Shabbat Shalom from Rabbi Arnow 6/12/2020
Dear Kol Rinah Family,
There's actually a lot going on!
-At noon today, I'll be teaching Torah Talk.
-We have Kabbalat Shabbat tonight at 6pm.
-Sunday at 11:30am I'll be teaching on Halakhah in the Time of Covid: Zoom Minyanim.
-Friday morning (6/19) at 10:30am, Tammy Arnow will be doing a challah-baking class (online!):
Join Tammy Arnow to make challah dough together as a community next Friday, 10:30am! You can make your own favorite recipe as she makes hers, join along with her and ask questions as you go, or simply watch, learn, and be in community. All are welcome -- including kids! -- to this Sisterhood event. Please email susanmbrown77@gmail.com if you need some yeast, as we have plenty to share.
And minyan continues! We are still having trouble making minyan, especially in the mornings. Please join us to pray, support others, and connect with our community, 8am on Sundays, 7am weekdays, 6pm every night except Saturday.
Links for everything are at the bottom of this email.
Candle lighting tonight is at 8:08 and Shabbat ends at 9:14pm.
I also just want to update you on some other planning that's taking place. The new building is coming along, and each day inching closer to being finished.
We've created a High Holiday Taskforce, including members of synagogue leadership, clergy, the ritual committee, and broad representation from the congregation, graciously chaired by Debbie Igielnik and Joel Portman. We're working to think about what our constellation of offerings for the holidays will look like in a year where we already know things will have to be very different. Feel free to send thoughts about the holidays to me or Rabbi Shafrin, or to our synagogue leadership, and we'll make sure the committee gets them.
At the end of April, I had a conversation with the St. Jewish Light's Eric Berger, which is the first episode of a new podcast the Jewish Light is doing. It's available here.
And now for a little Torah...
In this week's parasha, the third in Numbers, Parashat Be-ha'alotekha, the complaining begins in earnest. The Israelites say, "If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish that we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic" (Numbers 11:5).
One commentator points out (fish aside), these foods were not especially nutritious, but they were flavorful.
Now however, the Israelites have manna, which meets all of their nutritional needs, but whose taste, "like rich cream," in one translation, or "the taste of a cake baked with oil" in another, was consistent (Numbers 11:8). (Other texts talk about the manna being able to taste like whatever you want, but let's stick with the text here that it tasted the same all the time.)
In certain ways, we are healthier now, with less sickness transmitted, less pollution and environmental impact, than we've been in a long time. (Of course, so many health problems are going untreated now, because of fear of contracting Covid-19).
But so much of the flavor of life, the onions and garlic that are the base for so much cooking, is missing. We miss restaurants, and also social interactions in person, both planned and random, unplanned. We miss travel. We miss browsing in stores. We miss swimming, and sports, and theater and art and music and museums in person. Are these things absolutely necessary? No, but they are the flavor of life, and without them, life is perhaps "safer," but much less flavorful, and delightful.
So, I understand the Israelites' complaining. But I think they got into trouble because the complaining overshadowed their gratitude at being free from slavery in Egypt.
It's absolutely ok to complain about the blandness of life today, and about all that we're missing. And it's certainly ok to try to spice it up in safe ways. As long as we don't lose sight of the gratitude we should have for whatever measure of health we have, and as long as we remember that this period of "blandness" has a higher purpose--the saving of lives, our own and others.
Shabbat shalom and see you on Zoom,
Rabbi Noah Arnow
There's actually a lot going on!
-At noon today, I'll be teaching Torah Talk.
-We have Kabbalat Shabbat tonight at 6pm.
-Sunday at 11:30am I'll be teaching on Halakhah in the Time of Covid: Zoom Minyanim.
-Friday morning (6/19) at 10:30am, Tammy Arnow will be doing a challah-baking class (online!):
Join Tammy Arnow to make challah dough together as a community next Friday, 10:30am! You can make your own favorite recipe as she makes hers, join along with her and ask questions as you go, or simply watch, learn, and be in community. All are welcome -- including kids! -- to this Sisterhood event. Please email susanmbrown77@gmail.com if you need some yeast, as we have plenty to share.
And minyan continues! We are still having trouble making minyan, especially in the mornings. Please join us to pray, support others, and connect with our community, 8am on Sundays, 7am weekdays, 6pm every night except Saturday.
Links for everything are at the bottom of this email.
Candle lighting tonight is at 8:08 and Shabbat ends at 9:14pm.
I also just want to update you on some other planning that's taking place. The new building is coming along, and each day inching closer to being finished.
We've created a High Holiday Taskforce, including members of synagogue leadership, clergy, the ritual committee, and broad representation from the congregation, graciously chaired by Debbie Igielnik and Joel Portman. We're working to think about what our constellation of offerings for the holidays will look like in a year where we already know things will have to be very different. Feel free to send thoughts about the holidays to me or Rabbi Shafrin, or to our synagogue leadership, and we'll make sure the committee gets them.
At the end of April, I had a conversation with the St. Jewish Light's Eric Berger, which is the first episode of a new podcast the Jewish Light is doing. It's available here.
And now for a little Torah...
In this week's parasha, the third in Numbers, Parashat Be-ha'alotekha, the complaining begins in earnest. The Israelites say, "If only we had meat to eat! We remember the fish that we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic" (Numbers 11:5).
One commentator points out (fish aside), these foods were not especially nutritious, but they were flavorful.
Now however, the Israelites have manna, which meets all of their nutritional needs, but whose taste, "like rich cream," in one translation, or "the taste of a cake baked with oil" in another, was consistent (Numbers 11:8). (Other texts talk about the manna being able to taste like whatever you want, but let's stick with the text here that it tasted the same all the time.)
In certain ways, we are healthier now, with less sickness transmitted, less pollution and environmental impact, than we've been in a long time. (Of course, so many health problems are going untreated now, because of fear of contracting Covid-19).
But so much of the flavor of life, the onions and garlic that are the base for so much cooking, is missing. We miss restaurants, and also social interactions in person, both planned and random, unplanned. We miss travel. We miss browsing in stores. We miss swimming, and sports, and theater and art and music and museums in person. Are these things absolutely necessary? No, but they are the flavor of life, and without them, life is perhaps "safer," but much less flavorful, and delightful.
So, I understand the Israelites' complaining. But I think they got into trouble because the complaining overshadowed their gratitude at being free from slavery in Egypt.
It's absolutely ok to complain about the blandness of life today, and about all that we're missing. And it's certainly ok to try to spice it up in safe ways. As long as we don't lose sight of the gratitude we should have for whatever measure of health we have, and as long as we remember that this period of "blandness" has a higher purpose--the saving of lives, our own and others.
Shabbat shalom and see you on Zoom,
Rabbi Noah Arnow
Tue, May 6 2025
8 Iyyar 5785
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Tue, May 6 2025 8 Iyyar 5785