Rachael’s Thoughts on Rosh Chodesh Iyar

April 20, 2023 by RachaelsCentre

This Shabbat is the beginning of a new month in our Jewish calendar, it’s Rosh Chodesh Iyar. Iyar is the second month of the Jewish ritual year. Nisan, the month we celebrate Pesach, is the month the Torah specifies as our first month.  Iyar is the month after Nisan, so it is the second month of our year – it’s the Jewish ‘February’.  January has all the excitement and hype of newness, and February has…28 days.  Nothing special goes on in February.  The most unique thing about February is…it has 28 days. It’s about the number of days, and in that way it’s very similar to Iyar.  Iyar is the month of counting the Omer as we head to Shavuot.  The entire month is a month of counting, it’s about the number of days.

There is a common Jewish joke that compares the month of Iyar to a famous, boring donkey named Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh and the Hundred Acre Wood. It’s not just that they sound the same (Iyar & Eeyore), it’s also that Eeyore is a dismal donkey, Pooh Bear’s flatlined, monotonic friend, who cannot rise to the excitement of anything. But once we’ve opened the door to the Jewishness of Eeyore, we cannot help but step through that door and explore the fullness of the Hundred Acre Wood, in its Jewishness, of course.

Pooh Bear is the young child who goes to the Jewish after-school program at shul.  He doesn’t always see how the Jewish things he’s learning fits into his day, but in the end, Pooh Bear connects with ideas that speak to him in very unique ways.  Eeyore is Iyar (how could I resist?), the ‘goes along to get along’ person in shul who anchors and comforts with their very presence – there might not be a glowing smile, and maybe there’s a keen awareness of what went wrong, but they are reliable, dependable, and will always be there for everyone. Piglet is the loyal bubbly shul goer who gets excited about everything – always the first to arrive, they welcome everyone else, and genuinely anticipate a great service.  Rabbit heads committees to make sure things get done; a stickler for details, he’s clearly the reason all the great ideas actually get done.  Christopher Robin is the Gabbai who makes sure things are as they should be. Kanga is every parent, and Roo is every toddler.  Owl is, of course, the Sage Talmudist who informs far beyond what was asked, only to confuse the matter.  Last, but not least, is our beloved Tigger, who shows up at all our simchas (though we’re not quite sure whose guest list he was on) — he’s in every hora and kicks up the party to true joy. We now have a complete Hundred Acre Minyan.

But aside from the philosophical dive into Winnie the Pooh, the month of Iyar has a beautiful message for us.  The month before, Nisan, has all the excitement of Pesach while the month afterwards, Sivan, has the holiday of Shavuot – Iyar has no holiday. The rabbis warn us not to think of Iyar as a time to be passive. In fact, the letters of the Hebrew word ‘Iyar’ create the acronym: “I am God, your Healer”, and so Iyar becomes the month of healing. A time of processing internally, and quietly, for healing and strength. It might look like nothing is happening, but often the most powerful of things happen humbly inside of us. We must never mistake humility for passivity.

I’d like to wish everyone a sweet and peaceful Shabbat –our Jewish time to regroup, rest, and reinvigorate.

Shabbat shalom,

Rachael

Rachael’s Pesach Message for 2023

April 5, 2023 by RachaelsCentre

Together, over the years, we’ve explored many of the themes and important moments that weave in and around our Seders. I thought it might be nice to summarize a few of these thoughts as we are about to enter the holiday this year.

The Haggadah includes a debate on whether you believe justice or mercy should prevail once we are safe. Were ten plagues enough? Maybe hundreds of plagues would reflect a more just Divine response. Were ten plagues too many? Maybe mercy should have prevailed, and we should only refer to these plagues by their initials. Do you believe that once there is no threat from an enemy, the fighting should end, or is safety only possible when an enemy is utterly erased?

