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July ~ August 2006

I hope that all of us will be able to catch a brief respite before the exciting and important events of late summer and early fall are upon us—these beginning with our Dedication Weekend August 25-27. Dedication Committee Chair Linda and her multiple sub-committees are putting together some memorable events. I'm particularly looking forward to our Dedication Service on Saturday the 26th and then the festivities on the 27th. Among the speakers during the weekend, we will have the opportunity to hear Rabbi Robert Levine, one of America’s truly great rabbis (and, happily, Marcia and Joe’s brother-in-law.)

Significantly, the Hebrew month of Elul begins that very weekend. What better way to begin this month of preparation than celebrating our new home? We certainly don’t need to hold off on our “random acts of kindness” until Elul, but let's begin recording them at that time, as is our tradition, so we can send them heavenward on Rosh Hashanah.

Jim Levinson, Sh'liach Tzibur, and immediate past president of BAJC, Rachel Prabhakar
 

The High Holiday season itself will be a particularly rich one this year. We may, for the first time in many years join together for the penitential prayers of Selichot on the Saturday evening prior to Rosh Hashanah. Pencil that in for Saturday Sept 16 and stay tuned. If this happens, it will inaugurate what we hope will be a series of annual joint events with the Ahavas Achim congregation in Keene.

And during the upcoming High Holidays we'll have another first. Are you ready for this?... A High Holiday sermon written by the congregation! You’ll remember my inviting you last winter to share with me your reflections on Jewish worship—what it means to us, what happens to us, and how it fits into our lives. The responses to that request have been both moving and remarkably varied. I'm pulling them together into a Rosh Hashanah talk in which my role will simply be that of editor and commentator. There's still time to have your ideas and experiences recorded if you haven't yet done so.

I've said on numerous occasions that this year—with our move to Greenleaf and the associated blossoming of new initiatives—has surely been the richest in our double chai year history. I look forward to another banner year in 5767, another in which our congregation will serve all of us as a Beit T'filah, a House of Prayer; as a Beit Midrash, a House of Learning; as a Beit Tzedek, a House of Justice; and as a Beit K'nesset, a community in which we care deeply about one another.

B’Shalom,

Jim