Thanks so much to Rabbi Dr. Pamela Barmash for her teaching last Shabbat morning. We are so lucky to have her as a regular part of our community.
Last night, I was proud to be the Jewish Federation of St. Louis’s Annual Meeting where our member Lauren Cohen was awarded the David N. and Roselin Grosberg Young Leadership Award, which recognizes volunteer young adult leaders in the Jewish community who demonstrate active Federation leadership as well as leadership in other Jewish organizations, and commitment to Federation’s annual community campaign. Mazal tov to Lauren!
Earlier this week, I was at our new building, and the construction is looking amazing. I’m getting excited!
Tonight, we’ll welcome Shabbat with our Kol Rinah classic, Shabbat Rinah, with all your favorite KR melodies, with Karen Kern, Rabbi Shafrin and me. Services are at 6pm in the chapel. Candle lighting is at 6:54pm. (Next week will be Shir Chadash—newish melodies with Karen Kern & Rabbi Shafrin.)
Tomorrow morning, services will be in the Mirowitz Auditorium starting at 9am. I’ll be leading Torah Talk at around 10:10am, where we’ll look at a teshuva-related, very non-literal reading of one of the many mitzvot of this week’s Torah portion. We’ll also celebrate a special birthday of my mother-in-law, Susan Brown.
Shaked Birenboim, our new Shinshinit will be with us tomorrow morning as well. A Shinshin/it (which stands for shnat sherut—a year of service) is a Israeli young person who comes to America to work in a Jewish community for a year after high school, usually before starting military service. We’re excited to have Shaked with us this year!
Sunday night at 6:30pm, we’ll have a program looking back at the history of Kol Rinah and our legacy congregations, Shaare Zedek and Brith Sholom Kneseth Israel (BSKI). Details are here. Thanks so much to Gary Kodner for all your work in putting this program together!
Monday evening, I’m so excited that Kol Rinah is hosting Town Hall: “Ethics of our Fathers” in STL & Missouri Government. We have a number of public officials who we anticipate attending, including a number of county council members, prosecutors, and others. You don’t want to miss this. And a huge thank you to Benj Singer for working to organize this!
Wednesday evening at 7pm will be our final High Holiday Prep class, where we’ll review some familiar melodies and learn a few new melodies that we’ll be using over the High Holidays. Join us!
Next Shabbat, we’re looking forward to celebrating the bat mitzvah of Grace Cooperstein.
Finally, as you know, the High Holidays are quickly approaching. If you know anyone who would like to join us for the holidays, we would love to have them at Kol Rinah. All the information and signups are here on our website.
And now for a little Torah…
The classic chasidic take on the beginning of Parashat Ki Teitzei, which begins, “When you go out to war against your enemy…” (Dt. 21:10), understands the war not literally, but as a war against the yetzer hara, the evil inclination. As it is said that the Baal Shem Tov said, “ ‘When you go out’ is written in the singular, and each person has no greater enemy than the evil inclination.”
I generally prefer not to use warlike metaphors, but during this period of Elul, of internal reflection and repentance, it behooves us to try a number of different approaches.
What would it look like to fight a war against your evil inclination, against the impulses that focus us too much on the self, on the immediate, and on the expedient, when we know we need to be focusing on others, on the long-term, and on the right way?
This Shabbat, these coming days, try out the metaphor of war against your yetzer hara. May we all find success.
Shabbat shalom and see you in shul,
Rabbi Noah Arnow
Kol Rinah 829 N Hanley St. Louis, MO 63130 314.727.1747 kolrinahstl.org
MISSION: Create a welcoming community that embraces Torah, meaningful worship, lifelong learning, music, Israel, and tikkun olam, guided by the tenets of Conservative Judaism.
Phone: 314-727-1747