6/7 Elul 5776

In respect for Shabbat and the many of us who choose to give our email a rest as well as ourselves, we are offering two Elul Thoughts--one for today and one for Shabbat.

Shabbat Shalom!

6 Elul/September 9

This is the season of healing:

Of healing our hearts and minds, of healing the moments we share with each other and the moments we share with ourselves. 

This is the season of memory:

Of remembering our parents and grandparents, the love of generations, the holiness of our ancestors. 

This is the season of stillness, the season of silence and quiet:

Of deep breaths, Of open eyes, Of compassion and consolation.

This is the season of healing:

The season of grief turning to wonder, of loss turning toward hope, the season that binds this year to the next, the season that frees this year from the next, the season that heralds the redemption of spirit and our return to God’s Holy Word.

(Alden Solovy)

7 Elul/September 10

When I was young and my friends and I would walk fearlessly around our neighborhood… and the world felt safe and kind. I believe almost all people, despite their mixed emotions and passions, want to live in such a world and with time, patience and faith, can achieve it.

We need not know the people to our right and to our left to know that we are walking the same path in the same direction. 

5 Elul, 5776

It’s Not You, God, It’s Me

I listened to my first podcast recently.

It happens to be the creation of one of our Elul Thoughts contributors, Rabbi Eric Linder, and his colleague Reverend Craig Topple, and it is called God in the Grit. In it, they discuss theology and life from the point of view of two spiritual leaders of different faiths. Toward the end of their first episode, Reverend Craig says, “When someone tells you what they think about God, it tells you less about God than it tells you about them.”

This struck a chord for me. As someone who speaks often about God, I will often remind people that in a room of 25 people, there are at least 25 different views on who or what God is. We cannot expect someone else to have all of our same tastes, so why should we believe they would share our theology? How we connect to God is deeply personal, and

As we prepare for the High Holy Days, may we learn to accept others when our opinions differ, as we would want our own opinions to be accepted.

4 Elul, 5776

Personal Reflection

A rabbi was stopped by a Russian soldier while he walking in his shtetl. The soldier aims his rifle at the rabbi and demands, “Who are you? Where are you going? Why are you going there?” Completely calm and unfazed, the rabbi asks, “How much do they pay you?” A bit surprised, the soldier responds, “Twenty-five kopecks a month.” The rabbi pauses, and in a deeply thoughtful manner says, “I have a proposal for you. I’ll pay you fifty kopecks each month if you stop me here every day and challenge me to respond to those same three questions.”

We can and should ask ourselves on a regular basis:
·       Who am I?
·       Where am I going?
·       How am I going to get there?
Even though the answers may change, asking the questions regularly serve to affirm the path that we are on or can motivate us to choose a different path if we cannot take pride in our answers.

3 Elul 5776

Dr. Paul Kalinithi writes in his memoir When Breath Becomes Air, that “You can’t ever reach perfection, but you can believe in an asymptote toward which you are ceaselessly striving.” (An asymptote, if you don’t remember from middle school Geometry, is a line that continually approaches a given curve but never meets it.)

Judaism inspires us to strive for perfection while understanding that we are inherently imperfect beings. Elul provides us a structure to look inward in preparation for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. As you go through the month, try to target an asymptote toward which you strive for the coming year. Think about that asymptote during the High Holy Days and draw connections to it through our liturgy.

2 Elul 5776

2 Elul/September 5

Elul, written in Hebrew Alef, Lamed, Vav, Lamed, is often explained as an acronym for the phrase Ani L’dodi V’dodi Li - I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine.

The Zohar teaches that we enter Elul achor el achor - back to back - in our relationships. But by the end of Elul we are panim el panim - face to face. During the month of Elul, it is our responsibility to turn towards our loved ones in empathy and compassion.

Soul singer Leon Bridges sings:
“What can I do? What can I do?
To get back to your heart
I'd swim the Mississippi river
If you would give me another start”

Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur offer us a fresh start, as long as we are willing to put in the work during Elul. Wishing you strength, patience and empathy on your swim.

