Rabbinic Reflection: Rabbi Eliza McCarroll
Dear Holy Blossom Temple family,
For those of you who I have not had the pleasure to meet yet, I am Rabbi Eliza McCarroll, your new Assistant Rabbi, and I thought I would tell you a little about my role in our community.
My first main area of focus is strengthening our Kehilah Kedosha, our Sacred Community. This includes our Bikkur Cholim and Dorot programs, which both aim to ensure that our congregation is supported in all stages and circumstances of life. It also includes our YAD group, which provides our young adults with an outlet for their Jewish connections and lives.
The second area of concentration is working with our ECC and YEC. I look forward to meeting our youngest friends and their families and empowering our next generation to love their Judaism just as much as we do.
Plus, there are all the other, regular parts of what your clergy team does, from Shabbat and festival worship to life cycle events, to teaching, and much more!
With so much to learn and do, I keep in mind the quote from Pirkei Avot that teaches: “Who is wise? One who learns from every person” (Pirkei Avot 4:1). As such, I am so fortunate and grateful to partner with some truly incredible people – both professional and lay leaders – as we embark on this sacred work, and we are excited for all the good we can accomplish together.
There is never a dull moment at Holy Blossom Temple, and if there is ever any part of Temple life you would like to be involved in, we’d love to hear from you to make it happen!
Let’s start with coffee; both Rabbi Kaye and I will be at Holy Grounds Café from 9.30 am to 12:30 pm on Sunday, June 26. See you there!
welcome Rabbi McCarroll
I am a regular at the Saturday morning Torah study and learn from the commentaries that we study each week. It may be a while until we meet in person ,and I was just wondering if you a have a favourite text in Tanach and a particularly troubling text in Tanach
Best wishes and Shabbat Shalom
Jerry Friedman.
Kol hakavod Rabbi McCarroll
Enjoyed your class on Shabbat on a very difficult challenging text. I was the person asking about that odd verse about being “blessed in your comings and blessed in your goings”.. Later in the parsha I noticed a text about being “cursed in your comings and cursed in your goings”..Rather enigmatic.
Linking it to the “Netaneh Tokef” was very interesting. There are some interesting podcasts interviewing the author of “Who by Fire” Matti Friedman.The book is definitely worth reading. Maybe someone HBT should get to speak especially with the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur war coming up.
Shana Tova