A Message from Rabbi Maurice

(August/September 2008)

In less than two months we’ll gather together, God willing, to celebrate our first Rosh Hashanah in our new home. As this issue goes to press, those of us on staff are still organizing our offices and exploring the possibilities of how we will use our new space. Rabbi Yitzhak and some volunteers are risking back injury moving the benches in the sanctuary around, positioning them in different angles and playing with the seating possibilities. Debra Weinman, social worker for Jewish Family Services of our local Jewish Federation, has set up her desk in the Federation’s office within our administrative wing. Yedida Bessemer, our Talmud Torah Principal, and several of our religious school teachers have unpacked dozens of boxes of school supplies in the upstairs religious school wing. Carole Diller and the Preschool teachers are in the middle of their summer session.

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A New Chapter Begins

The Kinberg Memorial Chapel and Library are starting to take shape. Our building maintenance team, Wade and Roger, have been learning the ins and outs of how to keep this facility at its best. And so many volunteers continue their hard work putting finishing touches in place, following through on loose ends, and working to bring in the last of the money needed to make the building entirely ours.

Even amidst our continued process of learning how to work with the new space, we’ve held several successful events since we moved. Several families have celebrated b’nai mitzvahs in our light-filled, beautifully serene sanctuary, and we’ve danced and noshed in the spacious social hall. We also staged the first of what we hope will be many cultural arts events – a one-woman play by the Israeli artist, Genine BarEl.

Do we miss Portland Street? How not? The intimacy and authenticity of our former home are treasures that have helped shape the caring, sincere and playful character of our community. It’s a time of excitement, birthing, and loss too. This is how we grow.

On September 29th, we’ll gather in the evening to welcome the Jewish year 5769. In his recent book, Spiritual Community, Rabbi David Teutsch, one of my mentors in rabbinical school, defines the concept of a “radiant center” as “a person or an activity that beams sufficient light and warmth to attract others to it.” We are blessed at TBI to have multiple radiant centers that draw us in and connect us – to one another and to something greater than ourselves. We’ve carried that thriving energy with us to 29th and University. Our new home is a vessel for that energy – an energy that seeks to pray, learn, make friends, sing, dance, cook, meditate, share losses, celebrate joys, cultivate hope, and seek higher meaning. As the new year comes, may we greet it with curiosity and excitement for our untapped potential. L’shana tova.

Rabbi Maurice