Synagogue Updates

The High Holidays are just over three weeks away (3 weeks and one day, but who is counting?). We are obviously living in a time of great uncertainty, and I think my most important message is that it is ok for us all to not know exactly what the holidays will look like or what we will be comfortable doing. Our Clergy, staff, and lay leaders are working on creating a variety of service experiences to meet the different comfort levels of our community - from socially distanced, masked services indoors, to outdoor services, to online options. It is completely ok to not know which service you want to attend at the moment, but if you haven't done so yet, we still would love you to give us your best guess. This will best let us plan and set  up our services. 

I was looking on back emails and it was just over a year ago that I wrote about uncertainty and gratitude. I believe now, as much as ever, that gratitude and looking for the blessings out there is one of the ways to handle our current changing environment. I wrote in the past that one of my favorite stories is The Curse of Blessings, and that I periodically go back to it for inspiration. I realize that I didn't share the link. Here it is, I hope you find it as inspiring as i do. 

On Friday, an email came home from Rabbi Cooper about the power of coming home. I experienced a taste of that today with my girls coming home from camp after 7 weeks. There is real power in being together, so I do want to encourage you to find an opportunity to visit the synagogue. It could be for one of our Friday night services (last week was incredible with our special BBQ), for one of our shofar blowing events in the neighborhoods the week before Rosh Hashanah (if you think that you can get 15 people together, we would be happy to try to send a shofar blower to your area), it could be the drive-by event we are working on, or it can be for one of the evening services of Rosh Hashanah that will be outside and are traditionally more lightly attended - no matter when it is, we want to see you and your family.  No matter when it is, we would like to see you!

We have a few volunteer opportunities. Please let me know if you might be able to do any of these: 

• Ongoing - Cooking a kosher meal for some of our families that have just had babies
• October 6th - Driving someone for a medical procedure from 7am - 2pm
• October 18th - Driving someone for a medical procedure from 1pm - 3pm

For anyone that has a place at the shore - or that likes to take a drive to the shore - we are working on a program called Reverse Tashlich on September 12th. I have become obsessed with this program and its relevance. You can learn more about it here or read an article about it here.  Would you like to take part or help us plan it for the 12th?

Wishing you a great week, and we can't wait to see you soon. 

Ken 
513 503 9559