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HBT Travels: UJA Israel at 75

UJA Israel at 75

The ultimate journey of celebration: April 24 – May 1, 2023

 

Join us for an unforgettable journey!

Israel is reaching the milestone of its 75th anniversary in 2023 and we want you to join us for this historic celebration!

The entire Toronto Jewish community is invited to partake in this trip of a lifetime. With hundreds of other Jews from around the world, we’ll celebrate everything Israel has to offer. From its natural beauty and beaches, world-renowned cuisine, inspiring leaders and innovators, and exciting nightlife, this UJA Mission will cover all areas of interest.

 

Click here to learn more & register
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Returning Again: Family Service Resumes!

Returning Again: Family Service Resumes At Holy Blossom!

 

Following months of absence imposed by the COVID pandemic, Holy Blossom Temple’s beloved Shabbat Morning Family Service resumes on Saturday, March 26 at 10:30 am.  Once again, in the warm environs of our Youth Chapel, we will delight in the music and song of David Gershon, the beauty of our Shabbat blessings and prayers, the remarkably enduring lessons of Torah and the joyous celebration of our Temple community among our young…and younger!

 

Below are words of our members that attest to Family Service meaning and value:

 

The family service is such a special place. We started attending when our kids were just babies and my daughter just became a Bat Mitzvah last year. Each Rabbi has brought her/his own special something to each service and of course, it wouldn’t be a family service without David Gershon to lead us in beautiful song. The warm and welcoming feeling is always there. “Growing up” with this group has been so wonderful for our family. 

 

Our family has regularly attended the family services for many years from when both children were one week old.  Holy Blossom has supported us through many life events – wedding, shiva, baby naming, Brit Milah, confirmation, summer camp, and becoming a Bat/Bar Mitzvah.  The family service patrons have become our extended family through many of these milestones. We are grateful for the lasting friendships and watching our children grow up and share their values with the community.  

 

Please note that all those eligible to be vaccinated are required to be fully vaccinated to attend Family Services. Full vaccination means two doses of an approved COVID-19 vaccine plus at least two weeks from your second vaccine. Children under 5 years old who are ineligible to be vaccinated at this time are welcome to attend. All participants two years old and up are required to wear a mask.

 

Family Service celebrants can also look forward to an enjoyable nosh following worship, held in an adjacent room for those who wish.

 

Family Service will be held, with some exceptions, every two weeks. It will alternate with Friday evening’s Tot Shabbat Service.

 

These dates are:

  • March 26
  • April 9
  • April 23
  • May 7
  • May 28 [Combined with a Bat Mitzvah]
  • June 4
  • June 18

 

All of us at Holy Blossom look forward to welcoming everyone back to Family Service!

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Rabbinic Reflection: Rabbi Bill Tepper

Learning and Growing: The Confirmation Experience at Holy Blossom Temple

 

Among the most gratifying of my family’s moments was when our son Max was Confirmed at Rockdale Temple in Cincinnati.  In his class portrait, Max and his classmates proudly hold wheat sheaves, symbolic of the Shavuot Festival that – with its celebration of receiving the Torah – is associated with the Confirmation experience.

In many Jewish houses of worship, Confirmation Class portraits adorn the walls.  Rows of adolescents attired in ceremonial robes, surrounding the rabbis and teachers who guided them towards Jewish adulthood.

 

Confirmation is about:

Continuity:  Jewish continuity, and one’s learning.
Identity: cultivating a compassionate and inclusive view of the world.
Socialization: nurturing and establishing life-long relationships.
Leadership: developing the future leaders of our Jewish and larger communities.
Being a role model for others, both young and younger.
Achieving another valued milestone in our Jewish journey of life.
Pride: in one’s Judaism, communities, and oneself.

 

Here is what Holy Blossom’s 2021 Confirmands have to say:

I found Confirmation different than what I expected. Personally, Confirmation was about going more in-depth into Judaism and getting more one-on-one time with the rabbis.  My favourite experience was when we asked the rabbi questions.  I asked about how the afterlife was perceived in Judaism because I had never really heard it discussed before. I learned new perspectives I had never thought about.

