From the Rabbi - May 2004

My Dear Friends,

It's harvest time. It's counting time too. From Pesach to Shavuot, we count the seven weeks of the Omer. Traditionally, this marks the period of the barley harvest. In biblical days, in order to show gratitude to God for the gift of grain, a measure (omer) of the first barley harvest was brought to the Temple each day for 49 days. After the completion of this ritual, the people were allowed to enjoy eating the produce of the new harvest. Today, the counting of the Omer takes on an entirely different meaning. Since most of us do not live in an agricultural environment, the counting of the Omer could be discounted as having no significance to our lives. And yet, this is a time of harvest - for all of us - in different ways.

A harvest is a culmination. During this month of May, we will be acknowledging and celebrating many different types of culminations. Our high school and college seniors will be graduating and moving on to new chapters in their lives. On May 29, at our Shabbat morning services, we will be celebrating this year's wonderful Confirmation Class. On May 16, at our annual meeting, in addition to all of the year-end business of our congregation, we will be paying tribute to the members of our "Mitzvah Circle" - celebrating the wonderful volunteers without whom we as a congregation could not function. We also will have an opportunity at our annual meeting to publicly recognize Cantor Jacqueline Shuchat-Marx and thank her for all that she has done for us over the past seven years. We will have other opportunities to say goodbye to Cantor Jacquie, Mark and Harry in June, but this will be a good start.

These are just a few of the many opportunities our congregation has to offer. I look forward to sharing with all of you in the harvest of our lives. Happy counting!

B’Shalom,
Rabbi Joseph R. Black

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