Summer is here in all its scorching Houston glory. For many, summer months demand finding ways to occupy children in creative ways. For others, the long hours of summer daylight provide extra time for projects and chores. For everyone who lives in Houston, summer is a span of time during which we are constantly seeking refuge from the relentless heat and humidity. Whatever we may be doing over the course of the next few months, one thing can be said for certain – it’s hot, muggy and buggy!

At HCRJ, summertime is a period that invites opportunities to regroup, reorganize and rejuvenate. In the office, June and July are when the vast majority of congregational program planning takes place. We begin organizing ourselves for the upcoming Holy Days, which always sneak up on us (by the way, honey will be available for order in the near future.) We begin preparing for the new religious school year (by the way, have you registered your children yet?.) And we take full advantage of the slower pacing that is associated with the “dog days of summer.”

The rhythms of our worship services in June and July reflect this kind of shift as well. In a spiritual sense, we use these slower paced months to experiment with alternative ways to engage as a worship community. In the past, we have spent time learning new melodies and have experimented with different kinds of sermon styles. This year, we will use our summer services to explore the issue of time.

Two years ago we took a survey regarding the timing of our worship services. The results of this survey suggested that a significant percent of our congregation would prefer services at an earlier time. Currently, we have the latest services in town.

This summer we will be holding all summer services at 6:30 to see how an earlier service (especially during our slow season) might positively or negatively impact Shabbat worship from week to week. We encourage all of our families with toddlers to attend our family Shabbat on the first Friday of each month as there will be no Tot Shabbat. Please make a concerted effort to come to a summer service, and let us know your thoughts.

Indeed, summer is a time for spiritual renewal in so many ways. The months pass quickly and the rigors of school and work kick into high gear again in no time at all. As you consider your summer plans, I hope that HCRJ will remain an ideal haven for you as you seek a sense of relief from the heat and humidity.

If you were to evaluate your life today and carefully examine the various twists and turns that have come to define you, what is the story you would tell others? Now, consider the story others might tell about you.  Based on these two narratives, what might you define as your lasting legacy as an individual?

There comes a point in our lives when most of us begin to think about what value we have added to the world. With any luck, as we journey from childhood to maturity, we find ways to touch the lives of others and make a difference in the world. These enduring gifts remain long after we have departed this earth and hopefully define how we are remembered for generations to come.

Congregations, like individuals, are concerned with the preservation and perpetuation of enduring values. Like individual legacies, a congregational legacy longs for ways to make a difference in the world.

At Houston Congregation for Reform Judaism, we have reached a moment in our history as a congregation which calls upon us to preserve and strengthen what past generations have built for us. Like those who stood here before us, it is now our turn to consider ways to ensure that our children and grandchildren will have the same firm commitment to Judaism and its ethical values as our ancestors did before us.

For nearly sixty years we have taken great pride in the fact that central to our mission is an effort to embrace all who enter our doors. For nearly half a century, we were the only congregation in the City of Houston with a rabbi who officiated at interfaith weddings, and throughout our existence as a community we have sought ways to engage all in experiences which strive to be intimate, inviting and inspirational.

We are a congregation that is committed to nurturing relationships rooted in shared experiences, and we are dedicated to the ongoing cultivation of new and dynamic ways of engagement through worship, study, social programming and acts of loving kindness. From infants to seniors, we seek to engage individuals with opportunities to explore the values and customs of our heritage and faith while building life-long relationships with each other, the synagogue and God. Like a family, we seek to support each other in times of need and celebrate our blessings in times of joy.

At Houston Congregation for Reform Judaism, we understand congregational life to be central in nurturing this human capacity to have a positive impact on each other and the world. This is our legacy. It is rooted in the past, anchored in our membership today and is something worth preserving for the future.

L’Dor VaDor is the Hebrew phrase which alludes to the legacies we leave. It means “From Generation to Generation.” In the coming months we will be launching a major legacy gift giving program called the L’Dor VaDor Legacy League. This effort is committed to assuring our vitality and vibrancy, our traditions and our innovations, our roots and our blossoms for many year ahead.

Keep your eyes open for more information about the L’Dor VaDor Legacy League and learn about ways to bequest gifts to ensure that Houston Congregation for Reform Judaism will continue in its mission for many generations to come.

This month we begin with a riddle: Name the only two products that are kosher to eat which come from something that is not kosher to eat.

The first answer to this riddle is the topic of this bulletin article: honey. Honey is kosher to eat, but bees are not. The answer to the second item can be found on the bottom of page 5.

As humans have an insatiable desire for sweetness, it is not surprising that references to honey and our boundless associations with it are found throughout the Bible. In Proverbs, honey is associated with wisdom and healing (Prov. 24:13 & 16:24). In the Psalms, it is highly prized like fine gold (Ps. 19:10). The sweetness of honey takes on an erotic nature in Song of Songs, and throughout the Torah, the Land of Israel is referred to as a land “flowing with milk and honey.”

Honey also serves to symbolically mark transitions in our lives and rhythms of the Jewish year. Our sages encourage us to sweeten the lessons of Torah by placing drops of honey on the Hebrew letters to enhance the pleasure for children as they learn to read. We use honey on Rosh Hashanah to usher in a sweet new year, and many of us use honey during Passover to sweeten our charoset.

Indeed, honey has long been associated with sweetness, joy, beauty and renewal, and as we usher in the springtime with the celebration of Passover, we do so with a very special announcement regarding a new sweet adventure within our congregation.

Under the guidance of Dr. Adam Weinstein, Houston Congregation for Reform Judaism now has its very own bee hive (Don’t worry; it’s not planned to house the hive at HCRJ at this point in time). This special hive is currently in its infant stages, and as it grows in strength and number, we will have a unique opportunity to witness the productions of one of God’s sweetest gifts to the world.

Over the coming months we will be posting photos and videos of our bees as they build their colony; we will provide opportunities for learning about the value and importance of bees to the global ecosystem; and of course, when the time comes, we will harvest the HCRJ honey and prepare to sell it as a special novelty honey in addition to our annual honey sales for Rosh Hashanah.

It is our hope that this new honey project will enable us to explore the magical world of honey and engage our congregation with boundless opportunities to learn about bees, honey and the holy associations we have with this ancient sweet nectar.