Matzah is called ‘the bread of affliction’ and we usually believe it only represents our suffering. Yet, the Torah clearly shows us that the last plague, death of the ‘first born’ is actually death of the one holding the birthright. As this plague cycles through Egypt, over and over, the birthright will move to the next living child – the result is the inevitable death of every Egyptian. The Torah describes the screams coming from all their homes. The only way to stop the plague is to leave, and so God tells us to be ready to grab the matzah before it is done, because the level of human suffering is so high. The ‘bread of affliction’ includes more than only us.

The Haggadah is our only text that is never formally closed – we are told that anyone who expands in the telling of these events is only to be praised. We understand that praise to be for those who expand with meaningfulness, and not for those who only expand to the length of the Seder.

The Seder is meant as a pivotal Jewish moment for the younger generation to watch their older family members. We are teaching them the importance of our history; how we tell it; how we infuse it with meaning. The Seder begins as we understand that the constraints of Egypt exist in all our lives today. It ends as we proclaim a hopeful moment of “Next year in Jerusalem!”, and sing our favourite songs together. The flow of the night moves us from slavery to redemption.

In other words, every year we teach our children that we know how to journey from despair to hope. God showed us how, our Sages shaped the Seder around it, and we recommit to it every year. Moving from despair to hope is our journey of redemption, and Judaism tells us we are redeemed everyday.

Wishing everyone a meaningful Pesach, with a prayer for daily redemption and unity for all the Jewish people, here and in Israel!

Chag Kasher v’Sameach,
Rachael

Rachael’s Thoughts on Shabbat Hagadol

March 28, 2023 by RachaelsCentre

This Shabbat is called Shabbat Hagadol, The Grand Sabbath, the Shabbat before Pesach. One of the reasons for this name is because this is the first time, while still in Egypt, on the verge of leaving, Israel willingly takes on the choice to fulfill a commandment. This means all the Israelites in Egypt cross the threshold of becoming an adult, becoming Bnei Mitzvah, and the meaning of Gadol, when speaking of a person, speaks of someone who is no longer a minor, someone who is a mature adult.

But being an adult, with free will, immediately raises a question of choosing a perspective. Life brings wonderful things to us, and can equally blindside us and bring tears to our eyes. We know both sides are in our path – we do not choose what will happen, we choose how we read what happens.

It reminds me of the old Jewish man who is lying in bed fearing the worst.  He calls to his wife, Goldie, and he says: ‘Goldeh, things are looking tough right now, but I’m remembering our years together.  I remember when we first were married, and suddenly our lives became hard, finding a place to live’.  Goldie nods her head.  ‘And Goldeh, I remember when we opened our first grocery store together, and we were robbed within a month.’  Goldie nods her head. ‘And Goldeh, don’t think I’ve forgotten that when we opened our second store together, it burned to the ground right after the insurance expired.’ Goldie nods her head.  ‘And through it all, Goldeh, you were there, every step, every moment.’  Goldie’s eyes fill and she nods. ‘And so, my Goldeh, in this moment of dire reflection, I have come to an important conclusion…’ Goldie leans closer, ‘My Goldeh…I now understand…you’re bad luck.’

It’s not what happens to us that shapes us, it’s how we choose to view it. Ancient Egypt simultaneously produced slaves and leaders. Our texts show us that Moses becomes our spiritual giant, Miriam becomes the guardian, and Aaron becomes the peacemaker. Yet it is for us to choose what we see and where we focus.

This Shabbat is the 10^th day of Nisan, the day Miriam died. Miriam, the quiet leader who brought us culture through her spontaneous song and dance; who brought us water in the wilderness through Miriam’s Well; who taught us guardianship as she protected her brother, Moses; who taught us to step into opportunities as she spoke to Pharaoh’s daughter and reunited her mother with Moses so they could bond.

Our Sages teach us that we were redeemed from Egypt on the merit of the Jewish women, and so my thoughts move to Miriam and Goldie. As Shabbat Hagadol leads us into Pesach, I choose to think of everything Miriam brought to us, and not to think of the great sadness they felt when they lost her. I choose to think of Goldie, so strong, so loyal, so misunderstood.

Our people is filled with Miriams and Goldies and Moses and Aarons. Regardless of how busy things can get, may we never be the ones who choose not to see them.