-Amelia Bertoia-Dixon

 

Last year I took part in the Confirmation program at Holy Blossom. Becoming a Confirmand meant reaffirming my commitment to Judaism and reflecting on my previous Jewish education and how I want Judaism to play a part in my personal identity.  Throughout the program, we reflected on what being Jewish means to us individually, and as a collective. My biggest takeaway was the importance of tzedakah and how I want to actively implement it into my life.  Holy Blossom was able to host an online Confirmation service towards which each student was able to contribute.  I am grateful that I was able to be Confirmed and highly recommend it, as it reconnected me to my Jewish identity and allowed me to create stronger bonds with my Jewish community.

-Sophie Atkinson

 

Last year I had the pleasure of being Confirmed with my friends at Holy Blossom. While the experience was online, it was nonetheless enjoyable and rewarding. Confirmation allowed me to deepen my perception of my Jewish identity. I was able to learn from various staff, including Elana Lidsky, Cantor Rosen and Lisa Isen Baumal, Rabbi Helfman and Sophie Rivers.  Confirmation also allowed me to form new friendships, and deepen those that I had known since Hebrew school. I am extremely grateful…

– Shoshana Iny

 

Though classes have begun, we welcome additional students to join this remarkable program in learning, growing, and socializing. Education Director Lisa Isen Baumal, Lead Teacher Elana Paice Lidsky, Cantor David Rosen and myself are assembling an engaging and dynamic series of learning experiences that will culminate in a joyous Confirmation Class ceremony at Holy Blossom on Shavuot.

Please reach out to us and discover more about Confirmation at Holy Blossom Temple.

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Unmask These Awesome Purim Resources

Adult Education Department Update

by Sharoni Sibony

 

As we begin to emerge from our protective Covid caves, I’ve been thinking a lot about Purim. Two years ago, my shul’s Megillah reading was the last communal event that I attended, when people were already kind of eyeing each other nervously and wondering if we should actually have been gathered together. We’ve spent the past two years masking ourselves to protect each other, our eyes still darting about for the soulful connections we need with friends and strangers on the street. And now we have the opportunity to be together again for Purim in person at Temple.

 

We often use the occasion of Purim to play dress-up and to share facets of our identity or imagination that aren’t often on display for public view. Masks, costumes, and intoxication can reveal as much as we imagine that they hide, bringing some aspect of the self to the fore.

 

The Purim story turns on Esther, whose name is rooted in the Hebrew word “hester” or “hidden,” a figure whose donning and undonning of royal garments give her a chance to mask her identity (and likely her anxiety), and to play the political part of the representative of the Jews of Persia even before she herself feels comfortable in that role.

 

But it’s actually another moment in the Torah that I want to think about right now, as we approach Purim together. The Torah tells us that when Moses came down from Mount Sinai bearing the Torah tablets, the skin of his face was radiant, so much so that the Israelites shrank from coming near him. When he finishes relaying the Torah laws to them, he veils his face. And then the Torah tells us: “Whenever Moses went in before God to converse, he would leave the veil off until he came out; and when he came out and told the Israelites what he had been commanded, the Israelites would see how radiant the skin of Moses’ face was. Moses would then put the veil back over his face until he went in to speak with God” (Exodus 35: 34-35).

 

When does Moses wear this veil? It’s in the in-between moments, when he’s not directly interfacing with God or the Israelites, that he masks himself. For Moses, perhaps the veil offers the privacy he needs to relax into himself, out of his public prophetic role.

 

Perhaps you’ve become very comfortable at home over the past two years. Perhaps your front door acts like your own privacy veil, protecting you from the world and letting you relax (into daywear pyjamas?) in a way that you can’t always achieve in public.

 

But we’re here to welcome you back into being together. Because, as the great poet Rumi wrote:

 

Tear off the mask
Your face is
Glorious

 

For additional resources to deepen your Purim experience, I highly recommend checking out the videos at the Megillah Project. I particularly love Alicia Jo Rabins’ song for Vashti, and Aaron Koller’s intellectually creative and compelling case for a novel eastern Diasporic identity in the Megillah. Also, check out the materials on Sefaria, which could be adapted to your family celebrations if you want to blend some text study with mask-making or other activities for kids. And finally, Reform Judaism has thought-provoking explanations of customs and celebrations that will help you contextualize why you do what you do.

 

I’d love to hear from you about your favourite Jewish enrichment resources – websites, organizations, and more that you love to consult for insights and ideas.

