|
Here’s what we need: We need someone to step forward to work on our Adult Education committee. We need folks to volunteer to serve on our Sunshine Committee so that we can reach out to those congregants facing illness and crises. We need someone to chair our Buildings and Grounds Committee so that our the facilities are maintained. And, we need lay leaders to help us conduct Shabbat services until such time as our Rabbinic Search Committee completes its work.
And, we need you to participate in the meetings that have been arranged by the Rabbinic Search Committee.
If you haven’t yet turned in your membership commitment form, we need you to do that as well. Your membership investment (formerly called dues) helps ensure that Judaism and BAJC are alive and well in Southeastern Vermont.
We also need you to think about taking advantage of the “Tree of Life” donated by Elliott Greenblott. Each leaf, which costs $250, can be used to honor a person or life cycle event, with all the monies being dedicated to our building fund.
I would like to close by sharing the poem Heenaynee by Rabbi Rami Shapiro that Rabbi Salzman shared with me:
Here I am.
A little bit nervous, a bit self-conscious.
After all, who am I talking to?
And what have I done?
Am I a sinner in search of grace or
a saint seeking salvation?
Am I so evil
or so good
as to warrant this season of introspection?
And yet here it is, and here I am:
this time of change and correction,
this heart of confusion and contrition.
Oh, if I could change!
If I could be so sure of myself
that I no longer had to imagine the slights of others;
to be so loving of myself
that I no longer had to ration my loving of others;
to be so bold with myself
that I no longer had to fear the bravery of others.
Oh, if I could change
there is so much I would change.
Maybe I will, but it scares me so.
Maybe I won't and that should scare me more.
But it doesn't.
So let me pray just this:
Let no one be put to shame because of me.
Wouldn't that make this a wonderful year?
Heenaynee -Here I am!
|
