LOOKING AHEAD TO OUR “HOUSE OF LEARNING” – OUR LEHRHAUS DAY

The new year has begun and we were again blessed with the beautiful voices of choir and Cantor Heller and, hopefully, some uplift from the words shared from the bimah. The challenges before us are many. The time to do teshuvah (repentance), to change for the better, to enhance Jewish life, to enrich our souls, to commit ourselves to our congregation and synagogue still further and to renew the loving bonds we have with family, friends and everyone, is more imperative than ever. I hope that the upcoming Kol Nidre and Yom Kippur will be a time of uplift and reconnection with ourselves, our community, and God.

Unique History: As you all know, this year has marked Belsize Square’s 75th anniversary. Founded in 1939, with the first service held on Friday evening, 24 March, we have become a congregation recognised here and abroad. Our history is unique but we are also known for our warmth, broad embrace and contribution of talent in major fields of endeavour. Where we are “coming of age” and beginning to make our mark is in Jewish education, learning and scholarship.

We have, within our community, scholars of Jewish history, ancient and modern, as well as specialists in other fields and a bustling weekly Jewish study group. We especially appreciated the contributions of our guest speaker, Rabbi Dr Ismar Schorsch, former Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary, at our celebration in March.

To highlight our commitment to higher Jewish education under the guidance of our Adult Education Chairperson, Dr Claire W alford, Belsize Square Synagogue is hosting its first Lehrhaus (House of Learning) Day on Sunday 9

November. I hope you will all take advantage of this incredible offering of  Jewish learning, discussion and study. Registration is from 9.30am, and the day will be split into four periods, starting at 10.00am. The full programme is:

•  Professor Tessa Rajak: Why do we read the Torah in Hebrew?
•  Dr Annette Boeckler: One prayer book, four continents.
•  Glenda Abramson (mother of our Co- Chair, John Abramson): Great Works in Holocaust Representation: Todesfuge (Death Fugue by Paul Celan) and Maus (graphic novel by Art Spiegelman).
•  Rabbi Danny Rich (Chief Executive of the Liberal Movement): Israel Mattuck: The Inspirational Voice of Liberal Judaism.
•  Rabbi Markus Lange: Dramatic Dialogue in Jewish Prayer.
•  Rabbi Stuart Altshuler: Kashrut: Biblical and Ethical Basis for the Dietary Laws, and The Question of Theodicy (Why do bad things happen to good people?)
•  Cantor Paul Heller: The God Particle, and the Siddur’s Geography.
•  Dr Bea Lewkowicz: Our Heart Belongs to Belsize Square: Belonging, Community and Religion among German Jewish refugees.
•  Hilary Curtis: Jubilee: Anniversaries and Jewish Values.
•  Neil Nerva: German Jewry.
•  Michael Horowitz: Spinoza: Still a Heretic?
•  Dr Ben Barkow (Director of the Wiener Library): Kristallnacht and the Holocaust.
• Other sessions will be led by Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg (Senior Rabbi of Masorti Judaism UK), Larry Miller and Andrew Levy.

The day will culminate in a panel discussion, What is the future of Judaism and of the Jewish people? led by three rabbis – Danny Rich, Jonathan Wittenberg and myself – and Israel’s Deputy Ambassador, Eitan Naeh.

Lunch, all-day coffee and cake and a full children’s programme will be provided. The day will end at 5.15pm.

There will be further information nearer the time but you have a good picture now of its seriousness and fullness. This will be another event to make our community shine and bask in the glow of yet another tremendous achievement, this time in the area of Jewish learning.

The time to register is now! Advance booking is £10 for members and non-members alike. Booking on the day will be £15. Bring your friends and associates from around the community. Children are free. Please register online via our website or call the Synagogue Office.

An Educated Community:  The reason the rabbis taught us that Talmud Torah k’neged kulam (the study of Torah is equal to all of them – the other Mitzvot) is that they knew that an educated community would last forever. That is the secret of our Jewish survival. So come and join us on Sunday 9 November!

Until then, my best wishes for a G’mar Hatimah Tovah, (a good seal or verdict) as a fitting and uplifting end to Yom Kippur, and for Mo’adim l’Simchah, a joyous and wonderful Succot, Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah for you and your loved ones.

Bivrachah (with blessing)

Rabbi Altshuler

Examining our relationships: New Year 5775

We are less than one month away from the coming of another new year, 5775. It is always core to Jewish belief that the way things are today, the problems and woes that beset us, do not have to remain the way they are.

