Dear Kol Rinah Family,
First, stop what you’re doing right now and vote in the World Zionist Congress elections. Click HERE to cast your vote now. You can vote for any slate you want, but I’m supporting Mercaz USA, the voice of Conservative/Masorti Judaism. So far, fewer than 50 people have voted from Missouri, and I only know of eight people from Kol Rinah who have voted. It does cost $7.50 ($5.00 for those under age 25). If the cost is an issue, let me know and I’m happy to reimburse you.
Why does this matter? The World Zionist Congress will make decisions regarding key institutions which allocate nearly $1 billion annually to support Israel and World Jewry (including the World Zionist Organization, Keren Kayemet LeYisrael – Jewish National Fund and the Jewish Agency for Israel). Your vote matters, and matters to Conservative Judaism around the world.
If you have voted already, reply to this e-mail and let me know!
So, stop, and don’t read any further until you’re finished voting.
Ok, now that you’ve voted, and told me you have….
We have an AMAZING Shabbat coming up at Kol Rinah with Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann. I wrote in the Voice about her visit here. More details are available here. It’s going to be an extraordinary weekend and very thought-provoking for us as we think about our goals and hopes for our prayer experiences here at Kol Rinah.
Tonight, we’ll be in the lower auditorium starting at 6pm. Candle lighting is at 5:19pm. Dinner signup is closed, but if you want to come learn with us after dinner, at around 8:15pm, please join us!
Note that the Saturday morning service will begin at 9:30am, will have some instruments (guitar and drum), and will not cover of all of the liturgy. We will have a complete, lay-led davening in the chapel beginning at 8am. Thank you so much to Wendy Love Anderson for coordinating that service!
Following Kiddush on Saturday, Rabbi Lizzi will lead us in a processing discussion of the experience that we had together. Please stay for that!
A special thank you to the Irvin and Dolores Rubin Music Fund and the Sara and Leo Wolf Adult Education Fund for supporting this program.
Mincha Saturday afternoon will be at 4:20pm, and Shabbat ends at 6:18pm.
There’s a lot of other stuff going on, but vote now (if you haven’t already), and come this Shabbat, if you’re around.
And now for a little Torah…
Where should Jewish inspiration come from? The obvious answer is, “The Torah!” You could also say God, or other Jewish texts, or Jewish history, or Jewish scholars, rabbis, sages, artists, teachers, and generally, Jews.
But how likely are we to think that inspiration for Jews should come from outside Judaism? That might be the last place some of us look, or among the first place others look. There’s a lot of really thoughtful stuff about congregational leadership, vision and management that comes from the church world, for example.
This week’s Torah portion contains the revelation at Mt. Sinai—the Ten Commandments (or Utterances, if you prefer). But it begins with Yitro, aka Jethro, Moses’s father-in-law, a Midiante priest, who comes to the Israelite camp, sees Moses scurrying around trying to answer everyone’s questions and adjudicate any and all disputes, and Yitro sees that it’s unsustainable. He suggests a system of lower level judges and courts to ease the burden on Moses.
“Yitro's presence in the text, placed narratively before the Revelation at Sinai, validates the notion that Jewish tradition and divine revelation are not exhaustive of wisdom, and that, (Jewish) leaders are impoverished if they only look to their own people and traditions for answers,” writes Rabbi Zohar Atkins.
What’s the wisest, most interesting thing that comes from outside the Jewish tradition that we as Jews, or we as a congregation, need to learn? Let me know your thoughts. And let me know that you voted in the WZO elections!
Shabbat shalom and see you in shul,
Rabbi Noah Arnow |
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