I understand there is some trepidation as we approach the Ten Days of Repentance, which include not only Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur and all the emotion that comes with these Holy Days, but also the first anniversary of the October 7th massacre.
I want to reassure everyone that we are all feeling it to one degree or another. So we will bring our heavy hearts and many questions and we will do what Jews have also done. We will try to make sense of this moment in our lives, against the backdrop of Jewish history, and informed by Jewish wisdom of sacred texts. And we will do so, together.
Many are asking for the link to the sermon I gave last Kol Nidre. No one – including me — could have foreseen how our world would change just a few days later, but looking back now, we can see that the vulnerability was already evident. Here is the link, if you wish to revisit where we were a year ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFFOOiftML4
In addition, I’d like to call your attention to the many meaningful ways we will be commemorating the first anniversary of October 7. Some are of these opportunities are online, some in person, some hybrid. Some are geared for children, others for teens and adults. Some are just for our congregation, others for our city or for the global Reform Movement. Click here for our October 7th Commemorations
Let us do our utmost to lift one another’s spirits and chart our way forward – together.
Shabbat Shalom.
As Israelis are bracing themselves for whatever may come and Jewish communities all over the world are on alert, I would first like to assure you that Holy Blossom Temple security systems – some seen, some hidden from view — have been reviewed and reinforced in recent days. Our Executive Director, Rachel Malach, our Senior Property and Facilities Manager, Bridgedat Ramcaran, and our very knowledgeable Chair of our Security Committee, Andrew Kirsch, are in constant contact with our local police, Division 13, and with the security department of the UJA. As we prepare for a beautiful High Holy Day season, many volunteers and professionals – including rabbis and cantors – are receiving expert training.
It is important that we are all vigilant. When you are walking through the neighbourhoods of our great city, the slogan, “If you see something, say something” is instructive. Something or someone out of the ordinary can be a reason to call 911. And yet, I am keenly aware that being safe and feeling safe are not necessarily the same thing. How do we help one another to feel safe? How do we keep from spooking ourselves and one another? The news of the day is frightening enough. We mustn’t make it worse by spinning anxiety for our children to absorb. We must not give haters the power to terrify us.
So, let’s take a page from the book of the Israeli Olympiads in Paris. These young men and women are holding their heads high, representing their country and the Jewish People everywhere, and earning medals. Despite all that they, their friends, and families have had to face since October 7, or perhaps because of all that, they are laser-focused and seemingly fearless. Amidst tiers of security guarding them and booing crowds surrounding them, they carry on with their mission. They do not apologize for who they are nor for the Jewish State they represent. They do not apologize for winning nor for denying those who chant hateful slogans any victory — because the very definition of an athlete is to go as far and as fast as you can, to be as strong and as skilled as you can be. Moreover, the very definition of an Israeli is to be “a victim no more.” The Zionist movement was designed to train “the new Jew” to reject the victimhood, which punctuated so much of Jewish history before.
We know that many wish to divide the world today with the false binary of “oppressed” and “oppressor.” The Israelis I know and admire say: “I refuse to be either.” Let us learn to say the same here in the Diaspora. Let us agree that there is no glory in powerlessness and there is no shame in being powerful, so long as that power is used responsibly and for the good of all, as best we can.
May it be a Shabbat Shalom, a Shabbat of Peace for us, for Israel, and all the world.
Shalom, Holy Blossom. I write to you from a much-needed family vacation.
Yesterday I was invited to speak with the Prime Minister. I believe the invitation came in response to the op-ed piece I recently wrote for the Toronto Star. https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/my-prayer-for-2024/article_29cc81bc-a5ae-11ee-98de-e36d2799d250.html
I understand many congregants have shared it with non-Jewish friends and colleagues as well as with family in Israel. I’m glad for that and hope it is received well by all.
I am grateful for this morning’s call with Prime Minister Trudeau and for the opportunity to reinforce the messages coming from you and the Canadian Jewish community. We touched on many points from antisemitism to policing, to the role of faith leaders, to yesterday’s proposal from Gallant, to Canadian values, and Canada’s role on the world stage – past and present.
Here is the thank you note I sent after this morning’s call.
Dear Prime Minister,
I am very grateful for the opportunity to speak with you earlier today. I hope it is evident that my personal comments come from my deep love for Canada and my deep love for Israel. I am very proud to be a Canadian and although I am not a citizen of Israel, I am attached to the Land of Israel and to the People of Israel by an eternal and sacred bond.
In Holy Blossom Temple’s Bloomberg Centre for Jewish Leadership hangs an original painting by celebrated Canadian artist, Charles Pachter. I asked Charles to create the piece, entitled “Side by Side,” in memory of his parents, who were great Zionists. The two flags of Canada and Israel stand proudly together and help to guide the decisions we make around the Board Room table of Holy Blossom Temple, Toronto’s first synagogue. I’ve attached the image here for you to enjoy. I hope it will similarly inspire your allyship with Israel, your protection of Canadian Jewry, and the direction you set for all Canadians to follow.
