Temple Emanuel is turning 60!

“It was 1962 and the world was changing! A forward-thinking group of families with a keen sense of their Jewishness and a pioneer spirit had the desire to practice their religious beliefs and educate their children in a more meaningful manner than was available at other Reform congregations. Their aim was to preserve tradition and address modern American life without compromising either… Their primary interest was to establish a religious school that would teach with a sense of joy and discovery about Judaism.”

The year 2022 marks Temple Emanuel’s 60th anniversary year. As I have been reflecting on what this means, I wanted to know more about Temple Emanuel’s past. My family joined TE in 2000 and we heard many stories about services in “the barn”, an old metal cattle shed with a corrugated steel roof that that served at TE’s first sanctuary. The quote above is from “The History of Temple Emanuel of Greater New Haven, 1962-2012”, compiled by Betty Goldberg (Orange) for our 50th anniversary. You can find this wonderful historical record on the Temple Emanuel website (https://tegnh.org/history/ and scroll down for a link to the booklet).

I did not know that the first members of Temple Emanuel wanted the religious school to be taught with no Hebrew at all. Over time that has changed; you will find Hebrew in our religious school as well as our songs and prayers. But our spirit has not changed substantially from that of our founders. The first members of TE came together to practice Judaism in a meaningful way, one that blended Jewish traditions with modern day life and brought joy to their lives. According to Joan Small z”l, an original member of Temple Emanuel “We were a strong force for ethical activism.” These sentiments mirror my reasons for joining Temple Emanuel and I believe they are true of many of our members as well.

We have much to celebrate as we begin our 60th year. We are lucky to have Rabbi Farbman, who fit right into our warm and musical congregation in 2009 and helped move us forward, strengthening our school, expanding our musical horizons, attracting new members and becoming a leader in the Greater New Haven Jewish community. I am delighted to announce that he will be starting a new 5-year contract in July. I am also excited about our religious school. Olga Markus and our teachers have done an amazing job creating a curriculum that teaches our children in a way that excites them. Our enrollment has grown over the last decade and our school has developed a very special teen program, keeping almost all our teenagers engaged at Temple Emanuel post b’nei mitzvah. Music continues to be a highlight at TE, with services and special events that feature our band, individual members who play for us and Shir Magic concerts (see below for Noah Aronson’s concert on April 2nd).

It is worth reading the history of Temple Emanuel to see the transition we have made, from no physical home at all, to renovating a barn into a sanctuary, to building a wonderful new building and expanding it, so that it now houses our sanctuary, offices, social hall, kiddush lounge, and enough room for our growing religious school. Due to the generosity of a couple of our members, Temple Emanuel owns our building outright. In fact, after many years of board meetings discussing where we would get the income to pay our bills, it is a pleasure to know that TE is currently in good financial shape.

Temple Emanuel is a strong congregation, one of a few in the area that continues to attract new members. It is our membership that makes us who we are: a warm, caring, intellectually vibrant community, ready to change with the times yet preserve our traditions, as we grow into our 60th year. Several events are being planned to help us celebrate this milestone event.

  • Shir Magic Concert featuring Noah Aronson and the TE band, Saturday, April 2nd
  • TE at 60 Family Celebration, Sunday, May 15th (last day of TE religious school)
  • TE 60th Gala Celebration, Saturday night, October 29th

Please stay tuned for more information about these events.

New Torah Mantles at Temple Emanuel!

During the discussion about repairing the Holocaust Torah, it became clear that the Torah mantles we were using had seen better days. They were about 28 years old and literally falling apart.
Several members of the Board had seen the work of Jeanette Kuvin Oren at the Biennial meeting and were very impressed with her work. She lives in Woodbridge, and is an artist who creates all kinds of Judaic art, including (but not only) challah covers, matzoh covers and Torah mantles.
After we saw her work online, the Aesthetics Committee asked Jeanette if she would be willing to design mantles for our Torahs. She has created Torah mantles for synagogues, large and small, all over the US. Her Torah mantles are made of fabrics she dyes herself, pieced together into a design and then quilted. We talked to her about having a design that represented nature with flowing water, sunlight and greenery. She designed quilted covers for TE that are a combination of beautiful colors and textures including velvet, sparkly and silky fabrics. The three mantles flow from one to the other, but can stand alone in their design. A few genrous TE families came forward and offered to donate two of the three mantles.
A wonderful addition to Temple Emanuel!

