August 2020 | Vol 84 No. 11 | Av—Elul 5780 Upcoming Events: August Tot Shabbat Saturday, August 1, 2020 9:00am Location: JCC Outdoor Pavillion Details on page 7 Office Hours with Rabbi Winnig Thursdays in August 10:00am—12:pm See page 8 for details Board Meeting Wednesday, August 12, 2020 6:45pm Zoom invitation to follow B’nai Brith Picnic Sunday, August 16, 2020 3:00pm Location: Buhl Park Details on page 9 4 Part Virtual Education Class Wednesdays starting August 19, 2020 12:00pm Topic: Souljourns: Contemplation & Study for the month of Elul Details on page 10
20
Embed
August 2020 | Vol 84 No. 11 | Av Elul 5780 · 2020. 7. 31. · August 2020 | Vol 84 No. 11 | Av—Elul 5780 Upcoming Events: August Tot Shabbat Saturday, August 1, 2020 9:00am Location:
This document is posted to help you gain knowledge. Please leave a comment to let me know what you think about it! Share it to your friends and learn new things together.
Dear Friends: As we enter the month of August we will also have two Hebrew months, the month of Av and the month of Elul. The Hebrew month of Av is considered one of the saddest and happiest months simultaneously. Sad because on the ninth day of the month of Av we commemorated the destruction of the first and second Temples in Jerusalem as well as many other horrific tragedies that all took place around the same date over the centuries. We remember these sad events to both honor those whose lives and way of living were forever lost, and to find ways to build a better world today. The month of Av is also considered a happy month because on the 15th day of the month of Av, August 4 and 5, we celebrate a day of love. Tu B’av is considered a day of rejoicing and a time for people to seek loving relationships. Many Jews choose to marry on Tu B’av because it is considered an auspicious time. This juxtaposition of happy and sad events is of course not unique to the Hebrew month of Av. As a world we are always involved in intertwining and often contradictory events. The sadness of the murder of George Floyd is being turned into a time of renewing our commitments to create a just, equal, anti-racist society. The Covid-19 virus is helping us explore new ways of building community through virtual and neighborhood focused experiences. Yet, the Covid-19 virus experience has also taught us to reflect on the problems in the delivery of healthcare across the country. We are learning new ways of expressing ourselves, at the same time, we are seeing too many people who remain voiceless and left behind in our country today. The Hebrew month of Av reminds us to mourn our losses, but also to build a world founded with and guided by the biblical principle “love your neighbor as yourself.” We need to remember that all human beings are created in the image of the Divine. These thoughts then lead us into the month of Elul, which begins on August 19 & 20. It has been taught that we should consider the month of Elul as a
month of loving connection. Some say that the very name Elul אלול alludes to
the phrase:
ילדודי ודודי לני א Ani L’dodi V’dodi Li
I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine.
It is during the month of Elul that we begin our work of Teshuvah, of repentenace. We take the time during the month of Elul to contemplate where we have been during the past year. We look at the things we did wrong AND the things we did right. We take the time to prepare ourselves for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and the ten days of repentance by doing this inner soul work. Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and the ten days of repentance are the end of this process, not the beginning. During this time we depend upon our relationships with our loved ones, our community to help guide us through the unpleasant things we may find. We hope they will lead us to a better emotional plane as we begin our New Year. Please watch for some upcoming programs of prayer, meditation and contemplation during Elul as we work together to make these months of Av, Elul and August meaningful and important. Let’s use this time to remember that we are equal and beautiful because we were all created with the spark of the Divine within us. May you find joy, happiness and meaning as we begin to prepare ourselves to welcome a New Year.