Hi, Holy Blossom community!
I hope all of you are all doing well and that you had a great week so far!
This past Shabbat I got to share my first D’var Israel with you at the main service. It was a really special and exciting moment for me, I hope that you enjoyed it. This coming Shabbat, November 12th 2022, I’ll be giving another D’var Israel at the family service and will run a breakout room activity with the kids. Hope to see you all there.
I wanted to point out to you that on Sunday, November 6th 2022, Israel mentioned the 27th year since the assassination of the past Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin z”l.
Komuna 16 of the UJA Shinshinim in Toronto made a big community event in his memory that Sunday evening. I took part in planning the event and also got to play some music throughout the night. The event went really well and was very heartwarming. I wanted to thank you all personally and as one of the UJA Shinshinim For supporting and coming to the event, it was great to see you in person.
On another note, At the YEC this past Sunday, I got to spend my time with grade 2. We had a fun and interesting activity together about Jerusalem, the capital city of Israel. Hope the kids enjoyed it as much as I did!
In addition, I wanted to tell you that for a couple of weeks now I’ve been running a program called “Hebrew Word Of The Week” at the YEC during tefillah. Every week I’m teaching the kids a new word in Hebrew, and I wanted to share it with you also here in the newsletter.
This week’s word is….
טירוף- Teruf
Which means “Crazy” in Hebrew.
Stay posted every week for a new word. You can also check out all of the words on the bulletin board on the third floor of the YEC, Right next to the youth chapel.
Best wishes to all of you and with love,
Ella Payorski, The UJA Shinshinit at Holy Blossom.
By: Karen Kollins
In his book, A Heart of Many Rooms, leading Jewish thinker and philosopher Rabbi David Hartman, shares how he came to understand his role as a Rabbi as one who helped Jews confront tradition through their own questions, rather than by simply providing his own answers.
It has been in this spirit that Holy Blossom has been the beneficiary of Hartman’s influence and legacy. Our Temple leadership – Rabbis and lay leaders have been blessed with the opportunity to explore their own questions of faith, peoplehood, and identity through the work of the Shalom Hartman Institute since its founding in 1976. Holy Blossom’s extraordinary dedication to learning, its strong commitment to Israel, and the collaborative relationships we have with other Jewish and multifaith communities across the city have, I would like to think, been impacted by Temple’s deep connection to Hartman.
Today, the Shalom Hartman Institute, based in both Israel and North America, serves as a pluralistic think tank and educational centre for the Jewish people, engaging in thought leadership that focuses on the major questions facing the Jewish people. Hartman learning meaningfully addresses the central challenges of contemporary Jewish life, enriches and enhances knowledge in the foundations of Jewish thought, and empowers leaders to influence and move their communities forward by imparting new ideas.
In my role as Hartman’s Director of Canada, I hear often from Canadians across the country, particularly those connected to Montreal where Hartman served as a Rabbi for close to two decades, who share stories of how they were impacted by Rabbi David Hartman. Hartman introduced them to Torah in a new way – with a unique blend of complexity and accessibility, focusing on the traditions of Judaism and a commitment to Israel while emphasizing the necessity for a plurality of voices.
We are so fortunate to have the opportunity to welcome Donniel Hartman, President of the Shalom Hartman Institute to Holy Blossom Temple on Monday, November 21 at 7:30 pm where he will be in conversation with Professor David Koffman on Religion and Democracy in Israel: What are the Stakes for Global Jewry? Holy Blossom Temple, The Shalom Hartman Institute, and the Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Studies at York University are thrilled to be partnering on this extraordinary event.
I hope you will join us for this opportunity to discover the power of Jewish ideas from the Shalom Hartman Institute and to raise your own questions about Judaism and democracy in Israel, its significance, and why it might matter to us as Canadians.
Watch out also for upcoming information about Hartman’s Community Leadership Program, a week-long study program taking place June 21-28, 2023, at the Hartman Institute in Jerusalem.
