Synagogue Updates

"Do not take this for granted."

These words were a part of Ranita's speech yesterday to her daughter Sophie at Sophie's Bat Mitzvah. 

These words have stayed with me for the past day, urging me to focus on appreciation - not just appreciation for our ability to come together at TBH-BE, but also in other areas of our life. One of the opportunities of the last year has been to focus on what is truly important, family, community, relationships. I found this video shared last week by one of our congregants particularly poignant. 

One of the things that  I always try to focus on is hakaret hatov - recognizing the good and saying thank you. Our spring event this year is focusing heavily on this - it is all about relationships and saying thank you to our Covid heros. But to be honest, I think I prefer the term Covid helpers more. (In part, I think this is because I love this quote from Mr. Rodgers “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.'"). In our community, there are so many that have been helpers this past year - our facilities and office staff, our clergy and lay leaders, our teachers,  the choir that came together virtually for the high holidays, our program leaders, our volunteers that start minyan each and every day, those that have been in reopening task forces, our challah bakers, phone callers, our doctors who continuously advise us and so many more. 

I want to ask for your help in saying thank you to all of the people that have been helping us through supporting our spring event. In addition to helping support the synagogue, we think it is really important for all of us to show our gratitude and appreciation to the helpers. You can do this by creating a recognition ad or supporting at a sponsorship level (really - Recognition Ad is just a fancy way of us asking you to write a thank you - you can just send us what you want to say and we will create the ad for you).   I am pleased to share that the afternoon movie will be the Princess Bride and the evening movie will be Crossing Delancey. Before each showing, we will have the Thank Yous playing on the big screen and online for anyone that wishes to watch at home. You can sign up to attend, get a Recognition Ad or become a sponsor here. 

Speaking of saying thank you - I would be remiss if I didn't mention these three things: 

1. Thank you to everyone that participated and helped with our Lag B'Omer program on Friday afternoon and into Shabbat. It was beautiful to see so much joy present on the property. 
2. Thank you to our softball teams - it is great to be back on the field and to see our local synagogues reforming our bonds of friendship. That being said -  someone please remind me to stretch before the next game. 
3. Thank you to all of our congregants and families that have been with us for 50 or more years. We look forward to recognizing you and celebrating with you next Friday night. (And to be crystal clear, 50 is not a magic number, only hear 46 years? That is a really long time too and we are really grateful. Come on out as well!)

We have a special community. It is far from perfect, but one of the things that I love is that we are always striving to do better and be better. Thank you for being a part of our community. 

If we can be of help or support to you - as always, please do not hesitate to reach out. 

Ken
513 503 9559