High Holidays 2010/5771

by Alice Swersey

This year we're excited to hold High Holiday Services in our own home in Chatham Center. For our congregation's first five years, High Holiday services were held at the Malden Bridge church we shared with our Methodist friends. 2005 saw the first high holiday services held in our own newly renovated building. The following year, to accommodate our growing membership, services were held in a tent behind the synagogue but, unfortunately, there wasn't adequate handicap access.

For the past three years we've held Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services at the Chatham Fair Grounds. Although that venue met our requirements of location, space, parking, and handicap access, this year Rosh Hashana falls on September 8th, just two days after the Chatham Fair closes, making it impossible to get the grounds and building ready in time.

Knowing this, we spent last winter planning and designing a gently sloping wooden walkway that would give everyone safe access to our backyard. Begun early this summer, construction and landscaping have now been completed.

With the walkway in place, we're able to bring everyone together under our tent. I want to welcome you all to The Chatham Synagogue Netivot Torah High Holiday services for 2010/5771.

L'shanah tovah tikateivu. 

Interview: Rabbi Or Rose

I recently sat down with Rabbi Or Rose to gather information for the piece I was to write about him for this issue of our Newsletter. Because my writing speed is somewhere south of glacial, I had my trusty digital mini-recorder, which turned out to be a lucky break because, 30 seconds into our conversation I realized that nothing I could write could match the eloquence and beauty of Or’s own words.

Here’s the transcription of that wonderful interview:

(LZ): Who has been the biggest influence in your life?

(OR): My parents. My father is a rabbi and therapist, and a retired professor of Jewish studies; my mother was for many years a teacher in both the Jewish and public school systems in Canada, and is an accomplished poet. They were my first teachers of Torah and continue to serve as both personal and professional role models for me. They have modeled a joyous and serious engagement with Judaism and an openness to learning from a diverse range of people, texts, and traditions. Much of my worldview and professional choices have been shaped by my relationship with my parents.

(LZ): Who is your favorite character in the Bible?

(OR): My favorite character in the Bible is God.  Sometimes gentle, sometimes fierce, the Divine is always a fascinating figure in the Tanakh! As writers such as Jack Miles (author of God: A Biography) have noted, God is the great protagonist of the Hebrew Bible. Part of what I find so interesting about the history of Jewish theology are the multiple ways in which people have conceived of God.  Look at the teachings of three great Jewish sages such as Rabbi Akiva, Maimonides, and the Ba’al Shem Tov and you will find three very different portraits of the Divine.

(LZ): While some rabbis seem to be most interested in giving people answers, your approach to Judaism involves a lot of questioning. Why?

(OR): Questioning stands at the heart of Rabbinic Judaism.  Look at any page of the Talmud and you will find that our sages love good questions.  As important as it is for individuals and communities to commit themselves to answers and norms, we must never stop asking questions. Doing so would extinguish our creative spirit and deplete our sacred tradition.

(LZ): How has being a father changed you?

(OR): I will always remember the moment the doctor told us that we were having twins. Among my first concerns (and I had many!) was whether I would have enough love to give to two children at once. I think being the father of twins has taught me the expansive capacity we human beings have for love. The nature of my feelings for my children is unique—my love for them is different than all other loves—but I hope that that my experience as a father positively informs my interactions with others.  I hope that something of the love for my kids is present in my interactions with all other people.

High Holiday Services & Schedule

by Brenda Gevertz, Chair, Ritual Committee

"Just as the hand, held before the eye, can hide the tallest mountain,so the routine of everyday life can keep us from seeing the vast radiance and the secret wonders that fill the world.”
—18th Century Chasidic Meditation

The High Holidays provide an opportunity for us to take a deep breath in our lives. We contemplate the year that has passed and think about the year that is ahead. In song, prayer and meditation, The Chatham Synagogue Netivot Torah will usher in the New Year, beginning with Erev Rosh HaShanah services at 6:00 pm on Wednesday, September 8th. We will gather in our garden behind the synagogue, under the tent that is now accessible to everyone, via our new wooden walkway. Services will be led by Rabbi Or Rose, who will be assisted by Rabbinic student, Shoshanna Friedman.

High Holidays Schedule

Wednesday September 8
Erev Rosh HaShanah
Ma'ariv Service 6:00 pm

Thursday September 9 and Friday September 10
Rosh HaShanah Services
9:00am - Approximately 1:00 pm

Friday September 17
Kol Nidrei 6:30 pm

Saturday September 18
Yom Kippur Services begin at 9:00 am and proceed until sundown with a break at around 1:00 pm.

Children's services for 3-6 year olds and for 6-12 year olds will be held inside the Synagogue at 10:30 am on both days of Rosh HaShanah. All children's services will include songs, discussions, and activities.

• Services for 3-6 year olds will be led by TCS member, Gloria Kaufman. All 3-6 year olds should be accompanied by a parent or elder.
  
  
• Services for 6-12 year olds will be led by Shoshanna Friedman.
  

Please join us on Saturday, September 25th for the Shabbat service and a Sukkah Kiddush.

The Power of Poetry

by Lydia Kukoff

Sacred texts come in many forms — Bible, Talmud, midrash and, for me, poetry, which has always been a source of insight and delight. The poem, "How Divine is Forgiving?" by Marge Piercy, is a favorite of mine. I read these same words every year at this season and each year they seem to change because I have changed.

Our task during this season is to do the work of soul-examining, with the goal of teshuvah, returning. This poem, in its raw honesty, speaks of some of the many dimensions and complexities of forgiveness.

In the spirit of the poem and of the season, may we all find the strength to forgive and be forgiven.

And may it be a sweet year.


How Divine is Forgiving?
by Marge Piercy

It's a nice concept
but what's under the sculptured draperies?
We forgive when we don't really care
because what was done to us brought unexpected
harvest, as I always try to explain
to the peach trees as I prune them hard,
to the cats when I shove pills against
the Gothic vaults of their mouths.

We forgive those who betrayed us
years later because memory has rotted
through like something left out in the weather
bettered clean then littered dirty
in the rain, chewed by mice and beetles,
frozen and baked and stripped by the wind
till it is unrecognizable, corpse
or broken machine, something long useless.

We forgive those whom their own machinations
have sufficiently tangled, enshrouded,
the fly who bit us to draw blood and who hangs now a gutted trophy in a spider's
airy larder; more exactly, the friend
whose habit of lying has immobilized him
at last like a dog trapped in a cocoon
of fishing line and barbed hooks.

We forgive those we firmly love
because anger hurts, a coal that burns
and smoulders still scorching the tissues
inside, blistering wherever it touches
so that finally it is to ease our own pain
that we bury the hot clinkers in a mound
of caring, suffocate the sparks with promises,
drown them in tears, reconciling.

We forgive mostly not from strength
but through imperfections, for memory
wears transparent as a glass with the pattern
washed off, till we stare past what injured us.

We forgive because we too have done
the same to others easy as a mudslide;
or because anger is a fire that must be fed
and we are too tired to rise and haul a log.

From "Available Light" (Knopf, 1988)