Rabbi's Column Summer 2020

Our summer is anything but “light” this year. Instead of Summer Days we enter our Summer Daze. But it need not be that way and in fact, we can’t afford to be in a daze. There is too much at stake.

We are still immersed in a Pandemic even as the state of Connecticut takes measures to re-open. We are still immersed in a national revelation of ongoing racism. We, as a congregation, are celebrating the comings and goings of Cantors as we shared a beautiful goodbye with Cantor Stanton and we look forward to embracing Cantor Boyle. We have also installed a new President in Sarah Mervine, even as we are glad that we don’t have to say a literal goodbye to Jeff Babbin who now steps into the role of Immediate Past President.

We also have much to look forward to! Our “Summer Services” throughout July and August will, as is now our custom, begin at 6pm with a PreNeg and be a shortened service so you can be out-the-(proverbial)-door by 7pm. And yes – that door is still proverbial as we adhere to the highest standards of COVID-19 health guidelines.

Our Summer Services will be LIVE on Zoom (in other words, they will shift from being pre-recorded on Zoom by the service leaders to being an 'in-real-time’ experience for all participants).

We are also in the midst of planning some live OUTDOOR Shabbat Services this summer. We can look forward to having FOUR outdoor services this summer – two in July and two in August. Two will be in Madison and two will be in Guilford, and each location will have enough space for us to observe social distancing. [See separate article in this Shofar for dates, times and locations.] We are working on ways to also do a live-recording of the service so all of our TBT community can join in, those who are able to join in-person as well as those for whom being at an outdoor service is not the right choice right now. (If YOU have technological expertise in this area and know how we can live-record our outdoor service so others can view it virtually, please call me right away!!!)

As we plan for our Summer Services, I also want you to know that High Holidays are very much on our minds. This virus does not willfully discriminate, but it does seem that large physical gatherings, with singing I might add, will be the last pieces of the COVID puzzle to re-open. I can say with confidence, however, that we are very hard at work on planning a High Holiday experience that will be moving, uplifting, joyous and connecting. To help assure that goal, I invite you to share with me your answers to these questions: “What are the pieces of the High Holidays at TBT that are ‘must haves’ on your list?” and “What is the goal of the High Holidays for you?” The Torah reminds us powerfully that we are to “choose life that you may live.” Rest assured that all of our decisions are driven by this commandment.

One more important item I can’t resist mentioning: Welcome, Cantor Boyle!!! We are so excited to have you as our Cantor-Educator and to have you and Cory living here in Madison at long last! A big Mazel Tov to you both on your upcoming wedding day. All of TBT is invited to the aufruf! We will have an aufruf for Cantor & Cory at our first summer service: Friday, July 3rd at 6pm. It will be our first summer service, Cantor Boyle’s first service as TBT’s Cantor, and a great time for us all to come together in honor of this special moment in all of our lives.

To a beautiful summer,
Rabbi Offner

President's Column - June 2020

Shalom. Summer is almost here, I have my vegetable garden planted, and the warmer weather and longer days all have us hoping for better times ahead. Your leadership, both clergy and the lay board, are carefully following the health guidance from our local and state leaders. We also have created our own synagogue committee with knowledgeable congregants to guide our decisions and programming through the summer and beyond. We are all hopeful to have some limited, in-person, socially distanced outdoor services or programs this summer, and we will be guided by the experts on what is both allowed and safe.

Regardless of what form it takes, we will be welcoming Cantor Jennifer Boyle to TBT in early July as our new Cantor-Educator. Cantor Boyle will bring her energy and talent to the Bimah and to the Religious School. She already has “Zoomed” with the B’nei Mitzvah families to introduce herself and ensure continuity. The co-chairs of our search committee, Sue Groll and Loren Sterman, are now co-chairs of our transition committee. Working with our Education Co-chairs Peter Chorney and Deb Coe, they will ensure a seamless hand-off from Cantor Stanton to Cantor Boyle. Please also calendar Friday, June 12 at 7:15 p.m. for a live, Zoom Shabbat service where we will say good-bye to Cantor Stanton and celebrate all that he gave to this community in the last two years.