Life, as we see it, is filled with challenges. But we have been given all the tools and power by our Creator, by God, to improve our circumstances and fill the “dark spots” of our existence with light and healing.

There  are  three  specific  areas  of  our lives that require our attention each year and they are:

• Our  relationship  with  the  world: This is Yom Hadin – The Day of Judgment. What is the state of society? Our nation? What are our ethics? What are  the  social  ills  and  problems  that need attention: the environment, social dysfunction,  gaps  between  poor  and rich, the strains of economic stagnation, the  obligation  of  the  nation  to  assist those abroad who suffer at the hands of tyrannies, terror and fear? How can we make the world a better place in our everyday lives?
• Our relationship with Judaism, the Jewish people, Israel, Belsize Square Synagogue: Who are we? What is my responsibility to the Jewish people? In the light of Israel’s recent incursion into Gaza,  how  do  I  feel?  Why  has  there been a dramatic upsurge in anti-Semitic  activity in the UK? What is my obligation to care for the State of Israel, the only Jewish state in the world? Is there a moral argument to be made for Israel’s search for security from terror and missiles, or am I just too uncomfortable with the concept of a Jewish state that has to fight in order to survive?What can I do – and why – to give time, resources and soul to the betterment of my synagogue, Belsize Square Synagogue? How do I want it to thrive? Do I care if it succeeds and why or why not? What is my relationship with God, with Judaism, Torah, Jewish law, the Mitzvot, ethics and morality? How do I relate to people of other faiths, in particular  to  Muslims  and  Christians? How am I different?
• Our  relationship  with  ourselves and with each other: It is certainly a good time to evaluate the state of my own life. What are my strengths? What are the things I need to improve, to rid myself of? What can I change? Whom should I forgive and of whom should I ask forgiveness? Do I have the spiritual capacity to do teshuvah (repentance, literally return), really change my life for the better and expunge all those miserable and awful habits that prevent me from being my true self? How can I improve my relationship with my spouse, my parents, my siblings, my children, my friends? Am I happy? What is happiness and fulfilment for me? What is the state of my values and how does my Judaism help me meet these important matters in my life?

Reconciling the Challenges

The theme of my sermons will be an emphasis on the quality of love, the imperative commanded in our Torah: “To love  God  with  all  our  hearts  and souls” (Deut. 6:5) and “To love our neighbour” (Lev.19:18).

We will try to reconcile the challenges mentioned above with our love of Israel, our fellow Jew, of each other, our loved ones, of self, and ultimately our God, the Creator, the One who Reveals Torah – ethics – and the Redeemer of the people of Israel. Why and how should we love, and what and whom should we love?

I look forward to our coming together again and hope that in some way our time in synagogue will be uplifting, relevant to our lives, challenging, perhaps taxing to the soul, and allow us all to think, pray, express our gratitude, study and walk away recharged for the coming year, 5775.

Ella, Micah  and I wish all  of  you  and your loved ones a sweet, blessed, healthy and good New Year, filled with dreams, hopes, vision and renewed life.

L’shana tovah u’metukah – To a good and sweet year!

Rabbi Stuart Altshuler

Looking back and forward

I continue to be so proud of our congregation – the talent, the warmth, the compassion, the energy of our members is astounding.

As we look back at this past year together, my fourth with Belsize Square Synagogue, we have celebrated together during triumph and joy, reaching  75  years  as  a  congregation. We  have lost cherished stalwart members but we have also brought babies into the community and exalted our b’nei mitzvah called up to the Torah for the first time.

I am so proud to be your rabbi and look forward to another triumphant year, hopefully free from sadness and sorrow. Now is the time to prepare the groundwork for our future, and here is what I believe should be our ideological and religious starting point.

(1) We will continue to affirm our reverence and guidance of our rabbinic traditions and halachah (way of life), basing our actions on Rabbi Hillel’s k’lal gadol (main principle): “Do not do unto your neighbour what you would not want your neighbour to do unto you.” (Pirkei Avot)

No matter what the decision is about – ritual or liturgical changes, the way we deal with families, the holidays, or any part of our observance – we must never lose sight that the heart, the lev, is the key to knowing what God and our tradition demands of us.

(2)  We  will  continue  to  affirm  the centrality of am Yisrael, our connection to the people of Israel, the whole Jewish people, whether Orthodox, Masorti, Reform or Liberal. We must continue to be a bridge for the entire community.

