Membership and Bulletin Information

Links (Courtesy of Mendocino Coast Jewish Community)

Rabbi’s Message, from 8/2006 bulletin:

     With the middle of summer upon us, school out for our kids, and no Shabbat School, it seemed like a good time to think about the importance of Jewish home observance.

     We are very committed Jews – members of the Reform movement, people who reflect deeply on Jewish values, and how to make those values meaningful in our lives – but we seldom discuss the creation of lively everyday Judaism for ourselves. We speak about loving-kindness, learning, participation in community and family events, righteousness, social action, and supporting Israel, and yet the way to manifest these most tangibly is through the establishment and maintenance of regular Jewish thinking in our homes. How can we do this in a way that upholds our values of questioning and seeking, of learned and honest inquiry, which also connects us with the millennia of traditions that support who we are? We can start with some ideas and questions from the traditions, and learn about them by doing experimenting with them.

     One of the most important Jewish teachings on life is Shabbat. In Judaism, we tie the importance of Shabbat to the basic rights and responsibilities of freedom – our liberation from slavery asks us to live responsibly – to make something out of our freedom. Trading our freedom from slavery for a new servitude to work and the material world seems a problem, and so we get Shabbat. Shabbat provides us an opportunity to sit back, reflect, and do differently one day a week, not to mention, the luxury of not working.

     So let us try to make one day different – appoint a regular time for a family meal, and a family activity unrelated to achievement or advancement for anyone – and see how this may bring greater enjoyment to the rest of our weeks as well. Our Shabbat doesn’t have to look like a conservative or orthodox Jewish Shabbat for us to get something special and meaningful out of our traditions.

     The same goes for Havdalah – the little ceremony ending Shabbat – four blessings, some wine or grape juice, a braided candle, some spices. There is no easier ritual to move from whatever we do on our special day to the normal existence of the rest of the week. We begin Shabbat lighting candles, and end it with a candle, to show that something different has just taken place between those candles.

     Jewish holidays, with few exceptions, focus on the creation of a celebration in the home. Passover (and its secular autumn counterpart in the US, Thanksgiving) means getting everyone together for a family dinner around the seder. Rosh Ha-Shanah, and right before and after Yom Kippur, also indicate getting together to eat and share companionship. Sukkot means a celebration under the stars, and Purim is a time to send tasty gifts to one’s friends and family. The Jewish calendar helps us coordinate many seasonal family gatherings – a Jewish home brings us all together regularly.

     In a Jewish home, when we get together, we also try to think about what we eat. We don’t have to keep strictly kosher to learn from the values of our ancestors about food. Where does our food come from? What goes into making it? What has been added to it? What do we teach each other by what we choose to eat and prepare for each other? These questions, and others, seem to me the basis for not just the ideas of keeping kosher, but also the ideas for a healthier relationship with our sustenance.

     Finding ways to bring Shabbat, Jewish holidays, and kosher eating into our homes reinforces all of those other values that we emphasize, because they are the physical practices that reflect those values – may we all find creative ways to live and learn our values every day.