Cantor's Corner

As we head into the last month of 2021, take a moment to stop and look back on what we have accomplished and gained, and what we have succumbed to and lost this past year. It has truly been the best of times and the worst of times.

The Best of Times
We have remained a Jewish community. We began this year still online as I continued in the role of senior clergy for six more months. We learned new skills to hold our community together. Then we had to adapt when we returned to our sanctuary and created multi-access services. We celebrated holidays, services, new births, funerals and shivas, taught classes, continued religious school—and we did it all online. This new format saw us creating new styles and new rubrics for our services that were shortened but more participatory. During this time, I marveled at what we take for granted so much of the time: like welcoming someone to temple with a hug, sitting directly next to someone while opening our mouths to loudly proclaim our joy in praying and singing, and kibbitzing with a nosh afterwards!
 

We reached out to others in our community and in other communities to offer a hand and get groceries, medicine, or to call and make sure everyone was as alright as they could be. We considered what it meant to be a first responder and we were given the gift of re-evaluating and re-examining our long-held beliefs to see if they were still valid at this point in our lives.
 

We welcomed our Interim Rabbi Stefan Tiwy into the community. I hope that you appreciate the uniqueness of each leader who comes into our community, rather than doing compare and contrast observations that are so unproductive. Rabbi Tiwy brings the gift of teaching Torah, producing interesting and thought-provoking sermons, and offering a balance of clergy support that is so important in temple life.

The Worst of Times
While writing this article in early November, we have lost over five million people worldwide. In our community alone, we have lost congregants and family members. Our hearts are torn, and yet, we begin to see these deaths as just a big number, not the myriad of names and faces and precious lives that have been ripped from our world.
 

We have seen the best and the worst of human connectivity. On one hand, we have seen the push to make this world safe from COVID-19 through vaccination, cooperation, safety protocol, and seeking understanding of COVID-19. On the other hand, we have seen political agendas, misinformation, distrust, and overt individualism derail our world moving forward.
 

We have become short-tempered, more demanding and more demeaning of one another. We listen less and talk more—remind yourself that we are all struggling in one way or another.
 

As we move into the year 2022, I pray: for more in-person time, for our nation to be a united one for the good and health of everyone, for my pulpit and my gifts to continue here at Temple Beth El, for not looking back but looking forward and tapping into those new-found beliefs and observations of our world, for seeing those we have lost not as a number, but as parents, family, and friends, whose lives were a blessing, and for more empathy and genuine support of all.
 

A joyous eye-opening New Year to us all,
Cantor Geoff Fine