Simchat Torah

See how much fun we had at Simchat Torah!

Sukkot at Beth Tikvah

     When I was a child, I wanted my family to have a sukkah in the backyard.  I never wanted a Christmas tree, I wanted a sukkah to decorate.  I saw other families in my neighborhood had them and they looked like so much fun.  My parents saw them as symbols of old-fashioned orthodoxy.  They didn't think sukkahs, along with most religious traditional trappings, were necessary.  We knew we were Jewish, we lived in a Jewish neighborhood, listened to Jewish music, and ate Jewish food, therefore, we were Jewish and that was all that mattered.  For me though, it wasn't enough, and I wanted a sukkah.  I didn't get one until I was an adult.  When my children were younger, we would put up a sukkah on the back deck, and make paper chains that could be wrapped around it twice.  Then my husband would re-purpose the sukkah for Halloween into a haunted house.  While the sukkah was fun, it seemed to be missing something, family and friends.  My plan had always been to actually eat in our sukkah, but the weather never seemed cooperate, a trend that you will see continued into this year.

Rabbi Mike explains the holiday while we eat

     After a few years, we stopped putting up our own sukkah, instead, we enjoy the Beth Tikvah Synagogue sukkah.  Every year, David Eagle and his crew put up and take down the sukkah for Beth Tikvah.  For the last few years, Jon Nourse of Nourse farms donates the cornstalks for the s'chach and this year Judy Narod donated grape vines.

Yom Yippur Reflections

When I was a teenager, in the way of teenagers, I wanted to be seen as an adult.  Now as a Jewish teen, I believed I had a leg up on the whole being treated like an adult thing because after all, I was an adult by Jewish law.  And what was the best way to prove that I was ready for my Jewish adult, and therefore all adult, responsibilities and privileges, fast on Yom Kippur.  This might shock some of you who know me, but I was a bit of a type A personality, and tended to attempt to follow the rules fairly strictly.  So there we were on Yom Kippur, my parents, my siblings, grandparents, and assorted other relatives, waiting to eat at the end of Yom Kippur.  And there I was, calmly informing my family that we couldn't eat because it wasn't late enough.  They asked me, what time could we eat, and I responded - when there were 3 stars in the sky. They did their best to humor me and wait, just one little problem - I lived in NYC, good luck finding 3 stars in the sky.  I was so excited to fast back then.  Now, I find myself marking my annual calendar by the High Holidays the way some people mark the year by a birthday, first day of school, or January 1.  Only now it's more like, 6 more months till I have to fast, 3 more months till I have to fast, 1 more week, etc.  At the beginning of summer I'm not worrying about summer being too short because winter is coming, no, I'm thinking, summer's too short, at the end of summer it is time to fast.  At the end of this year's fast my first thought was bonus, it's a leap year - 13 months before Yom Kippur.  Truthfully though, this year's fast was

Open House and Barbecue

Eating and Greeting - What Fun!

It was an absolutely perfect day for a barbecue; clear blue sunny skies, warm temperature, but not too warm with low humidity.  Under the shade of the trees in front of Beth Tikvah Synagogue a group of current members mingled with prospective members while enjoying the beef hot dogs, vegan hot dogs, and vegan burgers masterfully grilled by Bill along with delicious home-made potato salad by Abbe and parve brownies from Benita.  It was so great to see so many friends after the long summer break.  This was our best attended end-of-summer barbecue yet!  The kids all had a blast running around, seeing friends they hadn't seen in months, making pipe cleaner figurines, and blowing bubbles.  Did any of the kids use the face paints?   Thank you to everyone who helped set-up, clean-up and brought side dishes for the barbecue.  Thank you to everyone who attended and made such a memorable event.  We have a great year planned, starting with our High Holiday services next week. Later in September we are holding a very special Sukkot event.  More information about this event will be in the Beth Tikvah newsletter. You can subscribe to the newsletter on our website, www.bethtikvahsynagogue.org.  I do hope we get to see some of our new friends at the services and other events during the year.  

Mini-Mitzvah Morning

Meryl Levine and Lauren Smith

     On a bright, beautiful, Sunday morning under clear blue skies, Lauren Smith and I met with our resident garden guru, Meryl Levine, to spruce up the landscaping in front of our synagogue before the High Holidays. Meryl brought some colorful mums for us to plant. Armed with our pruning shears, we trimmed back the ornamental grasses and pulled a lot of weeds. There really are three handicapped spaces in front of our building! Come see how pretty it looks now! Thank you Meryl and Lauren!

     Speaking of High Holidays, they are only about 2 1/2 weeks away. Beth Tikvah Synagogue, a warm, inclusive, egalitarian, and fully participatory independent congregation, offers a full schedule of High Holiday services at 45 Oak St., Westborough. For more information about services at Beth Tikvah Synagogue, check out our website, www.bethtikvahsynagogue.org, or like us on facebook.

Why a blog, isn't Facebook enough?

Beth Tikvah has a website, Facebook page, and electronic newsletter, so why a blog too?  Recently, I attended the NewCAJE conference in Dudley, MA.  During this conference, I attended a number of sessions on using social media as a communication tool within the synagogue and the school and they all talked about blogging. The sessions also talked about Twitter and what a great tool that is for communication.  I'm not sure I'm ready to join the twitterverse yet, but a foray into blogging seemed appropriate.  Looking at our current communication tools, the website is fairly static and provides information about the organization.  The newsletter provides updates and information to those who subscribe.  Both the newsletter and website provide communication in only one direction, from the Synagogue to the congregation.  On the other hand, Facebook does provide information, has pictures and videos of interest to the congregation, and it allows  for 2-way communication in the form of comments back and forth.  However, it is limited to those who participate in Facebook.  This blog will allow us to communicate stories, pictures, and videos that we hope will be of interest to the congregation and friends of Beth Tikvah and engage in a dialogue through the comments to posts.  Cross-posting between, the website, newsletter, Facebook, and this blog should help us get our message out to more people.  One of our goals this year is to increase our membership and I believe we need to use all the tools at our disposal to achieve this objective. So, if you see a post, or newsletter article, or upcoming event in Facebook, share with your friends that might be interested in joining us.  We have a fantastic Synagogue with an outstanding religious school.  Let's not keep it a secret.  See you at the High Holiday services. Check out our website, www.bethtikvahsynagogue.org, for information on the High Holiday schedules and tickets.

NewCAJE4

     NewCAJE4 has been an exciting educational experience for me.  Going back to a college, living in a dorm, having a roommate I never met before gave me such a sense of déjà vu, brought me right back to my youth.
     There have been so many great moments at this conference.  Perhaps one of the ideas presented that really resonated and stuck with me occurred during the opening of the conference.  One of the speakers quote a very famous sage....
"You can't always get what you want,
 You can't always get what you want.
 You can't always get what you want,
 But if you try hard sometimes, you get what you need"
     Such a powerful metaphor for life!  On a smaller scale, it helped put for me on focus what to expect from the conference. And yes, I may not have gotten everything I wanted from the conference, but I believe I got what I needed; re-energized and recharged for the coming year.  I have learned new techniques and tools that will help keep me relevant as a teacher.  A great class I took as a history teacher was "Jewish Time Travel in 4 Easy Steps" taught by Etta King of the Jewish Women's Archive. This great organization is right in our backyard and has so much fantastic information to share.  You can see some of what they have to offer at their website, jwa.org.  I'm thinking about inviting Etta King to be our luncheon speaker for the women's Shabbat service on March 8, 2014.  Check out their website and let me know what you think.

NewCAJE4 Closing Ceremony