Beth El

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Thoughts on the High Holy Days, 5771

by Rabbi Arthur Ruberg

You will be receiving the annual Beth El September Bulletin in August this year, for the same reason that the Beth El High Holiday Seating Committee was working feverishly almost as summer began this year. When Rosh Hashanah coincides with the week of Labor Day as it rarely does (but does this year), preparations go on all summer; and while on the Jewish calendar, the holidays, contrary to common belief, do not come early or late but on the same first of Tishrei every year, years like this one do throw our late summer rhythms off. But when we walk into the sanctuary and gather with our families as we will shortly, it will feel as it should; it will feel like Yom Tov. I pray that for you and yours the High Holy Days of the Jewish year 5771 will renew us as people and as Jews and hopefully rekindle our Jewish spiritual lives that from time to time flicker during the long year.

I want to reiterate in this article some of the thoughts I have written for this year’s Beth El Chronicle entitled, “Building for the Future.”

‘It may seem strange that my motto for Beth El this Jewish year 5771 is, “building for the future.” After all, as you may know, I will be retiring as active rabbi after this coming July. Shouldn’t I be devoting this year to winding down and wrapping up?

Instead, my goal is to leave this 160-year-old congregation as alive and vibrant as it was when I came here twenty-two years ago, maybe more so, as a center for the love and practice of Judaism in this community.

During this year, the congregation will be making decisions and searching for rabbinic leadership to take it into the years ahead. This past year, I have been an interested observer as my son Jeremy has interviewed for and then accepted a rabbinic position. I have seen that there are congregations that are looking for a rabbi to come anew and rebuild them, that want the new rabbi to lead them to a fresh start and arrest years of decline; and there are the synagogues, far more attractive to aspiring rabbis, that are looking to their new rabbinic leadership to build on a strong foundation, not to raise up a sinking ship but to take them to new heights.

As I look forward to my last High Holy Days as Senior Rabbi of Beth El, my mind wanders to my first month here in August of 1988. Rosh Hashanah came right after Labor Day that year, as it does again this year. My goal in the month leading up to the Holidays was to get to know one hundred members, so that when I looked out on the congregation on Yom Tov, there would be some familiar faces mixed in with the imposing sea of strangers. How different it is now! When I look out from the bimah this Rosh Hashanah, I will see not strangers, but a gathering of friends, friends with whom I have shared life experiences for over two decades and whom I would like to think that I have guided on the path of Jewish religious life and commitment, and whom I hope will continue to be my active partners as the congregation builds for the future as it passes its 160th year of leadership to the Norfolk and Tidewater Jewish communities.

How special it will be for me to greet you after services on Yom Tov and exchange the traditional words of greeting, “L’Shana Tova Tikatevu.” May we be inscribed in a life of health and meaning as together we build for Beth El’s future.

To reach Rabbi Ruberg by email, write to RabbiAR@bethelnorfolk.com.

Raise your voice like a shofar – Isaiah 58:1

by Rabbi Susan Tendler

“Raise your voice like a shofar.” As I look at my shofar sitting high up on my shelf, waiting patiently for this time of year to return, I am struck by the beauty of this concept. We are taught that during the month of Elul, the month preceding Rosh Hashanah, we should be busy preparing ourselves to stand in our annual line of judgment - we ask others for forgiveness prior to standing before the Eternal and Ultimate Judge on Yom Kippur. This is not easy, nor should it be.

Each morning during this month, we, also, sound the shofar to literally wake us up- physically, spiritually, and metaphorically - to awaken us to become mindful of our actions, to examine our past deeds and to return - literally do teshuva, on our path (halacha- Jewish law) to God; but according to the Talmud, the shofar serves not only as our alarm clock, but the ram’s horn is also intended to awaken God as well. The Talmud [Rosh Hashanah 16a] asks:

Why do we sound the shofar? Because the Holy One, blessed be God, said: ‘Blow me a ram’s horn that I may remember to your credit the binding of Isaac, the son of Abraham, and I shall account it to you as a binding of yourselves before Me. Your children are destined to be caught in iniquities and entangled in misfortunes, but in the end they will be redeemed by the horns of a ram.’

So while we blast the shofar as our own personal alarm clock, the sound is likewise intended to awaken God to hearing our prayers and our teshuvah, to recognize our good deeds and account for the tzedakah we have given or pledged. I love this idea that the shofar is not only for us, but for God as well. It points to us being in a relationship with God - a reciprocal, two-way street between two parties. With all of the time we spend in shul on the High Holidays, it is important to remember that as much as we seek and pray to God, God needs us, too.

I recently came across a text by Rabbi Avraham Chaim of Zlatchov that added to my understanding of the verse, “Raise your voice like a Shofar.” He wrote:

“You must consider yourself like nothing. You must realize that you have no merit nor good deeds to your credit. Even though you may fulfill the commandments and do good deeds, you are not the one who is actually doing this. You are only acting through the power that God gives you and through the intelligence and goodness that He bestows upon you.

You are therefore like a Shofar. A Shofar itself does not contain any sound. It only produces sound when someone blows through it. It is therefore written, Raise your voice like a Shofar.”