Hello everyone and Shabbat Shalom.
My name is Ella Payorski, and I’m the new UJA ShinShinit at Holy Blossom Temple this year. I’m so excited for the upcoming year and to be a part of the Jewish community here. My journey here in Toronto started officially one month ago, but in fact, I started preparing for it a long time ago and I even might say my whole life.
I was born on October 23rd, 2004 in Palo Alto, California. I’m the oldest child in my family, my younger sister Aviv was also born there in 2006. My parents both had jobs in Silicon Valley.
I wasn’t even three years old when my mother found out she was pregnant with my youngest brother, Ben. At that time, my parents decided to move back to Israel, where both of my parents grew up. They wanted my siblings and me to grow up next to our family, grandparents, and cousins, who all lived in Israel, and that is exactly what happened.
In Israel, we settled in a Moshav called Kfar Monash. This is the village my father grew up in, and where most of his family lives today. I mean, my neighbours are my cousins, and their neighbours are my cousins too. The community in the Moshav is very small, with less than 1,000 residents, and everyone knows each other. I can tell this because the most common question I get just by walking in the streets is “Are you Avi and Dita’s granddaughter?”.
It is such a warm and nice feeling to grow up in a place having a sense of community and belonging to something bigger than yourself. Producing events in the Moshav and volunteering in the youth movement “Ha’tuna Ha’hadasha” are activities that were very important to me. I was able to influence other people, share my fields of interest such as dancing, music, photography, and baking and connect the community together with my love for the state of Israel. It is known that when two Israelis are meeting for the first time, they can always find a shared friend, and that makes me feel that Israel is one big community.
In my perspective, Israel, Judaism, and family all revolve around the idea that our belonging is all about the people and the community that surrounds us, and that they are all connected in many different ways.
After one month here in Toronto, I have just started to realize that my perspective about community is still very narrow. The Jewish community in Israel and the one here in Toronto are parts of a very large united Jewish community around the world. I am excited to share my experience living in Israel with the people here, and have the same intimacy and belonging feeling with the community of Holy Blossom.
I would like to thank you all for the warm welcome and for the opportunity to take part and contribute to the Holy Blossom community.
I’m wishing you all Shana Tova and Shabbat Shalom,
Ella
Friday, September 16, 2022
Dear Community, I hope you all had a great week.
We were all saddened to hear about the incidents in Ukraine in the last few days, and no words could describe how sad it is to see pictures of people running away from their homes and lives to escape to other countries.
It’s extremely sad to know that even in 2022, we get to witness such incidents and hate.
I spent the last week with my host family at Tremblant, and while sitting there and reading those articles and news, I suddenly got a text from Noa, our komunah’s mentor, who guides us throughout our gap year in Toronto.
The text was saying that a group of young Jewish Ukrainians, got stuck in Israel due to the closing of the airports in Ukraine, that group is a “Taglit” group, which you all probably know as “Birthright.”
The text was also saying that they are looking for host families for those young adults until they will be able to come back to their homeland. Since we, the shinshinim, are all here and left our rooms empty, back in Israel, it is a great opportunity to ask our families if they can maybe open their door and their hearts to them.
Immediately I sent that text to my mom, who replied with a: yes, of course!
My heart was filled with joy because I knew that not only I managed to help miles away, but also my empty and dark room back in Israel is finally going to light up again, and also because it’s been so long since my parents have been cleaning after a teenager so I figured they would be happy to do that 😉
I’m always amazed by how jews are always willing to help each other, not only at regular times but also and more, in times of crisis.
Whether it’s hosting a shinshin in order to engage your community with Israel, or hosting a young Jewish adult who needs a home right now, but more than that needs support and love, to get through this awful and hard experience.
I sincerely hope that we will no longer be reading those articles in the news and that the Taglit group and all the other Ukrainians will be back in their homes very soon.
Thank you for listening, Aviv
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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.