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Rabbinic Reflection: Rabbi Samuel Kaye

שִׁיר הַמַּעֲלוֹת בְּשׁוּב יְהֹוָה אֶת־שִׁיבַת צִיּוֹן הָיִינוּ כְּחֹלְמִים׃

אָז יִמָּלֵא שְׂחוֹק פִּינוּ וּלְשׁוֹנֵנוּ רִנָּה אָז יֹאמְרוּ בַגּוֹיִם הִגְדִּיל יְהֹוָה לַעֲשׂוֹת עִם־אֵלֶּה׃

A Song of Ascents, when God restores the fortunes of Zion- it is like a dream. And our mouths will fill with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. They shall say, all the nations, “Oh, God has done such great things for them.”  Psalms 126: 1-2

I dreamt about Jerusalem this week.

It was not a particularly flashy dream. Nothing good or terrible happened. I was simply back in my apartment, strolling through the streets that I walked daily for years. Even during the dream, I knew that I was asleep because the neighbourhood doesn’t look like that anymore. There’s a new fancy hotel on the corner and the makolet was replaced by a cell phone store. Even the old baker who waved to me in my dream; died nearly a decade ago.

I dream of Jerusalem often, and – unlike in our Torah portions of the last few weeks- I don’t need an interpreter to tell me what it means. I miss Israel.

Israel has been on my mind, and on many of our minds since the elections and the formation of a new government. It’s hard to be plugged into the ‘Israel sphere’ and not be aware of the trials and tribulations facing the Jewish state at this time.

Is Judicial reform necessary for a healthy democracy or does it mark the erosion of democratic values?

Is the threat of Iran growing or is the government overplaying its regional foe?

With Bibi back as Prime Minister are we seeing a return to business as usual or does the inclusion of extreme right-wing parties in the Knesset mark a new world?

I don’t have the answers to these questions, but I’m lucky that our Holy Blossom Temple has access to some of the most informed and thoughtful minds on the planet when it comes to Israel. For the last few years, Holy Blossom Temple members Prof. David B. Dewitt and Mark S. Anshan, alongside our generous sponsors and Israel Committee, have organized “The Israel Dialogues.” The Israel Dialogues is a program that brings leading scholars, journalists, diplomats, and politicians together to participate in high-level yet accessible discussions on the issues that Israel is facing today. The panel that they have organized is truly some of the best and brightest that Canada, and North America, have to offer.

The Israel Dialogues return tomorrow, at noon, and you can register HERE. Our first guest will be the Deputy Editor in Chief of Haaretz, Noa Landau, joining us to speak about the election and how religion played a surprise role.

If you too are dreaming of Israel, I do hope that you’ll join us.

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Rabbinic Reflection: Rabbi Samuel Kaye

Sharing the light this Chanukah

The first Toronto snow is falling and a few things are coming to my mind.

First are the memories I have of the happy snowy winters I’ve had here in Toronto while visiting my in-laws. We would pack up our bags in Atlanta, fill them with cold winter clothing, wrestling with zippers as we did our best to fit our warmest coats into our carry-ons. Taylor, in true Montreal fashion, would remind me that Toronto is not nearly as cold as her hometown. I would dutifully nod and remind her that, nevertheless, it was still winter in Canada. We would be thankful for these heavy coats when we arrived. And we always were! The blast of cold air as the doors at the airport opened was a physical reminder that now it was the season for light, family, and Chanukah!

As we are experiencing our first ‘full-time’ Toronto winter, I cannot help but think about the people of our city for whom winter is a time of danger and suffering. Those who are sleeping on the street, those who will struggle to pay for heating, those who cannot afford regular hot meals.

This Chanukah, Holy Blossom Temple is honoured to be partnering with Ve’ahavtah to provide our members with a chance to serve those in need face to face and to spread the light of hope and dignity to those struggling day to day. From December 19-22, Ve’ahavtah has reserved seats on their mobile service center for our members to pass out supplies, hot meals, and warm clothing to those in most dire straights.

You can sign up for a shift HERE. While space is limited for this exciting program, we look forward to launching it as a full-time initiative in early 2023. Please be in touch with me at [email protected] if you’d like to learn more about our efforts in Tikkun Olam.

Chanukah may still be a month away, but winter is here. Together, let us live up to our sacred responsibility. Both our constant obligation to care for our neighbours and the stranger and the call of this holiday to ‘publicize the miracle’ by sharing the light of hope and the possibility of redemption in the world.

