Rabbi's Column - November 2023

Dear Friends,

I was on the Guilford Green yesterday evening when I heard a man speaking English in what sounded to me like an Israeli accent. I approached his bench, and said s’licha (‘excuse me’ — this excessively polite gesture instantly outed me as an American). We began to converse.

Ech atah mistader, I asked — how are you holding up?
Ko’ev, ha lev koev, he replied — hurting. My heart hurts. Machzik ma’amad — But I’m holding on.

I nodded. I put a hand on his shoulder. As I looked at his face I noticed a cap was obscuring his kippah Hashem Itanu, he said. God is with us.
God is with us.

The response was classic Israeli. We’ve been through tough times. We’ll make it through this, too. I didn’t have to ask this man whether he had lost anyone to the violence; whether he had any family members or friends serving in the IDF, facing imminent danger. I didn’t have to ask.

As Israel fights for its very right to exist (what other country has to do this?) battles are being waged both in Israel and abroad. Here in the USA, we’re seeing the rise of hateful protests and violent antisemitism on college campuses. A recent Harvard poll found that 51% of 18-24-year-olds found Hamas’s terrorist carnage “justifiable” given the Palestinians’ grievances. A Cornell professor called Hamas’ brutality “exhilarating.” Angry protests at the Universities of Michigan and Wisconsin targeted Jews with hateful rhetoric. Neo-Nazis joined in the fray. At Cooper Union, Jewish Students were locked in to the library to protect themselves from protestors banging on the doors, screaming, “Long Live the Intifada.” There are too many others to mention here.

It used to be that college was where our young people learned to think broadly, critically. Now our elite institutions are harboring one-sided, hate-fuelled propaganda. One thing we can do is reach out to all of the college students in our lives, and see how they are doing. This week, I hosted an open Zoom space to process, grieve, and respond. I’ll schedule further sessions as is helpful.

As I write this, we are reading parashat lech lecha, the Torah Portion when Abraham and Sarah leave their home in search of our promised land. God tells them along the way, “I shall make your name great. And you shall be a blessing.” (Gen 12.2) My childhood rabbi, Rabbi Mark Shapiro z”l, loved to point out that this phrase is grammatically imperative. “Be a blessing,” says God. There’s no other option.

A Midrash on this portion has Abraham questioning God:
“Master of the Universe, You made a covenant with Noah that you would never destroy his children. Then I came along and pleased you better, so my relationship with You overrode his. Perhaps someone else will come along and please you better than me, so that his relationship with you overrides mine? God replied, “Among Noah’s children there are no righteous people who intercede for others, but among yours there will be.”

We Jews are a nation of helpers— a people who hate the suffering of all innocents, regardless of borders or life circumstances. You’re continuing to ask how to intercede, how to help. Here are three additional worthy causes you may wish to support:
• Assuta, a hospital in Israel near the Gaza border
• Educare IL, a non-profit organization founded in order to promote resilience and prevent violence in Israeli society, through the research and implementation of empirically-based training programs for therapists, educators and parents
• New Israel Fund Emergency Safety Net Fund is working in several key areas: 1. Basic care for vulnerable groups; 2. Combating violent speech and incitement online; 3. Preventing inter-communal violence in mixed Arab and Jewish cities; and 4. Mental health and trauma counseling.

I thank you to everyone who has reached out to help, pray, and care for our siblings in Israel and here at home. Together, we will make it through this. We will be a blessing.

Shalom, Shalom, fervently and soon,
Rabbi Moss

Rabbi's Column - October 2023

Dear Friends,

At Sukkot we consider: What makes a house a home?

We are taught to treat the spartan Sukkah as our permanent home during this period, humbling us to remember the vulnerability of displacement.

Many of you have been a part of the TBT Family since before the renovation. You patiently awaited returning to our own space while meeting just about everywhere else on the Shoreline. You came with your children — everyone with smiles and a can-do attitude— to our gravel parking lot for our weekly Religious School T’filah! You put up with zoom and in-person; and came masked and then unmasked and back again — over several years. And to those who are new to TBT, welcome! We know how much you love our new space, as well! We won’t subject you to Torah-in-the-trunk anytime soon.

