At Thought for Elul By Jack Layton

The Canadian politican Jack Layton died last week. He recently won a great political victory after many years of trying only to succumb to a reoccurance of his cancer. He wrote a letter to his supporters, to his family and friends and the Canadian people.

The last line of letter is worth pondering as we enter Elul and as we contemplate the state of the work

"My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we'll change the world. "

Reflections on Preparing for the High Holidays Yamim Noraim High Holy Days

Reflections on preparing for the Yamim Noraim (The High Holy Days)

 Last year for the first time since 1965 I did not have to prepare sermons, check musical cues , think of topics to  teach and get all bent out of shape worrying about the quality of worship experience of the various congregations that I served from my student days until 2009. Because our plans to go to New Zealand were cancelled because of Elaine’s illness we decided it would be best to worship at congregations other than Beth Emet. We felt it was important to allow Rabbi London and the congregation the opportunity to engage with each other without us. Rabbi London was extremely generous and invited us to attend all of the services and even though we declined we will always be deeply grateful for her sensitivity and support

What is like to sit in a congregation and not conduct High Holiday worship after forty four years of not experiencing as High Holiday service at which I was not officiating? It was both relaxing and disconcerting. The relaxing part is obvious. There were no worries about how well things were going. Our experience was positive. The sermons were good and I was especially moved By Rabbi Steven Mason’s sermon on Israel. The disconcerting part was that there were Issues  that I wanted to address and I had no forum. In addition as beautiful as the services that we attended were, we were not at home. We were warmly welcomed but it was not our place. I missed the familiar music and seeing familiar faces and being in familiar surroundings. We did attend the Afternoon, Yizkor and Neilah service at Beth Emet and it felt very good. Beth Emet is a special place and being away from it only served to remind us of something we already knew that  we are blessed to be members of such a great community.

This year I am preparing to conduct services at Beth Shalom in Auckland, New Zealand.  In my conversation with the ritual committee in at Beth Shalom they offered me the honor of singing Kol Nidrei.  In spite of great temptation on my part I suggested strongly for domestic bliss at home and the welfare of Beth Shalom they should give the honor to someone else.

Preparing for the service will be complex because I will be working different individuals who will provide the music, do some of the reading etc and I will be following the customs of a different community. It is exciting but a little nerve wracking. I am being to write my divrei Torah. I have decided that I will recycle one sermon from my last High Holidays at Beth Emet. It is the letter to my grandson Oliver. In addition I working on sermons on Israel, the prayer Unetaneh Tokef, (Who Shall Live and Who Shall Die), the story of Hagar and Yishmael which is the traditional passage for the first day of Rosh Hashanah and for Yizkor  a reflection immortality. The congregation uses Gates of Repentance but I will also bring pdfs of an experimental edition of our new High Holiday prayer book which I hope will engender meaningful feedback for the editorial committee.

I am new to writing a blog and at the moment it seems very self- indulgent.  I eventually will share my thoughts on the my experiences Down Under and my thoughts on other topics.

If you have a topic you want me to address please let me know.  Elaine and I our six grandchildren Oliver, Lily, Heather, Alana, Stephen and Leah, my children Seth and Dara, Alyssa and Jeremy wish you a healthy,prosperous and peaceful  5772.

Welcome to Kiwis and Koalas!

Elaine and I have some exciting news to share:

As many of you know, last year we were supposed to go to New Zealand for an extended stay where I would have served as the interim rabbi at the Reform congregation in Wellington. In addition, I would have participated in the introduction of a special edition of Miskhan T'filah which was created for the Reform congregations of the Pacific Rim. (The Pacific region of the World Union for Progressive Judaism was also celebrating its 75th anniversary). Sadly, our plans were cancelled because of Elaine's stroke. She has made magnificent progress and we are deeply grateful for the strong support we have received from our Beth Emet family.

On September 10, Elaine and I will depart for New Zealand where I will serve as visiting rabbi for the Reform congregation in Auckland through Simchat Torah. We will then have an opportunity to travel in both New Zealand and in Australia, where I will also have the privilege of speaking at some of our Reform congregations. In November, we will return to the congregation in Auckland, and I will serve as the rabbi of the congregation for another month. We are very excited.

A number of years ago Beth Emet generously granted me a sabbatical and Elaine and I spent five months in the United Kingdom where I was the interim rabbi at the North West Surrey Reform Congregation in Weybridge outside of London. It was an eye opening experience. I shared my impressions with the congregation in a monthly column entitled Somewhere Near the Thames. I intend to do something similar with this blog.

Elaine and I, our children and our grandchildren wish all of you a sweet, healthy and prosperous new year.