High Holy Days 5782 • Preparing for Our Grand Homecoming • Education
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Fall 2021|5781/5782 August, September, October Av, Elul, Tishrei, Cheshvan INSIGHTinto Temple Israel of Boston INSIDE THIS ISSUE: • High Holy Days 5782 • Preparing for Our Grand Homecoming • Education: Looking Ahead to Fall “Enlighten our eyes with Your teaching, and let our hearts embrace Your commandments.” – Morning Liturgy INSIGHTABOUT THE COVER... AT TEMPLE ISRAEL, WE... build community and encounter the sacred through relationships. embrace Torah in all its dimensions as our enduring source for inquiry, discovery, and inspiration. Annual Gathering of the Congregation 2021 explore spirituality and innovate our traditions of ritual and prayer. IN THIS ISSUE... pursue justice, in partnership with others, to The TI Scene .......................................................3 realize our vision of what the world ought to be. From TI President & Executive Director..............4 are Ohavei Yisrael, Lovers of Israel, committed to the vitality, From the Senior Rabbi ........................................5 peace, and well-being of the Jewish people in Israel and High Holy Days 5782 ....................................... 6-7 throughout the world. Elul Spiritual Preparation ................................ 8-9 draw strength from our diversity and wisdom from all who S'lichot, Tashlich ...............................................10 walk through our open doors. Sukkot, Simchat Torah ......................................11 How I Got from Here to There: Our Covid Stories ..12-13 Coming Home in the Words of TI Members .....14 Preparing for our Grand Homecoming. ............15 Education Program: Looking to Fall ............ 16-17 Upcoming Fall Events .......................................18 Rabbi Oberstein's Installation ...........................19 Sh'ma Koleinu – TI GBIO Listens. ......................20 New Members, Life Cycles, Yahrtzeits, & Contributions .............................................. 21-32 UPCOMING HOLIDAY DATES... S'lichot: August 28, 2021 Rosh Hashanah: September 6-8, 2021 Yom Kippur: September 16-17, 2021 Sukkot: September 20-28, 2021 Simchat Torah: September 27-28, 2021 2 Living Judaism together through discovery, dynamic spirituality, and righteous impact. “Enlighten our eyes with Your teaching, and let our hearts embrace Your commandments.” – Morning Liturgy The TI Scene: Living Judaism Together Field Day Qabbalat Shabbat Annual Gathering www.tisrael.org/insight | 617-566-3960 3 FROM THE BOARD PRESIDENT & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR As we prepare for the High Holy Days throughout the summer, the second during a pandemic, we see glimmers of hope. We have come together in person and on Zoom, in mixed presence, for Shabbat services. We have gathered together in mixed presence in the TI garden for Shabbat and we have plans for mixed presence for the High Holy Days. We are slowly learning what the next normal will look like. It has felt so good to shake a hand, to hug, and to hear beautiful music in person. Some of us may feel uncomfortable being onsite, therefore programming and connection will continue virtually as well. Laurence Bailen Our ongoing goal is to ensure that all who come through our doors, physically or virtually, feel Board President at home and feel like they belong. We will strive to continue to be a community where anyone can feel they can live Judaism together through discovery, dynamic spirituality, and righteous impact. This year we will continue to welcome you back onsite to Temple Israel and at the same time strengthen our technology to ensure a seamless online presence. We will build on our efforts over the past year on racial equity, diversity, and inclusion by continuing to aim to be a place where everyone feels welcome. Our Inventing our Future task force will work with our Board and Leadership Council to make certain that Temple Israel adapts and innovates on future challenges. We will innovate, not just in programming, but also in our physical and virtual spaces to transform and elevate how people experience their Judaism and Temple Israel. In order for Temple Israel of Boston to continue to succeed and grow in the future we need all of you to be with us in whatever ways feel most comfortable to you. If you have not had the opportunity to renew your membership, we invite you to do so now. Your ongoing involvement is key to our success as a community. I wish you, your families, and loved ones a safe, healthy, and happy 5782. Shanah Tovah! As we transition into summer, we're also transitioning into a new phase of the pandemic. Incredibly, we are able to carefully open our doors for you to join us, but everyone who is 12 and over and eligible for the vaccine must be fully vaccinated. After spending the last year and a