This column is also my good-bye column as TBT President. But I’m not really going anywhere. After three years as President, I am transitioning to Immediate Past President, so I will continue to serve on the Executive Committee and Board and look forward to working with your new President, Sarah Mervine, in the next couple of years. It has been an honor and pleasure to be TBT’s President, to meet so many more of you and really experience the love this congregation has for TBT. It has also been an honor and pleasure to work closely with the clergy, staff, and all of the lay leaders on TBT’s Board and committees. TBT has a bright future, and I look forward to seeing it all unfold.

As they say in Israel, l’hitraot. See you again soon.
Jeff Babbin

Rabbi's Column - June 2020

Note: These remarks were offered by Rabbi Offner at the Annual Meeting on May 14th:

The agenda for the Annual Meeting calls upon me to offer a “Review of the Year.” How does one offer a review of the year when just the past eight weeks already feel like a century? Time is funny that way, and no more so than during a pandemic. So as I reflect on this past year, I reflect most significantly on how a synagogue like ours, a synagogue that at its very heart is about bringing people together, how we made a pivot eight weeks ago, and how in a matter of hours we took everything that is precious to us – our prayers, our learning, our Torah, our life cycles and our social justice work – and we put it all on line and we turned our entire synagogue into a virtual reality.

Consider those two words: ‘virtual’ and ‘reality’. They used to be opposites. If it was virtual, it wasn’t real. Today those words are synonyms. We focus a lot of our efforts on the ‘virtual’ part, as those of us who barely knew how to save a word document, are all of a sudden faced with the need to navigate through the day with Zoom and Google Classroom and Facebook Live. Everything is now virtual. But ‘reality’ is another important word, because though it is now via technology, we are still coming together and we have created something very real. Synagogue life has not stopped, not for one second. If anything, we are more connected, more profoundly connected, as this pandemic has made all our religious language about life and death more acute and more manifest.

In just 2 short months we managed to put all of our Shabbat services on line. We have live onegs on line. We had a Passover Seder and Passover Meals and even hosted special guest speakers at our Shabbat services. We have an engaging Torah study every week on line. We even have Jewish Meditation on line.

We also have an emergency connection network at our synagogue right now that we lovingly call “Helping Hands,” so that every single member of our congregation has a contact person who can initiate delivery of groceries, a chat to mitigate against lonliness, delivery of masks and navigation of social services.

And yes, the cycle of life continues. I have conducted baby namings on line, and I have wept with mourners at shiva services, on line.

None of this could happen without the extraordinary dedication and service of our lay leadership and our staff. Our Executive Committee has been working overtime. Perhaps I should amend “overtime” to “all the time.” I do not know how they do it. And our staff. Working from home but carrying on. Because we have a lot of work to do. Kim is taking care of our building every day. The Cantor has put the entire Religious School on line, and God bless our Religious School teachers, who we will be honoring at our final T’filah this Sunday morning, for all they are doing to teach our children their aleph’s and their bet’s. Bonnie assures that you receive your Shofar Blast every week and the SHOFAR is delivered to your door each month. Jen Casillo continues to connect with our Preschool Students and, because of her magic, we anticipate a huge increase in enrollment for next year.

The ways we have pivoted and adjusted are remarkable. But equally remarkable is this: life continues. We continue to build for the future. Our Building Committee is hard at work. Our Capital Campaign Committee is hard at work. TBT was just awarded a $30,000 grant from the Community Grant for the Jewish Elderly from the Jewish Foundation of Greater New Haven, to start a new project of connecting our elder generations and our younger ones, a 2-Way L’Dor Vador.

We are preparing to say a fond farewell to Cantor Stanton who has touched all of us these past two years with his kind soul and majestic voice. And we have hired a new Cantor who is bursting with energy and eagerness to meet all of her new B’nai Mitzvah Students and to bring her vision to our Religious School and her spirituality to the bima.

Life continues. So in many ways, this evening is a celebration. It is a celebration of fortitude, of compassion, of determination and proof that ‘coming together’ continues to be at the heart of what we do as a synagogue. We do indeed come together in these unique times as we have done in the past and will continue to do in the future. And so we count our blessings.

Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai our God, we ask for your blessings upon this House of Hope. Bless us with safety and with love. Bless us with patience and with hope, bless us with good health and with peace.

Ken yihi ratzon (Let it be so),
Rabbi Offner

President's Column

Shalom.

May is normally a time to treasure the outdoors, when we enjoy the warm air and, on Memorial Day weekend, kick off summer fun. Instead, we’re in our own silos, our bunkers – our homes. We do get to treasure time with family, including children home from college (even if they would much prefer to still be there!). And there’s something spiritual about taking a daily long walk with a family member, emerging from our indoor lives for those brief moments of freedom and sunshine.

TBT also gives us those moments of connection to our community, even if it’s through our new means of connecting to the world – the internet and Zoom. Our weekly Shabbat services to view online, our interactive live Oneg gatherings and Torah Study group, weekly Mindfulness & Meditation, our renewed Religious School lessons, and the wonderful Passover Second Seder that over 50 TBT families attended have become part of the new rhythm of our lives.

Soon, our online experience will include the TBT Annual Meeting. Yes, like clockwork, virus or no virus, we will have our Annual Meeting, just not in the Social Hall. Through your computers, we can hear all about the wonderful things happening at TBT, celebrate our accomplishments, honor the Friesner Scholarship winner (and hear a report from last year’s winner), understand the TBT budget for the next year, and elect next year’s leaders who will help to continue to make TBT the beacon of Jewish life on the shoreline. Hope to “see” you all via Zoom on Thursday, May 14, from 7:00-8:30 p.m. The only thing we can’t give you is the pre-meeting nosh!

Although, that reminds me that TBT’s Helping Hands is still there for everyone who needs a person to talk to or assistance in shopping or other needs. Just reach out to the TBT Office.

- Jeff Babbin

Rabbi's Column - May 2020

Dear Friends,

We are getting good at this. Or not. It has been a good six weeks of isolation now. I recall the first moments as we made step-by-step adjustments to our lifestyles. I think back to the month of February – very easy for me to remember the entire month as Nancy and I were in Florida for the month. It was a time of innocence or maybe better referred to as naiveté. A virus was launching itself to land all over the world but we sat unknowingly in restaurants and at concerts and in places of worship – gathering, as is human to do.

And then came March. I remember those first ‘elbow bumps.’ We thought it was funny. Awkward. Silly even. But we played along and bumped elbows. Would that we could today. Because I had been away in February, we had a huge March line-up of special events and activities at the synagogue. Friday the 13th was to be Men’s Club Shabbat. The guys had prepared diligently. They knew their parts, had prepared the Torah reading, the d’var Torah and all the readings. It wasn’t until the afternoon of the 13th that we started wondering whether we should be gathering together to bring in that Shabbat. We cancelled Men’s Club Shabbat. And the rest is history. The public schools announced that they would not be returning to school that Monday. We cancelled Religious School for that Sunday.

Six weeks later, we have adjusted. We are living our lives remotely. But we are connecting. Even in profound ways.

I am so proud of our synagogue: the staff, the leadership, the volunteers, the members. So much courage. So much vision, And at this Bet Tikvah, this House of Hope, so much hope.

We have managed to turn our entire synagogue into a virtual reality. We have meaningful programs each and every week: Shabbat Services, a live pop-in Oneg that you can come to anytime and schmooze and visit and connect with your TBT family. We even have a Meditation Group that meets successfully on-line! We have assured that all our members have food and masks. We celebrated Passover beautifully with a Zoom Seder (some call it the Zeder), and we put kosher Passover meals complete with all items for your Seder plate, right into the trunks of your cars so you could observe Passover and gain strength from our Jewish traditions.

We have also celebrated births and mourned those who have passed away. More than anything at all, we have honored life. And we will continue to do so because that is what we do.

Today, more than ever, the synagogue has proven its value. Hold it fast. Hold on tight. We are in for a long ride, but we are in it together. And that is precious and priceless.

