Monthly Archives: May 2014

Rabbi’s Monthly Message: June 2014

Shavuot – Harvest of cereal and soul

Shalom Chaverim

There is still one more major holiday of the yearly cycle that awaits to be celebrated and that is the holiday of SHAVUOT – lonely Shavuot, that usually bypasses so many because, unlike its counterparts, Pesach and Succot, celebrated for an entire week and with distinct rituals attached to them, Shavuot is celebrated for only two days (in Israel, just one) and with just a few minhagim (customs) to help us mark the festival.

And yet, one could certainly claim that Shavuot just might be the most important of all the holidays, the climax of anticipation after Passover (marked by the counting of the Omer), the holiday that commemorates the most significant turning point in Jewish history – matan Torateinu – the giving of our Torah at Mount Sinai.

There are a few customs attached to Shavuot, which means weeks in Hebrew, underlying the significance of the seven weeks that separate the holiday of our liberation by leaving Egypt from the holiday of our spiritual freedom at Mount Sinai.

Shavuot, contrary to its often neglected place among our people, could be claimed as actually the most important holiday of all, for it commemorates and celebrates the very purpose of our existence – the Torah, its teaching and perpetuation through the generations, which is the miracle of the Jewish people.

We remember that Shavuot was originally only an agricultural festival, as the Torah tells us, marking the beginning of the harvest season. We also know that it became the practice to read the Book of Ruth for two reasons:

1. the story of Ruth takes place during the beginning of the harvest season.
2. Ruth was the most famous “convert” to Judaism, a Moabite woman, who embraced the religion of her mother in- law, Naomi, promised to never leave her or her new nation, and became a full-fledged Israelite. Ruth’s great-grandson was David, the greatest king in Israel’s history.

Thus we are reminded that Shavuot is also about each of us, born Jews and naturalised Jews, embracing the heritage and tradition of our ancestors. Let us remain true to that vision.

Rabbi Stuart Altshuler

Rabbi’s Monthly Message: May 2014

TWO ENTWINED ANNIVERSARIES

Shalom Chaverim

In the month of Iyar/May, we celebrate two significant anniversaries.

First, and precious in the hearts of all our members, is the continued consecration of the 75th anniversary of our synagogue’s founding on 24 March 1939, when it held its first Shabbat service. Secondly, on 6 May we celebrate the 66th anniversary of the State of Israel.

These two seminal events have a symbiotic relationship, historically and spiritually. Both Belsize Square Synagogue and Israel were established out of and alongside the ashes of the Shoah, the most devastating horror ever inflicted on any people in the history of humanity.

Both were Jewish responses to tragedy — to continue our faith, our dreams, our hopes, our Judaism, our moral and spiritual vision, despite the tragedies, displacements and murder that our people had to  overcome.

A Jewish response to any death is more life. “Choose life” our Torah reminds us when receiving our mandate from God. The Jewish people have done just that for all the years of our existence.

Those fortunate enough to escape the impending doom that hung over German Jewry created a  congregation in 1939 to continue to teach Torah, celebrate Jewish life, renew our covenant with God and provide a home and family for so many people separated for ever from their loved ones.

Israel, fought for by the survivors of the ovens of Auschwitz and flames of the Warsaw Ghetto, became a reality after years of struggle against neighbours determined to destroy the last flickering flame of Jewish
sovereignty in our ancient homeland. That was in 1948. Against all the odds, Israel survived and continues to this day to struggle for acceptance by its neighbours as a Jewish state entitled to live in security and dignity.

We wish Israel a year of successful negotiations — if such a miracle were ever to come about — a year of
tranquillity, peace and improved relations with its neighbours, while never losing sight of our Jewish values that encompass the inviolability of every human life. We also pray that Israel’s neighbours will surrender their aim of destroying the Jewish state and stop waiting for the day when it disappears from the map.

When that happens, there will be true and lasting peace for all. God bless Israel, its citizens, its defence forces and all of us who know that without Israel our lives would simply not be the same.

We wish Belsize Square Synagogue another 75 years and more, to continue the task of teaching Torah, of embodying Theodor Herzl’s motto: “If you will it, it is no dream” and showing that it is still possible to bring beauty and hope into a world that looks to us to set an example of spiritual strength.

Here is a good prayer we could all recite before our grand Civic Service on Sunday 18 May. Make it a part of your Shabbat dinner tables that weekend:

“It is at Belsize Square Synagogue that we shall learn who we are and whence we come. Here we shall seek a glimpse of our destiny. Through knowledge and practice, we shall transform a congregation of Jews into a
Jewish congregation, transmitting our tradition with love to our children.”

Recalling King Solomon’s Temple, we pray that the work of our hands will also be blessed and we repeat the words of King David to his son Solomon, who undertook its construction:

Revere the God of your fathers and serve Him with a whole heart and with a willing mind. For the Lord searches all hearts and understands our innermost thoughts. If you seek Him, you will find Him, but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever. Take heed now, for the Lord has chosen you to build a sanctuary. Be strong and do it.

We praise the good and generous men and women who have gone before us, as well as those in our midst who labour on behalf of the community. We are grateful to our God for the blessing of their lives. May He always bless us with such people, to lead us from strength to strength.

Help us to live by Your teaching, so that our synagogue may harbour and inspire reverence, dignity, comfort,
peace, sanctity and joy.

Praised are you, O Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, who has kept us in life, sustained us in health, and enabled us to reach the 75th anniversary of our beloved Belsize Square Synagogue.

May we always draw strength from each other. God bless the work of our hands.

Rabbi Stuart Altshuler