A Message from Rabbi Yitzhak (February 2008)

Track Town USA! What a place to live. Imagine all of the fine athletes from around this country training, straining, and pushing themselves toward personal bests, in anticipation of crossing the finish line or performing feats of athletic brilliance at the Olympic Trials this summer in Eugene.

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Sprint to the Finish

Among the athletes are those training for relay races in which every member absolutely depends on the efforts of the others. The baton will pass from outstretched arm to outstretched arm, each giving their all for the success of the team.

The athletes’ interdependence is a good metaphor for life in our TBI community as we push ourselves to cross the finish line of a decade-long relay to create our new Temple Beth Israel as a center for Jewish life. Just as athletes enjoy the harvest of their efforts after a race well run, we too look forward to the quickly approaching time when we celebrate the fulfillment of our shared effort to establish our new home.

Just as a runner anticipates the race by visualizing crossing that finish line, let’s take a moment to envision the day of dedication that we anticipate. Imagine the sense of appreciation and love we will feel as we bring forth the Torah from the entranceway on Portland Street. We will acknowledge the countless people who have come through those doors for five decades with hopes for fulfillment, Jewish identity, community, a place to learn their history, a place to share in song, prayer and friendship. I simply don’t know how to convey with words the fullness of purpose TBI on Portland Street has served.

We will walk through the streets of Eugene carrying our sacred scrolls, passing them from arm to arm in joyful anticipation of placing them in the awaiting holy ark of our beautiful, spacious sanctuary at 29th and University.

At the doorway of this new house of G-d, we will pause to affix a mezuzah. With this ritual gesture we acknowledge our ancestors, who through the ages have inscribed the words of the Sh’ma – the essential teaching at the heart of Judaism that calls us to remember the Unity of all of life, the vital and sacred bond we share – on their doorways. This ceremony will affirm our heartfelt bond with others who share the belief in a sacred Unity of all that lives. The vitality of that bond will particularly be felt with the Ethiopian Jewish women of the Adisia collective who, through the World Diaspora Mezuzot project, created splendidly beautiful mezuzot specifically for the doorways of our new TBI building. Adisia was established a decade ago to support Ethiopian Jewish women in Israel by providing a setting in which they can create and market traditional Ethiopian Jewish embroidered handicrafts. (Learn more about the World Diaspora Project at http://adisia.wordpress.com.) As we place the mezuzah we will connect with future generations of Jews and remember our commitment to educate our children in the pathways of Torah, Jewish culture, history, Hebrew, and their rich spiritual inheritance.

I want to acknowledge the inspired sense of tzedakah and generosity that led Sharon Ungerleider to conceive and commission this mezuzah project. The women of Adisia looked to Israel for safe haven from their suffering in Ethiopia. Slowly, they and their uprooted families are finding their way in Israel. It will always add great meaning to our lives as Jews in America to remember our bond with the essential historical purpose of Israel as a safe haven and home. May Israel and her neighbors soon know peace.

Like Sharon, so many of us over these years have brought inspiration and boundless effort to our collective vision of a new home for TBI. We are now truly in the home stretch. I remember a time some eight years ago when in a meeting the idea was raised to call the final stage of our capital campaign “A Sprint to the Finish.” Those many years ago we were not ready for the sprint and there were no concurrent Olympic trials scheduled in Eugene. Now is the time. Now is the time for us to take a good deep breath and join together in a burst of energy that will carry us forward to our goal. I urge you to bring your focus to this special time in the history of our community. I urge you to bring generously whatever resources you can offer to the success of this long yearned for achievement. G-d willing in only a very few months we will sing and celebrate the wonderful new beginning that we have worked so hard to achieve.

Shalom,

Rabbi Yitzhak