New Classes / Annual Meeting / Shavu'ot Resources
Friends:

This week we begin our reading of Sefer Bamidbar (Numbers), the tale of our travails in the wilderness.  For William Bridges ( https://wmbridges.com/resources/transition-management-articles/getting-them-through-wilderness/) the Israelite's journey from Egypt to the Promised Land through the Wilderness forms his metaphor for how to manage transition and change in life.  At Hormah (Numbers 14:45) the Israelites discovered that one cannot go from Egypt straight through to the Promised Land - to be in a place of mind compatible with going on to the next step in their journey, they needed to remain forty years in the wilderness.

For Bridges the wilderness - he calls it the "Neutral Zone" - is the transitional space where the old rules no longer apply, and the new rules have yet to be discovered.  It is a place of experiment and creativity, trial by error and discovery.

We have left the old normal, and we don't know what the new normal will be: we are in the wilderness, right now, in our own homes.  We need to remain here, for a while, struggling with the unfolding reality, hopeful that the new normal is even now revealing itself.  We will arrive at the new normal, the Promised Land.  I do not know when that will be.  But I am confident that if we open ourselves up to the uncertainty and the possibility of our current reality, we will eventually arrive.
New Classes 
In June, on Sunday mornings, I would like to take a look at The Observant Life : The Wisdom of Conservative Judaism for Contemporary Jews, edited by Martin S. Cohen and Michael Katz.  Published by the Rabbinical Assembly in 2012, it is a guide to what Conservative Jews might want to know about their religion, culture, and philosophy.

Sundays, June 7 - September 6, 10:00 AM - 11:15 AM
Annual Meeting
Sunday, May 31, 9:30 AM is the Temple Beth Shalom of Long Beach Annual Congregational Membership Meeting.
Shavu'ot Resources
Shavu'ot is next week.  In addition to our Zoom observance (Shavu'ot: Celebrating our Jewish Journeys, Thursday, May 28, 06:00 PM, https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81095083871?pwd=Mk8rOXdrbExkVGdsZUd4SVhCRnlqZz09), there are a number of options for staying up all night to study if you are willing to use your computer on a festival; here is one from From the Rabbinical Assembly:
 
Live Tikkun - Thursday, May 28, 9 PM - Friday, May 29, 9 AM EDT
We are excited for our first ever live virtual Tikkun Leil Shavuot, broadcast on YouTube Live at www.tinyurl.com/RATikkun. You can view the full schedule for the event here as well as a list of synagogues and organizations who will be tuning in.
 
As we enter the wilderness, may we be inspired to create our new normal in the days and weeks to come.  
 
Kabbalat Services are on Fridays at 6:00 PM:  
 
Havdallah this month is on Saturdays at 8:45 PM:
 
The final class in the Sunday Morning Study series is this Sunday at 10:00 AM: 
The topic will be Shavu'ot. 

Courage,
 
David 
 
Rabbi David Cantor
Temple Beth Shalom
3635 Elm Ave
Long Beach, CA 90807
direct line:    (562) 726-4116
email rabbi@tbslb.org