I am proud that we have such warm relations with our neighbour, South Hampstead Synagogue and Rabbi Shlomo Levine, with the Liberal movement and Rabbi Danny Rich, with my many Masorti colleagues and the Reform movement. We Jews need peace based on respect for our different paths of Jewish life. We also need to engage in inter-religious dialogue with our Christian and Muslim neighbours, as we have done through various meetings.

We cannot live in an ideological or culture vacuum, an island unto ourselves. Our Jewish goal is to respect all paths to goodness, learn about who we are in the maelstrom of ideas, and be vital components for helping to improve the wider community and nation.

(3) Talmud Torah (education): One of my long-term goals is to improve our Jewish literacy. We have so many who thirst for knowledge and I am proud of the turnout at our regular courses and the special or occasional events taken by myself and Cantor Heller.

There will be more learning opportunities, including our 75th anniversary Lehrhaus on 9 November, and, hopefully, an educational trip to Jewish Spain. There will be opportunities to learn Torah leyning (reading) and other synagogue skills as we continue to increase people’s involvement in our services. There will be lay-led services next year, with guest darshanim (preachers), daveners and Torah readers. And we will bring in the Cheder to make Judaism alive, relevant and joyful to a new generation of Belsizers!

Learning is the key. I have devoted my entire professional rabbinic career to the classroom and I will continue to teach  – in the classroom and at every Shabbat and Holiday service. Talmud Torah k’neged kulam – learning of Torah is equal to everything else (ie all the other mitzvot).

(4) Shabbat and festival observance: The more we know, the more respect we give to our incredibly wise and beautiful Judaism. Perhaps this year we can pledge to increase our attendance in the House of Prayer and House of Study, to bring more Jewish observance into our homes, and to inspire our youth with our own devotion to Judaism.

I hope that you all enjoy quality time this summer  to  expand  your  minds  and souls, to rest and sanctify the miracle of life.

I  look  forward  to  being  back on the Belsize Square pulpit for Tisha B’Av, on 3 August, and the coming of the New Year 5775.

In shalom always,

Rabbi Stuart Altshuler

Shavuot – Harvest of cereal and soul

Shalom Chaverim

There is still one more major holiday of the yearly cycle that awaits to be celebrated and that is the holiday of SHAVUOT – lonely Shavuot, that usually bypasses so many because, unlike its counterparts, Pesach and Succot, celebrated for an entire week and with distinct rituals attached to them, Shavuot is celebrated for only two days (in Israel, just one) and with just a few minhagim (customs) to help us mark the festival.

And yet, one could certainly claim that Shavuot just might be the most important of all the holidays, the climax of anticipation after Passover (marked by the counting of the Omer), the holiday that commemorates the most significant turning point in Jewish history – matan Torateinu – the giving of our Torah at Mount Sinai.

There are a few customs attached to Shavuot, which means weeks in Hebrew, underlying the significance of the seven weeks that separate the holiday of our liberation by leaving Egypt from the holiday of our spiritual freedom at Mount Sinai.

Shavuot, contrary to its often neglected place among our people, could be claimed as actually the most important holiday of all, for it commemorates and celebrates the very purpose of our existence – the Torah, its teaching and perpetuation through the generations, which is the miracle of the Jewish people.

We remember that Shavuot was originally only an agricultural festival, as the Torah tells us, marking the beginning of the harvest season. We also know that it became the practice to read the Book of Ruth for two reasons:

1. the story of Ruth takes place during the beginning of the harvest season.
2. Ruth was the most famous “convert” to Judaism, a Moabite woman, who embraced the religion of her mother in- law, Naomi, promised to never leave her or her new nation, and became a full-fledged Israelite. Ruth’s great-grandson was David, the greatest king in Israel’s history.

Thus we are reminded that Shavuot is also about each of us, born Jews and naturalised Jews, embracing the heritage and tradition of our ancestors. Let us remain true to that vision.

Rabbi Stuart Altshuler

Shalom Chaverim

One of our young B’nei Mitzvah students asked me after reading the salient verses regarding the celebration of Passover in the 12th chapter of the book of Exodus, why the “first of the months”, the month of Passover (Nisan) is the new year in the Torah, while we celebrate the first of the month of Tishrei, Rosh Hashanah, as our new year?

