Dear all,
The CBI February 2017 / Shvat 5777 Newsletter is Now Online!
In this month’s newsletter you’ll find Notes from the Rabbi, service times for Shabbat, the President’s Column, details of our Tu BiShvat / New Year of the Trees celebration, Ruthie’s Lunch Bunch updates and remembrances, some save-the-dates for later this spring, and more!
Enjoy,
Rabbi Rachel
Posted in newsletter
Dear all,
Shavua tov — a good new week to you.
Join us on Shabbat morning at 9:30am for Shabbat morning services led by Rabbi Rachel.
This week we’re reading parashat Bo. If you’d like to read some commentaries on this week’s Torah portion, here are a few:
And here are commentaries from the URJ: Bo at the URJ.
Many thanks to our shamashim, the members who host our Shabbat services each week. If you would like to join that group, please contact the office.
Blessings to all,
Rabbi Rachel
Posted in Shabbat
Save the date and plan to join us for Tu BiShvat, the New Year of the Trees!
Saturday, February 11: come at 9:30 to daven (pray) the morning service (with some special Tu BiShvat treats in it)
And/or come at 11am for our Tu BiShvat lunch seder
Bless and eat tree fruits
Experience a mystical journey through the four seasons and the Four Worlds
Rekindle your commitment to caring for our earth
RSVP to rabbibarenblat at gmail dot com or call the office at 413-663-5830.
And/or: if you use FB, please RSVP on the Facebook Event Page and share it on your own page to encourage others to come too!)
(Please bring a vegetarian / dairy dish to share.)
Posted in Tu BiShvat
Dear all,
Shavua tov — a good new week to you.
Join us on Shabbat morning at 9:30am for Shabbat morning services led by Rabbi Lori Shaller.
This week we’re reading parashat Vaeira. you’d like to read some commentaries on this week’s Torah portion, here are a few:
And here are commentaries from the URJ: Vaeira at the URJ.
Many thanks to our shamashim, the members who host our Shabbat services each week. If you would like to join that group, please contact the office.
Blessings to all,
Rabbi Rachel
Posted in Shabbat
“
Did you ever watch “Mission Impossible”? At the start of each episode, a recorded voice would announce “Your mission, should you choose to accept it…” And then after explaining the mission, the voice would conclude “this tape will self-destruct in five seconds.”
This week’s Torah portion contains a scene like that, only without the self-destructing cassette tape. At the burning bush, God tells Moshe his mission: to go to Pharaoh and demand that Pharaoh let God’s people go.
Moses demurs, I don’t even know who to say has sent me! And God answers “Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh — I Am Becoming Who I Am Becoming. Tell them that Becoming Itself has sent you.” Moses demurs again, and God gives him some magic tricks to perform, a staff that will turn into a snake and back again. Moses demurs a third time:
וַיֹּ֖אמֶר בִּ֣י אֲדֹנָ֑י שְֽׁלַֽח־נָ֖א בְּיַד־תִּשְׁלָֽח׃ / But he said, “Please, My Lord, make someone else Your agent!”
At this point, God does not say “well, it’s your mission if and only if you choose to accept it.” God says, “fine: your brother will partner with you in this work — now get to it.” God gives Moshe companionship in the task ahead, but God does not give him the chance to say no.
Moshe was out tending sheep in the wilderness, not searching for a new mission in life. And then his eyes were opened to wonder, the bush that burned but was not consumed. And then he heard the voice of God telling him there was work in the world that only he could do. It’s no wonder he balked. Who can blame him?
I have empathy for Moshe’s “please, God, send someone else.” He knew his own failings. He knew all the reasons why he didn’t feel suitable for divine deployment. Maybe he liked his life the way it was, and he didn’t want to get drawn into politics and into creating change.
Maybe he anticipated that the work of bringing change would be hard and that people would hate him. Sure enough, when he first goes to Pharaoh, the initial effect is that the people’s labors are intensified, and the people curse him thoroughly. Leadership is rarely easy. Poor Moshe is disliked both by Pharaoh, and by the people he seeks to serve and to save.
“Please, God, send someone else!” Maybe you too have felt that way. Maybe you’ve looked at the road ahead and seen that it looks scary. Maybe you know your life needs to change, but you’re scared of change and of the work it requires. Maybe you know our nation needs to change, but you’re paralyzed by the enormity of the change we need.
Maybe you’ve been a parent bringing a newborn home from the hospital thinking “I am in way over my head,” or started a new job thinking “why did they hire me, I don’t have these skills,” or stepped reluctantly into leadership wishing someone else had been willing to take the banner because you don’t want the drama or the responsibility or the projections others will place on you.
Moshe didn’t get to say no to his deployment, but he did get someone to share it with him. I’d like to think that we can all find that, if we keep our eyes open. All of us can seek a colleague, a friend, a brother, a partner — someone who shares the calling and the burdens that come with it.
Moshe had that in his brother Aharon. Their skillsets were complementary: Moshe spoke to God, and Aharon had the necessary skills to speak to the people. We can take turns being Aharon and Moshe for each other. We can by turns engage with the life of the polis and the life of spirit. We can create change on the front lines, and we can create change behind the scenes. And together we can be stronger, and more, and more whole, than any of us could be alone.
We get to do the work together. We don’t get to turn away from the work at hand.
All of us are tasked with perfecting our broken world — which sometimes means healing the brokenness in ourselves, and sometimes means healing the brokenness in public life. All of us are tasked with speaking truth to power, fighting for freedom, helping the vulnerable push through the narrow place of constriction into liberation. All of us are charged with cultivating the sense of wonder that will let us hear God’s voice issuing forth from the fire, and the sense of obligation that binds us to the work we’re here to do.
Our challenge is shifting from channeling our inner Moshe — “Please, God, pick somebody else!” — to channeling our inner Isaiah (6:8):
וָאֶשְׁמַע אֶת-קוֹל אֲדֹנָי, אֹמֵר, אֶת-מִי אֶשְׁלַח, וּמִי יֵלֶךְ-לָנוּ; וָאֹמַר, הִנְנִי שְׁלָחֵנִי. / And I heard the voice of God saying “whom shall I send, and who will go forth for us?” and I said, “Here I am. Send me.”
The work is vast. Working toward redemption — whether personal or national — is not easy. But it’s what we’re here to do. When the work of change and transformation call, don’t look around to see who else might pick up the slack. Say “Here I am. Send me.”
Cross-posted to Velveteen Rabbi.
Posted in divrei Torah, Uncategorized
Dear all,
Shavua tov — a good new week to you.
Join us on Shabbat morning at 9:30am for Shabbat morning services led by Rabbi Rachel.
This week we’re reading parashat Shemot. If you’d like to read some commentaries on this week’s Torah portion, here are a few:
Here’s a commentary from my friend and colleague Rabbi David Evan Markus: Moses the Rookie Chaplain and the Burning Bush.
And here are commentaries from the URJ: Shemot at the URJ.
Many thanks to our shamashim, the members who host our Shabbat services each week. If you would like to join that group, please contact the office.
Blessings to all,
Rabbi Rachel
Posted in Shabbat, Uncategorized
Dear all,
Shavua tov — a good new week to you.
Join us on Shabbat morning at 9:30am for Shabbat morning services led by Rabbi Pam Wax.
This week we’re reading parashat Vayechi. f you’d like to read some commentaries on this week’s Torah portion, here are a few:
And here are commentaries from the URJ: Vayechi at the URJ.
Many thanks to our shamashim, the members who host our Shabbat services each week. If you would like to join that group, please contact the office.
Blessings to all,
Rabbi Rachel
Posted in Shabbat