I’d like to wish everyone a sweet and peaceful Shabbat —our Jewish time to regroup, rest, and reinvigorate.

Also wishing everyone a meaningful, connected and beautiful Pesach.

Shabbat shalom,

Rachael

Rachael’s Thoughts on Shabbat Zachor

March 2, 2023 by RachaelsCentre

The Shabbat before Purim is called Shabbat Zachor, the Shabbat of Remembrance. It is named after the commandment to always remember what Amalek did to us as we were coming out of Egypt – the word ‘zachor’ means to remember. Ironically, the commandment regarding Amalek is to erase the memory of this people, but at the same time we are commanded to remember.

Our history with Amalek goes back to biblical times when they attacked us as we came out of Egypt. It is not just the attack, it is that they targeted the part of the nation that is protected at the back: the women, the children, the elderly. The rules of warfare respected that conflict should remain between the strong and the armed. Amalek first attacked those that were vulnerable, they preyed on the ones ancient societies had agreed to protect. Amalek was a nation whose core rested on self-interest, brutality, and immorality – the epitome of evil.

The Torah commands us to remember that evil exists in the world and it will hunt. We consider Haman to be a descendant of Amalek, and we therefore read of them on this Shabbat, the Shabbat of Remembrance. But the commandment is to erase their memories from existence, so why do we do the opposite by naming a Shabbat after remembering them?

It is not history that we are directed to erase, it is the logical reconciliation of that history. The fact that hatred and evil of that kind can still gain supporters means it is somehow still making sense to someone. The commandment to continue to fight Amalek, by remembering them until they are forgotten, speaks to the goal of changing the cultural consciousness. We have not won against evil in the world so long as it still makes sense to some cultures.

The prophet Isaiah spoke of a time of redemption when nation would not raise sword against nation, and they would no longer study war. It is not that they would not feel the need to study warfare, it’s that war would no longer make sense to anyone.

We remember Amalek so we will recognize evil when we see it. It is the only war we are commanded to wage – fight evil until it’s very existence becomes an anomaly.

I’d like to wish everyone a sweet and peaceful Shabbat –our Jewish time to regroup, rest, and reinvigorate.

Shabbat shalom,

Rachael

Rachael’s Thoughts on Shabbat Sukkot

October 13, 2022 by RachaelsCentre

This Shabbat falls towards the end of the holiday of Sukkot, the time God judges the world for rain that will fall. When the Temple stood, there was a ceremony connected with water called Simchat Beit haShoeiva’, the ‘Joy of the Water-drawing Libations’.  The descriptions of this ceremony are astounding.  There was ongoing music, dancing, singing and Sages juggling burning torches!  The Talmud specifically mentions Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel, who juggled 8 burning torches at once, and never let them touch each other.

In fact, the Talmud states that if someone has not seen the celebration of these water libations, they have not experienced joy – in other words, we don’t know from parties. 

Sukkot is a unique holiday because there are holidays within the holiday. On the seventh day of Sukkot, Hoshana Rabah, we take our lulav and etrog and walk around the sanctuary in circuits as we recite the Hoshanot.  The day marks the end of the High Holidays, as the decisions of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are made, sealed, and now delivered.  It is a ceremony filled with Jewish mysticism — a step back into our ancient past.  If we watch this moment from a birds-eye view, everyone below looks like a current of water flowing round and round.  The medium becomes the message, as we pray for water, it is our bodies that express the prayer.

For all of us who have ever danced a hora at a simcha (also called the Mayim dance), we have emulated the water libation dancing.  The words to the hora begin: ‘ushoftem mayim bisasson, mimaynei hayishua’, ‘and you will draw water in joy from the waters of salvation’ – a quote referring to Simchat Beit HaShoeiva – the Joy of the Water-drawing Libations.

Soon we will transition out of our holiest time of the year, as we should.  We need to go back to the mundane, but if we’re lucky, we can carry some of these moments with us in the coming year.  

May we all enter a year of peace, abundance, and health.  May we dance a hora or two with the images of Rabbis juggling burning torches, and may we learn to experience joy that has no limit.

