From the Cantor - May 2002

Shalom, Chaveirim:

May (and the Hebrew month of Iyyar) is a month of milestones this year. Approximately two dozen tenth-graders will celebrate the rite of Confirmation. Two seventh-graders will become B'nai Mitzvah. Our congregation will install its Board of Trustees for the year 2002-2003. Children and adults alike will celebrate their own significant school graduations (see "Simchas and Such"). My mother will finally leave her East Tennessee home of nearly four decades to make her long-anticipated move to Columbia, Maryland. Furthermore I will celebrate my fifth-year anniversary as an invested Cantor-in-Israel and continue to feel incredibly lucky about the life I have chosen and the people who continue to share it with me.

This year Confirmation falls on the Shabbat following the festival of Shavuot. On Shavuot we celebrate God's revelation of the ultimate gift of love on Mount Sinai - the Torah. As our Confirmation class celebrates the "Gift of the Law" (in classical Reform parlance) they will re-affirm the promise they made as each became a Bar or Bat Mitzvah: commitment to lifetime Torah study, worship and acts of loving kindness. Similarly, college graduates affirm to excel in their chosen livelihoods. My mom boldly vows to meet her new life head-on with efforts to meet her expectations. I promise to strive to be a better Cantor with each year of my incumbency. Each simcha carries with it a promise of continuance as well as acknowledgment of a milestone reached. Can the Hebrew month of Iyyar really be a month of coincidences?

Although Israel currently faces one of its darkest hours, we are not powerless. I'm repeating sound advice from Rabbi Black, because it is of the utmost consequence:

1. Write checks to Magen David Adom (the Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross) or Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem, which treats wounded Israelis and Palestinians or the Central Conference of American Rabbis, which is raising $50,000 to buy an ambulance for Israel. If you are unsure where to send these checks, pass them to Rabbi Black or me. We promise they will reach their destination.
2. Fight bias in the media by writing to the editor of any publication in need of a well-rounded education. If you don't receive satisfaction, write again.
3. Write to President Bush and all politicians who represent us in Congress. Acknowledge their determination to stand by Israel and press them to do more to support her.

B'Shalom u-v'shir,
Cantor Jacqueline L. Shuchat-Marx

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