KA CC Archive Sep 2022

We need you at Kol Ami. We need to sing together. To pray together as one kehillah. We need your voice. We need you to help fill our sanctuary with life.

Imagine yourself standing in the sanctuary at Kol Ami, the ark is open, and we are singing Avinu Malkeinu. We sing in one voice as we petition God, our Father, our King, to show us kindness, to answer us. Every time we sing it, I find it to be an incredibly moving moment. And the fact that we are singing this together adds to that moment. Rabbi Alan Lew writes:

“The first thing we do during the High Holidays is come together; we stand together before God as a single spiritual unit. We do this out of a very deep instinct.….We need each other now. We need each other deeply. Here in the full flush of the reality of the life-and-death nature of this ritual, here in the full flush of our impotence as individuals to meet this most urgent emergency, our need for each other is immense. We heal one another by being together. We give each other hope. Now we know for sure—by ourselves, ain banu ma’asim, there is nothing we can do. But gathered together as a single indivisible entity, we sense that we do in fact have efficacy as a larger, transcendent spiritual unit, one that has been expressing meaning and continuity for three thousand years, one that includes everyone who is here, and everyone who is not here, to echo the phrase we always read in the Torah the week before the High Holidays begin—all those who came before us, and all those who are yet to come, all those who are joined in that great stream of spiritual consciousness from which we have been struggling to know God for thousands of years. We now stand in that stream, and that is the first thing we do.”

During the Avinu Malkeinu prayer, we ask God to bless us with a good year. We ask God to remember us for a good life. We ask God to fill our hands with God’s blessings. To hear our voice. To accept our prayer. We pray as a single community together.

The High Holy Days over the past two years were like nothing we had experienced before. With zoom, masks, social distancing, and outdoor events, the High Holy Days of 5781 and 5782 will forever be unique in our minds. The accommodations during those years were necessary and appropriate given the state of the pandemic, and so we all experienced the holidays in a variety of different ways and locations.

As we begin 5783, I hope you’ll consider joining us in person to mark the beginning of the New Year and a new normal. We know the pandemic is still ongoing, and so livestreaming and zoom options will continue to be available for those who need them. At the same time, we hope you’ll utilize the livestream or zoom only for those who truly do not feel medically safe coming together.

The experience of standing together as one Kehillah Kedosha, one sacred community, is something that cannot be fully matched virtually, so I hope you’ll be able to join us at Kol Ami for these High Holy Days. We need you.

I was asked to write a brief article for this week’s Weekly Watch to discuss what’s going on with Brotherhood and future events. I’ll get to that, but I’d prefer to keep the focus on our dearly lost leader, friend, and mentor,

Barry Dvorchik. Barry brought Brotherhood up from dormancy five year ago. Thanks to his leadership and vision, Brotherhood is financially solvent, has increased membership, and is a vibrant part of the synagogue. He brought in the acclaimed Jewish bluegrass band (that’s a phrase you don’t hear too often!), Nefesh Mountain, for a wonderfully attended event that is still talked about today. Barry was there for me as a mentor and a friend, and I am forever grateful. He personally asked me to be President-Elect four years ago, and I greatly appreciated his vote of confidence in me.

Most importantly, Barry was a loving father, husband, and friend. On behalf of Brotherhood, we are sorry for our loss as a congregation, and especially want to leave our sympathies for Susan and his immediate family. Someone called me today after they heard the news and said maybe the greatest compliment one can get: “Barry was a mensch.” I agree. May his memory always be a blessing. We will attempt to reschedule our Hearing Men’s Voices session about “Trauma and the Jewish Response,” as it was planned for this Sunday, September 11.

Brotherhood is busy the next few months. Please note that all our upcoming events are open to the entire synagogue. We’ll be having our annual Craft Beer Night at the new location for Angry Chair Brewing on Thursday, September 22 at 7 p.m. (ages 21 and up). We’ll enjoy a flight of beers, a brief tour of the brewery, and one of the brewers or beer experts will explain the differences between beer styles. Thursday, October 13 at 6:30 p.m. will be “Steaks in the Sukkah.” $36 ($18 for kids 15 and under) will get you a nice kosher steak (or chicken for those who don’t eat red meat), a baked potato, vegetable, and watermelon. We’ll have some scotch as well. If you weren’t scared from the previous day, Tuesday, November 1 at 8 PM will be Movie Night in the Social Hall for the underutilized genre of “Jewish supernatural horror films.” Join us in watching “The Vigil (2019).” We’ll have popcorn and a few snacks. No charge for this event. The movie lasts 88 minutes. Sunday, November 6 will be our popular new annual tradition of Firearm Safety Day. Please stay tuned for more specific details. We look forward to seeing you at some of these events!

As always, please feel free to email me with any questions, suggestions or comments at brotherhood.kolami@gmail.com