Dear TBZ community:
My heart is full after the uplifting celebrations of the installation weekend last shabbat! Thank you to all those who made the weekend such a joyous event! What a beautiful way for our community to conclude the High Holidays together. May the joy we experienced last shabbat and throughout the whole holiday season guide us forward and inspire us throughout the year.
As we begin the new cycle this shabbat with the reading of
Bereshit
, we are also beginning a new practice - a weekly message on Fridays called
Shabbat N’kabla
-
Receiving Shabbat.
I hope you will find in each
Shabbat N’kabala,
words to help you prepare for shabbat. Sometimes the message will be connected to the weekly
parsha
, sometimes to what’s happening around us, sometimes to highlight what is happening in our community, sometimes it will speak to all of these. Sometimes the message will be in writing and sometimes as a video.
Periodically, I will be inviting Reb Moshe as well as the rest of our spiritual and educational team (Rav Tiferet, Tyler Dratch & Noah Weinberg), to share their messages with our community.
I look forward to hearing from you, your thoughts, comments and questions as we embark on this new year of Torah and community together.
This week, we return to
Parshat Bereshit
(Genesis 1:1-6:8)
and the story of the creation of the world. In this reading, we encounter the biblical refrain that ends the description of the creation of each day: “And it was evening, and it was morning, one day” (
Gen. 1:5
,
8
,
13
,
19
,
23
,
31
). One day, in our tradition, begins with the onset of darkness and ends with the waning of the light. This might seem counterintuitive to the rhythms of our life. Our association with evening is of end of day fatigue, ready to go to sleep and close a chapter to start anew the next morning.
If we look at the story of creation, it starts with chaos and darkness too. The world starts from chaos and darkness and then slowly turns to openness, light, life and possibility. Perhaps thinking about this in this way can be helpful to the ways we encounter darkness and suffering in our lives and in the world. Instead of relating to darkness and night as the end, Torah invites us to think about night and darkness as the possibility of a new beginning.
As we commemorate a year since the shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh this weekend, I have been thinking a lot about how we face fear and darkness and find light, blessing and hope as we move forward.
I encourage you to take a moment this weekend and in memory of the 11 victims of the shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue and consider, “How does this experience shape our decisions about how we live our lives? What is the path of light, that we can walk after darkness and chaos?”
The Jewish Federation of Pittsburgh is inviting everyone to “Pause With Pittsburgh” this Sunday. Anyone who pre-registers
HERE
, will receive a text message just before 5:00pm prompting them to take a moment of silence. Following the moment of silent reflection, there will be another text with a link to the formal program of readings, music, video, prayers and words to remember the victims, all being streamed live from the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall in Pittsburgh.
At TBZ, we will grapple with the questions of Gun Violence during a kiddush talk (at around 1pm, after the service in the meeting room) with Ruth Zakarin Executive Director of the
Massachusetts Coalition to Prevent Gun Violence
, as we continue our commitment to heal this world in community and see what actions we can take together.
This Shabbat, we also commemorate the Yahrzeit of
Rabbi Regina Jonas
. Rabbi Jonas, was the first woman to be ordained as a rabbi. She was killed in Auschwitz in October 1944. Though we don't know her exact date of death,
Shabbat Bereshit
is officially the shabbat that we honor her memory, as a sign of her courageous act of bringing renewal and a new beginning into our Jewish tradition.
May this shabbat bring renewal and blessings to all of you and your loved ones.
May we learn to find in darkness the possibility of blessing and new beginnings.
May we start the journey of learning Torah together again, in depth and with joy.
Shabbat Shalom,
