March/April 2017

Message from our president

Jewish holidays bring thoughts of favorite foods to most of us…I have to admit that I just can’t get excited about matzah and all that goes with it. While I do enjoy a good matzah pizza (how can you go wrong with tomato sauce and cheese baked on a piece of cardboard?) and have been told that my matzah toffee is very tasty, it just is not my favorite holiday for eating.

Yet, I do look forward to our yearly Passover Seder when my family and close friends gather at my mother’s house and look forward to the unveiling of our Seder’s theme. My oldest sister, Roberta, is the “Marcia Cohen” of another congregation in the area. Every year since her graduation from the Hebrew Union College, she has led our extended family Seder. While we still read the whole Haggadah (I can still hear my father pushing for page 64), Roberta has added her own twists to engage all, young and old, in the retelling of the Exodus from Egypt.

Past themes included:

Wicked: we looked for similarities between the Passover story and the hit musical.

Mission Impossible: our mission was to figure out what we needed for our departure from Egypt.

Broadway show tunes: it’s amazing what songs you can find on the internet.

Ask Moses: everyone got to write a question to Moses and then my father answered them. It was a classic.

Help Aaron pick a university: that year’s theme centered around my son’s choices for college. Our goal was to find similarities to the Passover story and the four universities he was accepted to.

While there are some long-time favorite parts of the Seder each year, I am amazed how we are able to see the story in a new light with the lens of our latest theme, and  the ways it relates to different aspects of our life, both fun and serious.

I have the same experience of continuing to find new meaning in old text at Friday night services. Rabbi Margolis always manages to find a way to relate the week’s Torah portion to the world around us; relating the text to what is happening in the news and what is happening on a more personal level. What is amazing about our Judaism is the evolution, and the limitless ways to interpret and frame text and old lessons in a fashion that helps us connect with our “todays” while being reminded of our “yesterdays.”

In the weeks ahead, I encourage each of you, regardless of how long you have been a member, to experience Friday night services or participate in an event—even if you’ve tried it before. Just as our relationship with our Torah is fluid, our relationship with our temple community and offerings change as our lives change.

Try something new or come back to something you’ve tried before. Don’t forget to make your reservation for Or Shalom’s second night Seder, so you can discover Rabbi Margolis’ new twist to the annual telling of the Passover story.

See you around the shul,

Jennifer Leventhal
Board President