Sukkat Shalom Reform Synagogue

From Rabbi Larry Becker at Channukah.

Rabbi Mazel was a man known for his great asceticism. During all of his married life he would divert his eyes and not even look at any woman but his wife, who was known for her good deeds if not her physical endowments. After many years of married life his wife died and from that point on Rabbi Mazel retreated even further from the world, shutting himself in with his books and refusing to even take a walk in the park or enjoy any pleasures of the senses at all. He finally went to his reward at the age of 100.

Why did they do it?

As you read the above question I wonder which event came to your mind?

The August riots? The phone hacking scandal? The MP’s expenses scandal? The already rich bankers who walked away with millions after helping to ruin the banking system and the economy? The terrorist who deliberately murders an innocent child?? The fool who passed you doing 90 in a 40 mile per hour zone yesterday? The person who ran the red light to save seconds on their journey? The 13 year old who becomes pregnant? The business person who throws their future away by playing fast and loose with the tax laws? The person who destroys their family by having an affair?

Or the private deed that you did of which you are ashamed though no one but you knows that you did it?

There was a woman who had just purchased her first new computer. She set it up and turned it on but she couldn’t see anything on the screen so she called up the support service for help. “Have you plugged in both the screen and the computer?” asked the support desk. “Of course” said the woman, “I am not stupid.” “Have you connected the screen to the computer properly?” asked the support desk. “I think so” said the woman. “How can I check?” “If you look in the manual on page 5 there are instructions and a diagram that you can look at to show what the connections are. I suggest that you read the page and look at the diagrams.” “I can’t” said the woman in an exasperated voice.

Chaim had worked hard in the navy and rose to the rank of admiral commanding his country’s newest, largest, aircraft carrier. One foggy night he was on the bridge when a bright spotlight was spotted ahead. He ordered his radio operator to tell the ship ahead to turn 7 degrees west. “Sir” said the operator, “he says that we should turn 7 degrees east”. Swelled with pride and anger he responded “tell him that I am an admiral and that I order him to turn 7 degrees west !!!

30th Anniversary of the Founding of the Synagogue

Letter from Rabbi Howard Cooper (Our 1st rabbi)

Dear Frank,

I am really sorry that I won't be able to be there on 8th - (for the synagogue's 30th birthday) an extra month's notice wouldn't have made any difference, as I have  a prior commitment at Finchley Reform that morning.
 
I'd like to send a brief message of congratulations to you all on this special anniversary:
 

As some of you will know I have just returned from celebrating the thirty third anniversary of my twenty seventh birthday with my family and at this time I took the opportunity to reread Tcherikover’s Hellenistic Civilization and the Jews.

There was a certain Jewish schnorrer (beggar), who went to the same rich man every month for money. After several years he had a bit of a shock as his benefactor told him that sadly he would not be able to give him any money that month. “I have had a very bad month,” the benefactor said “people who owe me money on loans could not pay and besides this my wife fell ill and I had to send her to the spa for a cure. Not only is the spa expensive in itself but of course it is in the mountains and I had to buy my wife a new fur coat to keep her warm.” “A fur coat !!!” the schnorrer shouted, “with my money !!!”

Now is the month Elul, the time of spiritual preparation. We each seek to become the perfect Rabbi, full of knowledge, good deeds, humility and, most important of all, true repentance. But as there is no such perfect Rabbi, from whom shall we learn the secret of how to obtain this goal? Who can show us the path they themselves have not trodden?

I suggest we might start by examining words of wisdom from three of our fellows.

When is ish ..ish... and how do we keep it from becoming either ISH or -ish?

Don’t worry I will translate the above question into English, or at least Americanish.

I have recently become fascinated by the contradictory amount of emphasis indicated by the suffix ish. It can be a state of being so fundamental to our self-image as to inform every aspect of our lives. When I say that I am Jewish I am pointing out a part of my existence that is the core of my being. No ritual or process or experience is truly capable of changing this.

When is ish ..ish... and how do we keep it from becoming either ISH or -ish?

Don’t worry I will translate the above question into English, or at least Americanish.

I have recently become fascinated by the contradictory amount of emphasis indicated by the suffix ish. It can be a state of being so fundamental to our self-image as to inform every aspect of our lives. When I say that I am Jewish I am pointing out a part of my existence that is the core of my being. No ritual or process or experience is truly capable of changing this.

Mrs Hacker (referring to backbench MPs) But aren’t they underpaid in fact?

PM Jim Hacker – Underpaid? Backbench MPs? Darling being an MP is a vast subsidised ego trip. It is a job for which you need no qualifications, there are no compulsory hours of work, no performance standards, you get a warm room and subsidized meals for a bunch of self-opinionated windbags and busybodies, they only find that people take them seriously because they have the letters MP after their name. How can they be underpaid when there are about 200 applicants for every vacancy?

Given the current weather it is perhaps not surprising that my thoughts have turned to snow.

As I write this the seasons are changing. Summer (of a sorts) is turning to autumn. Autumn will in turn give way to winter, winter to spring, spring to summer etc. This seems so natural to us that there seems no reason to think about it or reason to question this seemingly universal and unending truth,

LEO BAECK COLLEGE ORDAINS EIGHT RABBIS FOR THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT

Leo Baeck College is proud to announce the Ordination on Sunday 5 July 2009, of eight Rabbis for the Progressive Movement in the UK. Leo Baeck College is the only institution in the UK to ordain eight rabbis in one ceremony, all of whom are due to serve in very different UK communities after ordination and have come from different backgrounds.