1 Elul 5776

The Hebrew month of Elul is the last month of the Jewish year. As such, it is considered a month of spiritual preparation for the High Holy Days. Special meditations are added to the daily service for some, known as S’lichot, or penitentiary prayers. (*The Saturday before Rosh Hashanah is also known as S’lichot, and it is used as a night of contemplation and study.) For several years, a group of Reform rabbis has collaborated on a series of Elul Thoughts, shared with our congregations in a daily email, and accompanied by a daily Tweet. We are happy to share them with you.

This year’s Elul Thoughts include contributions from Rabbi Brad Levenberg of Temple Sinai in Atlanta, GA; Rabbinical Student Alex Kress of HUC-JIR Los Angeles; Rabbi Eric Linder of Congregation Children of Israel in Athens, GA; Rabbi Daniel Treiser of Temple B’nai Israel in Clearwater, FL; Rabbi Alan Litwak of Temple Sinai in North Miami Beach, FL; Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker of Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, TX; and Rabbi David N. Young of Congregation B’nai Tzedek in Fountain Valley, CA. You can follow any of us on Facebook or Twitter.

If you have missed any of these daily emails or want to go back and remember something from earlier in Elul, feel free to read them all at http://tinyurl.com/elul76.

1 Elul/September 4

Today we are celebrating Rosh Chodesh Elul, the first of the month of Elul. Elul is the month that precedes Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. In many ways, this month is as important as our High Holidays themselves. During these 30 days, we are meant to engage in introspection and t’shuvah.

This makes me think of the Summer Olympics (happening as I write this). The athletes compete for medals and accolades, and sometimes the competition is as short as just a few seconds (I’m thinking of Usain Bolt’s 100 meter run.) But we know that the real work of the athletes did not happen in Rio. The real work took place during years of intense training and discipline.
As we move through the 30 days of Elul, I hope that each of us is able to do the personal “training” necessary to ensure that the High Holidays are a meaningful coda to the work that we’ve done.

Educating Our Current and Future Leaders

by guest blogger Sam Backer, CBT President

A significant benefit of Congregation B’nai Tzedek’s membership in the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) is that we have access to information, people and resources from the governing body of the Reform movement.  We have low and no-cost opportunities to participate in various programs that enable our professional staff, Board and other lay leaders to learn and grow as they serve the congregation.  All we have to do is ask for help.  We did that and this month the current Board as well as incoming trustees will be participating in an on-site workshop.  A URJ facilitator will travel to CBT – at no cost to us – to help the Board work to further define goals and leadership responsibilities.  It’s a win-win for the Board and the congregation.

Sometimes the request for help comes from the URJ when it reaches out to its member congregations.  It did so recently when it asked for congregations to apply to participate in an Emerging Leaders Pilot Initiative.  Of the 900 congregations in the movement, 200 applied including CBT.  We were one of 21 congregations selected to participate.  This is a great honor for us!

The Emerging Leaders Initiative is a collection of stand-alone modules created by the URJ that will introduce a full range of topics and skills important to leadership and decision-making in a synagogue community.  Topics include visioning and creating a mission; general leadership skills; synagogue governance; personal leadership styles; and our own congregational community.  The specific modules we will pilot will be assigned this month by the URJ.  We seek to create a new cadre of leaders with the interest and potential to take CBT into the future.

We will meet once a month for about two hours per session beginning in June.  There will be four or five sessions.  Since we are piloting this program, the URJ has asked that every participant complete a survey about this program by November so they can make adjustments for the success of future participants.

Several congregants have been invited formally to participate in this program because they specifically have expressed interest in being part of CBT’s leadership or they have been identified as good candidates to be future leaders of our congregation.  However, the opportunity to participate is open to all members of CBT.  If you are interested in taking advantage of this program, be sure to email Rabbi Young at rabbiyoung@cbtfv.org.  Space is limited so be sure to get your name in for consideration as soon as possible.

From the Board workshop this month to the Emerging Leaders Initiative Pilot starting in June, we are fortunate to have such incredible learning opportunities offered by the URJ.  I look forward to further growth by our current leaders and to cultivating and working with those who will lead CBT into the future.

L’shalom,

Sam