Rabbi's Message

Rabbi Elyse Wechterman
Read about the Rabbi
May 2004

This month we celebrate the holiday of Shavuot. Shavuot - one of the three major pilgrimage holidays of ancient Israel - is often overlooked and undervalued in importance in the Jewish calendar. In Rabbinical School we joked that Shavuot was often after the end of Hebrew School - that meant that we never learned about it as children and therefore it must not really exist.

That's a pretty sorry state of affairs for the holiday that marks the single most significant and unifying moment of Jewish collective memory - the giving of Torah on Mount Sinai to the entire Jewish people. As midrash (rabbinic legend) tells us - every Jewish soul, past and present who ever lived or will live, stood at Sinai with our ancestors and received the Torah from God.

That means that you, I and every one of us here at Agudas Ahim was there at that moment - and every one of us has the potential for a unique and deeply connected relationship to Torah.

I recently had the honor of studying with Rabbi Art Green of Brandeis University and Hebrew College on early Hasidic approaches to Torah and Torah study. Rabbi Green shared some texts that point ways in which every Jew can develop a relationship with Torah - with the ongoing wisdom and learning of the Jewish people. I plan to share these texts in our community on Tuesday, May 25 at our Shavuot potluck dinner and study session. Please come, bring a dairy dish to share and plan to delve into some exciting text study with other members of this community.

I want to take some space here to thank everyone who worked so hard to make our JRF Shabbaton such a success - all those who attended, cooked, hosted and worked to welcome ourselves and our guests into a truly joyous Shabbat space. For those of you who were moved by the spiritually rich services, by the passionate study and joyful singing, I know you are wondering how to recreate such moments here at Agudas Achim. It can be done - we can do it. Come to services, sing along, offer to lead something if you would like, clap your hands and feet. Share your experience of the Shabbaton with someone else. The energy created last weekend is still here among us - it only needs us to bring it out.

B'Shalom
Rabbi Elyse

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