Dear Friends,

This Friday night, October 28, we will be holding our Annual Pink Ribbon Shabbat. At this special service, we will honor survivors and care takers, and we take time to remember those whose lives were taken by cancer.

If you have survived cancer of any kind, we hope you will be able to join us for a special blessing.

This year, our observance will include a special presentation by CanCare. Please consider joining us for this special service of memory and honor. A Pink Ribbon Oneg will follow our worship service.

L’Shalom,
Steve

Dear Friends,

Turn it and turn it again, as everything is in it. Reflect on it and grow old and gray with it. Don’t turn from it, for nothing is better than it. (Pirkei Avot 5:22)

Simchat Torah was observed on Monday and Tuesday in most Jewish communities around the world. At HCRJ, however, we will be observing this special day honoring Torah in our lives on Friday night.

Celebrate with us as we join forces with Congregation Shma Koleinu and Kosher Klezmer for an extradordinary evening for members of all ages. During this music filled celebration of Torah, we will unroll the entire scroll for all to see; we will tour the Torah from start to finish; and we will dance with the scrolls to the joyful sound of live klezmer music.

Services begin at 6:30pm. Klezmer concert will follow!

L’Shalom,
Steve

Dear Friends,

We are currently in the intermediary days of the Festival of Sukkot. Sukkot is our fall harvest festival – a time to express gratitude for all that is ours to embrace. By shaking the lulav and the etrog, we remind ourselves that God is all around us, and by dwelling in little huts, we connect with the glorify of creation, celebrate serendipity, and focus on family, friends and fellowship.

Sukkot is a time to celebrate life, so on this glorious autumn day, take a walk, spend time outside, enjoy your family and friends, and thank God for the blessings that abound.

Chag Sukkot Sameach — Happy Sukkot,
Steve

Dear Friends,

On Monday, we marked the first day of the Jewish calendar year, and together we committed ourselves to practicing an attitude of gratitude and renew a sense of daily awe in our lives. In my sermon, I assigned some homework for these Ten Days of Awe (the days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur).

Our task is to make a daily account of something for which we are grateful. This can take the form on a journal entry, a text, a prayer, or a letter. Whatever form we may choose to use, let us formally express our gratitude at least once a day.

I pray that this exercise in expressing gratitude will serve as a powerful catalyst in enabling us to appreciate the blessings that surround us every day. In this way, we can usher in a sweet and fulfilling 5783.

Shanah Tovah,
Steve

Dear Friends,

The Hebrew translation of the phrase, “I am sorry,” is selicha.  It is a concept that weighs heavy on our minds during this season.  As we begin to prepare ourselves for the High Holy Days, it is important to take time to consider the actions and behaviors of this past year for which we are sorry.

This process will officially begin on Friday night at a special service called Selichot (which means “apologies”).  Through special songs and meditations, we will formally mark the beginning of the penitential season.

Please join us this Friday night, September 23rd as we begin our spiritual preparations for this season.

Whether it is through a special worship service or through private moments of introspection, this is the time to begin to examine our behaviors and prepare for the Days of Awe. I pray that the ensuing weeks of personal reflection will be productive and cathartic for each of us.

Shanah Tovah,
Steve

Dear Friends,

In our Torah portion this week, Ki Tavo, we have an awesome array of blessings and curses. At this season, as we begin to reflect on our behaviors over the course of the past year, it is important to keep an open mind regarding what constitutes a blessing and what manifests itself as a curse, for sometimes the distinction between the two can be blurry.

In order to maximize our blessings and minimize our curses, it is helpful to keep an open mind and train ourselves to learn and grow from our mistakes. It is important to expand our abilities to see our losses as opportunities to grow and approach every task with sincerity, empathy, and honesty.

As human beings, we are bound to fail, but our failings need not curse us. This season invites us to identify blessing that emerge from our mistakes and encourages us to seek opportunities to extend ourselves to promote goodness, kindness and truth to the world around us. In this way, any curse that may seem to befall us can become a blessing in disguise.

L’Shalom,
Steve

Dear Friends,

The final month of the Hebrew calendar year is the month of Elul.  It is a month imbued with meaning as our community embarks on a 40 day journey from the first of Elul to Yom Kippur. This 40 day process echoes other important events in our lives and our heritage which span of 40 days, 40 weeks and 40 years.

