Rabbi's Letter
June 20, 2019
17 Sivan 5779
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LET IT BE
INSPIRED PRAYER
NOURISH THE SOUL
OPEN YOUR HEART AND SING
Religion seems to call its call when we find ourselves in moments of stillness, caught in a soft breeze that tells us in an echoing silence that life is magnificently overflowing with unseen meaning.
In such a moment of grace we feel that there is so much more and in an instant, we awaken, just a little to that higher frequency, to the place of sensing God’s presence. And then as quickly as it arrived, it is gone. Religion is the yearning for more and spirituality is the breathing in of a cleaner air, of an oxygen that feeds the soul, the hint of God’s truth wrapped up in a moment and nothing, no nothing, can ever be the same.
Before a moment like this we are all a NO WHERE MAN.
Nowhere man please listen, you don’t know what you’re missing,
Nowhere man, the world is at your command.
Doesn’t have a point of view, knows not where he’s going to,
isn’t he a bit like you and me?
He's as blind as he can be
Just sees what he wants to see
Nowhere man, can you see me at all
Nowhere man don't worry
Take your time, don't hurry
Leave it all till somebody else
Lends you a hand
Ah, la, la, la, la
He's a real nowhere man
Sitting in his nowhere land
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody
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Yet once a moment like this is had, our eyes and our hearts open wide, our vision expands and it isn’t until we’ve had an experience like this that the ability to imagine a better world becomes real. Without an awakening there is only sleep walking.
The whole point of life is to wake up!
IMAGINE
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Shemah Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai Ehad!
Imagine, a world where no children are torn from their parents' arms, where no peoples wander the lands of the world looking for a safe place to raise their babies. Imagine a world where no one is hungry, no disease, no danger. Imagine a world where there are no slaves to the sex trade, to indentured servitude, to ownership by any human. Imagine a world where there is money enough for everyone, jobs enough for everyone, opportunity enough for everyone.
Imagine!!!!
Yes, this is God’s dream and yes, this is what we Jews have been asked to do, to dream it alongside God and then to make it real.
Judaism has always been about imagining what can be and resisting the impulse to slide into the malaise of indifference. This IS Torah!
More than any other command from the Torah, we hear over and over and over again,
protect the vulnerable
, keep your eyes and your hearts on the orphans, on the widows, on those with no one to protect them.
Be their protectors, they are all God’s children.
WE ARE OUR NEIGHBORS BROTHERS AND SISTERS.
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The Rabbis taught, it is not enough to reach out a hand alone, one must go down into the darkness in order to carry out a lost soul into the light.
Looking through eyes of a political construct allows one to believe that you don’t have to care about anything that is not on your political agenda.
Spiritual living, a closeness to God, is doing the right thing at every moment regard-less of the political lens. Where there is suffering, try to stop it. It is the simplest message known to humankind. Stop the suffering, for if one child suffers, the whole world suffers.
Enough said!
That is the message of Judaism.
It could be that the Beatles music was the soundtrack to my own awakening many many years ago, and because of that, their melodies and their poetry remind me of waking up and finding purpose and meaning in my life. My passion for the sound of God’s call has never diminished, nor has my love for the music created by John, Paul, George and Ringo.
Our Beatles Shabbat was begun before I came to Wilmington by Rabbi Waxman, and after I arrived it has become a wonderful collaboration. Rabbi Waxman loves to put the prayers of Shabbat to Beatles' melodies, and I love to correlate the meaning of the prayers with Beatles songs that sing to the same mysteries. I also feel that the path that these songs weave for us and the journey on which they take the soul can be, for so many, a doorway to that very awakening.
21
st
of June
BEATLES SHABBAT
6:30pm
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Please come ready to sing, to pray, to feel and to eat. Dinner to follow services. Please
RSVP with Kate
in the office! Thank you!
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SAVE THE DATE
Sunday August 25, 2019
3 to 5PM
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MEET AND GREET
ART IN BLOOM GALLERY
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Please bring your friends who might be looking for a spiritual home. Reach out and invite those who are unaffiliated - perhaps B’nai Israel is the home they are looking for. We look forward to welcoming them all. And for our congregants, please stop by this beautiful event. We would love it if you dropped in and visited.
Thank you as always to Amy Grant for inviting us into her beautiful gallery and helping us welcome you all there with open arms, along with wine, cheese and music. Thank you!
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Imagine what the call to worship really means. It is the call to attention - the call to focus on what lies just beyond our reach and is ever calling us towards its light. It is the full majesty of God’s creation.
On our Beatles Shabbat, this is how I feel the Barchu.
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Across The Universe/ Barchu
Words are flowing out like
Endless rain into a paper cup
They slither wildly as they slip away across the universe.
Pools of sorrow waves of joy
Are drifting through my opened mind
Possessing and caressing me.
Jai Guru Deva. Om
Nothing's gonna change my world
Images of broken light, which
Dance before me like a million eyes,
They call me on and on across the universe.
Thoughts meander like a
Restless wind inside a letter box
They tumble blindly as they make their way across the universe.
Jai Guru Deva. Om
Nothing's gonna change my world
Sounds of laughter, shades of life
Are ringing through my opened ears
Inciting and inviting me.
Limitless undying love, which
Shines around me like a million suns,
It calls me on and on across the universe
Jai Guru Deva, om.
Nothing's gonna change my world
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We are so excited to be participating in the Habitat for Humanity’s Faith Build. And I am so grateful to Donna and Mitch Ratner for volunteering to help us organize. If you have questions, please contact the Ratner’s at 609-647-2298
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Please sign up for any dates that you’d like, but our B’nai Israel date will be August 25
th
in the morning. So be sure to sign up for that day specifically along with any other dates you wish to help build.
We will be responsible for bringing lunch for the entire group on the 25
th,
and we can figure that out as we get closer.
Please join us for this great cause!
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If you are interested in our fabulous
Israel trip
, please contact Rabbi Julie 864-404-6893.
The dates are October 15-25, 2020
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How powerful it is when we stand to say Kaddish for a loved one who has gone from our world? And how beautifully do these words fill in some of the gaps.
In My Life/ Mourners Kaddish
There are places I remember
All my life, though some have changed
Some forever, not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places have their moments
With lovers and friends, I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life, I've loved them all
But of all these friends and lovers
There is no one compares with you
And these memories lose their meaning
When I think of love as something new
Though I know I'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I'll often stop and think about them
In my life, I love you more
Though I know I'll never lose affection
For people and things that went before
I know I'll often stop and think about them
In my life, I love you more
In my life I love you more
I look forward to sharing this coming Beatles Shabbat with all of you.
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באהבה ושלום
Shabbat Shalom to all!
הרב אלישבע בת דוד ודבורה
Rabbi Julie Kozlow
(910) 762-1117 ~ B'nai Israel phone
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