half working out of a mostly empty building – a building that was designed to cultivate community and connection – it's been such a joy to begin to see you return! Our staff is working hard to create a safe and inviting space for you to join us for our Grand Homecoming. There is an electric energy filling the space as we reunite physically onsite. When you're ready – we cannot wait for you to Dan Deutsch join us, and to lend your voice to our harmony. When you do return, please continue to provide Executive Director feedback and let us know about your experience of reentering our physical space. Looking to the fall, our High Holy Day planning is well underway and we will be ready to embrace our journey through the holidays. You should have recently received our mailing with all of the important details for the High Holy Days; hopefully it answers any questions you may have. You can also explore our plans and register for various classes and opportunities at our newly redesigned website: www.tisrael.org. I also wanted to officially welcome Rabbi Andrew Oberstein as he returns to Temple Israel to start his rabbinate. Please save the date for Rabbi Oberstein’s installation on Friday October 15th. It will be a night of celebration and joy. We can’t wait to see you onsite back at Temple Israel, but please know that we're here for you no matter what, either onsite or online. 4 Living Judaism together through discovery, dynamic spirituality, and righteous impact. FROM THE SENIOR RABBI A High Holy Day Message from Rabbi Elaine Zecher: The Jonah Story Prevails “Out of my distress, I called to the Eternal.” (Jonah 2:3) The Biblical reluctant prophet uttered these words in the great fish that caught him in its Rabbi Elaine Zecher mouth. For three days and nights, Jonah fell silent in his fear. Who could blame him? In that Senior Rabbi moment, he was caught between life and death, trapped inside a very dark place. God had called him to Nineveh and instead Jonah ran the other way and ended in the depths of despair. What a fabulous tale the Bible offers us. Why canonize a story that seems impossible to be true? Thomas Paine called it a “tale of unrestrained imagination.” Commentators twisted themselves into knots to authenticate such a bizarre narrative with explanations of the whale as a ship or even an inn! The author, Erica Brown, cautions us not to be confined to the literal meaning but instead to view the story as a “fear inducing tool of self-confrontation…representing the in between, liminal space that trapped Jonah for three days and nights.”1 But, what if it really could happen? This summer, we delighted in the successful outcome of the lobster fisherman, Michael Packard, who found himself in the jaws of a whale off the coast of Provincetown, though far from Nineveh. “I got down to about 45 feet of water and all of a sudden I just felt this huge bump and everything went dark,” he said. “I could sense that I was moving and I was like, ‘Oh my God, did I just get bit by a shark?’ and then I felt around and I realized there was no teeth, and I had felt really no great pain and then I realized, ‘Oh my God, I’m in a whale’s mouth. I’m in a whale’s mouth, and he’s trying to swallow me.’”2 In that moment, he, too, confronted his mortality and immediately felt the pang of what mattered to him: his wife and two sons. In that place of darkness, he had to figure out his own path toward his salvation as he tried to move and dislodge himself. Like the Biblical story, the whale breached to the surface and spewed out its mistaken prey. Phew! Though it was called a rare accident by the experts, it happened nonetheless. The message of the event prevails as well. The Jonah story is part of what we share on Yom Kippur. His whale of a tale transports us to a place of “unrestrained imagination” to confront our own experience of life. Though we might not see ourselves held by the tongue of a monstrous fish or deep in its belly, these holidays challenge us to consider our lives and the path to our redemption. We are vulnerable. Will we allow ourselves to be swallowed up by it or insist it release us back to life? Can we use these moments to transform us and to consider the way we can live a full life of kindness and righteousness? We enter this holiday season bruised by some of the experiences of this past year and yet, we can emerge into the loving embrace of the prayerful encounter offered by these days. On behalf of Cantor Alicia Stillman, Rabbis Suzie Jacobson, Dan Slipakoff, Andrew Oberstein, as well as Rabbis Ronne Friedman, Bernard Mehlman, and Cantor Roy Einhorn, I wish you a healthy, blessed, and sweet new year. 1 Page 58, The Reluctant Prophet, Erica Brown 2017 2 The Boston Globe, "A Lobster Diver Says He was Caught in the Mouth of a Humpback Whale," June 11, 2021 www.tisrael.org/insight | 617-566-3960 5 Welcome home! You belong here.