A note from Dr. Cassorla - June 2023

Dear TBT Family,

One of my chief joys in the last week has been putting my winter blanket up and taking out my summer “cooling cover.” While there is a sense of coziness that comes with the winter blanket, I find a sense of freedom with the summer cover. Meanwhile, it feels like the porch is calling my name in the evenings as the sun takes its sweet time setting over the hills. And the beach beckons each Shabbat.

Our lives are marked by recurrences in time and season that nonetheless are not truly a circle, but rather a spiral, in which the return of the familiar sounds more like a harmonious echo than a repetition.

The rabbis recognized this sense of not-quite-recurrence. After the flood receded, God promised to never again upturn the laws of nature, but God also gave us a way to step out of the regimented time we, as humans, seem to need. Shabbat, a weekly vacation from the clock, is that space.

Rav Yehuda HaLevi, a medieval Spanish rabbi, poet, physician, and philosopher put this into words in his poem Avdei Zman (Slaves to Time), writing “Slaves to time are slaves to slavery /only those who work for God are free.” On Shabbat, we let go of our metered labor and instead welcome in an extra “ensoulment” of rest and repose in the presence of the holy.

What this looks like is different for each person who practices it. For some, lighting candles with the family on Friday night as Shabbat comes in is the moment of separation from the week. For others, it can be as simple as choosing not to listen to the news on Saturdays. Rabbi Zalman Shalomi Schachter famously explained that if walking around the mall was one’s way to let go of the weight of the week and reconnect to the inherent Shalom of God, one should get in the car and drive to the mall on Shabbat.

I encourage you to find your special Shabbat space this summer. We will continue to enjoy our Shabbat evening services each week—both in our new sanctuary and on our airy veranda. We will celebrate Clara Calvert later this month as she is called to the Torah as a Bat Mitzvah. And our choir has already begun to prepare for our Board Installation Shabbat Service that same weekend (June 23-24).

We would love to see you there.

Kol Tuv,
Dr. C

A note from Dr. Cassorla - March 2023

Dear Friends,

Mi Sh’nichnas Adar, Marbim B’Simchah.

From the moment Adar begins, we should increase our joy.

This rabbinic mandate comes from the Gemara. But it raises an obvious question; can we really be mandated to be happy?

While I doubt one’s emotional state can be mandated or commanded, it can be encouraged. Science shows that there are several ways to increase one’s own happiness, and each can be derived in our Jewish community.

We can become happier by bringing joy to others. For this reason, in Adar, we practice Mishloach Manot, the sending of food gifts. You’d be amazed what a basket of fruits and Hamantaschen can do for a person—and even more amazed at the joy you find in making and delivering them. This is also the reason that paying for someone else’s coffee at the Drive-Thru is such a pleasing experience.

We can become happier by practicing gratitude. For this reason, the fourth grade learned the Modeh/Modah Ani* this month, teaching them that the first words they say in the morning can set an intention for the day. They also learned other blessings to help them feel gratitude throughout the day.

We can become happier by (re)connecting with our community, as we do weekly through Shabbat services on Friday nights, and mindfulness meditation and Torah study on Shabbat mornings.

Our own Tikkun students have noted in their podcast that something as simple as saying a kind word, holding a door for another, or offering to help—when we truly mean it—can not only increase the level of Tikkun Olam (reparation of the world) we practice, but even brighten our own days by reminding us that we are not alone.

For belly laughs, in Adar, we have Purim. At TBT, that means a SALTY Carnival with a spiel and a costume contest. It also means an evening with our adult friends which will include a spiel, Megillah chanting, a wine tasting, and food. Please join us on March 5, at Religious School, and on March 6, at 6 pm, at TBT for some very Jewish Joy!

May your Adar be filled with joy, Jewish and non. And may that joy spill into your every day.

*Modeh/Modah Ani is the morning prayer thanking God for our lives and God’s faith in us.

Kol Tuv,
Dr. Cassorla