I’d like to wish everyone a sweet and peaceful Shabbat –our Jewish time to regroup, rest, and reinvigorate.

Shabbat shalom, Umoadim lesimcha,

Rachael

Rachael’s Thoughts on Parshat Ha’azinu

October 6, 2022 by RachaelsCentre

This week’s Torah portion, Ha’azinu, is the song Moses composes and delivers to Israel. He worries about Israel’s welfare, and the nation’s struggle with God. Moses repeatedly warns Israel never to underestimate their inclination to deny God, nor God’s response.

At the same time, we are at the threshold of the holiday of Sukkot, the time we celebrate following God in the wilderness and learning of Divine Love and Divine Protection. It is the time we built our relationship with God.

These two messages sit side by side this Shabbat. As Jews, we always struggle with understanding God, and the demands of our Judaism. At the same time, we celebrate that same relationship, those same challenges and demands.

Moses’ worry is that we won’t keep the values of Torah close to our hearts. He refers to it as ‘this song’. He worries we will not teach our children to sing the song of Torah. Of all our leaders, Moses saw firsthand that if the generational chain is not well established, it can begin to disappear – Moses witnessed this in Egypt as slavery took its toll.

Interestingly, another name for the holiday of Sukkot is ‘Zman Simchateinu’, the Time of Our Joy’. The name itself speaks directly of the message Moses is expressing. His warnings are dire, and the picture he paints is stark, but he always stresses how Torah must be inherited, taught, sung, and enjoyed.

Through the prophets, God stated how sweet the memory is of our time together in the wilderness, when we followed God with complete trust – when we expressed ‘chesed’ to God in our youth, when we dwelled in our Sukkot.

Moses worried we wouldn’t understand how important Torah is in our lives. When we sit in a Sukkah, we assure him we won’t ever forget.

I’d like to wish everyone a sweet and peaceful Shabbat –our Jewish time to regroup, rest, and reinvigorate.

Shabbat shalom and Chag Sukkot Sameach,

Rachael

Rachael’s Thoughts on Parshat Nitzavim

September 22, 2022 by RachaelsCentre

This week, we read the Torah portion of Nitzavim – Moses’ words to Israel as he knows his hours are few. This week, we enter Shabbat, preparing for Rosh Hashanah, as we pray for what only God can give us: time.

Moses immediately tells Israel that we are all standing together right now. Whether we are leaders, followers, women, men, elderly, or infants, we meet in this moment, at the threshold of covenant with God. We all stand equally. But, Moses is not standing equally with anyone because he knows the day he will die, and he knows his prayers won’t be answered. He stands alone inside our greatest human fears. Yet, as always, he has so much to teach us.

Moses reminds us that at the core of everything Jewish will be God, Torah, and each other. We will house our spiritual expressions in the teachings of Torah, and we will argue with each other about what it means. Then Moses specifically warns us not to think Torah is a treasure buried somewhere out in the world. It is not a search for external truth. Moses tells us the Torah is close to us, it is in our hearts, and when in doubt, we should always look inward.

Soon, we will stand together on Rosh Hashanah, as we enter the holiest time of our year, and we will ask God for time. We offer God our honest, internal reflections from the past year, as we experience what Moses tried to tell us. We have a voice in our destinies, a tremendous gift, and as we gather to pray on Rosh Hashanah, we will make our voices heard. Sometimes prayer is a whisper and sometimes prayer is thunder.

Jews everywhere will whisper our fears to God, as we raise our voices to create the thunder of ‘Avinu Malkeinu’. In the end, across millennia of years, we indeed stand where Moses said we would: Nitzavim hayom, “Today we stand together.”

I’d like to wish everyone a Shabbat shalom, and a sweet, healthy, and happy year to come.

May we use our time of Shabbat rest to gather our resources for the holiness of Rosh Hashanah.

Rachael

Rachael’s Thoughts on Selichot

September 15, 2022 by RachaelsCentre

The Saturday night before Rosh Hashanah is time reserved for special prayers called Selichot. We wait until it is late at night, at the time of ‘Ashmoret HaBoker’ – when night is ending, and the transition to dawn is beginning. The prayers we say are apologies and admissions, as we implore God to understand our limitations. We choose the timing carefully.

