Synagogue Updates

Thank you for all of the feedback on last week's email focusing on dealing with uncertainty.  I am happy that you found the video of the pediatrician as meaningful as I did.  Since people seemed to like the themed message, this week, I want to focus on one of my favorite topics - gratitude. I have found that focusing on some of the strange positives of the past months as being very helpful for my mindset. I have found that trying to change how I view a particular incident, helps my mood.  For instance, this summer, unfortunately my daughters have needed to stay home from camp, however, I have gotten to have a number of movie nights with them and I get to celebrate my birthday with them for the first time in years. 

I was once taught that be a Jew means to be thankful. The word Jew comes from the tribe of Judah, a derivation of the word Yehudah and related to the Hebrew word for Thanksgiving. One of my favorite stories is called A Curse of Blessings. It is a very Jewish story - our tradition says that we should say 100 blessings every day. My challenge to each of you is to find one thing today that makes you say wow or be thankful. Find something beautiful or interesting. Please share with me what you choose. I will share the most interesting ones next week.  

In the spirit of gratitude, I want to sincerely thank the members of this community. Every time we have asked something of you during this pandemic, you have stepped up. You have called other congregants to check on them, shopped for each other, supported one another in times of loss, baked challah for others. I have said repeatedly over the past few months, this is the perfect time for a synagogue to demonstrate the value of being a part of a community. If you know of anyone that is looking for a community that committed to volunteering and taking care of one another, to learning and praying with one another, please send them my way. 

At the bottom of this email are a few photos from our challah baking crews. Please sign up here to participate. We delivered 14 challot this past week. please sign up to bake and/or receive (you can do both) and help us get to delivering 20 challot this week. 

Thank you to those that have sent in programming suggestions to us. One of my favorites includes scheduling time for families to utilize our playground. We will be setting that up. Please keep the ideas coming to us. 

LOOKING FOR SHOFAR BLOWERS!!! Forgive me for "shouting" but we have some great initiatives coming up and we need shofar blowers. I don't want to spoil them here, but if you can blow the shofar (or would like to learn - we will have a class), please let me know. 
 
Based on your requests, we will be providing an outdoor Kabbalat Shabbat service on Friday, August 14th. The Havurah will also be hosting an outdoor Shabbat morning service later on this month. Space will be limited, masks will be worn and RSVPs will be required for both. As more people are requesting these opportunities, we will continue to add them. 

Wishing you a relaxing week. I will be away from the office this week, but am still available. As always, if there is anything that we can do to be helpful to you, please do not hesitate to ask.

Ken