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Life continues to blossom at the ECC

Purim at the ECC

There are so many opportunities to foster a sense of Jewish identity throughout the year.  We are experiencing that with the holiday of Purim.  Purim is a holiday marked by joyous activities.  The children are experiencing this holiday in a wide variety of activities; dressing up, holiday crafts, giving food to those in need, hearing the Purim story, and many more classroom experiences.

Through these fun-filled activities, we fulfill the four Mitzvot of Purim.

Mitzvot How we fulfill the Mitzvot at the ECC
1.       Sending gifts to friends and family (Mishloach Manot) Preparing Mishloach Manot
2.       Listening to the Megillah Telling the story
3.       Participating in the Purim feast Eating hamentashen
4.       Sending gifts to the poor. Donating our Wacky Mac graggers to the Food Bank
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Bikur Cholim at Holy Blossom Temple

For the last 14 years or so, Dr. Liz Tarshis has led this important committee of the temple in caring for the sick and lonely. Liz organized countless connections for regular visits and phone calls, arranged soup-making nights and deliveries, and led a committee of dedicated volunteers who partner with the clergy team in wrapping our arms around the community.

It is with great excitement and confidence that we formally announce that Bambi Katz is the new chair of the Bikur Cholim Committee. This sacred work has never been more necessary or meaningful, and Bambi brings to the committee her compassion, organizational skills, relationships in many Holy Blossom circles, as well as her natural leadership. The congregants of Holy Blossom can be comforted in knowing that Bambi and the volunteers are here to create a caring community. I will invite anyone in our community – if you or a loved one would benefit from a regular phone call or Zoom … Bambi and her team are ready to make matches! Mazel Tov, Bambi, and our entire community for this wonderful match!

A Note From Bambi:

It is an honour to be named the chair of Holy Blossom’s Bikur Cholim Committee, succeeding Dr. Liz Tarshis, who has chaired this committee for more than fourteen years. Liz and her team of dedicated volunteers have paved the way in being a caring community to our Temple members. I am grateful for all that has been done and look forward to continuing this sacred work, along with the existing group of hard-working volunteers. We are exploring new ideas while maintaining successful ongoing projects. Volunteers are crucial in this task of bringing comfort to those in need. Both former and newly interested volunteers will be warmly welcomed. Please contact Rabbi Goodman ([email protected]) if you can spare some time and want to take up the mitzvah of Bikur Cholim. Not only will you strengthen our community, but the personal gains will also be very rewarding as well.

Shabbat shalom

Bambi Katz

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Announcing our Assistant Rabbi, Eliza McCarroll

From the Co-chairs of the Rabbinic Search Committee

It was just a few short weeks ago that we shared the wonderful news about the hiring of Rabbi Samuel Kaye as our next Associate Rabbi. It was just soon after our announcement that we learned that Rabbi Goodman would be moving on from Holy Blossom to fill a new role in Cincinnati, Ohio. This new challenge did not phase our amazing Rabbinic Search Committee. Energised by the momentum of our hiring of Rabbi Kaye, the committee quickly got back to work in search of Holy Blossom’s next Assistant Rabbi. We are thrilled to share that a most wonderful match has been made, and this June we will welcome soon-to-be Rabbi, Eliza McCarroll to the Holy Blossom community.

Eliza will be joining us after her upcoming graduation from Hebrew Union College Jewish Institute of Religion where she has spent the past five years dedicated to her Rabbinic studies. Prior to her time at HUC-JIR, Eliza studied Public Communications in her hometown of Sydney, Australia while also studying at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Eliza grew up in Sydney, where she was deeply involved in Reform Jewish life. She was a youth leader in Netzer, her local Reform youth movement, taught Religious School, worked in an administrative role at her synagogue, and was involved in the World Union for Progressive Judaism.

The search committee had the honour of spending time with Eliza both by zoom and in-person when she travelled to Toronto to visit the congregation. Eliza’s warmth, humility, strong teaching skills, and gracious personality made it clear to us that she was a great fit for this important role. As an Aussie, Eliza’s delight in witnessing Toronto post snowstorm, made it clear to us that she was not just a great fit but was indeed the perfect fit!

