Rabbi's Message

Wow!  My family and I are still feeling the love from an incredible weekend celebrating our son's Bar Mitzvah.  We are so proud of the wonderful job he did, and so grateful to our family, friends, and community for adding to our joy by being with us for Shabbat.  Our experience this past weekend has made the first verse of our Torah reading for this Shabbat, Nitzavim, even more powerful.  It begins Atem Nitzavim HaYom Kulkhem – “You stand this day, all of you…”  Our humash commentary notes that the word kulkhem, “all of you,” emphasizes the idea that a community is greater than the sum of its parts.  When we all join together, the strengths and good qualities of each of us are reinforced and magnified.  I certainly felt this this past Shabbat, as our communities of TBS and KBA came together to celebrate.  And now, beginning this weekend, and into Rosh Hashanah next weekend, I look forward to continuing to live this lesson.  This last Shabbat of the Jewish year will be a wonderful celebration of our community.  I hope you can join us on Friday night for our ShaBBQ, where we can reunite with friends and make new ones.  Make sure to take a look at the schedule for our family service, congregational service, and rolling Shabbat dinner for the evening elsewhere in the email.  We will continue our celebration of Shabbat the next morning, and then, on Saturday evening, we will join with our friends from Congregational Beth El for a moving and inspirational program and Selihot service.  Rabbi Wexler and Rabbi Englander will reflect on “The Tribe: Barbie’s Take on Being Jewish in the 21st Century,” and then our incredible cantors and choirs of TBS and Beth El will carry us through a service whose words and melodies will get us ready for Rosh Hashanah.  And if that isn’t enough, on Sunday we will welcome back our students to our Rabbi Albert and Sarah Lewis Religious School and HaMakom High School.  It’s going to be quite a weekend!  The energy of having kulkhem, all of you back as a TBS mishpaha (family), is unmatched.  We have missed many of you over the summer, and now we are excited to once again experience the joy of singing, celebrating, schmoozing and reconnecting with one another.  When we are all together, the opening verse of our Torah portion this week comes alive.  Our community is certainly greater than the sum of its parts.  I look forward to experiencing this with you, as we gather together over the next few days and over the course of what we pray will be a good, sweet, healthy and joyous new year.