• 40 days of the flood in the story of Noah;
• 40 days of waiting for the Torah at Sinai
• 40 years of wandering in the wilderness
• 40 weeks of pregnancy
• 40 days of preparation from Elul to Yom Kippur

In each of these circumstances, the number 40 plays a major role in the human transition from chaos to renewal.  In the story of Noah, the world is born again after 40 days of flooding.  In the story of Moses and the receiving of Torah, 40 days of waiting results in the Laws that would forever shape the Jewish experience.  In the case of 40 years of wandering, our people find renewal as they enter the Promised Land.  In the case of childbirth, 40 weeks of gestation results in the promise of new hopes and dreams, as renewal is realized with every new life.

So too it is regarding this sacred 40-day journey from Elul to Yom Kippur.  These 40 days present us a spiritual period of gestation and inner wandering.  During these 40 days we are supposed to consider how we might create closure to issues which have plagued us and set out a path for reconciliation and renewal.

During this sacred month, may we all be blessed with the insight to understand the impact of our actions and the strength to right any wrongs we may have committed, so that at the end of these 40 days we may find a sense of renewal for the year ahead.

L’Shalom,
Steve

Dear Friends,

Our bible is filled with commandments regarding ways to establish justice and mercy in the world, and this week’s Torah portion presents us with one of the most powerful statements regarding this eternal obligation.  In Deuteronomy 16:20, we read,

“Justice, justice you shall pursue…”

In this short and powerful commandment, the word “justice” is repeated twice seeming to emphasize the importance of justice in our world.  These words stand to remind us that from generation to generation every individual has the responsibility to act in ways that promote justice wherever it is lacking.

HCRJ is proud to participate in ongoing efforts to address justice in food distribution in the City of Houston. Here are two important way you can fulfill this mitzvah in the coming weeks:

Competing In Goodness
We are participating in Competing In Goodness for our High Holy Days Food Drive this year. Through a friendly competition in September, during National Hunger Awareness Month, Jewish, Muslim and Christian communities will compete against one another to collect non-perishable items for the Houston Food Bank. This interfaith competition is a terrific opportunity to work together to benefit our city, develop a stronger sense of community, and motivate participants to reach across to their neighbors. Please bring your items to HCRJ during Rosh Hashanah or anytime in September.

Social Action Project at the Houston Food Bank
Our HCRJ social action team will be volunteering at the Houston Food Bank on Saturday, September 17th from 1-4pm. The volunteer responsibilities will include inspecting, sorting, and repackaging donated food items for community distribution. The Houston Food Bank is America’s largest food bank in distribution leading hunger relief in 18 southeast Texas counties.

L’Shalom,
Steve

Dear Friends,

The final month of the Jewish calendar year is Elul. Elul is considered to be a month-long journey for the soul and an emotional prelude to the Days of Awe. Elul invites us to consider pathways to a New Year that will be filled with blessings of renewal.

As congregation we have created a beautiful opportunity to welcome this special month together with a Havdalah Service and Happy Hour. With the symbols of Havdalah, we will use all of our senses to explore ways to sweeten the coming year, and the Happy Hour will help us usher in this holy season with joy and fellowship.

Please join us this Saturday night at 5:30pm for an evening that promises to brighten the spirit with spirits and bring us together in preparation for a sweet new year ahead.

L’Shalom,
Steve

Dear Friends,

On this Sabbath – in congregations all over the world – we read that – Moses addresses the community with the following words:

Circumcise the foreskin of your heart – and stiffen your necks no more. (Deut. 10:16) 

This image of a circumcised heart is echoed again by the Prophet Jeremiah, who (when addressing the corruption of his times and the absence of morality throughout the society in which he lived) uses very similar words.  Jeremiah tells the people of his day to:

Circumcise your hearts to the Lord. Cut away the thickening about your hearts …  lest [God’s] anger break forth like fire and burn, with none to quench it, because of your wicked acts. (Jeremiah 4:1-4)

In each of these passages, Moses and Jeremiah are clearly calling for the people to change their ways, but what exactly does this reference to a circumcised heart mean?

One clue might be gleaned from the idea the ancient societies understood the heart to be the organ of comprehension. Therefore, an uncircumcised heart might better be translated as a “closed mind” or “close-mindedness.”

In light of this understanding, the call of our prophets to “circumcise the foreskin of our hearts” is as important to us today as it was in the past.  As we strive to heed this ancient call, we need to make a concerted effort to strip ourselves of conceit by listening more and judging less.

L’Shalom,
Steve