L'shanah Tovah Tikatevu

September 2014 Elul 5774-Tishri 5775 In This Issue L'Shanah Tovah Tikatevu High Holiday Schedule 1 Selichot From Rabbi Moch 2 Candle-light service at 10 pm, Saturday Septem- President's Message 3 ber 20th, at the home of Reva and Julie Condolences on the 102 Meadow Park Lane (at Burnside West) passing of Tony Goldman 3 Avodah 4 Erev Rosh Hashanah 7:00 pm, on Wednesday September 24th Introducting ... Your 2014 -15 Board of Directors 5 Rosh Hashanah Chai 8 9:15 am - Children's Service The month of Elul 10:00 am, on Thursday September 25th and Selichot 8 Mazel tov to Halperts 9 Taschlich: VVI Jewish Burial Society 9 1:30 pm on Thursday September 25th Tzedakah 9 at Gyro Park Calendar 10 Erev Yom Kippur/Kol Nidrei Yahrzeits 11 7:00 pm on Friday October 3rd Break-the-Fast 11 Apple Cake 12 Yom Kippur 9:15 am - Children's Service 10:00 am, on Saturday October 4th Yizkor 4 pm Concluding Service 4:30 pm All services will be led by student rabbi Michael Cohen and will be at the JCCV, 3636 Shelbourne Street, unless other- wise noted. Child minding will be provided. September 2014 Elul 5774-Tishri 5775 From Rabbi Moch ..... R ABBI Shaking the Foundations of Fate Page 2 Page Shimon Moch [email protected] The idea implied by the word fate disturbs many of us. We think of powers that B OA R D OF D I R ECTO R S affect our lives, which lie beyond our P R ESIDENT understanding or control. But our Jewish Richard Gafter belief system teaches us that we can affect [email protected] our fate, if only our intentions are pure, our determination strong and V ICE P R ESIDENT God grants us a bit of providential grace. Katrina Hanevelt [email protected] The Kabbalistic sages tell us that the name of the Day of Atonement, P AST P R ESIDENT Yom Kippurim, has inherent in it the concept of fate. They advise Reva Hutkin us to read the Hebrew name of the day in a slightly skewed way so [email protected] that it comes out, Yom Ke-Purim, meaning “A Day Like Purim.” The parallel may be traced to the fact that on Purim, lots (Pur) were T R EASU R E R cast to decide the fate of the Jews. There can be nothing more Morris Bleviss arbitrary than the casting of lots, and nothing more unpredictable and [email protected] uncontrollable than power-crazed madmen like Haman, or Hitler, or S EC R ETA R Y Stalin or Osama Bin Laadin, or Al Baghdadi, or the leaders of Hamas. Caroline Hergt Yet we celebrate with great exuberance on Purim, for we found out [email protected] that the evil that had fallen upon us could be reversed – despite fate M E M BE R S AT L A R GE - through the loyalty and upright character of an Esther, who prayed, Mark Milotay fasted and took positive action on her people’s behalf. [email protected] Hal Yacowar I find myself wishing that fasting and prayer could have averted the [email protected] danger of over 2,500 Hamas rockets hitting virtually every part of M E M BE R SHI P S ECE R ETA R Y Israel and the danger of a certain and imminent Hamas attack on Sharon Shalinsky Israel through the tunnels it had built to penetrate Israeli boarder [email protected] defenses. Alas, I do not believe that prayer and fasting would have averted a determined and effective Hamas tunnel-attack against N EWS L ETTE R Julie Elizabeth Israel any more than such spiritual action would have averted Hitler’s [email protected] final solution. Perhaps our prayer and fasting need to follow our actions to stop the attacks of Hamas. With fasting and prayer, we can R E L IGIOUS S CHOO L acknowledge the regret we feel for having caused so much pain to Lynne Marks others in our bid to protect ourselves. [email protected] PR/Marketing In other areas of our lives, spiritual action can make a significant Peter Barwin difference, even if it does nothing more than affect the way we [email protected] approach our goals and the impediments to reaching those goals. R ITUA L A FFAI R S Jewish Tradition designs our High Holy Day season to give us hope Amanda Gafter-Ricks and encouragement to make a concerted effort to change our fate. [email protected] Our liturgy says that our fate is decreed on Rosh Hashanah and written into the Book of Life, but that our fate is not sealed until Yom Kippur. If we have not made necessary efforts at teshuva (turning W EBSITE from destructive ways) during the past year, or during the whole http://www. month of Elul, we still have those last ten days of teshuvah to change kolotmayimreformtemple.com our fate. These days drum into us the notion: