Dear Congregation Beth Israel members and friends,

On a recent Friday evening, shortly before Kabbalat Shabbat services began, I got a last-minute minyan request. Someone from the other end of the state was in the Berkshires for the weekend and needed to say kaddish for a relative. Could we help her say kaddish in community?

Of those who were attending services that night, two people were saying kaddish. When we reached that point in the service I invited each of them to speak, if they wanted to, about the person for whom they were saying kaddish. Our visitor told us that the person she was remembering had been a “real-life Rosie the Riveter” – a woman who answered the call to work in a factory during World War II when so many American men of working age were off to war.

My mind flashed instantly to the famous poster. Probably you know the one I mean (but I’m including it here just in case you don’t!) – it’s a vintage image of Rosie in her polka-dot kerchief, rolling up her sleeve: ready to take on anything.

In recent weeks, I’ve been paying visits to someone in a skilled nursing facility who has a copy of this very Rosie the Riveter “We Can Do It!” poster propped up in the room. I think it’s an excellent reminder that even when life’s challenges might seem insurmountable (and even when simple physical tasks might feel insurmountable), we can persevere… especially if we focus on what we can do, instead of what we can’t.

One of the reasons I admire the Rosie the Riveter slogan is that the poster doesn’t say, “I can do it” – it says we.

We don’t need to be in an era of wartime to remember that we are part of a “we”… or that we can do more together than any of us could ever do alone.

Together we can make a minyan to accompany someone in mourning or observing a yahrzeit. Together we can welcome a baby into the world. Together we can pray in community. (Many traditional Jewish prayers require a minyan, inviting us to engage in them together.) Even Torah study is something that in Judaism we traditionally do together – because our tradition recognizes that two minds together are often better than the sum of their parts, and that we’ll reach insights together we wouldn’t have found alone.

Together we can make short work of weeding a garden, or cooking for a crowd. Together we can advocate for the Jewish values that animate us. Together we can teach our children, and celebrate their becoming whoever they are meant to be. Together we can lift each other up, because that’s what community is for.

I signed my first contract to serve CBI as rabbi on the fourth of July in 2011. Every time we reach Independence Day now, I celebrate it both as the birthday of our nation and as the anniversary of the day when I got lucky enough to officially begin serving as rabbi of CBI. I couldn’t be more glad to be serving this community and being part of this “together” with all of you.

Blessings to all,

— Rabbi Rachel