May God bless you all,
Rabbi Offner

President's Column - April 2020

Shalom.

I write to you at a time of great uncertainty in all of our lives, as they’ve been upended by a public health crisis unprecedented in our lifetimes. Our children are home from day care centers, grade schools, and colleges; our workplaces require remote work; and our local restaurants, theaters, and fitness centers are closed. I’m writing this column on March 18, but it’s impossible to predict what our lives will be like when you read this April Shofar column.

Although the synagogue building is physically closed to public access for now, rest assured that Temple Beth Tikvah remains open as your spiritual home on the shoreline. Our staff are ensuring all synagogue business is getting done; our clergy are ensuring you have access (even if remotely) to services and Torah study; our B’nai Mitzvah students are receiving their tutoring (again, remotely); and our religious school is actively pursuing strategies to engage your children remotely and continue their learning.

We are not alone. The umbrella organization for Reform synagogues, the URJ, is bringing the whole Reform Movement together via a series of videoconferences to provide resources and support to congregations throughout the country. And you – our congregants – are not alone. TBT is concerned with the health, safety, and welfare of every member of this community, and thanks to a dedicated group of volunteers, we are reaching out to every congregant to ensure they are well and if they have needs we can work to fulfill. If you have not yet been contacted, or if you need a helping hand, or just someone to talk to, don’t hesitate to let the TBT Office, the Rabbi or Cantor know. Rest assured that TBT will be there for you.

Let’s hope and pray for easier times in the months ahead. May your celebration of Passover be meaningful in whatever form it can take.

Jeff Babbin

Rabbi's Column - April 2020

Dear Friends,

In a world that is changing so rapidly each and every day, it is hard to imagine where we will be as you read this note.

It is hard to know if we will be climbing further into difficult circumstances, or beginning to see our way out of them. In truth, we probably do know that whatever point we are at on the journey, we are in for a long haul. We are sure to be experiencing fear, fatigue, uncertainty and confusion. We are equally certain to have learned new skills, new ways of coping, new ways of reaching out and new ways of appreciating one another.

We cannot physically touch anymore, but oh how we can continue to touch. Our HELPING HANDS group has mobilized and every person in our congregation should have received a ‘touch.’ We want to go further, too. Technology has been a helpful tool – but not if you are not familiar with technology. If you need a lesson in Facetime or Zoom – our SALTY High School Youth Group kids are eager to give you a one-on-one! Just contact the office and we will arrange it.

We are coming together for Shabbat Services online and for Torah Study every Shabbat morning. We are exploring online Book Groups and other ways to stay engaged.

Nevertheless, though these wonders abound, I am keenly aware that the situation is stressful, anxiety-provoking and disconcerting. The risks to people’s health and people’s lives are serious.

We must continue, each of us, to observe the practices required to keep us all safe. Wash your hands. Use Purell. Keep your physical distance from others, but goodness knows we want to keep very close spiritually and emotionally. I am awed by the human spirit.

We are a resilient species. We will get through this. Not only will we get through this, we will ultimately be better for it. We will be better at humility. We will be better at reaching out. We will be better at perspective, knowing more clearly what is truly important and what is ultimately trivial.

Pesach arrives in just a few days. All our plans for gathering together physically? Cancelled. But the message of Pesach endures. It is a message of overcoming plagues. It is a message of true leaders rising up to lead a fearful people toward freedom and safety.

It is also a message that concludes: “L’Shana Ha’Ba’ah B’Yerushalayim,” “Next year in Jerusalem.” That message has new meaning for us today. It means: let’s make a date for next year. Let’s plan on our future and plan for our future. At TBT, it means we have not CANCELLED our events, we have RESCHEDULED them.

Yes, our in-person programs have been temporarily suspenced, but we are already planning for “L’Shana Ha’Ba’ah, for next year. We ‘cancelled’ our TBT Trip to Spain in April of 2020, but we are already planning for the trip to Spain to happen in April of 2021. We ‘cancelled’ our Scholar-in-Residence Weekend in March, but we have already rescheduled for October 23-24, 2020.