Temple Emanuel Memorial Torah Scroll #1178 – back in our Ark!

The Memorial Torah Scroll #1178 from Horazdovice is now proudly back in Temple Emanuel Ark!

Temple Emanuel houses in our Ark the Holocaust Memorial Scroll #1178, a scroll that belonged to the destroyed Jewish community of Horazdovice, Czechoslovakia, a community that perished in the flames of the Holocaust. This scroll is one of several hundred Czech Torah scrolls that survived the Holocaust, eventually coming to the Westminster Synagogue in London, and from there distributed to Jewish communities around the world. A young Temple Emanuel of Greater New Haven was fortunate to receive the Horazdovice Torah back in 1967.

The Horazdovice Torah at Temple Emanuel

This scroll was part of every Bar and Bat Mitzvah at Temple Emanuel from 1967 – 2007. A deeply meaningful Torah, this Holocaust scroll brought our community into the direct line of European Jews who were murdered by the Nazis and could not themselves perpetuate the Jewish people. As we read from and touched this sacred scroll, we carried out the laws and commandments of our faith, and we remembered and honored the Jews of Horazdovice whose voices were stilled. In 2007, the scroll was retired from service because it was damaged, fragile and deemed non-kosher. We placed the scroll in a case visible to all as we entered the synagogue, to preserve its meaning and connection to our history.

The Restoration of the Horazdovice Torah

In 2019, a Torah scribe inspected our Torah scrolls, those in the Arc and also the Holocaust scroll in its display case. The scribe found that 2 of our scrolls in the ark required some repairs to remain kosher. To our great surprise and delight, he found that the Horazdovice Torah scroll could be repaired and once again be made kosher! Many TE members were excited that this wonderful and important scroll might again be made kosher, and be returned to our ark. TE students researched and presented information about the Horazdovice Torah and its history. Temple Emanuel members rallied support and contributed funds to not only restore and rededicate this scroll but also to repair the other TE Torah scrolls and establish a small fund to support the continued maintenance of our Torah scrolls, and mounted a successful campaign to raise the funds needed to restore and rededicate this important Torah scroll. Each TE family had the opportunity to write a letter in the Torah scroll with the scribe, a meaningful fulfillment of the mitzvah. The now-kosher scroll was re-dedicated and returned to the ark. This scroll, connecting us to the hundreds of years of Jewish life from the lost community of Horazdovice, brings Jewish practice and tradition to new generations of Jews at Temple Emanuel. This rededicated kosher scroll now is once again being used at Temple Emanuel for Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, and for special Torah services.

The Story of our Holocaust Torah Scroll

Our Holocaust Torah was first endangered when the Munich Agreement was signed on 29 September 1938. Britain and France agreed to Hitler’s demand to be given the German-speaking border regions of Czechoslovakia, and the Germans marched in. The Jews from about sixty congregations in the prosperous industrial and commercial towns in the Sudetenland had 2 or 3 days to flee to the interior, which was still a free and sovereign country. They left behind their synagogues, which were in German hands in time for the destruction of the Pogrom of November 1938, when synagogues across the expanded Germany, which now included the Sudetenland, were burned or vandalized and looted. In almost every case the ritual treasures of these Sudetenland synagogues were destroyed or lost.

In the remainder of Czechoslovakia, which included Prague, the synagogues and their swollen congregations were safe for the time being, and there was no program of destruction, even when the Germans invaded the rest of the country in March 1939. In 1940, the congregations were closed down, but the Jewish community administration was used by the Germans to execute their stream of decrees and instructions. In 1941 the first deportations started and the mass deportations of the Jews took place throughout 1942 and into January 1943.

