May 8, 2020 / 14 Iyar, 5780 / Day 29 of the Omer / Parashat Emor Dear Friends,
I don’t know about you, but I wake up most mornings to national news that fills me with sadness and fear on a local and global scale. I admire and rely on colleagues like
Rabbi Jill Zimmerman who have created on-line sacred spaces where people can spiritually refuel and share, if they wish, “what keeps us up at night” fears. I encourage you to register for her
weekly pre-Shabbat meditation today at 4pm PDT – a beautiful way to cleanse the mind in preparation for Sabbath rest. Lord knows we need it.
These JCoOC services and events offered on May 8 – 12 are sure to lift your spirits:
- Shabbat Shalom at Home, Friday, May 8th at 6:30pm. San Diego based song leader, Eph Rosenzweig, joins Rabbi Marcia and family for a music-filled Kabbalat Shabbat and Ma’ariv service. Click HERE to join us through Facebook Live. Click HERE to join us by Zoom. A copy of Siddur Sim Shalom is available HERE. Download tonight’s song sheet HERE.
- Twelve Steps and Torah, Saturday, May 9th at 2pm. Recovery Rabbi Ilan Glaser will be our teacher. Join others looking to fuse their Twelve Step programs with Jewish wisdom and ethics. This week we will explore Jewish concepts of holiness through a recovery lens. Click HERE to join us on Zoom, or call 949-402-8004 for more information.
- Havdalah Together, May 9th at 8:30pm. Rabbi Aviva Funke joins Rabbi Marcia and family for a soul-filling close to Shabbat. Click HERE to join us through Facebook Live. Zoom information is available HERE.
- Mother’s Day Concert with a Purpose, Sunday, May 10th from 5-6pm. The Jewish Collaborative of OC is proud to partner with the Jewish Federation of the San Gabriel & Pomona Valleys to host “Heart & Home: A Tribute to Mothers and Those Who Nurture.” Three families of mothers and children sheltering in place will perform from the comfort of their homes. Donations made through this low-key fundraiser will provide immediate relief to the men and women living on Skid Row. Click HERE to LEARN MORE and SUPPORT the event, including how to honor/remember your mom in a photo montage to be displayed during the concert. Click HERE to join the Facebook Live event.
- Advanced Learning Institute, Tuesday, May 12th from 10-11am. Local treasure, Rabbi Heather Miller, founder of “Keeping it Sacred,” returns this week as our guest scholar teaching "A Modern Midrash of the Story of Ruth." Click HERE to join us on Zoom.
Today, May 8th, would have been
Ahmaud Arbery’s 26th birthday. He was a young black man who was shot while out for a run in Glynn County, GA on February 23rd of this year. My colleague,
Rabbi Rachel Bregman, lives in Glynn County. She shared in a very touching email that, at the time the racially motivated shooting took place, “it wasn't even news until the New York Times and other outlets picked up the story weeks later. The older shooter had been on the police force. No arrests had been made. No grand jury empaneled. Nothing. There has been a growing outcry which must rise above the din of the pandemic.”
As if America did not have enough on its plate right now, it is important for all of us to remember that our beloved home still has “hot spots” of racial toxicity manifest in myriad ways, from the
COVID-19 Race Gap, to young black men getting shot while out for a health run because someone decides they are suspect.
Rabbi Bregman charges us not to give up hope: Arbery was born on Mother’s Day 26 years ago. She writes: “This weekend, his family is organizing a peaceful, socially distanced way to show support - a 2.23 mile run or walk on the date of his birth (or on Mother’s Day) hearkening to the date of his death, February 23rd. We need your attention right now and for the next few months. Please, go for a walk and pin a sign on your shirt that says ‘
I run with Maud.’ You can learn more about the details here on this
Facebook page which is the one monitored by his family.”
It is easy to forget during this time of pandemic, that there exist many 'Dis – Eases' plaguing our country that have been mutating in suitable host environments for decades and centuries. We cannot retire until they are all eradicated.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Marcia Tilchin
