We danced, we ate, we bid, we danced some more! Two hundred and seventy Narayeverniks had one hundred years worth of enjoyment at the party of the century. What a wonderful culmination to our Centennial year! Thank you to all! NARAYEVER NEWS JANUARY, FEBRUARY 2015 TEVET, SHVAT, ADAR 5775 NARAYEVER NEWS PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE Dear Friends, accessible to those with mobility issues. We have talked about more space for children's programming, for adult Just one year ago, at the beginning of 2014, I don't think programming of all sorts, for teaching, for a rabbi's any of us really foresaw how much we would accomplish study, and for badly needed office space. during our shul's Centennial. Yet now that we have come to the end of the year, we can see that from the Throughout this past year, a new task force has been installation of beautiful new pew cushions, through to hard at work reviewing the possibilities for expansion the presentation of our historical exhibit, the publication and accessibility. The group has looked closely at both of our Centennial commemorative book, old ideas and new ones. and a fun and haymishe family celebration Now we want to hear from the at the end (and much else along the way), it congregation. What, if anything, do the was a deeply involving, community- members of our shul community want to building set of events. do? Are we ready to make a commitment Thanks again, by the way, to everyone who to an accessible, enlarged space? And if so, contributed to the success of our entire what kind of plan would make sense for us? year of programming. In order to find an answer to those For me, one of the most important questions, we are embarking on a process elements of the year was the lesson it of consultation with the shul membership. taught us about ourselves. In the course of The process will begin with a short survey, our history project we learned much that was new about which everyone will receive by email early in January. the original founders of the Narayever. I think we came You'll receive a package of material along with the to a deeper appreciation of their accomplishment, and survey, explaining the process that we're undertaking of the connection we still feel with them. But there is and the various options we would like you to examine, another lesson. When the Narayever was founded a think about, and comment on. century ago, ours was one of many small shuls in the We're then holding three meetings at the shul where we downtown area. Almost all those other institutions will present and discuss options. There's a lot at stake, have vanished or been absorbed into synagogues so we hope as many Narayever members as possible will outside the downtown. Yet ours survived. That's in part, come out to one or another of those meetings. I believe, because we were able and willing to adapt during a century of sometimes wrenching change. We need your input. Here are the dates and times for meetings regarding expansion and accessibility: Looking forward, we now have to ask ourselves how we adapt to the changes that the future will bring. I believe SUNDAY, JANUARY 11, 2015 11:00 am* we have a great opportunity to grow as an institution WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 14, 2015 7:30 pm central to Jewish life in downtown Toronto. In the last decade, according to a new UJA study, the Jewish SUNDAY, JANUARY 25, 2015 4:00 pm* community downtown grew faster than in any other part * Babysitting will be provided of the GTA. We have the new and congenial problem of thinking about how we fit into a community that is Consulting with our members will enable us to make expanding. choices and move forward on a crucial and long-delayed decision about our future. One essential area where we have to think hard about the future is our physical space. For a long time we at the Harry Schacter, Narayever Board President Narayever have talked about the need to make our space [email protected] 2 JANUARY, FEBRUARY 2015 TEVET, SHVAT, ADAR 5775 NARAYEVER NEWS RABBI’S MESSAGE Dear Friends, people who say kaddish attend and find a warm community of others in the same position. And at our shul, In early January I will conclude the 11 months of saying we do have our weekly Sunday services at shul beginning at kaddish daily for my late mother Gertrude Elkin, and in 9 am, and our monthly Rosh Hodesh service, in addition to early February I will observe her first yahrzeit. Observing our regular Friday night and Shabbat/festival morning the traditional Jewish rituals of mourning has not been services. It's not easy to arrange one's schedules around simple, but it has been very rewarding for me in ways that getting to a minyan, but doing so can be tremendously are a bit hard to understand or articulate. My mother rewarding. herself was not an observant woman, and would have been horrified to think that I had in some And then it comes to an end. The seven day ways “inconvenienced” myself on her shiva, with all its intensity, comes to an end. account by sitting a full shiva or finding my Shloshim ends. The 11 month period of saying way to a minyan for kaddish every day. So in kaddish for a parent ends. The first yahrzeit that sense, I wasn't doing it for her. As an passes. It's not as if we forget the loss, but our observant Jew, I felt it important to keep tradition eases us back into “normal” life. As Jewish tradition in this area as best I could. with so much else in Jewish tradition and in But beyond the halakhic requirement, it just life in general, the more we put into it, the felt right to me that I should honour her, and more we get out of it. our relationship, in this way. It felt right to me Rabbi Harvey Fields wrote the following poem that this year, the year of her death, should be about the kaddish, a prayer which famously different for me in a very concrete way. does not mention death: Jewish tradition helped me find a way to express that difference. Yitgadal ve'yitkadash shemey raba This profound praise of the living The experience of loss is an inevitable part of human Praise for the generous gift of life. experience, and I know many of you have spent time in the Praise for the presence of loved ones, “valley of the shadow of death”, as I did this year. When we the bonds of friendship, the link of memory. experience a loss, each of us has to decide how to relate to the structure of Jewish rituals around mourning that we Praise for the toil and searching, have inherited. In the last few years, there has been a trend the dedication and visions, the ennobling aspirations. in the non-Orthodox Jewish community towards a “3 day Praise for the precious moorings of faith, shiva”, towards narrow time limits on shiva visits, and away for courageous souls, for prophets, psalmists, and sages. from daily kaddish recitation. We all have our individual Praise for those who walked before us, circumstances, and everyone has to make their decisions. the sufferers in the valley of shadows, As your rabbi, I will support you in whatever way I can at a the steadfast in the furnace of hate. time of loss. If a shorter shiva is what you want, that's what Praise for the God of our fathers, we will announce and we'll help you make it happen. the Source of all growth and goodness, But when you're not in that highly stressful moment of the Promise of which we build tomorrow. crisis and grief, do think about the wisdom of our ancestors Yitgadal ve'yitkadash shemey raba and of the rabbis in giving us the rituals that we have This, the profound praise we offer. inherited. A short, limited, shiva may feel like the most you Praise for the generous gift of life. can do “in the moment”. But I've never known anyone who observed the full Jewish rituals and regretted it. If you at all Observance of the laws of mourning is a mitzvah none of us can, consider observing the traditional rituals, taking the seeks to observe. When life puts us in that position, I hope full amount of time our tradition has given us to that all of us will be able to derive the comfort from acknowledge the loss. It doesn't matter how observant you tradition and community that I did over the last year, and are of other traditions such as Shabbat or kashrut. Our come out newly strengthened in our affirmation of the gift Narayever community is here to help and support you. of life. Although we don't have daily services at our shul, there are Rabbi Ed Elkin minyanim in various places around town where many [email protected] JANUARY, FEBRUARY 2015 TEVET, SHVAT, ADAR 5775 3 NARAYEVER NEWS SHUL MATTERS FOOD COMMITTEE ADULT EDUCATION Post Kiddush Talk, January 10, 1:30 pm Post Kiddush, Shabbat January 24, 1:30 pm THE MILK OF HUMAN KINDNESS UNLIKELY AUSCHWITZ SABOTEURS - with David Loewith, a Jewish dairy farmer ANNA AND ESTUSIA WAJCBLUM with Sharon Abron Drache On January 10 after Kiddush, the Food Committee gggg will be sponsoring a talk by Mr.