We do not yet know what our Seders will look like this year, but when they end, we will say “L’Shana Ha’Ba’ah B’Yerushalayim.” We will believe with all our heart and soul, “Next Year, in a healthier world and in a better place.”

• Rabbi Offner

President's Column - March 2020

Dear fellow congregants,

I am writing to update you on the search for a cantor and educator to succeed Cantor Stanton after he departs on June 30. I am pleased to report that our cantor-educator search committee is up and running, chaired by Sue Groll and Loren Sterman. The committee is busy sorting through our options and submitting applications.

Cantor Stanton (like Cantor Margolius before him) wore multiple hats as a cantor-educator in addressing the musical, spiritual, and educational needs of our congregation. As we look for a candidate to fill those big shoes, the committee is taking a flexible approach in hiring, consistent with TBT’s history. For those of you who have been part of our community for many years, you’ll recall our use of student cantors on weekends and High Holidays or, at other times, a part-time ordained cantor or non-ordained music director (cantorial soloist) – with a separate professional educator serving as our religious school director in a part-time capacity. We are open to a variety of permutations, taking into account the applications we receive and the needs of our congregation.

Consistent with the breadth of our needs, our search committee (overseen by Sue and Loren) reflects the breadth of our congregation, populated with congregants with both musical and educational interests and experiences, cutting across different generations, and involved with a variety of synagogue activities (choir, Torah Study, religious school, and others). I thank the following volunteers: Peter Chorney, Christine Dokko, Kate Glazer, Alan Meyers, Heide Mueller-Hatton, Walter Stutzman, Stu Weinzimer, and Sandy Whelan. Also, the Rabbi and President (yes, that’s me) sit on the committee.

We are excited to undertake this work. If you have ideas that you’d like to share with the committee, please email me at jbabbin@wiggin.com .

-Jeff Babbin

Cantor's Column - March 2020

Dear Friends,

Looking at the scroll that we read on Purim – the Megilah scroll or “Megilat Esther” – we see several things that stand out in contrast to the reading of Torah.

Most notably, it doesn’t mention the name (or names) of God. Also, in more traditional Jewish communities, the scroll itself is prepared in advance of the reading by folding it in book-like fashion. Also note that, unlike the Torah, it is one single scroll. It never can be confused with a Torah scroll which is stretched out between two Atzei-Chayim – two “trees” (remember: “it is a tree of life to them that hold fast to it”). The “Megilah” scrolls are often ornate with artwork or even treated like paper art (think laser cards) and encased in beautiful containers. While we adorn the Torahs with beautiful covers, the scroll itself is simple and, aside from the letters, untouched. At TBT we are fortunate to have a few of these Megilah scrolls with their beautiful cases on display in the front display cases. One reason for the elaborate way we treat the Megilah scrolls, aligning with other customs around Purim, is to emphasize the physical aspects of life.

Other Jewish customs and mitzvot that are observed on Purim, such as the giving of mishloach manot, the giving of gifts of food to friends and neighbors, and the giving of tzedakah to those in need, remind us that there are basic needs that must be met in life, but also acknowledging that things can be taken to excess. An example of this can be seen in the hearing of the megilat Esther – the whole megillah, where the custom of imbibing, silliness, and turning many things upside down like the special trope used to chant the Esther’s story and the costumes we wear, and even dressing like the opposite gender is permitted; much like the customs seen in mardi gras keeping with the spirit of the holiday.

There are many Purim-related events going on at TBT the week leading up to Purim and I hope you can be part of some of them including our Purim Shpiel and SALTY carnival on Sunday, March 8th from 11 AM to 1:30 PM.

Also, consider joining us on Erev Purim, Monday, March 9th, 7 – 8 PM, for an Adult Megillah Shpiel. (21+ recommended). Hors d’oeuvres and libations will be served, or feel free to BYOB. In addition, we are looking for three (3) additional adult players for our Purim Shpiel cast on Monday evening. Please contact Cantor Stanton if you are interested and up for the fun!!

Purim Sameach!
Cantor Mark Stanton

President's Column February 2020

Jeff has taken a vacation this month. Check back in March for more words of wisdom from our Temple President!