Finally, we are home. We have a gorgeous, comfortable, accessible building and a beautifully landscaped campus. What can we say other than Modim Anachnu (we are so grateful!). The wait was well worth it. I’d like to thank you all for your patience and resilience in the last few years. I’d like to offer a heartfelt todah rabbah (thank you very much) to all who helped with the renovation and contributed to our Capital Campaign to build our TBT home.

The truth is that this work is not yet done. In order to complete the project and plant the seeds for TBT’s flourishing financial future, we need your help. Please consider a gift to our Capital Campaign so that we can cover the full cost of the most ambitious, critical project in TBT’s modern history. If you haven’t yet given, this is the time when we need you. If you’ve already given, thank you for considering another gift. Since announcing our matching gift challenge (through October 8), we have already raised $275,000 in new donations and pledges! Won’t you add your support? Please contact Karen Goldberg, Suzy Frisch, or Kim Romine for more information. And again, Todah Rabbah!

I hope you will join us as we say “thank you” to everyone who brought this project to fruition. Our weekend of gratitude (November 3-4) will include a special Shabbat evening service in appreciation of leaders and volunteers at TBT and throughout the broader community. The following night is our gala — bring your dancing shoes! Stay tuned for signup information coming soon.

Every minute in the Sukkah reminds us of the gifts of safety, security, family, and future. In a word, TBT. I feel so blessed to share this Sukkat Shalom (peaceful home) with all of you.

Bivracha (Blessings),

Rabbi Moss

Rabbi's Column - September 2023

Dear Friends,

In Judaism, community matters. The ideal way to enjoy a meal is with at least three people. We need ten adults to form a minyan. It’s certainly permissible to study alone, but learning with a chevruta (‘study partner’ — from the same Hebrew root as ‘friend’) is among one of the most fulfilling paths in the spiritual life of a Jew.

To be Jewish is to share meaningful Jewish experiences with others. That’s why I’m thrilled to introduce a new initiative called Kesher - רשק, which means ‘connection’ in Hebrew. Kesher offers a way to connect with fellow TBT folks in small affinity groups. Each group will meet at least once each month throughout the year, and will be facilitated by a member of TBT! Some groups will form around general interests; and others are Judaically focused. You can learn to cook delicious modern Israeli recipes, hit the slopes in a Jewish ski group, find support and guidance if you are caring for a loved one, sing new and classic Jewish music, and much more!

Why are we doing this? Well, you may have participated in one of our small-group parlor conversations last year. A common theme emerged: people who described their involvement at TBT as particularly rewarding often felt connected first through a small circle of friends. Often, these friendships blossomed while their kids were little or growing up through Bar/Bat Mitzvah. Some of these groups continue to meet after many years! Kesher is our effort to create fun, relational opportunities more proactively, across age and stage. And it just starts with having fun getting to know other TBT folks, once a month. Won’t you join one of our pilot groups? More information can be found here: http://www.tbtshoreline.org/kesher-groups.

Hineh mah tov u’mah naim
Shevet achim v’achayot gam yachad

How pleasant, how perfect, when friends gather together as one (Psalms 133)

Bivracha (Blessings),
Rabbi Moss

Rabbi's Column - August 2023 High Holiday Shofar

Dear Friends,

As we enter the Hebrew month of Elul, we find ourselves once again within Judaism’s central season of renewal. This period of Jewish time revolves around two primary spiritual technologies: Cheshbon Ha-Nefesh (an accounting of our deeds and goals); and Teshuvah (repair, reconciliation, return).

That feeling of renewal courses throughout our entire community this year, too. Together our hearts turn to our beautifully renovated synagogue home as we prepare to return for the High Holy Days at TBT for the first time in several years. We will consecrate our gorgeous sanctuary and welcome back our Torah Scrolls to the ark at Selichot (September 9th). If you do not often join for this beautiful, contemplative evening service, I especially encourage you to experience it this year. Our wonderful choir will be presenting special musical pieces for the occasion, and our very own Noah Stein has composed a new piece of congregational music just for the occasion.