The Nazis decided to liquidate the communal and private Jewish property in the towns, including the contents of the synagogues. In 1942 Dr Stein of the Juedische Kultusgemeinde in Prague wrote to all Jewish communities, instructing them to send the contents of their synagogues to the Jewish Museum in Prague. Thus the Torah Scrolls, gold and silver and ritual textiles were sent, along with thousands of books. The remaining Jews were deported in 1943 and 1944, but quite a number survived.

The inventory of the Prague Jewish Museum expanded by fourteen times as a result, and a large number of Jews were put to work by the Germans to sort, catalogue and put into storage all the items that had come from over one hundred congregations in Bohemia and Moravia. It needed over forty warehouses, many of them deserted Prague synagogues, to store all these treasures. When the task was eventually completed, the Jews who had been put to this work were themselves deported to the Terezin concentration camp and death. There were few survivors.

It was once accepted that the accumulation of this vast hoard of Judaica was intended by the Nazis to become their museum to the extinct Jewish race. There is, however, no evidence that any such museum was ever planned. The Prague Jewish Museum had been in existence since 1906, and was not created in order to house the Judaica collected in 1942. In 2012, the Prague Jewish Museum published “Ark of Memory” by Magda Veselska, a history of the museum that includes a clear explanation of how it was the Jews of Prague that worked before, during and after the war to protect a legacy that was threatened with destruction.

After the defeat of Germany, a free and independent Czechoslovakia emerged, but it was a country largely without Jews. Most of the surviving Jews in Prague and the rest of Bohemia and Moravia were from Slovakia and further east from Subcarpathian Ruthenia. Prague, which had had a Jewish population of 54,000 in 1940, was reduced to under 8,000 by 1947, and many of these were to leave. On 27 February 1948, after less than 3 years of post war freedom, the Communists staged a coup and took over the government of Czechoslovakia. The Prague Jewish Museum came under government control, and was staffed mainly by non-Jewish curators.

In 1958 the 18th century Michle Synagogue became the warehouse which housed hundreds of Torah Scrolls from the large Prague Jewish community and what was left from the smaller communities of Bohemia and Moravia. The collection did not include scrolls from Slovakia, which the Germans had put under a separate administration. Eric Estorick, an American living in London, was an art dealer who paid many visits to Prague in the early 1960’s. He got to know many Prague artists, whose work he exhibited at his Grosvenor Gallery. Being a frequent visitor to Prague, he came to the attention of the authorities. He was approached by officials from Artia, the state corporation that had responsibility for trade in works of art, and was asked if he would be interested in buying some Torah Scrolls. Unknown to him, the Israelis had been approached previously with a similar offer, but the negotiations had come to nothing. Estorick was taken to the Michle Synagogue where he was faced with wooden racks holding anything up to 2000 Scrolls. He was asked if he wanted to make an offer, and replied that he knew certain parties in London who might be interested.

Rabbi Farbman carrying the MST#1178 scroll at a historic gathering of Holocaust Memorial Torah scrolls in New York

On his return to London, he contacted Ralph Yablon, a well-known philanthropist with a great interest in Jewish art, history and culture. Yablon became the benefactor who put up the money to buy the Scrolls. First, Chimen Abramsky, who was to become Professor of Hebrew Studies at the University of London, was asked to go to Prague for twelve days in November 1963 to examine the Scrolls and to report on their authenticity and condition. On his return to London, it was decided that Estorick should go to Prague and negotiate a deal, which he did. Two lorries laden with 1564 Scrolls arrived at the Westminster Synagogue on 7 February 1964. After months of sorting, examining and cataloguing each Scroll, the task of distributing them began, with the aim of getting the Scrolls back into the life of Jewish congregations across the world. The Memorial Scrolls Trust was established to carry out this task.

Each Memorial Scroll is a messenger from a community that was lost, but does not deserve to be forgotten. Temple Emanuel’s restored Horazdovice Scroll carries that message to our congregants and to our future.

AFTER SOCIAL DISTANCING: SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION BEGINS !!