While I struggled with this text bordering on pre-determination and lack of free will, I came to understand it through my shofar, sitting on my shelf. Whether on my shelf or in my hands, it represents the ram at all times and the numerous reasons we use it at this time of year. Any month of the year I can glance at it and recall its symbolism; but here, through this text, I realized that as it sits, it is waiting for breath, for life, to be breathed into it anticipating the transformation that we can make happen; and so too, are we like the shofar. We can sit around with all of our potential, or we can open ourselves to having the breath of life enter us, move us, and transform us as we begin a new year.

May the year ahead be full of promise and potential, transformation and growth, health and happiness!

To reach Rabbi Tendler by email, write to RabbiTendler@bethelnorfolk.com.

Make This the Year

by Cantor Gordon Piltch

Many of us living in Hampton Roads will remember this past year for its extremes in weather. This was the first winter in a generation which witnessed a sizable snowfall. It was also the hottest summer, on average, on record; hot even for Tidewater. That is one way to file away a year in our memories. There are other ways to accomplish the same goals. We can consider unusual events that occurred on the national or international scenes, good or bad; actions taken or avoided by the president, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the escalating negative feelings of the world towards Israel. Some of us will utilize personal experiences as a means of filing away this year. Idit and I were blessed this year to celebrate the wedding of our older daughter, Talya, to Eric Goldsmith. Other families in our congregation have celebrated a birth, a Bar/Bat Mitzvah, a wedding, or, G-d forbid, suffered through the sadness of having a relative pass from this world to the next.

In our synagogue family, we have much to celebrate and to be grateful for. Just among the families of our religious staff, we have had a bumper crop of happy occasions, more than would usually come in a single year. As I have already mentioned, Idit and Noga and I had the merit to dance at Talya's wedding. Rabbi Tendler and Ross Sadoff were blessed by the birth of their beautiful daughter, Hannah Sofia. Rabbi and Miriam Ruberg have announced the engagement of their extraordinary daughter, Adina. Truly a red-letter year for daughters at Beth El.

Also, I must not forget to mention the great blessing for all of us of the return of Rabbi Ruberg to the synagogue and his duties after the debilitating stroke he suffered the previous year. We all give thanks to Hashem Yitbarakh for granting us once more the opportunity of experiencing the love and care of so wonderful a spiritual leader. And although not a member of our religious staff, the fourth of our synagogue professionals, Pam Gladstone, was feted by a loving membership on the occasion of her twenty years of dedicated service.

These are all surefire ways to remember this past year and distinguish it from others. But there is yet another way to remember 5770; by taking note of our spiritual growth. Each of us should find something Jewishly uplifting to occupy our minds and hands every year, something that will bring us closer to our synagogue and to G-d. We all concern ourselves with our jobs and our families and our everyday activities. That is as it should be. We hope to improve ourselves and our skills, growing better at what we do and raising ourselves to higher levels. At the same time, we need to understand the imperative to match that kind of growth with a parallel kind of Jewish growth, allowing ourselves the opportunity every year for study and observance. In this manner, we enable ourselves to rise to new spiritual levels, combining knowledge with action to make our Jewish lives richer and more rewarding.

Each of us is made up of a complex combination of characteristics which produces a unique individual. By definition, being unique means that we are all different from one another. As we mature, gaining years and experience of the world, we attempt to develop each and every part of ourselves to the greatest possible degree; physical, intellectual, psychological. The one vital part of ourselves that we all share in common is our Jewishness. Although it will manifest itself differently in each of us, our Jewishness remains an integral part of what makes us who we are. In order for us to "be the best that we can be", we must work at developing the Jewish part of us just as much as all the other parts.

This past year, ten members of our congregation decided to do just that. For a year and a half, they studied with the rabbis and me, learning much about our culture and heritage which was new to them. The process culminated in a group Bar/Bat Mitzvah ceremony in May during which these dedicated adult students of Judaism each read from the Torah and led other parts of the Shabbat morning service. Every piece of the process, even things which some found extremely challenging, was an uplifting experience for them. At the conclusion of the day, they all felt a tremendous sense of accomplishment and a stronger connection to their synagogue and their G-d.

Not all of us are prepared to commit to such a long and intensive period of study. Time and strength have limitations during certain parts of our lives. But I hope that each of us can take a certain amount of time from our busy schedules to learn something new in our Jewish lives. I have a specific suggestion which would be extremely helpful to the synagogue and very rewarding to any who decide to study. During my three years at Beth El, I could not but notice that, of the cadre of minyan attendees, those who are capable of leading the service are almost all above the age of sixty. To me, this is a surprising phenomenon but nonetheless true. We are fortunate to have one or two teenagers who can lead mincha or maariv (and I am working on increasing that number) but, in a few years, they will go away to college. If we are to insure the future of a viable daily minyan, we need to increase our number of knowledgeable davveners now. We are all very much aware of the consequences when we lose a Lenny Goodman or a Joe Jaffe, z'l. But we need to be even more conscious of the ramifications of what happens when we do not have anyone competent to move into their positions!

I propose to teach a class this year for those who would learn to lead a weekday service. Please watch for announcements after the holidays and seriously consider coming to learn. I promise your Jewish life will be enriched immeasurably and the synagogue will consider you a treasure. Make 5771 the year that you learned to davven at the head of a minyan.

Together with Idit, Talya, Eric and Noga, I wish you tizku leshanim rabbot; may you merit many more happy and productive years.

To reach Cantor Piltch by email, write to cantorpiltch@bethelnorfolk.com.