July is upon us. All winter long I anticipate summer’s long daylight: the luscious green curves of our hillsides, how the pollinator garden behind the synagogue becomes a riot of color and leaf. And we’re here! We made it! This place where we are blessed to live is beautiful in all seasons, but this is the season I love the most. And… spiritual life never stands still. The wheel is always already turning toward the holidays to come.
As I write these words, it isn’t yet quite August. But believe it or not, we’re on the runway to the Days of Awe.
Join us this week for online Torah study at 10am on Saturday morning with Rabbi Rachel, and with Rabbi David Markus and the Temple Beth El of City Island community. This will take the place of services this week. We will say kaddish at the end of our learning, so if you need a minyan for kaddish this week, please join us! The Zoom link will be sent out in weekly announcements.
This week we’re reading from parashat Devarim, the start of the book of Deuteronomy. If you’d like to read some commentaries on this week’s parsha, here are a few:
And here’s commentary from the URJ:
Join us at 8:30pm on Saturday night for a hybrid / multi-access Tisha b’Av service offered jointly by Rabbi Rachel and CBI, and Rabbi David and TBE.
You can join us onsite in the CBI sanctuary, where doors will be propped open for airflow, or online via Zoom (the link will be sent out in weekly announcements.)
There is so much that is broken in our history, in our nation, and in our world today. Tisha b’Av is our communal opportunity to feel that brokenness and to mourn — and then to harness the spiritual updraft of rising out of the year’s lowest point. Tisha b’Av comes seven weeks before Rosh Hashanah, so it is the nadir from which we begin the seven-week rise to the Days of Awe. Join us for song, prayer, lament, and uplift.
Shavua tov – a good new week to you!
This week our Zoom offerings include Rabbinic Drop-In Hour (1pm Mondays), Tisha b’Av (Thursday 5pm), Friday Morning Meditation (9am Fridays), and Shabbat Morning services (9:30am Saturday) led this week by R’ Pam Wax, all in the CBI Zoom room with the usual password.
Links and password will go out out in the CBI Announcements email (and are the same as previous weeks) but if you don’t have them, contact the office.
Tisha b’Av is coming up. Here is a set of five new kinnot / poems / resources for Tisha B’Av this year, curated by Rabbi Rachel — five new variations on Lamentations, plus one recording and one sketchnote visual — all crafted through the lens of this year’s pandemic. They are here: Megillat Covid.
Here’s a reminder of our two Tisha b’Av offerings this year:
Two Ways to Experience Tisha b’Av: On July 29 at 8pm we’ll meet at the labyrinth for a silent, masked, socially distant labyrinth walk while listening to Eicha / Lamentations – an opportunity to reflect in silence on exile, on the loss of the Temples long ago, and on the loss of being able to gather together in person during this covid-19 era. On July 30 we’ll meet on Zoom at 5pm. Honoring the tradition that says that moshiach will be born on the afternoon of Tisha b’Av (which I take to mean that we must find the seeds of hope in our most hopeless places), R’ Pam Wax and I will lead a discussion of two podcasts: Resmaa Menakem ‘Notice the Rage, Notice the Silence’ and Robin DiAngelo and Resmaa Menakem In Conversation. Please listen to the podcasts beforehand.
Meanwhile, speaking of Zoom…
Help With Zoom: Do You Need It? Can You Offer It?Need a hand? Are you unfamiliar with Zoom and uncertain how to join our online programs (Shabbat and festival services, book group meetings, and more)? Let the office know and we’ll match you with someone who can walk you through installing the software and learning how to use it.
Lend a hand! Are you familiar with Zoom and willing to teach someone else how to use it? Let the office know and we’ll match you with someone who wants to learn.
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Seeking “Zoom Angels” For High Holidays
Are you comfortable with Zoom (or are you willing to learn)? We’re looking for (at least) one person to be a “Zoom Angel” for each of our seven High Holiday services. (Erev Rosh Hashanah, Rosh Hashanah morning 1 and 2, Kol Nidre, Yom Kippur morning, Y”K afternoon, and Ne’ilah / Yom Kippur’s closing service.) Each Zoom Angel will be made “co-host” of the Zoom room for the service(s) when they sign up to help. They will manage the virtual door / waiting room (letting people in as they arrive) and will be asked to mute and unmute the room from time to time. Does this sound feasible to you, or would you be willing to learn some Zoom tips in order to lend a hand in this way? Please let Rabbi Rachel know!
Here’s commentary at Builders Blog, a project of Bayit: Building Jewish, this week written by Rabbi Jennifer Singer:
And here are commentaries from the URJ:
Hope to see you soon via Zoom at CBI!
Shavua tov – a good new week to you!
This week our Zoom offerings include Rabbinic Drop-In Hour (1pm Mondays), Friday Morning Meditation (9am Fridays), and Kabbalat Shabbat Services (7:30pm Friday), all in the CBI Zoom room with the usual password.
Links and password will go out out in the CBI Announcements email (and are the same as previous weeks) but if you don’t have them, contact the office.
Please also join us for Tisha b’Av on July 29 and 30:
Two Ways to Experience Tisha b’Av This Year: On July 29 we’ll meet at the labyrinth at 8pm for a silent, masked, socially distant labyrinth walk while listening to Eicha / Lamentations – an opportunity to reflect in silence on exile, on the loss of the Temples long ago, and on the loss of being able to gather together in person during this covid-19 era. On July 30 we’ll meet on Zoom at 5pm. Honoring the tradition that says that moshiach will be born on the afternoon of Tisha b’Av (which I take to mean that we must find the seeds of hope in our most hopeless places), R’ Pam Wax and I will lead a discussion of two podcasts: Resmaa Menakem ‘Notice the Rage, Notice the Silence’ and Robin DiAngelo and Resmaa Menakem In Conversation. Please listen to the podcasts beforehand.
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This week we’re reading from parashat Devarim, the start of the book of Deuteronomy. If you’d like to read some commentaries on this week’s parsha, here are a few:
And here are commentaries from the URJ:
Hope to see you soon via Zoom at CBI!