Throughout the High Holidays, we repeatedly appeal to God as our Divine Parent -we want the unconditional love and forgiveness that only a parent can give. We choose Ashmoret HaBoker for these prayers because it is the time we are usually asleep. In fact, our neighbours, cities, and all around us are probably asleep. In those moments, several things are happening. The Zohar tells us that in the calm of the night, when the transition to day is beginning, God turns toward attributes of Divine Mercy before the new day has dawned. We appeal to God when Divine Mercy is heightened. The second reason has to do with our relationship with God, our Parent.

As new parents, we can remember bringing our children home and keeping our eyes on them. At first, they don’t do much, they’re not yet awake to the world, so we watch them sleep. We form the habit of watching them sleep, and watching them breathe. It comforts us, we are soothed by it, we bond with them as they lie asleep, not knowing this is happening. The purity and sincerity of this non-verbal connection is unique.

As we are all made in the image of God, what is true for the image must be true for the Source. While we are asleep, our souls and God find each other and deepen their bond. There is no better moment for us to reach out to God, the Parent, and ask for forgiveness than in those moments when night, the time we usually sleep, is transitioning to day.

Selichot is a special time of prayer we can say either together or individually. It is a time, in the still of the night, to reach outward and upward, to feel the child and the Parent. Selichot is when we can immerse ourselves into the subtle nuances before Rosh Hashanah that can sometimes get lost in the grandeur of the Highest of our Holy Days.

I’d like to wish everyone a sweet and peaceful Shabbat –our Jewish time to regroup, rest, and reinvigorate.

Shabbat shalom,

Rachael

Rachael’s Thoughts on Shabbat HaGadol

April 8, 2022 by RachaelsCentre

This Shabbat is called Shabbat HaGadol – the Grand Shabbat. It is always the Shabbat before Pesach, and there is much debate in our texts on how it got its name. An interesting comment suggests that as we prepare to leave Egypt, we are given our first commandment as Jews. We are told to separate the lamb to be sacrificed at Pesach. We are still in Egypt, still slaves, yet being commanded to start to think as free people –to make choices. The first choice we must make is one of identity. Do we choose covenant and freedom, or do we choose Egypt and slavery?

This same view tells us that the moment of Jewish choosing happens when we are Bnei Mitzvah, when each of us reaches Jewish adulthood. That is the moment we are responsible for the commandments, and for adding our voice to the choir of Jewish thinkers throughout time. On that day we become an adult, or, in Hebrew, Gadol. That is how this Shabbat gets its name. We step over the threshold into the understanding of freedom and choices. We accept that while we are commanded to obey the Torah, it will always boil down to our free will –we choose to express ourselves through this identity.

Starting with Shabbat HaGadol, and growing in excitement as the Seders approach, we remember that our Jewish choices are there to enhance us, to enrich us, and to elevate us. Lofty ideals, igniting concepts –one might even say stepping into the Grand Shabbat. How better to prepare for our celebration of freedom!

I’d like to wish everyone a sweet and peaceful Shabbat –our Jewish time to regroup, rest, and reinvigorate.

Shabbat shalom,

Rachael

Chag Samaech for Tu B’Shevat

January 13, 2022 by RachaelsCentre

Chag Sameach!

In the ancient world we needed to know how old are the trees and the vegetation. That way we would know when we’re allowed to harvest from nature for eating and sacrifices, and when we need to leave things alone. In our modern world, we continue to celebrate this holiday and its perspective on knowing when we can take from nature, when we can share from nature, and when we need to take a step back and not intrude. We plant trees and we garden on Tu B’Shvat, and in some communities there is a Tu B’Shvat Seder (festive meal) that includes eating from the 7 species of Israel while mixing white and red wines to create the colours of the earth.

Please feel free to click the link below for great insights into Tu B’Shevat as well as fun, meaningful ways you and your family can celebrate.