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems hard to see our way through to the other side. What will the “new normal” look like when this is over? Will we ever sit together in concert halls, baseball stadiums, or in our sanctuary? Will our school once again echo with children’s laughter and excitement? Will we ever again shake hands or hug each other at TE? Will we reach out holding our neighbors and sway to Havdalah? Will we unmask to see each other smile?

In the past 2 months, my life was plunged into professional obsession with this worldwide pandemic. The American Society of Nephrology (ASN) recruited me to lead a COVID-19 response team – a group of kidney specialists from around the country to best protect the vulnerable 500,000 Americans with kidney disease who receive dialysis treatment. Working closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), we have published best evidence guidance for care, we have deployed tools to understand the extent of life-threatening kidney failure this infection can cause, and we have worked with hospitals, dialysis facility owners, industry and government to get these practices to the hospital bedside and to the dialysis unit chairside. I’ve spent too much time answering reporters’ questions from the New York Times, Washington Post, Pro Publica and Politico. So – it has been difficult for me to see life after this emergency.

Of course there will be life after COVID-19. It may be different. Every time we go through TSA screening at the airport I am reminded that 9/11 changed our lives for a decade. Exactly how life will change is not yet clear. What is clear, is that we will survive — and thrive — and that Temple Emanuel will again come alive with services, children learning, laughter, joy… and a strengthened commitment to our Jewish community.

With the faith that TE will remain a central part of our community’s life, and the commitment that TE will respond to our growing school needs, we are going ahead with our planned school expansion. Construction for 2 new classrooms has begun! We are aiming to have these classrooms ready for use in September/October for our new school year.

The cost of this project will be approximately $250,000. In addition we hope to raise enough money to replace the room dividers between the sanctuary and social hall that are old and are falling apart. Thanks to several very generous major donors, we have about 70% of needed funds in hand, and promises from about 20 additional families for support.

To get the rest of the way — we need support from all members and school families. We know that this is a very difficult financial time for many — the “shutdown” has caused many to lose income or lose jobs. The market declines have reduced pension values. These are uncertain times. With these realities in mind, our board of directors urges each of us to consider carefully what we can do to assure we can complete this vital project. Please think through to a life after COVID-19 – as I have tried to do. Please be as generous as you can — for our children and their school. TE’s school is almost unique as a growing and vital beacon of our future.

You will find here a school expansion form that you can use to make a contribution. Your payments can be planned through this year, or into the next 2 years if needed.

Thank you, thank you! Stay safe, as we all find our way through these times.

Alan Kliger

CONNECTING WHILE SEPARATE

The Coronavirus pandemic is a time like none other in our lives. The loss of control, of daily routine and physical intimacy have impacted many of us in deep and troubling ways. Whether we are alone, without an income, trying to home school our children while working full time, or worrying about loved ones that we cannot visit, the stressors around us have grown exponentially. It is at times like this that we truly understand the importance of being part of a larger community. I am impressed at how the Temple Emanuel community has filled a void in our lives. Weekly Shabbat services provide structure and a needed, though brief, connection to others as we wave
and say “Shabbat Shalom” via Zoom. The TE religious school immediately set up online learning to replace in-school classes, helping our children retain some normalcy and routine in their lives.
Our members have reached out and checked in with each other, have made
meals, gone grocery shopping for those unable to do so and provided online
support in how we cope with the stress.
Members continue to work in our gardens, keeping TE beautiful for when we all return. And our contractor has started work on the school building addition, helping to promote our vision of the future during this time of uncertainty.
The larger Jewish community is there for us as well. The Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven has been doing its own outreach to members in the community and has set up emergency grants to Jewish agencies, synagogues and individuals in need. They have been providing tech support, running errands and providing online programming to help us as we make our way through this crisis. We are all a part of many communities —our families, our friends, our workplaces, organizations to which we belong.
As a member of Temple Emanuel, please know that we are here for you. If there is something you need, please reach out to me or to the Rabbi and we will try to get you the help you need. Thanks to all of you who have volunteered your time and kindness. We don’t know when this pandemic will end or how things will change, but I do know that having the support of a community makes a huge difference in how we get through difficult times. We are lucky to have such a strong Temple community, and I thank all of you
for being a part of TE. I wish all of our members and staff good health and peace as we make our way in this uncertain time.

