Saturday, November 25, 2023
Friday, November 24, 2023
by Sharoni Sibony
The idea for IGNITE came from Rabbi Aaron Levy, the founding rabbi and executive director of Makom: Creative Downtown Judaism, who, many years ago, said to me that Toronto needed a cross-communal, multi-faceted, intergenerational festival to mark Chanukah in the model of the Downtown Tikkun Leil Shavuot, through which we had brought together nearly 700 people a year for many years. The opportunity at Chanukah, he said, was that we could celebrate with music and experiential arts practices. Last year, Holy Blossom was the proud host of the inaugural IGNITE: Tikkun Leil Chanukah, a festival of Jewish culture and learning. This year, we’re once again collaborating with our neighbours and a dozen community partners, but Beth Tzedec will be the physical host.
It feels much harder to approach the bright joy of Chanukah in the midst of acute grief. It’s certainly been a harder planning process, with everyone’s attention rightly pulled toward the war. But we’ve crafted the program with this very much in mind.
We’ll gather together to deepen into the complexities of the Chanukah season. We’re taking our inspiration from the ways in which light and darkness collaborate and commingle like our joys and levities in conversation with our sadnesses, terrors, fears, and confusions. As the days get shorter and quiet darkness settles us in – or settles in us – for a season of hibernation, we’ll come together before this hibernation to stand and sing and learn alongside each other in a holiday of rededication – perhaps painful, perhaps slow, perhaps before we’re ready or sure of how to proceed. As Leonard Cohen writes in his poem, “Rededication,”
and we are almost too tired to begin again
with miracles and leaves
and lingering on steps in sudden sun
Like the Maccabees before us, we will struggle to rebuild from the rubble of war, and it may not yet be time to embark on that project when we gather together for the first night of our festival. But we know that the devotional practices of learning across communities and deepening into our creative selves are both acts of renewal that can serve as a soft landing place in a season of tumult. And we know that Chanukah lets us reflect on the growth of increasing light, a gradual process of transition and transformation, not a hard, crisp overnight change. We hope that out of the rubble in our hearts, we can rededicate ourselves to hope.
To that end, we have a stellar line-up of learning and entertainment opportunities to spark your Chanukah experience. Rabbi Yael Splansky will be co-teaching a session with Aviva Chernick on “songs and psalms of courage,” so you can study and sing with them together. Rabbi Sam Kaye will be introducing us to a Hassidic text on what makes the miracle of Chanukah unique and sacred. I’ll be co-teaching with my chevruta, Maxine Lee Ewaschuk, on the curious case of the people of Talmudic Tadmor and the halachot of Chanukah candle-lighting, then we’ll do some art about theethical dimensions of Chanukah halachot. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. There are history studies, Torah studies, Yiddish stories, a kumzitz, hands-on art-making, Zumbanukah (bring your comfy shoes), singing niggunim in the dark, social justice reflections spun from the dreidel, the queer miraculous… all designed to tease out the deep and varied themes of the Chanukah holiday with sensitivity and care, and ultimately with celebration.
We open at 6 PM with a cross-communal, intergenerational candle-lighting gathering, and then you can choose from a number of options – including a program for kids ages 5-12. After 7:30 PM, kids go home and teens and adults are welcome to come and go any time between the opening and closing circles (the closing circle is set to end at 1 AM for the night owls). To be clear, there are no special sessions for teens this year, but teens are welcome at any and all of the study sessions. And, between the study sessions, there will be micro-concerts produced by the Ashkenaz Festival – short musical performances featuring Aviva Rajsky, Roman Kekhman and Maayan Band. Come early or late; stay a little or stay the whole time. Kosher food will also be available for purchase at the dinner break.
So, please join us and bring your friends from the Holy Blossom community and beyond. It’s going to be a very special holiday, after all.
Learn more & join us at IGNITE! Tikkun Leil Chanukah: A Festival of Jewish Culture & Learning
By Gillian Rosenberg, Communications Coordinator, Women of Holy Blossom
November 2023
As many of you know, Women of Holy Blossom has several social media accounts, including Instagram, Threads, X (Twitter), Facebook, and YouTube. We are proud to be content producers and content consumers. And for the most part, it has been worthwhile, gratifying, and fun.
But this is a very difficult time to be on social media. I don’t need to tell you why. I’m sure many of you have decided to take a break or been given such advice.
WHB considered doing that, as well. But after some soul searching, we decided to remain active, for two very Jewish reasons.
The first is to bear witness.
In the Torah, the verse of the Shema, Judaism’s central declaration and call to listen, to turn our clear attention to Divine unity, has two letters that are enlarged – the ע in the word שמע/listen and the ד in the word אחד /One. These two letters spell עד /witness. It is a sacred obligation to listen, to bear witness, not to look away, and from the act of bearing witness, to respond.
