From the Rabbi's Desk
| April 2025
Friends, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote, “Nowadays when I think about the destiny of America I am very sad. Having lived in Poland and later in Germany, I know what America really means. For generations America was the great promise, the great joy, the last hope of humanity. Ten years ago if I had said to students that America is a great blessing and an example to the world, they would have laughed at me. Why speak such banalities? Today one of the saddest experiences of my life is to observe what is happening to America morally. The world once had a great hope, a great model: America. What is going to happen to America?” Rabbi Heschel wrote this essay in 1971. The article was entitled, In Search of Exaltation. You can find it in a compilation of his writings edited by his daughter, Dr. Sussanah Heschel, Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity. The particular curse Rabbi Heschel addresses in the short article is drug addiction. He posited that many young people who fell victim to addiction were misguidedly seeking exaltation. They looked around the world and saw all of its evils and hypocrisies. Their seeking high moments were a misguided and tragic response to a yearning for the noble and spiritual. He said, “I interpret the young people’s escape to drugs as coming from their desire to experience moments of exaltation.” He came to this idea through his experience of exaltation as a young person growing up in a Chassidic family in Poland. “In my youth…there was one thing we did not have to look for and that was exaltation. Every moment is great, we were taught, every moment is unique. Every moment can do such great things.” He looked at the world in 1971 and saw exaltation missing. Rabbi Heschel was a brilliant Jewish thinker. I doubt he thought that lack of a source or setting for exaltation was the only cause of drug addiction. Based on his other writings, I am also sure that it was not the only curse he saw plaguing America. I do think he would be surprised at the place where we have arrived in 2025, a country where people feel more lonely and isolated, where the center of every issue has been purposely eroded, leaving a polarized society, where antisemitism is rising at an alarming rate, and where norms of civility and decency are disregarded and not even the weather is a safe topic for discussion. What has happened to America? Heschel posited that our challenge lay in examining the curse to find the blessing. He saw the void in which drug addiction grows as the empty hole left behind by the abandonment of exaltation. For him, the model of exaltation was the Jewish home, synagogue, and community, which centered on the possibility of exaltation at every moment. Living exaltation is not a relic of the past – we do not have to make the Shtetl great again. We do have to be willing to lean into the world with a sense of awe. Regardless of how my body feels, it is a miracle that I opened my eyes this morning. Irrespective of the weather, every day is a beautiful and glorious day. Every morsel of food I put in my mouth says the world can sustain me. My everyday interactions in the community show that we can work together to do good things. Challenges, pain, hate, and enemies abound, but so do blessings, love, friends, and family. With this sense of exaltation and awe, the latter can overcome the former. With the state of our country and the world, having this mindset is extremely hard, but we can make it easier. Show up in the places where exaltation and awe are front and center. Show up on Friday nights, Sunday mornings, and programs and classes. At Kabbalat Shabbat, we sing joyfully and greet each other with love. Our liturgy is filled with the wisdom of our people. Friendships take root and grow in person. Are you lonely or lamenting the brotherhood doesn’t hang out on Sunday mornings? Then come hang out with us on Sunday morning. The kids are fun and joyful, and the teachers are engaging and loving. Say hello to someone you don’t know. I’ve met most of you – you are all nice people! Join the sisterhood and come to their programs. Come to our adult education classes. God dwells in the space between us. Showing up can be the first step in regaining your sense of exaltation. Then, if we can carry it with us back home and out into the world, we will be surprised at what we can accomplish together. L’shalom, |
Cantorial Notes
| April 2025