She is right. There are two “new years” – in fact, four new years, including Tu B’Shevat (new year for trees) and the 1st of Elul (usually considered the last month of the year) if you read the Mishnah! The month of Passover, the first of Nisan, was clearly the biblical and the oldest Jewish new year, with Rosh Hashanah (1 Tishrei) added much later, after the Babylonian exile in 586 BCE. In exile the Jews adapted themselves to Babylonian culture, including its calendar.

The Babylonians celebrated their new year in the autumn, using the occasion to crown their king as the head of the Babylonian pantheon of gods. The Jews, mindful of their Babylonian neighbours, took the Babylonian calendar and made Rosh Hashanah their head of the year while rejecting the coronation of the earthly king. Instead they made it a time to re-establish our devotion to the King of Kings, Hamelech – God.That is why the music at the High Holy Days reflects royalty and subservience to the King (Adonai melech, Adonai malach, Adonai yimloch l’olam va’ed). The pageantry of the new year season reflects this historical reality.

Passover was always the holiday celebrating the birth and creation of the Jewish people, while Rosh Hashanah celebrates the birth of all humanity, a characterisation that was clearly added much later because the only reference we have in the Torah regarding Rosh Hashanah is that it was a Yom Teruah (a sound of the blasting of the shofar on the first day of the seventh month). In their great wisdom, our Rabbis kept the lessons and vision of both holidays, Passover and Rosh Hashanah.

Passover is to focus on the particularity of the Jewish people and our commitment to Judaism. Rosh Hashanah allows us to focus on the universality of God’s creation, of all humanity. In other words, to be a Jew means that we need to live in two worlds: our own world, the Jewish one and, at the same time, to live also in the rest of society. Each of those worlds nourishes the other. We cannot truly be Jewish if we close our eyes to our obligations to all people but, conversely, we cannot truly be human if we close our eyes to our obligations to our own people and faith.

As the rabbis taught regarding the blowing of the shofar at Rosh Hashanah: the mouthpiece of the shofar is small, the end from which it blows is large. If you try blowing a shofar from the wide end, there can be no sound. It will only make a teruah/shevarim/tekiah if blown from the smaller end. We Jews must make our contribution to society at large by blowing the shofar from the “Jewish” end, the small end.

And so this is one of the great teachings of our Passover holiday, to tell the story – Haggadah – to your children and family of the origins of the people of Israel. Remember who you are and what you mean as Jews to the rest of the world. Do not try to be “universal man” until you are able to express that universalism through Jewish ears, eyes and hearts. By being Jewish first, we will make the greatest difference to the fate of nations. The world needs us. Are we ready for the challenge?

I do hope that all of you will have meaningful Seders with your families this Passover. I would suggest that we discuss some of the crucial ideas that arise from our recitation of the story of our people, from their slavery in Egypt to their triumphant deliverance, and its message of freedom. What does our Judaism mean to us, to the world?

What does Israel mean to us? How was the modern state of Israel a fulfilment of Jewish history since our Exile 2,000 years ago? Why is it important to re-enact the sacred drama of Passover, the experience of slavery? Does it sensitise us to the needs of the poor, the hungry, the forgotten? What about the oppressed?

Be proud of our Jewish heritage, celebrate the foundation stones of our people with Passover, come to synagogue during the holiday (we need you there!), study the Haggadah, increase your awareness of your ties to Jewish history and tradition, and pray for the gift of freedom. We should never take for granted the freedom and liberty we enjoy in the UK, Israel and the free world.

May you all have a delicious, kosher, meaningful, blessed and enriching Passover with your families. May God bless our congregation and our people forever.

Rabbi Stuart Altshuler

Shalom Chaverim

Celebrating Purim and our 75th anniversary

This month, Adar II, we will celebrate  Purim, reading the Book of Esther’s story of the Jews’ deliverance from destruction during the Persian Empire. Behind the almost fairy tale narrative is a serious account of a historical reality that has, unfortunately, repeated itself all too often in Jewish history.

We know that the Jews of the Persian Empire were a secure community, free to practise their religion and keep their laws as an integral part of Persian society. The two outstanding leaders of the return of the Jews to Jerusalem and rebuilding of the Jewish community in Judea were high-ranking Jews in the Persian government, Ezra and Nehemiah. We know of no other occurrence of Jew-hatred during this period, approximately 536-332 BCE (Persia’s defeat by Alexander the Great and the ensuing domination of Hellenism) other than this disturbing account.