–Rabbi Miriam Margles, Danforth Jewish Circle, Toronto, March 1, 2022
Our presence on social media enables us to observe not only what is posted about the Jewish people and about Israel, but also who is doing the posting. We hold accountable those who post misinformation, disinformation, half-truths, lies, hatred, hyperbole, and propaganda, by reporting individual posts and entire accounts to the platform administrators, under categories of hate speech or symbols, false information, and/or violent and hateful entities.
We are also able to acknowledge our allies, Jewish and non-Jewish, who are courageous and outspoken with facts, knowledge, reason, and truth. Two, in particular, are Loay Alshareef (@lalshareef) and Noa Tishby (@noatishby). Loay is a Muslim, living in Abu Dhabi. Long before this war began, he has been promoting peace between Jews and Muslims through the lens of common language and shared history. Since the war, he has been unwavering in his support for Israel and the Jews. Noa is well known to us as an Israeli model, actress, special envoy, and best-selling author. Now in Los Angeles, she has emerged as a global voice for our people—articulate, knowledgeable, and composed. And we are proud to say that she recently “liked” one of WHB’s Instagram posts. There are many others who we also support by following and whose posts we “like” and repost.
The second reason we remain active on social media is to be a light unto the nations.
We understand our Jewish mission to include being a light unto the nations, which obliges us to contribute to humanity’s appreciation for holiness, morality and piety.
–Between Jerusalem & Rome, by Rabbinical Council of America, Conference of European Rabbis, Chief Rabbinate of Israel, 2017
Abandoning social media to those who are hateful, irrational, ignorant, naïve, mean-spirited, and immoral would be to shirk our responsibility in this world. Instead, we strive to be a source of gemilut chasadim, justice, and goodness, posting and reposting content that reflects the type of world we are commanded to work toward. Such posts include those about mitzvah days, allyship, life cycle celebrations, the arts, heroes of humanity, and love stories.
We also strive to be a light unto our own nation, representing the continuity and resilience of Jewish life and Jewish community. We promote events and activities, hype our upcoming holidays, and celebrate our legacy, as we move through the Jewish calendar.
While we are confident and steadfast in our decision to remain active on social media, it comes at some psychological risk. Doom scrolling is addictive. The extent of Jew-hatred, terrifying. The erasing of Israel’s contributions to the world, depressing. And being deserted by individuals and groups to which we were an ally, disheartening.
But Women of Holy Blossom has broad shoulders and gains strength from the thousands of shoulders on which we stand. We will do our part. Email us if you want to help.
Saturday, November 18, 2023
Friday, November 17, 2023
חֲזַק וֶאֱמָץ אַל־תַּעֲרֹץ וְאַל־תֵּחָת כִּי עִמְּךָ הֹ’ אֱלֹהֶיךָ בְּכֹל אֲשֶׁר תֵּלֵךְ
“Be strong and courageous, do not be terrified or dismayed, for the Eternal God is with you. Wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9
We are asking you to stand. To stand and stand again.
We stood just days after October 7th, in Mel Lastman Square, with thousands of Torontonians from across the city. We stood against hatred and murder, we stood up for our wounded brothers and sisters in the moment of shock wishing that we could wake up from this terrible dream. We stood, nearly 15,000 in loss while the dead were still being counted and the kibbutzim, towns, and villages were still being retaken.
We stood again just this last weekend. At Christie Pitts Park, where 90 years ago in 1933 Canada faced its largest race riot. Where Jews and their allies fought Nazis for hours. The symbolism could not be missed. Supported by our allies today; Persian-Canadians in exile, Ukranian-Canadians, and people of good conscience, our Toronto Jewish community stood by the thousand to demand the safe release of our brothers and sisters taken hostage in Gaza.
We stood as a people just yesterday in Washington DC. Where 290,000 Jews of every denomination, identity, background, observance, and belief stood side by side in the largest gathering of Jews to ever occur in North America. Members of our Holy Blossom Temple community stood in attendance in thanks, standing in prayer, and standing up for our people.
And on Monday night, November 20th, we need you to stand again. This time to stand in gratitude with our allies, in their home. Timothy Eaton Memorial Church is opening its doors to us, to host an interfaith gathering between their community and ours. Along with the communities of Beth Tzedec Congregation and Grace Church on-the-hill, to stand against the darkness of antisemitism.
An Interfaith Gathering – Holy Blossom Temple
It is a hard and painful thing, at times, to take a stand. To stand up and be counted. To stand when we fear that we are alone.
But we are not alone. We know that there are good people who see us, who are with us, who know our grief, who sense our fear.
Who stand by our side.
What else can we do, even if we are tired, but rise once more?
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Founded in 1856, Holy Blossom Temple is Toronto’s first synagogue with a rich history of tradition and modernity in our religious and spiritual expression.