Continued on page 4. September 2014 Elul 5774-Tishri 5775 Page 3 Page President's Message Greetings! I trust everyone had a lovely summer. The new Board met for the first time on July 31st and I believe that things are falling into line nicely. I am pleased to announce that there was a last minute reorganizing in which Katrina Greenfield-Hanevelt assumed the role of Vice President and Mark Militay is now a Member-at-Large. Both Katrina and Mark are excited to fill their new positions and have already provided valuable input and experience for what’s ahead! We all know the importance of having a strong marketing and advertising team to make our message seen and heard. I am proud to report that Peter Barwin, our Marketing and Public Relations Chair has begun forming a team to ensure that Kolot Mayim’s up-to-date news and information gets promptly delivered to everyone. In addition, Julie Elizabeth is an inspiration to us all with the creation of a brand new brochure for Kolot Mayim. I want to personally thank Julie for her efforts as they are truly appreciated. Amanda Gafter-Ricks, Religious Affairs Committee Chair (now mostly recovered from our daughter’s epic Bat Mitzvah), met with her experienced Committee and reported that High Holiday preparations are well underway with our newly designated third year student rabbi, Michael Cohen from Hebrew Union College, leading services. Please see the calendar for the schedule of events of what promises to be an exciting year of celebration, new leadership and fun. If you haven’t already received your membership renewal package, please contact our Membership Chair, Sharon Shalinsky to complete the process. From my family to yours, I wish you a healthy and joyful new year. L’Shana Tovah to all our members and their failies.I hope to see you soon! L’Shalom Richard Gafter The Board of Directors and membership of Kolot Mayim mourn the loss of past member and long time benefactor, Arthur (Tony) Goldman. Mr. Goldman was an accomplished professional artist and generous benefactor of the Art Gallery of GreaterVictoria as well. May he rest in peace, and may his memory be a blessing. His family members are planning a commemoration of his life at the Art Gallery this autumn. For more information about this commemoration, please email Joel Fagan at <[email protected]>. September 2014 Avodah Elul 5774-Tishri 5775 Dear friends, Here’s one From Rabbi Moch, continued from page 2. If you can change your simple but direction and better your ways, you will change your fate.” Page 4 Page important way Altering the way we see the world and react to it may seem you can come difficult or impossible. Change never comes easily. We each to the aid of ask ourselves, “How do I begin to speak to my loved ones with [the] wonderful a different, more compassionate voice? How do I listen with project, started an attentive ear to what they need to express? How do I open by Jackie my mind to accept the possibilities of which they dream? How Saunders- do I help them hear my cries of pain, my fragile hopes and my Ritchie for Mitzvah Day 2013, dreams without shutting out theirs?” and which Jackie, with her peanut butter brigade, has Lao Tzu, the great Chinese philosopher said, “The journey of a continued, on a regular basis, thousand miles begins with one step.” A Hassidic master gave for many more Mitzvah Days that idea a Jewish twist and said, “If you are walking in the since then. The emergency food wrong direction and you want to make teshuva, just turn around. service is very appreciative of It takes only one pivotal step.” Both sound so easy, but in real this special ongoing service. life we know the difficulties of trying to change things about ourselves that have been deeply ingrained into our perspectives, Jackie explains the our behaviors and our human responses to others. In the face of project, “Started as a Mitzvah the difficulties, Judaism insists that we can learn to change and Day Project in 2013, a group see the world differently. Change, though possible, always takes of volunteers continues to fill practice, persistence and a penitent spirit. It takes diminishing about 300 - 250 ml containers one’s ego, humbling oneself, and magnifying the worth of others, with peanut butter for St John without losing an appreciation of oneself. During this season of the Divine’s Emergency Food “turning” (read “changing”), work at it as hard and long as you Services every 5 weeks.

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