Letter from Rabbi Ross

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Rabbi Michael RossDear TBS Friends and Family,

As we prepare for our Year-end Congregational Meeting next Friday, 6/23 at 6:30 pm. Please join us for the meeting and the brief service afterwards. This is a special time in our community and it’s an opportunity for us to appreciate the beautiful parts of who we are as a community.

I want to present an overview of the 4 corners of our community to give you a sense of how I think about our community. (Last week, I presented the highlights of the past 12 months.)

Friday Night Services
We introduced our monthly musical service last January. These are shorter services, typically under an hour, and instead of a Torah reading, we have a brief Torah study. During our special holiday services, we have had special readings of Esther, Ruth and Israel’s Declaration of Independence. It has highlighted the unique aspects of these holidays and of these texts. This past year, our Friday night services were presented in a hybrid format. For the fall and winter months, this was valuable, as we typically had a handful of zoom participants. This spring, those numbers have dwindled, and we occasionally have a zoomer or two.

Prayer Lab – Saturday mornings
These gatherings were focused on discussion and text study of a few prayers at each session. It has been a great joy to see such a wonderful turnout for this project! We made minyan for most of these gatherings, and had 15-20 people frequently. Next fall, we will continue this experiment with a few adjustments to the schedule, so that we have a block of time for discussion and a block of time for communal prayer about what we discussed. Additionally,  we will move from a focus on the structure of the Jewish prayer service to a focus on the art of prayer. We will have a book that we will read, and each session will focus on a topic or chapter from the book.

Religious School – Sunday mornings, Thursday afternoons
We have a warm, small religious school that continues to grow. We say goodbye to our wonderful education director, Rabbi Rachel Brown, as she begins her new role at the West Temple.  The staff and the board will spend the summer planning for this transition. Rabbi Rachel has led us for the past two years in her signature program, Sababah Sundays, where we came together as a group and learned something new from a local expert and then learned the Jewish ideas or connection from Rabbi Rachel.

Judaism 101 – Sunday afternoons
After two years running this successful program, we took a break from it this winter. Prayer Lab is an outgrowth of this work – a vehicle for our new students to continue their learning. My dozen conversion students continue to move through their learning, and a number of them completed their conversion this spring. A few more are cued up for the fall. Another group is preparing for next spring.  We are exploring running a third cohort of Judaism 101 next winter for the newer students who have connected to our community and to me. Some are college students, some are adults. We will continue to learn how to welcome these students well in our community. A few of our recent conversion students are now acting as mentors to the newer students.

TBSBrotherhood meetings/events
• Sun. 6/25, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – TBS grounds clean-up
• Sun. 7/23, 2:05 pm – Rubber Ducks
• Sun. 8/6, 9:00 am – Brotherhood meeting at TBS. Join us for bagels and coffee.
We meet throughout the year in the spirit of friendship and good humor. We sponsor social events, fundraisers and building beautification projects to support and enhance the TBS community. Contact: Eric Draper at ej_draper@yahoo.com.

TBSSisterhood meetings/events
• Next year, Jeanie Rhodes will be the president of the Sisterhood. Robin Rosen-Sharp has served as president for nine years and she deserves a hearty thanks. She’ll take over the Secretary-Treasurer position but would be willing for another Sister to come forward to take over these tasks.

UPCOMING TBS GATHERINGS

  • Fri. 6/23, 6:30 pm – 7:20 pm: Congregational Meeting – in-person only
  • Fri. 6/23, 7:30 pm – 8:30 pm: Musical Shabbat – in-person and on zoom
  • Fri. 7/7, 6:00 pm: TBS Summer Cookout – at Hudson Springs Park
  • Sun. 8/6, 9:00 am: Brotherhood meeting – at TBS. Join us for bagels and coffee.