And there’s more homecoming to look forward to this fall! Please save the date for a festive weekend of gratitude: November 3rd and 4th. That Friday night we will say todah — thank you — to all who have helped us to arrive in our beautiful renovated space. Then on Saturday night, we will party!

Hashiveinu Adonai Eilecha V’Nashuva - Help us to turn back to you, God, and we will turn: to one another, to our beautiful synagogue home, and to a new year filled with joy and endless possibilities.

Bivracha (Blessings),
Rabbi Moss

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

Rabbi's Column - May 2023

Dear Temple Beth Tikvah,

By now you may have heard the news: Susan and I are expecting our first child in late May or early June. We are overjoyed, excited, and a little bit anxious to embark on this journey together. We are especially glad that we get to do that here on the Shoreline, as a part of the TBT community. I am writing this letter to you in order to share our gratitude, and also to communicate about my plans during this sacred time.

First and foremost, Susan and I feel so fortunate that the leadership of Temple Beth Tikvah helps staff and clergy prioritize family needs. Providing family leave and day-to-day support when needs arise is a true act of chesed (caring love) that recognizes that all of us are, first and foremost, human beings with obligations to those who love us. This recognition should be universal, but in this country it is not. So, modeh ani — I am all the more grateful.

Now for the plans. When the auspicious hour arrives, I will be with Susan for the arrival of the newest Moss and the transition to home. Over the summer, I will be on leave for a total of approximately eight to ten weeks. The precise timing will depend on the baby’s arrival and needs. I will be “back to work” for the remainder of the summer weeks and through the High Holy Days, in order to plan and support our team as the fall begins. While on leave, my focus will be on the needs of Susan and our new child. Therefore, I plan to be truly away from day-to-day duties, including email, phone calls, meetings, and ritual leadership. I am incredibly grateful to Dr. C, our office team, the Religious Activities Committee, volunteers, and our Rabbi Emerita and Emeritus - Rabbi Offner and Rabbi Sommer, all of whom you may encounter during this time.

In that vein, please know that TBT Clergy will be available to our members should an emergency arise. In that case, please call TBT’s main number at any time, and follow the prompts to our emergency line.

Finally, Susan and I are very excited for you to meet this new addition to our family. A formal welcome and blessing will take place at a Shabbat evening service this summer, date TBD.

The traditional Jewish greeting for an expectant parent is b’sha’ah tovah, loosely translated as ‘may it be a good and auspicious hour.’ Susan and I are so grateful for all of your love and support during this momentous time for us and our family.

Shalom,
Rabbi Danny Moss

Rabbi's Column - March 2023

Dear Friends,

We’ve all heard the phrase “I’m going to hang up my hat…” Well, this month I hung up my tallit! But that doesn’t mean what you might think — in fact, quite the opposite. Please allow me to explain.

In the summer of 2021, Rabbi Offner left me some very useful tools, including the tallit racks inside my study. I hadn’t really used them much, though, since we’ve been gathering for services all over the Shoreline. Ever since we’ve been meeting regularly at TBT, however, I have finally started using those tallit racks for the first time! It feels incredible to hang up my prayer shawl each week, knowing that Temple Beth Tikvah is once again ‘home base’.

In the days of the ancient Jerusalem Temple, our ancestors referred to it as Beit HaMikdash (‘The Sacred House’), or more colloquially, HaBayit, (simply, ‘The House’). After the Temple was destroyed, the family table became the new altar. The synagogue came to house the new sanctuaries of our people. Private residence and synagogue alike came to convey an abiding Jewish sense of ‘home.’

Now, every Erev Shabbat (Sabbath eve) I can come home to TBT, prepare to enter Shabbat with a moment of silence, and wrap myself in my tallit following the custom of my ancestors. These small moments help me realize that we are truly entering a new stage of readiness to re-enter our congregational home.

