Rabbi's Week in Review
With Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah celebrated Monday evening and Tuesday of this week — more traditionally observant shuls outside Israel celebrate Shemini Atzeret on Monday evening/Tuesday, and Simchat Torah on Tuesday evening/Wednesday — we complete what you might call our busy season. Beginning with the month of Elul and our preparation for Rosh Hashanah, Selichot the week before Rosh Hashanah, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot ... Click here to read the rest of Rabbi Doug's blog post.
This Week's Torah Portion
This week’s Torah portion is Parashat Bereisht (Bereishit/Genesis 1:1-6:8). We start our Written Torah anew. As we read the story of creation (in two versions), we remember that we have a role as creators in the ongoing story of creation — our created world, our created synagogue community and ourselves.
Worship Events of the Week
This Friday, October 1, at 6:45 p.m., we gather to celebrate Shabbat. Attend in person (with masks and proof of vaccine) at All Souls or via livestream. With wonderful music to enhance our prayer experience and words of Torah, we continue the wonderful sense of community we experienced over Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot. For livestream, click here.
Saturday, October 2, we meet for Torah study at 9:30 a.m. Those with masks and COVID vaccinations are welcome at the home of Fay and Rabbi Doug. Zoom is available for those who have not had vaccines or cannot make it in person. RSVPs are required for in-person attendance and for directions to the house, if needed. RSVP by September 30 to rabbidoug@kolamikc.org.
For Zoom, click here.
Weekly Feature
Jewish Festival Traffic Jam or Intense Season of Joy?
By Ellen Karp
They all shmergle together — Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah, with overlapping dates at the tail end of Sukkot. But they give to the fall season that “circle of life” sensibility so fundamental to our Jewishness. Beginnings can’t begin without endings, and endings don’t happen without beginnings. Our celebration of Simchat Torah is the literal and figurative expression of this idea. We end the cycle and begin it again, with joy.
But what the heck is Shemini Atzeret, and what’s it got to do with Sukkot and/or Simchat Torah?
The eighth day of Sukkot is commanded to be a sacred occasion — “sh’moneh” means “eight,” and “atzeret” gets translated often as “a solemn gathering.” Thus, Shemini Atzeret. Is it the last day of the festival of Sukkot or is it its own occasion?
This notion of connectedness among past, present and future runs deeply in our tradition — underscored in our prayers and in our hopes for redemption. I find this comforting in a time when foundations seem shaky, exhaustion and despair haunt many, and we hunger for better days.
One interpretation I like of this Jewish fall-festival traffic jam is the thought that this extra day is a way to stockpile our joy and appreciation of this solemn yet festive season of the year, until the next turning of time two months away — Chanukah, the festival of light.
Community Event
Nazi Resistance
The Kansas City Central Library (14 West 10th Street) features the traveling photography exhibit Pictures of Resistance: The Wartime Photography of Jewish Partisan Faye Schulman through October 31. Schulman documented her nearly two years in the forests along the Russian-Polish border with resistance fighters. Click here for more information.