Chag Pesach Sameach! This month we will celebrate the holiday of Passover, as we gather on April 12, with family and friends to retell the story of the exodus from Egypt, from slavery to freedom. I have been attending our Temple Emanu-El seder for about 28 years. Since our family was in Florida, this congregation soon became our second family. Lots of great memories come with this holiday. My family would sit with Terri, Marc, and Zac Goldsmith. The kids would see who could hang a spoon on their nose the longest. I think even the adults tried. Lots of laughs at that table. I also loved listening to them sing the 4 questions and Go Down Moses. Passover, along with Shavuot and Sukkot, are part of the Shalosh Regalim, the three Pilgrimage holidays. Three times during the year, on these major holy days, Jews are commanded to make a Pilgrimage to Jerusalem with an agricultural offering. On the second night of Pesach, we will begin the counting of the omer, sheaves of grain, for 49 days, which will bring us to the holiday of Shavuot, the giving of the 10 Commandments. Since Pesach is one of the major holy days, we will have a Festival Morning Service that includes Yizkor, our memorial service, remembering those who have passed. During Passover, my family and I will mark the one-year anniversary of my father’s passing on April 15. I will be leaving this heart heavy year and moving toward celebrating the beginning of spring and the many beautiful memories of spending time with my dad, which open like the blooming of the spring flowers, each one beautiful and unique. Many thanks to all of you who helped me and my family through a tough time. Your love, caring, and generosity are still very much appreciated. Todah Rabah. Wishing everyone a zissen Pesach, a sweet Passover. May you find meaning in this celebration of freedom, justice, and love. Hope to see many of you at our Temple Emanu-El Seder on Saturday evening, April 12. B’shir,
Thank you to our wonderful choir and Michael McCarthy, for singing at Shabbat Services the day after our Purim celebration. You sounded beautiful. Thank you to Michelle Pievsky for chanting Torah in March.
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Presidential Message
| April 2025
The Temple Emanu-El Auction, which was started by our hard-working First Vice President John Murphy and which became our largest fundraiser for many years, ran its course. We changed that format to a fancier gala-type Starry Night Dinner Dance but that quickly lost its momentum after three years. This month, the most important message I must convey to you is on behalf John, who has convened a new Terri Goldsmith Golf Tournament Committee made up of congregants who either love to play golf or loved and miss Terri Goldsmith who left a legacy of engaging and memorable Jewish education lessons for our youth and generously shared her time, effort, and enthusiastic spirit to us. The committee has been planning what will hopefully become a successful annual event for our Temple. We are trying something new with this golf tournament. We are partnering with a worthy cause, Yale New Haven Health Smilow Cancer Hospital in Terri’s honor. We hope to inspire people we know outside our Temple to participate as golf tournament sponsors, players, diners, or raffle item donors. Please pass along the website link to folks you know to help spread the word: www.terrigoldsmith-golf.com And John is requesting all our hands on deck. It requires a team effort. If you are available to help as an event volunteer on Monday, May 5th, please let John know. I remember someone once asking me, “Why are we always fundraising?” The answer is 1) Fundraising is how we try to balance the budget, to close the gap that is left by insufficient income from pledges; 2) We have fun as a Temple family while pitching in to keep us whole; and 3) Why not? We always want to find more ways to gather. We will also be bringing back the Progressive Dinner in June, a way for people to gather in intimate groups in each other’s home, with three venues to visit for appetizers, main entrée, and then culminate in a larger dessert gathering. If you are interested in being an appetizers or main entrée host, please let me know. Thanks again to Sam Winograd, our Religious Practices VP, who has been our Temple’s resident playwright of the Purim Schpiel. The Community Purim event on March 13 was a huge success no doubt due to the fun play he wrote, directed and produced. And thanks to his fantastic cast and crew! He always finds an entertaining way to tie in the show with current events. And thanks again to Barbara Senges for donating all the Kosher hamantaschen. What a fun evening! Thanks also to Janine Sitko and Barbara Wolfe for chairing the Mishloach Manot Purim Bag program one last time this year, and to Byrne Blumer and Emma Zelken, who shadowed them so they can run this important fundraiser next year. You are all sweet gifts to our community! Chag Pesach Sameach and see you at the golf driving range,
Board Meeting Highlights
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