We spoke today about our shared Canadian values. I remember well when you came to Holy Blossom to honour The Tailor Project. The very moving occasion told the story of how our Past President, Max Enkin, of blessed memory, went to the DP camps in the aftermath of the Holocaust and, in partnership with Canadian Immigration officials, brought many “tailors” to Canada. You may recall that evening’s program ended with a tailor, a newcomer from Syria, presenting you with an expertly stitched dress shirt. This is how the Jewish People teaches our history. We hold up our ordinary heroes, lift up their guiding principles, and commit to living by them in the here and now. As I write to you, many of my congregants continue their steadfast support of Muslim, Yazidi, and Christian newcomers from Syria, Afghanistan, Iran, Sudan, Eritrea, and Nicaragua. The news of the day could very easily cause the Jewish community to “circle the wagons” and turn inward, but that is not who we are. We believe we must take care of our own people and others simultaneously. If we turn away from one commitment or the other, we risk losing ourselves. We know who we are. We know where we come from. And we do our utmost to live according to the sacred values enshrined in our Torah.
We must clearly discern between those who are innocently caught in conflicts and are, therefore, deserving of our empathy and support, and those who perpetuate and perpetrate conflicts and must, therefore, be confronted. I believe Canada, home to the world’s fourth-largest Jewish population, has a very important role to play now. I pray you will use your voice to amplify the call for moral clarity on the world stage.
You are always welcome at Holy Blossom Temple. If you should ever want to address our congregation — in person or online – we would welcome the chance to hear directly from you. And while it is not my invitation to extend, I am confident that a trip to Israel would go a long way to reassure the Canadian Jewish community that Canada and Israel really do stand “side by side.”
With prayers for a more peaceful world in 2024,
L’Shalom,
Yael.
And here is our treasured “Side by Side” by Charles Pachter. May its strength be a comfort to you now.
Shabbat Shalom.
Yael.
Since Canada’s UN vote, Jewish Canadians are reeling. Here are two recent letters in response – one from ARZA Canada, the Reform Zionist organization and one from the Reform Rabbis of Canada. And here is CIJA’s recent press release in response to the vote.
I urge you to draw inspiration from these resources, to use your own voice, and to write to elected leadership to express your concerns.
This week our Torah scroll is set to the Joseph story. He was a lone and lowly Israelite in Egypt, a slave who through hard work and with God’s blessing became second-in-command to Pharoah and was responsible for successfully and ethically guiding Egypt out of years of famine. When he is reunited with his brothers who come down from Israel, “Joseph’s cries were so loud, all of Egypt could hear; his cries were heard in Pharoah’s Palace.” (Genesis 45:2)
Like Joseph, we live in the Jewish Diaspora, contributing steadfastly to the country we are proud to call home. And like Joseph, we never forget our strong ties to Israel, our homeland, and to our brothers and sisters who live there. We are bound to them by the unbreakable bonds of a shared history and a shared future.
Write to our elected leadership now so that our cries can be heard by all of Canada and even in the Palace of Parliament. Here is the link to reach them: https://www.ourcommons.ca/members/en/search?province=ON&fbclid=IwAR34DM1d6-KELrzc_BhsaEGvzdKTIWrw4s9QQVSZ9rfxwCNG6sCox3GOsAM
Dear Congregants,
The year 5783 is coming to conclusion. It has been a year of restoration and complexity, of joy and sorrow, of courage and renewed commitments. I am very proud of how our congregation has grown stronger and has found its rhythm again. I can’t wait for us to gather and greet one another in songful prayer as we greet the new year.
The candles we light tonight stand for so much. With light, we welcome in Shabbat and usher in 5784. I urge you to pause before you strike the match at your table. That moment before lighting should not be rushed. That last moment of the year now ending begs for acknowledgement and gratitude and goodbye. It begs to be named and known as the transition from what was to what will be. It is the inflection point, the launching pad to all that is possible. So notice it and give that moment its due. Offer a private prayer. Cover your eyes or clasp hands with the dear ones at your table or hum a melody of deepest desire. Linger for one more moment, watch it slip into history. And then begin again… with light and blessing. Amen.
Before lighting your candles, you may wish to share your own words of reflection or you may wish to read this poem by the great American Zionist, Jessie E. Sampter (1883-1938).
“The Jewish Year”
Our year begins with burnished leaves,
That flame in frost and rime,
With purple grapes and golden sheaves
In harvest time.
…When others say the year has died,
We say the year is new,
And we arise with power and pride
To prove it true.
For we begin where others end,
And fight where others yield;
And all the year we work and tend
Our harvest field.
And after days of stormy rain
And days of drought and heat,
When those that toiled have reaped their grain,
And all’s complete.
Oh then, when God has kept His word,
In peace we end our year.
Our fruit is certain from the Lord.
We shall not fear.
Shabbat Shalom and L’Shanah Tovah.
May you be blessed with all that is good.
May your name be written and sealed into the Book of Life.
Amen.
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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.