Perspective

As many of you might know, I spend a lot of time above 30,000 feet. (My frequent traveler accounts are very healthy and I consider airline peanuts a healthy meal!) When you are sitting in a window seat looking out at the world around you at 36,000 feet the world looks very different. The icy, gray, miserable day that was so prevalent at Newark airport suddenly opens into a wide blue sky with bright sunshine. Sometimes we land from the west, and I know that we are flying right over Hunterdon County. On a nice day I look out of the window at all the trees and green below and try to find a landmark I can recognize. I scan the land below for the sight of Round Valley Reservoir or Flemington. To date I have only been successful once or twice in identifying 78 and usually not until we are closer to Newark. Sometimes I look around the airplane cabin and worry about whether the person in front of me will put their seat back into my laptop or when the drink trolley will clear my trash, and I realize that my focus and attention is so far removed from the clouds and the sky that I am flying through. Depending on where I put my focus, where my eye happens to gaze, and where my train of thought takes me, my perspective can be so vastly different.

This Monday while I was flying, I thought about how my focus and perspective is equally important when I am on the ground. When it comes to Or Chadash, I feel like I've had a lot of different focal points. Nine years ago I was a new member, and I remember feeling like I didn't know anybody and wasn't sure I really belonged. In the early years of our membership I was a Temple Tots mom and saw Or Chadash through the eyes of my young boys. Later I found holidays, events and special moments that I really enjoyed, and I had a warm perspective of bringing my family to children's services, the holidays and the occasional summer service at Deer Path Park. Today I have a leadership role, and my perspective has changed again. Today I see the many people devoting time and energy to bring our community together. I see the work that Joe, Betsy, Kathy and others do to ensure we are a warm welcoming place full of song, children and activities. My perspective today also include some of the more mundane parts of synagogue life; ensuring a repairman is brought in to fix a chair-rail or leaky roof, determining our budget for a special event, calculating how many prayer books we have and how many we might need.

Each perspective that I have been able to take has made me feel closer to the Or Chadash community. Every new lens or focal point has helped me to be a better member. Perspective matters not just because it is interesting or gives us different lines of sight, but also because it allows us to contribute and participate in different ways. The different perspectives I have on Or Chadash allow me to better understand how I can help us to grow and thrive. If you haven't done so in a while, take a moment to think of your own perspective on Or Chadash. What lens do you wear when you think about our community? What different perspective might you like to have? If nothing else, think about what our temple in the woods might look like from 30,0000 feet? We might just be a small speck indistinguishable from the trees around us at that height, but I hope you will agree that underneath the branches we are a warm, vibrant, caring community.


Kim Turner

In Joanna Stern's article, How to Use Snapchat if You're Older Than 30, (Wall Street Journal 1/13/16) Stern includes
The Abridged Millenial English Dictionary (see below) where she states "if you're going to roll with the kids on Snapchat, you've got to learn the lingo."

Reviewing this list of acronyms and familiar words with very unfamiliar meanings gave me food for thought.

If Snapchat makes technology writer Joanna Stern, age 31, feel old and uncomfortable (she says that Snapchat requires the same initial concentration as assembling IKEA furniture)-what must it be like for someone unfamiliar with many of the Hebrew words and terms we use at Or Chadash?

I imagine that some holidays, like Hanukkah, are a bit easier-think dreidels and menorahs. But then why do we complicate things and sometimes refer to a menorah as a chanukiyah (literally, that Hanukkah thing)? The holiday of Tu B'Shevat is also challenging--that's the one where we stand outside in the freezing cold in the dead of winter and plant a tree--(in Israel it signifies the beginning of spring)-- and the name of the holiday translates as "the 15th day of the month of Shevat"--we refer to the holiday as "the birthday of trees."

On Shabbat (Sabbath) evenings and mornings, we casually use many of these terms:

Kiddush (from the root, "holy"; the blessing of the fruit of the vine)
HaMotzi ("the bread", blessing over the bread before we eat) and we invite everyone to "oneg" (oneg means: joy of Shabbat, colloquially: the celebratory meal following Shabbat Services.)

In 2016 I resolve to be extra mindful and sensitive, with written and spoken Hebrew words. #2016goals

YAASSSS!

Betsy Zalaznick

P.S. If you need help in understanding the differences between the four major social networks, Stern shares her perspective--Facebook is for major life updates, Twitter is for keeping up with news and life events, Instagram is for jealousy-inducing photos and Snapchat is for telling stories-the behind the scenes look at life.