A Shofar Column in the time of a pandemic

Shabbat on ‘zoom’

As a popular meme reminds us, 2020 is a leap year – there are 29 days in February and 300 days in March… As I think back over the last few weeks, I cannot quite believe what we have all been through, what we learned to do, to live with (and more importantly, live without). Some of us have been blessed to be able to switch to work remotely, while others began to deal with almost instant loss of work and income. Some had to find ways of coping with loneliness of isolation, while others are struggling with pressure of parenting young children and online learning, while trying to work from home. All of us are feeling incredible stress of these unprecedented (at least in most of our lifetimes) days. And then there are essential workers, first responders, medical professionals – people who MUST go out there, to make sure we can still function, eat, treat the sick, bring babies into this world. And then, of course, there are those of us who have caught the dreaded virus and had to cope, first hand, with its assault on our bodies and our spirits. And then, of course, some of us have lost our loved ones during this time – and even though they did not necessarily succumb to the virus, we couldn’t even come together as families and as a community, to say goodbye, to hold and support each other at this time of loss…

Human beings are incredibly resilient creatures. We learn to cope, we adjust our expectations, and we look for ways to help others. We have switched all our school programs online overnight, with the help of our incredible teachers and madrichim. We have switched Shabbat services online too – and in the process watched TE members in their 90s conquer zoom and YouTube! We held a Passover Seder online – perhaps the best attended TE congregational seder in my 11 years here. It wasn’t perfect, and I hope we don’t have to do THAT again – but it happened, and we recited the ancient words while smiling at each other across the time and space, marveling at wonders of modern technology that allowed us to be together despite everything. We will hold our Annual Meeting online too, and we will continue to look for ways to keep our TE community Jewishly engaged, supportive and strong – online, in person, over the phone or zoom – or across the street.

If you are feeling anxious – please let me know, I am here to talk. If you need help with groceries or any other tasks – please let me know, we have volunteers ready to help. If you are feeling lonely – pick up the TE directory and call someone to check up on them. If you hear that someone is ill, or in need of help or support – please drop me a line. This is a difficult period, but we don’t have to remember it only for the pain that it brings – let’s also make an effort to remember the joy that we can bring into each other’s lives, especially now.

Sending you all a COVID-appropriate virtual hug from a distance,

Rabbi Farbman

Temple Emanuel School Expansion

Our TE religious school is growing! Come any Sunday morning to the Asefah where students and parents gather, sing and study together. The kids are excited to be there, the parents are engaged, and Jewish learning is a truly joyous experience.

Though our new school building is only 5 years old, we need additional classrooms to accommodate our growing enrollment. This year, all 4 classrooms and the library were occupied, and every nook and cranny of the building is being used as additional classroom space.

Dave Pokras, an architect and a member of TE, designed a plan to add 2 classrooms behind the long wall of the social hall, accessed by a door near the kitchen end of the swing space. Construction has just begun and our hope is to have it completed before the next school year begins.

Fundraising is off to a great start – we need to raise $250,000, and 75% of the total has already been pledged by several very generous members! This leaves a balance of about $60,000 to get to our goal.

Our school is our synagogue’s vanguard. The wonderful children who come to school each week are our future, and the future of the Jewish people. This project is not only a school project – it is our commitment to the future of Temple Emanuel, and the future of our people.

We hope you will be generous, and feel the excitement that Rabbi Farbman, our Religious School director Olga Markus, our teachers and leadership bring to this effort. Our TE school is now well known throughout the community – and we are assuring its continued growth and success.
Thank You!!!

I would like to support the TE campaign for expanding our school!

A brief video from ground breaking ceremony on May 3rd

POSTPONED: Siyum – a sacred celebration of ending a sacred task

I often talk about the importance of transitions in Judaism: the threshold marked with a mezuza, the start of Shabbat marked with candles and kiddush, the end of Shabbat marked with Havdalah ceremony and so on. The new beginnings are to be celebrated with much joy and excitement, but so are the endings! In fact it’s the endings that often deserve that much more joy. A siyum is the completion of any unit of Torah study, or book of the Mishnah or Talmud. A siyum is usually followed by a celebratory meal – the joy of reaching a certain moment surely deserves a party!