We believe that Eliza will be an excellent complement to our phenomenal clergy team. She is dedicated, hard-working, insightful and so eager to contribute to our community. We also know that Holy Blossom will be a wonderful place for Eliza to grow and prosper, under the guidance and mentorship of Rabbi Splansky and the rest of the Holy Blossom team. We feel honoured to have matched with Eliza. We believe that she will provide so much to our community and that in turn, our community will be a wonderfully supportive place for her to launch her Rabbinic career.

We are grateful to the extraordinary Rabbinic Search Committee for being part of this process. Their commitment and contributions, completing not one but two searches, was unprecedented. Thank you to Maddie Axelrod, David Malinowicz, Jeffrey Myers, Nancy Lerner, Lisa Taylor, and Rabbi Splansky (ex-officio).

We look forward to finding ways to welcome and connect with Eliza and wish her hatzlacha as she completes her Rabbinic studies. We know that you all join us in welcoming Eliza to the Holy Blossom family.

Warmly,

Karen Kollins and Jeff Denaburg
Chairs, Rabbinic Search Committee

From Rabbi Splansky

Remember the movie line: You had me at “Hello”? Well, soon-to-be Rabbi Eliza McCarroll had me when she asked our Clergy Team: “How are you accountable to one another?” It was such an insightful question. It was a serious question about relationships and professionalism. It got right to the heart of the matter for Holy Blossom’s team of Rabbis and Cantors. It was a bold question, intended to tap into something profound about mission and trust. It was the kind of question that those around the table were grateful to have posed because it made us reflect and articulate something we knew to be true but rarely discussed. It was the kind of question that made us better.

That tells you everything you need to know about our next Assistant Rabbi, Eliza McCarroll. She will make us better. She is smart and kind, a self-starter, who likes to laugh. She walks through her days with a quiet confidence. I can see why Rabbis like Karen Thomashow, who have worked with Eliza in a series of internships, praise her name and take pride in how she will flourish as a Rabbi of Holy Blossom Temple.

Once again, I am grateful for the excellent Rabbinic Search Committee, which went above and beyond the first call of duty. Under the leadership of the committee’s co-chairs, Jeff Denaburg and Karen Kollins, we have made another shidduch for our congregation. With good guidance from the Central Conference of American Rabbis and support from the Pulpit Committee and its chair, Lisa Taylor, we have navigated two successful Rabbinic search processes in a matter of five months.

As we prepare for Shabbat T’tzaveh, when our Torah portion instructs us to bring pure olive oil to keep the Eternal Light lit in the Mishkan and later in Jerusalem’s Temple, let us celebrate all the good and beautiful lights that are lit in our Temple through the dedication of Holy Blossom Rabbis in every generation, eternally.

I invite you to please use the comment section below and join me in welcoming our next Assistant Rabbi, Eliza McCarroll!

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Yael Splansky

From Rabbi-to-be Eliza McCarroll

Dear Holy Blossom Temple,

Words cannot begin to describe the depth of excitement and humility I feel to be joining your sacred community this coming summer.

I am so looking forward to being in your incredible city, and to meeting you as you are at Holy Blossom, whether that is as a Beit Tefila – a house of uplifting prayer, a Beit Midrash – a house of engaging education, or a Beit Knesset – a house of joyous gathering. I especially look forward to the prospect of working with the phenomenal Holy Blossom team, as we embark on this exciting new chapter and seek to uphold the tradition of excellence you have come to expect. I can’t wait to see you soon in Toronto!

Modah Ani Lefanecha – with profound gratitude,

Eliza

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Rabbinic Reflection: Rabbi Bill S. Tepper

Open Hands, Open Hearts:  The Coldest Night of the Year

 

...there will never cease to be needy ones in your land, which is why I command you: open your hand to the poor and needy… [Deuteronomy 15:11]

During my years serving a congregation in Tennessee, a woman came to our Temple door almost every day asking for a meal.  She was homeless and experiencing severe deprivation.  It was understood among our Temple staff and me that irrespective of how busy we might be, one of us would always pause in our task, head to our Temple’s kitchen, and put together a food package for her.   Her visits became frequent to the point that we often prepared her meal in advance.  No matter what else was occurring at the Temple, she was never turned away.

Homeless persons are everywhere: on our city of Toronto streets, highway off-ramps, in parks and beneath underpasses.  Despairingly, they are woven into the fabric of our community.  They are men and women, and those whom I’ve observed to be adolescents.

