Yom Kippur 5785

by | Oct 12, 2024 | Sermon, TBI News, Worship

We poured out our hearts and asked for forgiveness.  We spoke about the ways in which we can work to make our world a better place. We brought bags of personal care items to donate to the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry.  By the end of the day on Yom Kippur, we felt cleansed, we felt accomplished, and we felt grateful.

Rabbi Jan Katz kept the congregation spellbound on Kol Nidre with a sermon that came from her heart, "A Letter to My Beloved Israel:"

Dearest Israel, Ani mitga-at lach – I yearn for you, old friend.  I fell in love with you on my first trip in 1968 as a college junior from Brandeis fulfilling a dream to spend a year abroad.  And I have fallen in love with you over and over again each time I visited and lived there.  READ MORE

 

 

Barbara Katz, board member of TBI, addressed the congregation about a discovery of important documents, found "hiding in plain sight."  Read Barbara's address Here.

 

 

Rosh Hashana 5785

by | Oct 6, 2024 | Service Awards, TBI News, Worship


We prayed, we kvelled, we schmoozed and Zoomed, and then we ate. Rabbi Jan Katz led an inspirational service enhanced by the beautiful cantorial melodies sung by Melody Funk accompanied by Joel Funk. Our own talented TBI member, John McArthur, sang and strummed many of the traditional prayers to round out the service. The morning was filled with joy and reflection and culminated in the presentation of the annual TBI Mitzvah award to Karen Lukeman, a dedicated member of the Board of Directors, Membership Chair, and a valued member of the Interim Steering Committee. Karen has worked tirelessly, whether at home in Bristol, traveling around the world, or wintering in Mexico, to increase the membership of TBI as well as attending to a wealth of responsibilities that keep our "little temple that could" moving forward. Karen also had the honor to address the congregation with a review of the past year before turning the microphone over to Stu Needleman to make announcements and the presentation of the Mitzvah award to Karen, which took her by complete surprise. Yasher Koach to Karen, may you continue to go from strength to strength, whether in pursuit of your dreams or your commitments to TBI. Todah Rabah!

Read Karen Lukeman's "Year in Review" Rosh Hashana Address to the Congregation

A Shabbat Gathering for Israel

by | Oct 22, 2023 | Worship

Together, we dedicate our gathering in memory of the lives lost and with prayers for the safe return of those held captive,  and for everyone affected by the ongoing violence in Israel.

On erev Shabbat, Friday evening, October 20, twenty-three Temple B'nai Israel households joined together on Zoom to offer prayers, songs, and personal stories as a way of offering each support as we navigate the present crisis in Israel and its impact on Jews worldwide.  Congregants shared personal connections to Israeli Jews, their own experiences of exclusion and antisemitism, and also the uplifting incidents of kindness and volunteerism by Israelis themselves who have united together to tend to the 100,000 of their own who have been displaced and are now refugees in their own land.  It was a time of TBIers coming together in solidarity and comfort for each other.  A moving poem written and read by TBI congregant Amy Mitz expresses her deeply personal perspective on the crisis.

From the Book of Palms by Amy Mitz

Since the massacre and kidnapping of my people
In our own ancient land
There has been no time for a Jew anywhere to breathe,
No time for this Jew to inhale
Except to sniff the red blood scent
Of hate and war from afar.
These are times beyond no rhyme or reason.

I am remote, but still hostage
To bombardments of news of looming scale
And assaults of fragmented thoughts of human failure,
Enslaved-- to a season of growing despair
Among those--who push back terrorism
For a small place to walk on land and breathe bombless air.
Lashing out--at my own perverse empathy of helplessness.
There is no easy buffer.

I want a magic wand to wave away the lunacy
Of slogans and jargon and measuring fault,
Wave in deep pause that halts the pace
And makes space for the value of all human life
And oh how I want to be there with those who suffer.

But I am here.
Here I sit.
My gaze shifts to my window opposite.
The late fall sepals of hydrangea
Have turned a spring pink.
They reach out to me.
Tiny blooms of babies' palms

All newborns have palms of pink.
The suckled, the sweet, the starving, the screaming,
The red-bloodied tiny bodies of bombed babies,
Palms that lift like butterflies and Angel wings.
In the first bold breeze of cooler days,
Pink sepals sing tenderly
Porous messages of peace.

"The gathering on Zoom was as comforting for others as it was for me.  Folks were generous, authentic, and sincere," said Rabbi Jan Katz, "it was a time to share, to be together, to grieve, and to hope." 

May we and the inhabitants of the State of Israel live to see the day when mourning will again turn into dancing, sackcloth into robes of joy.

Kein yihiye ratzon – May it come to pass!