My little girl is obsessed with birthdays. Her birthday, of course, but also a birthday for the world, her grandmother, and her classmates. Will there be a cake? What will we put in the goody bags?
Recently she realized that I also have a birthday and asked me what would we be doing!? Of course, I told her.
Walking with Israel.
The annual Walk with Israel is on June 9th this year, which also happens to be my birthday. I’ll channel my inner child for a moment and tell you what I want: to see our Holy Blossom Temple community out in force at the walk.
Many of you know the Walk with Israel far better than I do, last year was my first! I was utterly charmed by the scenic stroll through the neighbourhood, surrounded by people I didn’t know but had everything in common with. Playing a game of identifying flags, banners, organizational logos, and Jewish acronyms helped me get to know Toronto. Excitedly running over to our teenagers, as they passed me speed walking with their schools, kept me busy the entire morning. Even taking my daughter past the angry protesters outside the JCC couldn’t dampen the experience.
Maybe last year was just a standout Walk with Israel, but it was the best possible sales pitch for our greater Toronto Jewish community I could imagine.
This year it is going to be different.
Things are much more serious this year. If you want to walk, you’ll need to pre-register. Security will be higher, and you can’t ‘join in’ halfway through. Either you start at Lawrence Plaza, or you join at the end when we get to the JCC.
That’s not the biggest change though.
This year it’s not just a walk. This is a march. A proud, public, and defiant march up Bathurst Street to let our city know that after a tragic year of loss and fear, we are still here. We will not allow ourselves to be intimidated or threatened, not away from a proud 50+ year tradition, nor from our pride in the Jewish state.
In the words of our prophets. “And each shall sit beneath their own vine, their own fig tree. And none shall make them afraid.” Micah 4:4
You’ll see me beneath the Holy Blossom Banner, at the Shoppers on the West Side of Lawrence Plaza, on the morning of June 9th.
Register for the Walk with Israel Here.
Am Yisrael Chai.
Saturday, May 11, 2024
Friday, May 10, 2024
The Walk with Israel has been an annual Toronto Jewish community event for more than five decades. I’m sure that many of you have participated in the Walk at various times in your lives – perhaps when you were young, perhaps with your own kids or grandkids, perhaps simply when the weather was nice – always showing your proud support for Israel. Some years it’s been easy to be supportive, some years it’s been more difficult. This year, visibly showing your love for our Jewish homeland on Sunday, June 9, couldn’t be more important. This year, having feet on the ground – pun intended – really matters.
We have all witnessed the horrors in Israel at the hands of Hamas and have seen first-hand the rise of antisemitism in communities across the diaspora – sadly, our own Toronto community has not been exempt. By participating in this year’s Walk with Israel, you can not only demonstrate your support for the people of Israel, including the hostages held in Gaza for now more than six months, but you can also show the broader Toronto community that the Jewish people are resilient and cannot be stopped by those who despise Israel or hate Jews.
Here’s another idea: to amplify the impact of this year’s event, rather than simply participating in this year’s Walk with Israel with your own family and Jewish friends, please also invite your non-Jewish friends, colleagues and neighbours to join you. We simply cannot fight hatred alone and visible allyship is critical to our community’s future.
So, whatever your age (and whatever the weather forecast), please sign up at the link below, show up on the day and proudly wave your flags in support of Israel! Of course, Holy Blossom clergy and lay leadership will be walking alongside you – stay tuned for how to meet us on the day of the event.
Michael Davis
Chair, Holy Blossom Temple Advocacy Committee
Learn more & register for the 2024 UJA Walk with Israel here
Saturday, May 4, 2024
Friday, May 3, 2024
At this time in the Jewish calendar, we find ourselves in a period known as the Omer, the counting down of the seven weeks between Pesach and Shavuot.
Every evening, we count over to the next day over, reciting the blessing of hineni muchan u’mezuman, “here I am, ready and willing to fulfill this mitzvah”, as we are instructed to do in the Book of Leviticus.
The Kabbalists will later teach us that each of the 49 days of the Omer are associated with a different Divine attribute, and we are implored to reflect upon them and try to emulate these qualities in our own lives.
Each of the seven weeks has an overarching theme, and each day has a specific virtue that it highlights. This week’s theme is “g’vurah”, or “might”, and the attribute today is “chesed”, or lovingkindness.
In other words, it becomes not so much the accounting of time, but the accounting of what we do with that time, or the intention of how we use that time, which becomes the real mitzvah.
Additionally, today is the 8th day of the Omer, which is referred to as: “chesed she’big’vurah”, or lovingkindness within might.
These two qualities – lovingkindness and might, or strength – feel harder than ever to practice in our own lives right now.
It is hard to stand strong when 133 of our Israeli bretheren remain in captivity in Gaza, and it is equally hard to feel the soft edges when campuses both south of the border and (to a lesser extent) here at home are ablaze with the vitriol of the protest encampments.
Yet, as we have noted, the Omer is all about intention. It is all about action.
So what tangible steps can we, as the Holy Blossom community, take in order to bring further chesed and gevurah into our lives?
Of those steps is small but simple, which is to attend the Stand with Students rally, this Sunday May 5, at 1pm. Learn more and register here.
In that way, we can extend a little strength to those we love who are fighting the hard fight at our universities, and be strengthened in the knowledge that we walk this path together – day by day, deed by deed, Divine attribute by Divine attribute.
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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.