As most of you know, this year we have engaged in a very special project: restoring the Temple Emanuel Holocaust Memorial Torah Scroll. This has been a humbling experience, as we researched the history of the town of Horazdovici and its Jewish community, raised funds necessary for the restoration and the upkeep of our Torah scrolls, and helped dozens and dozens of TE families experience the joy of assisting the scribe in restoring the damaged letters in the scroll, one by one. This has been a remarkable project, and I am delighted to report that we are nearing the end! With the scroll restoration nearly complete, the scribe will return to Temple Emanuel on March 22, allowing 40 plus additional families to take a personal part in restoration all throughout the day.

The most important moment will come at the end of the day at 6:00pm, as we celebrate the Siyum – a completion of the restoration process. The scribe will write the final letters and affix the final stitches, we will sing and dance with the Torah, carrying it not only around our sanctuary, as we do during the Torah service, but also outside and around our building (weather permitting, of course), before we joyously place the Torah into the Ark where it will now reside once again. There will be music from our band, and lots of joy to go around, and food, and a chance to say l’chayim to the completion of this sacred task.

There will be more information coming your way in the Shofar blast over the next few weeks, but in the meantime please make sure you mark your calendars for the evening of March 22 – just write ‘siyum’ and get ready to celebrate one of the most special things we ever get to do as a community.

The URJ Biennial: Exhausting and Exhilarating

Five thousand Jews talking, singing and praying together in a convention center in Chicago. More Jewish music than you can imagine. The Second City Chicago improvisational comedy theater group, which kept us rolling in our seats. The Union of Reform Judaism Biennial conference was all this and more.

I have just returned from 5 days in Chicago, along with 8 other TE members. At the Biennial I learned more about governance and leadership, met with other Temple presidents and heard their struggles and triumphs, and gained insights into how to become a more audaciously hospitable congregation. I learned about the impact we can have by voting in the World Zionist Congress elections, which will influence policy and funding for Jewish institutions in Israel and around the world. I learned about the wonderful social justice work of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (RAC), and of the exciting work by IRAC, the Israel Religious Action Center, working for equality for all Israelis, including marginalized groups like Ethiopian Jews, Mizrachi Jews and Arab citizens. I also learned that the Jewish community needs to change with the times to include the next generation, many of whom don’t see congregational membership in the same way past generations have.

For those of us at TE who enjoy being a musical congregation, the music at the Biennial is itself a reason to attend. One could spend the entire 5 days just listening to music! The Jewish Rock Radio stage (check it out on Facebook) features different musicians every half hour. Many of the musicians who have performed at TE were onstage, and we spent time listening to who we might invite next. Every service has music, every plenary session has music and every night there was a variety of performances to choose between, from rock and roll, to singing blindfolded on the floor, to bluegrass.

The experience of Shabbat at the Biennial touched me deeply. Imagine praying along with 5,000 other Jews in a service whose prayers are carefully chosen to be meaningful and inspirational. The music was deeply spiritual and joyfully engaging, and was played by professional musicians. Torahs from surrounding synagogues were carried throughout the hall while we danced in the aisles.

The Biennial is a time to feel the strength of our community. A time to meet Jews from all over North America – baby boomers, millennials, teens and young adults from NFTY (the Reform Jewish Youth Movement), and a few babies along with their parents. The URJ is working to increase inclusivity of groups that have been marginalized in society and welcomed the LGBTQ community, Jews of color and people with disabilities. The Biennial was a wonderful time for those of us from Temple Emanuel to connect. The Rabbi, Melissa Perkal, Janet Adams, Doug and Karen Fenichel, Vlad Katsovich, Laurel Shader, and Anna Zonderman all joined me in Chicago. We shared meals, sessions, worship, concerts, travel and grew closer. Thanks to Janet Adams, our Hadracha program that trains our teens to be madrichim and teachers, was featured in a poster session of innovations within the reform community.

