Shalom magazine - The Atlantic Jewish Council

Land and an influence on all religions and
cultures of the West.
This is the essence of the Shavuot holiday.
The tie is made between them by counting
in anticipation each day from Passover
to Shavuot, in the time of the omer. Days
add up to weeks. The seven times seven
weeks indicates a fullness and completion
of mission.
And so for the King’s students graduating
today, the teachings of the Passover /
Omer / Shavuot period encapsulates their
last four years.
Your “Passover” was in leaving home
in freedom for the first time. But what
did you do with your freedom--attend
beer bashes and wild parties? Or did you
make something of your new setting of
opportunities?
There were difficulties in your adjusting
to a new discipline, just as the Jews faced
adversity historically during the Omer
period. But you added days up; you learned
new skills. Courses were put together,
ideas developed, so that you can now look
upon the whole process.
Now your freedom four years ago has come
to its goal. With all the challenges, you
should be able to stand on your Mt.Sinai
on this day. You will look back at the past
saying, “I have accomplished something
with my freedom.” You are now directed
forward, with a “covenant” of graduation-talents,
ideas and anticipations--which will
from here onwards guide your lives.
So may the meaning of the Jewish holiday
be a template for your achievements on
this day, as you start a new project of
freedom and fulfillment in the upcoming
years.
A Lost Tzaddik 1951-2010
“ . . . I saw a world overturned--those who had been on
the top were on the bottom, those on the bottom were
now at the top . . .” Talmud
Some would say these next paragraphs
should not be included here. This person
was not a prominent person in the
community. In the last years of his life
only Mr. Phil Alberstat and myself knew
much of him. By many he would have
been dubbed a street person for his style of
dress and unconventional life.
And yet--as I confront the Jewish texts
which make up our High Holidays liturgy,
I am compelled to share some general
details of his story.
Due to his disabilities, he was not able
to hold a job. Our office helped him with
some of his needs. He would call on me at
times for advice and perspective. When I
first met him years ago, I admittedly did
not know what to make of his questions.
They were frankly not always coherent.
But if you listened closer and consistently,
he was trying to make sense of life. He
sensed lately that his time was short.
However he had lived his life, he was
looking to make his last chapter one of
meaning and reconciliation.
We are now saying for the holiday season
Psalm 27. It has the stunning words--sh’ma
hashem, koli ekra--literally, “hear, oh
L--d, I will call my voice.” Many times we
cannot state those things which matter
Tishre 5771 - Vol 35 No. 2
rabbi’s CorNer
most deeply to us, but there is a voice in us
making the effort.
Our Jewish teachers and those in other
religions have taught us to be attuned to
children, mentally distraught persons, the
aged--who make not have or have lost the
facilities and veneers of civilized life but
who are ipso facto forced to search their
depths for a desperate call of their voice.
And then on Sukkot, we are told all of the
Four Species are required for the lulav. Our
sages say symbolically that all persons--low
and high, learned or not, accomplished or
non-achieving--are all important for our
community. Like the Four Species, they
must all be held together.
So this person, in his unconventional
way, was from his lost and hidden voice,
conducting his own High Holidays services
in his last months.
I hope that I was able to share some things
with him. I know that Ed Gordon, alav
ha-shalom, helped me understand many
things.
Rabbi David Ellis is available for
introducing persons looking for
Jewish mates in the region. All
inquiries and discussions are
strictly confidential.
Rabbi David Ellis
902-422-7491, ext. 228
rabbiellis@theajc.ns.ca
High Holiday Reflections
Ari Isenberg, Spiritual Leader, Shaar Shalom Congregation, Halifax
This issue
of Shalom
reminds us
of the imminence of
the Yamim Noraim,
the Ten Days of
Repentance. For me,
I am reminded that
it was in September
2000 that I first led you through a
High Holiday season – I was 19 years
old. What we did not know then is
that the inception of our relationship
would fuel a mutual desire to nurture
an unwavering bond between us,
a bond that has already evolved
into a decade of collaboration and
meaningful work together.
I am now 29 years old and this year marks
another transition. Just a few hours after
the final Shofar blast is sounded, denoting
the closing of the gates and the end of
Yom Kippur, I will be on a flight to Israel
where I will spend nine months studying,
fulfilling an integral component of the
rabbinical school program at JTS.
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