Dear Kol Rinah Family,
There’s Shabbat and Sukkot info further down, but first…
Wow! I think the Mirowitz Auditorium is still vibrating from the energy of Neilah (the end of Yom Kippur).
I want to say thank you to all of those people who made the High Holidays so high and so holy and so sweet at Kol Rinah.
First, thank you to all of you—Kol Rinah’s members and friends, who are the reason we do all this. You are the reason I am here at Kol Rinah, and it’s your support and love of our community and of Jewish life that is our raison d’etre. Thank you for being here and making this your Jewish home.
I want to thank my partner, friend and colleague, Rabbi Scott Shafrin, for his honest, sweet Torah, his perfect harmony, and for being a wonderful partner during these holidays, and every day. His sermon from Kol Nidre is here.
My sermon from the day of Yom Kippur is here.
Thank you so much to Kol Rinah’s President, Randi Mozenter, who gave a beautiful address on the strong state of our synagogue, and also shared some Torah that’s still with me, on how forgiving is really remembering, not forgetting.
A huge thank you to Barbara Shamir and Mitch Shenker, our co-executive directors, who supervised all of the logistics and troubleshooted throughout the holidays to make sure everything ran smoothly. They worried so Rabbi Shafrin and I didn’t have to.
Thank you to our entire office staff—Nancy Greene, Meir Zimand and Micki Kingsley, for doing so much behind the scenes work to make sure that all the mailings went out, that all your reservations and nametags and everything were set. They do this work every day, and are an amazing team.
Thank you to Karen Kern, whose voice ,rhythm and spirit keep Rabbi Shafrin and I going, and who brings such musicality and love to our community.
Thank you to Frank Heyer (guitar) and Daniel Yavitz (piano), our High Holiday musicians, who learned a ton of music and brought their great improv chops to help lift our prayers.
Thank you to Melissa Bellows, our new Youth and Family Program Coordinator, for coordinating and executing all of our extensive and successful family programming and babysitting that took place over the course of the High Holidays.
Thank you to our teachers, Rabbi Micah Buck-Yael, Prof. Nancy Berg, Dr. Wendy Love Anderson, Rabbi Jessica Shafrin, Joanie Terrizzi, and Rabbi Brad Horwitz for your inspiring, soul-nourishing teaching over the course of the holidays. We are so blessed to have wonderful intellectual, spiritual, and human capital at Kol Rinah!
Thank you to Howard Granok, the chair of the Ritual Committee, Esti Goldman, our VP for Ritual, and the entire ritual committee for all their efforts in organizing services, finding people to read Torah, have aliyot, lead services, and make sure everything went smoothly. Micki Kingsley deserves an extra shout-out as our gabbai coordinator.
Thank you to all those who served as floor/gliding gabbais, making sure services went smoothly, including Micki Kingsley, Jim Singman, Alan Schwartz, Marsha Birenbaum, Bob Olshan, Paula Lemerman, and Burton Boxerman
Thank you to Cindy Payant for coordinating the Seder Avoda (the service of the High Priest) on Yom Kippur.
Thank you to all those who led services, including Wendy Love Anderson, Sandy Boxerman, Howard Granok, Cindy Payant, Harlan Heller, Jeremy Buhler, Marvin Marcus, and Burton Boxerman. Your sweet voices carried us through the holidays!
Thank you to all those who sounded shofar, rousing our spirits, including Stephen Rosenberg, Donn Rubin, Monroe Ginsberg and Ari Duel.
Thank you to all those who read Torah and Haftarah (too many to list!).
Speaking of Torah, thank you to Steve Birenbaum for making sure our Torahs were dressed in their holiday white!
And thank you to all those who helped to clean and launder our large collection of tallitot.
Thank you to all those who helped set up for the High Holidays. A special thank you to Bill Kaufman, who made sure the sound system was working as well as it could!
Thank you to Joyce Olshan and Gary Kodner who coordinated all of our greeters, who welcomed and oriented you when you arrived at Kol Rinah.
Thank you to all those who served as greeters—also too numerous to name!
Thank you to the Men’s Club and Max Brown who coordinated all the ushers, and to all those who served as ushers and greeters, making sure people were welcomed, seated, comfortable and safe.
Thank you to our Board Chair, Sherri Sadon, and Kol Rinah’s entire Board of Directors, who provide such incredible leadership and support to our entire synagogue.
Thank you to Gary Kodner, our VP for Membership/Communications, for helping to design and print our new trifold brochure that was out for the holidays.
Thank you to our University City Police Officers, led by Captain Fred Lemons, who kept us safe throughout the holidays.
Thank you so much to our indefatigable maintenance crew from Norwood Janitorial Service, led by Octavio Vargas, with the help of David Vargas, and Dave and Jessica Buck.
Thank you to our USY President, Yael Portman, our USY Advisor Sarah Shulman, and our Shinshinit, Shaked Birenboim, on their work for our teens this High Holiday season.
Thank you to all our volunteer youth program leaders, and all our babysitters!
Thank you to Kol Rinah’s Early Childhood Center, led by Liz Collins & Elyse Picker, for accommodating all the craziness that interrupts the regular flow of school during the Yamim Noraim (Days of Awe).
Thank you so much to Pastor Carlos Smith and The Journey for accommodating us for one more year here as we wait for our new home to be completed.
Thank you to Kol Rinah’s Sisterhood, led by Joyce Gang and Susan Brown, for putting together our break-fast, which was so generously sponsored by Steve Keyser through the Faye Keyser Memorial Seudah Fund for what Steve said is the 15th year in a row.
And finally, thank you to Stanley and Judy Allen for continuing the tradition of giving us all a sweet taste at the end of each day of services, by donating apples for Rosh Hashanah and plums for the end of Yom Kippur.
Deep breath.
Tonight, we’ll have our classic Shabbat Rinah Kabbalat Shabbat in the chapel at 6pm. Candle lighting is at 6:11pm. Tomorrow morning, services will be back down in the Mirowitz Auditorium. Torah Talk will be at 10:10am with Rabbi Shafrin, and I’ll be teaching in services on “Some Torah of Eagles.” Mincha Saturday afternoon will be at 5:10pm and Shabbat ends at 7:07pm.
Sunday evening, Sukkot begins! Candle lighting is at 6:08pm, and services will be at 6pm. Monday and Tuesday mornings, services for the first days of Sukkot will be in the chapel at 9am. Services each evening will be at 6pm. We will have some lulavim and etrogim for people to use here at shul, but if you have your own, bring it. Our sukkah is also open and available if you would like to eat in it over Sukkot.
And now for a little Torah… “Sukkot is called “the season of our joy,” and is meant to be the most joyous of all the festivals. This is not the frolicking joy of Purim, but a happiness born of deep satiety at the harvest and gratitude for God’s gifts,” writes Rabbi Arthur Green.
This sukkot, on the tail of a wonderful High Holidays, I’m feeling full, and grateful, to our entire community and to the source of blessing for the abundance that we have at Kol Rinah. Thank you.
Shabbat shalom and chag sameach,
Rabbi Noah Arnow
PS This coming Wednesday from 4:30-6:30pm, you can get a flu shot at Kol Rinah. Info is on the website!
|
|
Phone: 314-727-1747