News from Kol Ami

on Sunday, 26 January 2014.

FROM TAL SCHEIRAU

Creating Connections

We have a wonderful community at Kol Ami with members who are passionate about our Synagogue and the connections they have with other Kol Ami families. It is our connections with one another that make our community strong. Connections to others are facilitated through different Kol Ami events: adult learning opportunities, a Havurah, our spiritually inspiring services, or social activities. We have many different avenues to fit various personal preferences.

A number of years ago, just after I had joined the Board as the Chair of Lifelong Learning, my family was invited to a member’s home to meet with the entire Social Committee. The Social Committee was having a BBQ followed by a planning meeting that day, so it was a great opportunity to get to know a number of families that we saw once a week at SFT with our children. That was the beginning of a number of lifelong friendships that my family and I hold very dear to us.

I am very pleased that a number of the former Social Committee members have decided to come together once again and help create connections through social activities, starting with a family bowling event. This committee has dedicated themselves to making meaningful and lasting connections with others in our community. I hope that everyone will come out and schmooze with other members of Kol Ami at one of our upcoming events.

When we think about creating connections, it’s also connections to the past that are important for us as Jews. This past month we welcomed back our Sofer who completed restoration on our first Torah and returned it to the congregation. In mid-January, he spoke to us about the process for restoration and even brought us into the process of restoring a Torah by teaching us how to clean our scrolls. The event was well attended and everyone there had an opportunity to lightly sand and clean sections of one of our scrolls. It was a very spiritual moment as we realized the significance of what we were doing. We were helping to begin the restoration process for a scroll that was over two centuries old. A Torah that hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of Jews carried on Shabbat and High Holy Days. We contemplated how many children read from this Torah for their Bar or Bat Mitzvah. The connection was real, it was deep and it was meaningful.

Our Kol Kodesh project gives us the opportunity to connect with the past generations that prayed from the Torahs that are now in our Temple. The project also gives us the opportunity to connect with each other, with the children of our congregation that have already read from our scrolls, as well as those about to become Bar or Bat Mitzvah. It also allows us to connect with future generations of Jews that will one day read from our scrolls.

Indeed, Kol Kodesh gives us the opportunity to perform an important mitzvah and ensure that our children’s children will be able to carry on with our traditions and read from these amazing scrolls. As you reflect on the significance of this, I ask you to think about the connections you have made within our community and what they have meant to you as a member of Kol Ami. I’d also ask that you reflect on the opportunity to help restore our Torah and what it means to all of us as a community. If you feel you need support to make new connections, or if you simply want to contribute to Kol Kodesh to make connections with future generations of Jews, please reach out to me or Rabbi Streiffer at anytime.

L’Shalom

Tal Schierau, President