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Rabbinic Reflection: Rabbi Samuel Kaye

Mikdash M’aat

 

This summer Holy Blossom Temple erected two ‘self-serve’ food pantries on the corner of Dewbourne and Bathurst. These food pantries resemble the tiny libraries you can find throughout Toronto, and more than once were filled with books from well-meaning passers-by.

 

A small group of dedicated volunteers spent the summer donating supplies, located in the Janis Rotman Tzedakah Centre, and stocking the food pantries multiple times a week. Often I would see these volunteers coming into Holy Blossom in the early afternoon to do their sacred work, and by the time I left Holy Blossom in the early evening, I would stop to check and see what had gone out. Many times, in the space of just a few hours, the pantries would already be empty.

 

One day, while walking to my car in the parking lot, I saw a father playing with his young daughter near the corner. She shyly glanced at me, tugging on her father’s arm to ask me something. I smiled and approached, asking if there was anything I could do for them. He responded by asking if we would still be donating food through the ‘little houses.’ His wife had heard that there were ‘two little houses, but instead of books they have food.’ and sent him to see if there was anything he could bring home. While the pantries were already emptied, the tzedakah centre still had some food inside, and he was incredibly grateful.

 

How he phrased it, “the little houses” stuck in my mind. It reminds me of the Hebrew teaching “Mikdash M’aat.” A Mikdash M’aat is a personal sacred space, a ‘small sanctuary’ as opposed to the vastness of the Beit HaMikdash, the Temple in Jerusalem. It is any place where God can dwell in the miniature. What could be a more ringing endorsement of this holy work than what this man showed me with his words? That for his family, our ‘tiny houses’ are in fact a Mikdash M’aat, small spaces where the mercy, kindness, and love of God appears.

 

We have so many neighbours who could use a little bit of help, families, for whom a free meal or a few extra groceries will make all the difference. This year, and especially during these High Holy Days, I am asking you- the good people of Holy Blossom- to help us stock up on donated food items so that we can continue to give our neighbours a helping hand. This is a wonderful opportunity to make sure that when our volunteers, and our students at the Religious Education Centre, go to stock the food pantries there is a deep and generous pantry to pull from.

 

Please feel free to bring canned and dry goods, beans and soups, shelf-stable grains and cereals, pasta, sauces, tinned fish like tuna and salmon (but leave that bottle of gefilte fish from Passover at home), and other nutritious food with you to Holy Blossom Temple in the coming weeks. During Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, there will be a clearly marked place to put your donations. If you are visiting us outside of worship times, you can place your donations directly into the Janis Rotman Tzedakah Centre, located directly inside the doors of our Ava Road entrance on the left-hand side.

 

וְעָשׂוּ לִי מִקְדָּשׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּי בְּתוֹכָם׃

V’asu li mikdash veshachanti b’tocham.

And let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. (Exodus 25:8)

 

Shana Tovah Umetukah!

May it be a sweet and happy new year!

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Rabbinic Reflection: Rabbi Samuel Kaye

Comfort

As a child, I had a security blanket, knit by a family friend, made of resilient white yarn. It was my token of safety, and it was something that I couldn’t sleep without. It was my one and only, no other object could do, no matter how worn out or threadbare it got. One morning I couldn’t find it. Despite knowing that it had been with me when I went to sleep, and therefore was in the house, I cried myself hoarse feeling the panic of simple need.

Now, as a father myself, when I tuck my daughter in at night for the bedtime shemah, there are all sorts of comforting tokens I make sure she has. The stuffed bear/blanket which was a gift from one set of grandparents, a pig-shaped pillow from the movie Moana, a Winnie the pooh blanket, and of course her sus, attached to a stuffed sloth, that a student of mine gave us when she was born. Yet none of these things can avert her crying if one of her parents doesn’t sit in “abbas chair/ mummas chair” as she falls asleep.

