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Another wish had to do with increased direct involvement
of our membership in BAJC activities. Again we are moving
along well with more and more people participating in creative
ways. We also have a determined Membership Committee committed
both to generating a contagious spirit of volunteerism and
being more supportive of existing members.
A third had to do with helping those most needy in our own
community and in the world. Here I’ve been delighted
with the initiatives of our Social Action Committee which
is committed to filling the larder of the Drop in Center
on Yom Kippur, then helping lots of local and international
assistance organizations through our up-coming Hunger Banquet
(Nov. 16), and also reinforcing the tzedakah theme through
our classrooms and our homes.
A fourth had to do with interfaith initiatives. Here we
have reason to be extremely proud – with a national
award to boot. We’ll be doing more dialogue in the
months ahead with our Muslim neighbors (dialogue Nov. 13,
service Nov. 14) – a challenge to Judaism worldwide;
and we’ll be having a special Jewish Buddhist service
in the spring, this in addition to the broad array of activities
with the Interfaith Clergy group.
On our building, we heard some exciting plans and developments
at our annual meeting, and we will find ourselves spending
more and more time on our wonderful Greenleaf property.
I’m also expecting another successful year in our
religious school with our terrific teachers, Janice Colbert’s
creative directing, and our supportive Education Committee.
Of course a fundamental item on the wish list had to do
with the searching we’re doing individually and collectively
to find deeper meaning in our lives and to evolve a relationship
with the divine. I hope that in this most important of resolutions,
we can continue to challenge one another and encourage one
another, and that, in so doing, we’ll continue to raise
the ceiling of our sanctuary higher and higher.
Over the past year we have continued to find difficult and
challenging the process of debate and deliberation within
our community, on our board and on our committees. But here
too, there is reason for hope. A few weeks ago, I witnessed
something moving and beautiful. An active member of our congregation
who had all day been at the epicenter of conflict and controversy,
who might have been angry and upset, instead walked into
our Neighbors Meeting with a smile on his face and with love
in his heart – greeting each of the day’s adversaries
with hugs, and then proceeding to the business at hand of
making our neighbors feel at home in our new home. When I
see this, then I know that good things are happening here – that
the basics of care and compassion, of rachmones and of t’shuvah,
are falling into place. And as that happens, we as a community
can only thrive and prosper.
In that spirit, I’m eagerly looking forward to our
upcoming High Holidays. Choir rehearsals (Sept. 18 and 25
at 5:45) are underway. I’ve been working together with
my wonderfully talented partners, Andi Weisman and Andrea
Shader in preparing our prayers. Johnny Lee Lenhart, Moss
Linder and Dora Levinson are busily at work with the preparation
of Torah and Haftorah portions, and students have taken up
our anonymous donor on the Yom Kippur Torah challenge. In
addition to sharings from me, there will be sermons on important
topics by our new President, Rachel Prabakar and a special
guest, Van Lanckton.
Faith and I already are receiving the “Random Acts
of Kindness” from congregants being performed during
the current month of Ellul. This is a marvelous new tradition
which culminates in our reading aloud these acts anonymously
during Rosh Hashanah and sending them heavenward. Please
keep those e-mails (to jim@bajcvermont.org) or snail mails
coming – even
a single sentence – reporting random acts which you
or a family member are creating.
Finally, please keep in mind our major theme of tzedakah
during this coming year which I outlined in last month’s
newsletter. This means beginning to collect now the non-perishables
(lots please!) to bring in on Yom Kippur to assist the needy
Brattleboro Drop-in Center.
I continue to feel proud and privileged to be part this
faith community
B’Shalom,
Jim
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