On Saturday, February 26 at 7:00 pm, Holy Blossom members have the opportunity of responding to the anguish of homelessness.  We will not eradicate it, but we will help to make a difference.    On that evening, we will gather – at the Loblaws store at St Clair Avenue West and Bathurst Street with Ve’ahavta – meaning ‘and you shall love’ in Hebrew – the Toronto organization devoted to providing a Jewish Response to Homelessness, for an event known as the Coldest Night of the Year.  We will listen to a Ve’ahavta speaker and see the Ve’ahavta mobile unit – a van that journeys through the city on winter nights distributing meals, clothing, and toiletries. We will then engage in a 2KM or 5KM walk together north on Bathurst Street.

The event is a fundraiser for Ve’ahavta; all that is donated shall be put towards alleviating the conditions of those who are homeless.   Just as importantly, the event is an expression of our compassion; it is our response to the words from Torah with which this Rabbinic Reflection opens, and what is incumbent on us as it pertains to the eternal issue of those in need: opening our hands and our hearts.

I will be there on February 26.  It’s my sincere hope that you will, too.

Please see the attached links about Ve’ahavta and Coldest Night of the Year, and/or reach out to me, Rabbi Bill S. Tepper, for additional information.

Ve’ahavta A Jewish Humanitarian Organization – Ve’ahavta (veahavta.org)
Coldest Night of the Year 2022 – Toronto North York (cnoy.org)

 

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A Month of Trailblazers and Change-Makers

Adult Ed Department, Sharoni Sibony

“[What] does this 5,000-year-old book do for my life in 2018?… It’s hard being a Jew, but you have a whole lifetime to figure it out. That is the prismatic effect of Torah. Every year, it means something different. Every year, it magnifies something that it didn’t last year.”

These are the words of Rabbi Tamar Menasseh, the subject of a powerful film that we’re partnering to present this weekend with the Toronto Jewish Film Foundation and the Toronto Jewish Film Society. I was struck by her phrasing, “the prismatic effect of Torah,” as I follow the 929 Torah learning project and it just concluded one cycle this week and will begin the entire Torah again next week with Bereishit, the book of Genesis. (This is a perfect time to check it out if you haven’t yet.) What are the books or songs that you return to again and again in your life? Do you have a favourite winter read that offers you something new each year? The magic of the Torah reading cycle is in its patience with us: we return to the same place in the scroll, but we are changed by the year that’s passed, and we can find new insight in the familiar verses. Like marking our growth on the kitchen doorpost, we can mark our internal growth by that process of return and changed understanding.

And what do we do with that learning and growth? Perhaps you’re familiar with the Talmudic teaching that “Study is greater [than practice], for it leads to action.” Rabbi Menasseh asks: What cracks does your Judaism motivate you to repair in the world? The film, They Ain’t Ready For Me, focuses on her fight against senseless killings on the south side of Chicago and the role of her Judaism in her activism. As a Holy Blossom member, you get discounted access to view this film now through Sunday, and can attend a talk-back session hosted by our own Tema Smith with Rabbi Menasseh and the filmmaker, Brad Rothschild, this Sunday at 4 PM.

We’re featuring this film, alongside Rabbi Bill Tepper’s 2-part workshop on Rabbis and the Civil Rights Movement, as February is Black History Month. If you haven’t learned with Rabbi Tepper yet, don’t miss this opportunity!

This month, we’re excited to co-present another historical change-maker, as Rabbi Sally Priesand returns to Toronto (via Zoom). As many of you know, Rabbi Priesand is the first woman to have been ordained by the Reform movement, in 1973, and she’s going to share the story of Rabbi Regina Jonas, the world’s first female rabbi, who perished in Auschwitz in 1944.

Finally, I invite you to save the date for a wonderful, animated discussion with Professor Michael Meyer, Adolph S. Ochs Professor of Jewish History Emeritus, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, Cincinnati. Professor Meyer has been a teacher to Rabbis Splansky, Helfman, and Goodman, and we’re delighted to bring him to the whole congregation to speak about his biography of Rabbi Leo Baeck, one of the most important Jewish figures of prewar Germany. He’ll be Zooming in to speak with Eric Petersiel, Head of School at The Leo Baeck Day School on Tuesday, March 1 at 7 PM EST.

 

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[email protected]

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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.

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