justifying mind, and touches us directly, at the most primal level of our being.” The shofar has the capacity to open the hearts of all of us to commune with God. May our collective prayers assemble on High, that we, our families and loved ones, all Israel and all Mankind, be inscribed in the Book of Good Life. Dayan Ivan Binstock Senior Rabbi of St John’s Wood Synagogue 2 CONTENTS Welcome from Dayan Binstock .................................................................................................................................... 2 New Year Message ....................................................................................................................................................... 5 From Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis ....................................................................................................... 5 Chesed in Our Community ............................................................................................................................................ 6 Guide to Pages in the Machzor ..................................................................................................................................... 7 Rosh Hashanah First Day .................................................................................................................... 7 Rosh Hashanah Second Day ............................................................................................................... 8 Yom Kippur ......................................................................................................................................... 9 Yom Kippur ....................................................................................................................................... 10 Rosh Hashanah ........................................................................................................................................................... 11 Sermon delivered by Dayan Ivan Binstock on the second day of Rosh Hashanah 2013 – 5774 ...... 11 WWW.Rosh-Hashanah ..................................................................................................................... 13 Of Rosh Hashanah and Monkeys ...................................................................................................... 15 The Annual High Holiday Spiritual Journey ...................................................................................... 17 To Kindle a Light in the Darkness of Mere Being .............................................................................. 19 The ‘Head’ of The Year ..................................................................................................................... 21 Reflections on Your Past ................................................................................................................... 22 To Life! .............................................................................................................................................. 22 A Father’s Gift ................................................................................................................................... 23 09/11/5756 ....................................................................................................................................... 24 It's All About Us ................................................................................................................................ 26 Up Close and Personal ...................................................................................................................... 29 Breaking Out of Our Slumber ........................................................................................................... 30 Yom Kippur ................................................................................................................................................................. 34 Sermon delivered by Dayan Binstock before Yizkor on Yom Kippur, St John’s Wood 5774 ............ 34 WWW.Yom-Kippur ........................................................................................................................... 36 The Meaning of Yom Kippur ............................................................................................................. 40 The Questions of Yom Kippur ........................................................................................................... 42 The White Flag .................................................................................................................................. 44 Elka’s Song ........................................................................................................................................ 46 Yom Kippur’s Mystery Man Tour ...................................................................................................... 48 Maintaining Our Holiness ................................................................................................................. 50 Succot ......................................................................................................................................................................... 52 WWW.Succot .................................................................................................................................... 52 The Four Species ............................................................................................................................... 54 Chol Hamoed – Intermittent Days of Festival .................................................................................. 56 Second Day Yom Tov ........................................................................................................................ 57 Chol Hamoed .................................................................................................................................... 60 What is the ‘Atzeret’ in Shemini Atzeret? ........................................................................................ 61 Melacha on Yom Tov ........................................................................................................................ 63 Youth........................................................................................................................................................................... 64 3 The Month of Tishrei and Pilgrimage ............................................................................................... 64 True Sense of Values .......................................................................................................................