Comfort comes in many forms. Sometimes in things, stuffies, knick-knacks, and handmade gifts. Sometimes comfort comes in knowing that, even in the darkness, the people you love are at your side. During the 7 weeks we find ourselves in right now, the period between Tisha B’Av and Rosh Hashanah, we read the haftarot of consolation. This week, as a part of the haftarah, we read an extraordinary verse; one of the very few in Tanach which imagines God in the role of the divine feminine. כאיש אשר אמו תנחמנו כן אנכי אנחמכם ובירושלם תנחמו. “As a mother comforts her son, so I will comfort you; you shall find comfort in Jerusalem” (Isaiah 66:13)

What a powerful and wonderful vision of the divine comforter. In his book Ehyeh: A Kabbalah for Tomorrow, Rabbi Arthur Green writes, “(God) loves us fully, the way only a parent can love a child. This is a God who accepts us as we are, with all our shortcomings. However, God is also a parent who cares enough to make demands on us. God as parent has not given up on us and maintains faith always in our ability to grow and change. God knows that this growth if it goes far enough, will eventually bring us back to our deepest selves and to a relationship with the One who is our Source. A trusting parent knows that any road the child takes will lead back home.”

When I close the door and turn off the lights, my two-year-old daughter knows I’m not going anywhere, and yet she is still worried. My blanket wasn’t lost, it was simply in the wash. The need for comfort and consolation are not always in response to rational fears. Sometimes they are simply about being loved unconditionally.

God calls out to us from a text nearly three thousand years old, with words of comfort and words of love. These words remind us that God has not gone anywhere, like a parent sitting in a chair or a blanket in our arms.  And, as we enter into the month of Elul, there is also a gentle reminder of another kind of comfort; the comfort that comes in faith, relationship with the divine, and in choosing to live a Jewish life.

May this month of Elul continue to bring your spirit comfort. Chodesh Tov!

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Rabbinic Reflection: Rabbi Samuel Kaye

A few days ago, I had the pleasure of spending a little bit of time with one of my friends whom all of you know, Rabbi Zachary Goodman. We were in the backyard, his little Abe was running around with my daughter Selah, while we watched over newborn Ira. The toy car could only hold one toddler and while Selah was ‘driving’, Abe ran over to his dad and leapt into his arms. Then, reaching out with great love, he grabbed his father’s beard and pulled hard.

There are moments when Torah, in all its multitudes and voices, comes alive before our eyes. And this moment, it may surprise you, was one such example. Rather than getting upset at the irritation of having his face yanked, or embarrassed that he was now a little ruffled, Rabbi Goodman just laughed and kissed his little boy.

There is a story I read many years ago which describes the people of Israel’s relationship to God in the same way. The Hassidic master described the bond akin to one a child has with a loving parent or grandparent. God is a figure of wisdom, power and dignity deserving our respect and admiration. And yet, when we reach out and tug at the metaphorical ‘beard’ it doesn’t infuriate or embarrass God. Rather God delights in the desire that B’nai Israel wants to be close and is pleased at the reminder of our intimacy. God is delighted when we reach out, even if our actions, words, or prayers are not ‘perfect’ because it is a reminder that we, the creation/the child, are just as in love with the creator/the parent as the other way around.

This summer, thanks to the bevy of programs and opportunities here at Holy Blossom, we have the chance to continue to reach out, not only to God but also to each other. Personally, I am so excited to have the opportunity to meet many of you for the first time. I am always happy to take a walk, grab a cup of coffee, and share some stories. I’ll also have the chance, in July, to teach Talmud to our community! I hope that you’ll sign up and I promise that it will have something for everyone, from beginners to sages. Finally, in August I’ll have the chance to visit Camp George and be part of the place that has created so many wonderful memories and relationships!

Reaching out and ruffling a ‘beard’ is a sign of love. Whether we are extending our hearts to God, or reaching out physically to our community, there is never a moment when this is not desired. I hope that you’ll join all of us here at Holy Blossom this summer in building that feeling of closeness and connection!

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Announcing Rabbi Samuel Kaye

Announcing Rabbi Samuel Kaye

JeffKK

We are delighted, on behalf of the Rabbinic Search Committee, to share the exciting news that we have made a remarkable match for Holy Blossom’s next Associate Rabbi and are thrilled to introduce you to Rabbi Samuel Kaye. Rabbi Kaye and his family are excited to be joining the Holy Blossom community, beginning this coming July.