Has it been a while since your last building tour? We’d love to invite you back to see all of the progress! Simply refer to the details enclosed or be in touch with the office. It’s going to be a very exciting spring at Temple Beth Tikvah. I look forward to sharing many meaningful milestones with you.

Shalom,
Rabbi Danny Moss

Rabbi's Column - February 2023

Dear Friends,

As I write this, we are nearing the dramatic climax of the Exodus story in our weekly Torah cycle. It’s one of the great human narratives; one which we revisit every day in our prayer services and every year around the seder table. But we tend not to dwell on the plagues (apart from the hokey children’s seder toys, anyway), which would have been quite terrifying to experience! Consider the penultimate plague of darkness:

 “And Adonai said to Moses: ‘Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt.” (Ex. 10.21)

The medieval Italian commentator Ovadia Seforno attempts to understand the unique character of this darkness. He explains that darkness is not a substance, as such, but rather the absence of light. But the darkness of Egypt, he explains, is a separate entity, entirely: not an absence, but a tangible presence. Thus, no light could banish it.

Sometimes it feels that there is darkness in our world that no light can banish. We are living through difficult and dark times, for certain. And all of us go through seasons of trial and challenge — darkness out of which it may feel that we will never emerge.

The Torah goes on to specify that the Israelites could not see one another, so they did not rise from their dwellings for three days (10.23).  How does the Midrash respond? It says that the greatest darkness we experience is when we do not truly see one another —  when we do not participate in the distress of others. 

The only antidote to this darkness, of course, is reaching out to those around us who are in need. Or, when we are in need, we may reach out to others for a helping hand. This is one of the reasons our community exists. The relationships we can build at TBT are like a candle in the dark. Just ask our families who have been here for decades.  It doesn’t take decades to feel the warmth and profundity of these relationships, though — and like any profound journey, it starts with a first step. If you are interested in your first (or next) step, I’d love to talk with you about it.

L’Shalom,
Rabbi Moss

Rabbi's Column - January 2023

Dear Friends,

At the Jewish summer camp of my youth, a popular topic for our limmudim (learning sessions) was this classic question: do we consider ourselves American Jews, or Jewish Americans? If push ever came to shove, which would be our primary identity?

I don’t think this question resonates anymore. For most Reform Jewish kids these days, there’s little to debate. Nearly all, I’d surmise, would identify as Americans first, and Jews second. And in many ways, this is a sign of incredible success: we have integrated into American society in ways that our immigrant ancestors could only have dreamed of.

Unfortunately, no matter our successes, there will always be those who reject us, existentially. That’s why I often avoid the clinical sounding word, “antisemitism,” preferring to call it what it is: the hatred of Jews. Many of us thought that the days of socially accepted Jew-hatred were behind us. Unfortunately, nobody can reasonably think that now. The hatred of Jews — which scholars deem the ‘oldest hate’ — has ebbed and flowed over 2000 years; and once again, it is on the rise.

In 2021, the ADL tracked 2,717 antisemitic incidents throughout the United States, ranging from harassment to violent assaults. This is the highest number in decades; and unfortunately, 2022 is on track to set a new record.

I believe that there are essentially two ways to respond to these trends: by disguising our identity or by confronting the hate by living proudly as Jews. Unfortunately, history has shown us that even assimilation and anonymity cannot protect Jews from those who hate. So, let’s stand up together, loud and proud!

I hope you will join us for our Kulanu (“all of us”) event against antisemitism and hate on January 29. We’ll be joined by Director of ADL Connecticut Stacey Sobel, as well as local clergy, school superintendents, and other civic leaders from the Shoreline. The event is open to all; so please bring your friends from inside and outside of the Jewish Community. And most importantly, bring your pride and love for being Jewish.

May love and true understanding prevail over hatred. May our hands together build the future we know our kids deserve.

Bivracha (Blessings),
Rabbi Danny Moss