Clergy Blog

Dear Friends,

This week has been heart-wrenching. I keep coming back to Yarden Bibas’ eulogizing words, expressing his pain in failing to protect his wife and children despite his having fought back on October 7 and having been taken hostage. I continue to be moved to tears by his request, “Shiri, please watch over me… Protect me from bad decisions. Shield me from harmful things and protect me from myself. Guard me so I don’t sink into darkness. Mishmish, I love you!” I struggle every time I read his words to Ariel and Kfir. I can’t begin to imagine the pain he’s feeling, but I do know that we, the people of Israel, are with Yarden, grieving. I know that he feels this support, in having made his shiva gatherings completely public to all who will come, and in knowing that Israelis all throughout the country were stopping wherever they were during the funeral with orange balloons and Israeli flags, making clear that he will not bear his pain alone. No matter what, when things get serious, we, the Jewish people, are one family. We show up for each other.

This week’s parashah, Terumah, contains commands from on high to build the Mishkan, a portable temple of sorts for our wanderings through the wilderness. It was in this Mishkan that we knew we would encounter God. The initial instructions are followed by a verse stating, “let them make Me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them” (Exod 25:8). We note that while we are receiving the instructions for building a house for God, what we are really doing is building something together so that God will be among us. The point isn’t a building worthy of God, it is our joining together in care and collaboration so that we might bring God into our midst.

We’ve learned that there are many ways that we continue to build our “mishkan.” Sometimes it is through showing up to support each other. Sometimes, it’s through observing our festivals and traditions. Sometimes, it’s as simple as bringing joy to another. And this latter point is where our focus needs to be this month. We have entered the Hebrew month of Adar– the month of Purim, the month of remembering how we overcame the ineptitudes of Achashverosh and the evils of Haman, the month where it is a mitzvah to find joy and bring that joy to others.

We observed that mitzvah last night with Murray Hill Boy Max Cohen, who said that his goal for his social media work is to create a nurturing online community for our people. He stated, “Just let my page be a place where we can celebrate being Jewish and find joy being Jewish.“ Kol hakavod to our incredible team of volunteers and staff who made last night’s spectacular event a reality.

We observe this mitzvah by sending gifts to each other this month to add to our festivities– mishloach manot. We’ve conveniently set everything up for you to send these gifts to your fellow congregants– please sign up here.

We also observe it by coming together at every opportunity, whether for Shabbat services (tonight, we have our Klezmer trio), holiday celebrations (don’t miss out on our Wickedly Awesome Purim, info at this link), or any other gathering (I’m looking forward to seeing many of you in Florida next Tuesday evening, register here!).

In this spirit, please sign up for a home Shabbat dinner to remember with your B’nai Abraham family along with tens of thousands of other North American Jews as we observe Shabbat Across America next Friday, March 7. More info here.

One last item– another way that we can show up for our Israeli brethren is to go and volunteer. Some of you may have seen that Birthright is now doing a heavily subsidized volunteer trip for anyone who is Jewish and between 18 to 50 years old. For more information, click here. 

That’s all for this week, Shabbat shalom!

Dave