Rabbi Kaye is joining us from The Temple in Atlanta, GA where he has been part of the clergy team since his ordination from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in 2018. During his time in Atlanta, Rabbi Kaye’s work was multifaceted, focusing most deeply on a myriad of social justice initiatives, dynamic teaching, and deep engagement with his congregational community from its very youngest to the very wisest members. What stands out most about Rabbi Kaye is his keen intellect, his ability to foster deep and meaningful relationships, his skills in making Judaism accessible, and his eagerness to value the traditions that make Holy Blossom so unique while also exhibiting an excitement about bringing new creative ideas to our community.

Rabbi Kaye is no stranger to Holy Blossom. Prior to his ordination, Rabbi Kaye spent a summer with us as a Rabbinic Intern. During that time, he led worship services, engaged learners in deep study, and gained an understanding and appreciation for the uniqueness of our Temple community and that of Reform Jewry in Canada. Those of you who had the opportunity to engage with Rabbi Kaye will recollect the many contributions he made to Temple life in just a short period of time.

Rabbi Kaye will be joined by his beautiful family – his wife, Taylor Baruchel, is finishing her own Rabbinic studies and will be ordained at HUC-JIR next year, and their 18-month-old daughter, Selah, who is excited to meet new Holy Blossom playmates! Taylor was born and raised in Montreal. Most of Taylor’s closest family now resides in Toronto, so Rabbi Kaye, Taylor and Selah are not just joining our community, but are also ‘coming home’ to their own family.

We have no doubt that both Rabbi Kaye and Taylor will make an incredible impact at Holy Blossom. Their many talents, interests, and most especially their warmth will be far-reaching.

We wish to thank our extraordinary Rabbinic Search Committee for their partnership in this process. Each member of the committee brought their own unique skills to our work, always keeping in mind the needs of our greater Temple community. Thank you to Maddie Axelrod, David Malinowicz, Jeffrey Myers, Nancy Lerner, Lisa Taylor, and Rabbi Splansky (ex-officio).

There will be many opportunities over the next few months to connect with and get to know Rabbi Kaye. Watch out for more details! Until then, please join us in welcoming Rabbi Kaye, Taylor, and Selah to the Holy Blossom family.

Warmly,
Karen Kollins and Jeff Denaburg
Chairs, Rabbinic Search Committee

From Rabbi Splansky

RYS

A few years ago, I got a call from Hebrew Union College informing me that there was an applicant for our summer rabbinic internship. “But we don’t have a summer rabbinic internship,” I said. “I know,” said the professor on the other end of the line, “but you have an applicant.”

That tells you everything you need to know about Rabbi Samuel Kaye. Even as a rabbinical student he had ambition, foresight, boundless curiosity, and a desire to grow. Those qualities have now been matched with four years of experience in one of the leading congregations of the Reform Movement and the mentorship of my friend and classmate, Rabbi Peter Berg. You will soon see for yourself the winning combination of Rabbi Kaye’s confidence and humility, seriousness, and good humour.

I am grateful for the excellent Rabbinic Search Committee, which brought a range of Holy Blossom experiences as well as professional experiences to the deliberations. The committee’s tremendous co-chairs, Jeff Denaburg and Karen Kollins met with me each week since Simchat Torah. With good guidance from the Central Conference of American Rabbis and support from the Pulpit Committee, they navigated this search process with good planning and good insight up until this moment of success and celebration.

As we prepare for Shabbat Shirah, when we chant the Song of the Sea, we sing another joyful song in anticipation of the good things to come, just on the horizon. I invite you to please use the comment section below to join me in sending warm greetings to Rabbi Kaye and his family.

From Rabbi Sam Kaye

RSK

Good people of Holy Blossom Temple,

I cannot express how overjoyed, honoured, and excited I am to be welcomed, once again, into this amazing community. My wife Taylor, our daughter Selah, and I are eagerly looking forward to making the journey north this summer to begin our lives in Toronto. We can’t wait to join you for beautiful tefilla, exciting and engaging learning, and transformative acts of tikkun olam. Of course, what we are looking forward to the most is the small and simple blessing of being face to face, soul to soul. Whether that be in our stunning synagogue, strolling through the beautiful green spaces of Toronto, or over a good cup of coffee; we can’t wait to meet you!

In so many ways this feels like coming home, and that is a nearly impossible thing to capture with words alone. Fortunately, our Jewish tradition is filled with guidance on how to express our feelings and hopes, even when language seems insufficient. Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech ha-olam ha’tov v’hameitiv! Blessed are you Adonai our God, who is good and who does good for us!

With a heart full of gratitude and excitement, I will see you soon!

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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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