The Biennial confirmed for me what a special congregation we have, and how much we are already doing to be warm and welcoming, and to educate the next generation. Those of us who went to Chicago returned to TE energized and eager to put into action what we learned. We look forward to an even larger TE delegation at Biennial 2021 in Washington DC.

On Memory and Ritual

Speak to the Israelite people and instruct them to make for themselves fringes (tzitzit) on the corners of their garments throughout the ages; let them attach a cord of blue to the fringe (tzitzit) at each corner. That shall be your fringe (tzitzit); look at it and recall all the commandments of Adonai and observe them, so that you do not follow your heart and eyes in your lustful urge. Thus you shall be reminded to observe all My commandments and to be holy to your God. (Numbers 15:38-40.)

This paragraph from the Torah may be very familiar to you – or perhaps only a portion of it is. It describes the Divine commandment to wear tzitzit, or fringes, on the corners of our garments as permanent reminders to follow and observe the mitzvot, commandments of the Torah. The text in full appears as part of the third paragraph of Shema in the prayerbook, restored to full length of the text in the Mishkan Tefilah and Mishkan haNefesh from the shortened versions that have been standard in American Reform siddurim, where tzitzit was not mentioned, even though the reminder to follow God’s commandments was very much retained.

So what is tzitzit? The rabbis of the Mishnah looked for ways to define and codify what these words were referring to, and so the tzitzit that consists of strings (8) and knots (5) was designed to remind us of the 613 commandments (with Hebrew tzitzit adding up to 600 in gematria). But the knots and strings are mostly there to remind us of something bigger – Judaism, commandments/mitzvot, rituals and observance. It’s a mnemonic device, a reminder – when your eye catches it, you will remember. My teacher Rabbi Lionel Blue (alav hashalom) used to describe tying knots in the handkerchief as a child, to remember something – and tzitzit is exactly that!

In more traditional settings, Jews interpret the commandment of tzitzit as something constantly required – the ‘tallit katan’ is an undergarment that contains tzitzit and is worn at all times as part of clothing. For non-orthodox Jews the tallit, a prayer shawl, is the garment that has tzitzit attached to it, and is worn at specific ritual moments. The traditional rules of tallit specify that it is worn during the daytime hours – so usually only for the morning and afternoon services, with exception of Yom Kippur which is treated as one long day, and hence the tallit is worn for Kol Nidrei (evening service) and then for the entire day of Yom Kippur. In addition, Shaliach Tzibbur, the person leading prayer, often wears the tallit even when leading services at night – that is why you will always see me wearing a tallit on the bimah, night or day, but not if I simply attend the evening service led by others. Traditionally women are considered exempt from the mitzvah of wearing tallit, since it is considered a time-bound mitzvah – but contrary to some popular beliefs, nowhere does it prohibit women from wearing a tallit, and so the non-orthodox movements have embraced the practice of women and men wearing the tallitot as a sacred ritual.

Our ritual committee recently discussed the wearing of tallitot and kippot on the bimah at TE. It opted against creating any kind of formal policy on the matter, reflecting the long held reform tradition of informed choice. It has also decided to encourage all those coming up to the bimah, especially as part of the Torah service, to wear a tallit where appropriate. (Following a wide-spread minhag (custom), we reserve the wearing of tallit to Jewish adults, or teens who have reached the age of majority, having celebrated their bar or bat mitzvah). Tallitot have always been available by the entrance into our sanctuary, but moving forward we will also make some available right by the bimah in case you are offered a mitzvah in the service or an Aliya to the Torah. If you have never experienced wearing a tallit, please let me know and I will gladly help you recite a blessing for donning the tallit. If you own one, please bring it with you next time you sign up for an Aliya on Friday night, or when you come to Shabbat Morning minyan or a bar/bat mitzvah ceremony. Then we can chant the words of the Shema together and fulfill this ancient Jewish tradition! Let me know if you have any questions, and I look forward to seeing you on the bimah, wearing your tallit, soon!