Unfortunately, the same intrusion into the stability of Jewish life was experienced by Jews in Germany during the 20th century. Life was good. Jews were well integrated into society, free to practise their religion and form their own organisations. And then suddenly, dormant prejudice dating back to mediaeval times was reignited by 19th-century anti-Semitism, racism, and unbridled German nationalism. Jews, to their surprise, found themselves no longer welcome in Germany.

Those fortunate enough to leave, many by Kindertransport to England, were able to lay down new roots in a new land. Belsize Square Synagogue is living testimony to the resolve of German Jewry to continue Jewish life, no matter the burden or sacrifice. And so, on March 24, 1939, at 8.30pm in the Montefiore Hall, adjacent to the Liberal Jewish Synagogue — directly opposite Lords Cricket Ground — a service was conducted for our still nameless congregation.

Such was the start of today’s Belsize Square Synagogue. The notice circulated to members of what was then a Friendship Club announced a service starting at 8.30 pm. It was to last an hour, with prayers in English and German (no mention of Hebrew). Singing was to be led by a Cantor with organ accompaniment. In the event, the familiar music unleashed an emotional outpouring and a conviction to stay true to the German-Jewish heritage. The date was the 5th day of Nisan, 5699,  just 10 days before Pesach, an ominous reminder of the gap between the story of Passover freedom and the horrors that lay ahead.

I do not need to remind any member of this congregation that the determination that day to continue Jewish life in the aftermath of Kristallnacht, and just months before the start of war and the full disaster of the Shoah, is a powerful incentive to us all to cherish what this synagogue and community means to us and the wider Jewish world: NO to evil, YES to Jewish life and its eternity, YES to planting seeds for future generations of Jews, and YES to life over death.

Therefore, on the Shabbat weekend of March 21-22 our congregation will celebrate its 75th anniversary here in our beautiful home, when our Shabbat services we will be blessed by the presence of my esteemed teacher, Rabbi Dr Ismar Schorsch. Rabbi Schorsch is considered by many to be the pre-eminent scholar and authority of German-Jewish history. He has written tracts, essays, scholarly journals and books on German-Jewish history.

He served as Chancellor of the Jewish Theological Seminary for 18 years, and is currently the Rabbi Herman Abramovitz Professor of Jewish History at JTS. He was ordained at JTS in 1962, holds master’s degrees from JTS and Columbia University, and was awarded a PhD in Jewish history in 1969.

The Schorsch family left Hanover, where Ismar was born and where his father, Emil, was a prominent rabbi, to go to the United States in 1939. Rabbi Schorsch will be here with his wife, Sally. They have three children and 10 grandchildren.

He will address the congregation during the gala Shabbat dinner after our Friday evening service and again on Shabbat morning. Following an extraordinary Kiddush lunch, he will give his shiur on the second Mishnah of the first chapter of the tractate on Rosh Hashanah. Rabbis have been ringing to ask if they can join us.

He will also lecture at JW3 on Monday, March 24 at 7pm (£8 charge), and the New North London Synagogue on March 25 at 8pm (£10 charge). A limited number of copies of From Canon to Closure, his extraordinary collection of Torah commentary, will be on sale in the synagogue office, price £18. All proceeds to JTS.

So, please come to celebrate Purim and our 75th anniversary. This weekend was made possible by some very generous “angels” in our congregation. I cannot thank them enough for their gracious gifts to ensure that this weekend is a glory in the extraordinary history of Belsize Square Synagogue.

May the Almighty continue to give us strength, vision, blessing and peace in cherishing our sacred past whilst building for a glorious future so that we may continue our mission to enhance and beautify the eternity of our Torah, for us, the Jewish people and the world at large.

Rabbi Stuart Altshuler

As you know, one of the priorities I set when I came to Belsize Square Synagogue three years ago, was to enhance our congregation’s scope of Jewish, intellectual, cultural and Zionist horizons.

Under the guidance of our newly formed Music Committee chairman, Phil Keller, we have created an extraordinary musical programme. Our musical offerings are beyond any in London or anywhere in the world. Our music is our treasure and we are indeed blessed.

The challenge has been to extend our focus beyond the limited walls of our own community. Our starting point for this is the celebration of our 75th anniversary on Friday and Saturday, 21 and 22 March. (The congregation’s very first service was held on Friday 24 March 1939 under the direction of Rabbi Dr Israel Mattuck and led by Rabbi Dr Werner Van der Zyl.)

Rabbi Ismar Schorsch

To help us understand the implications of this milestone in our congregational history, we will host our esteemed guest, Rabbi Dr Chancellor Ismar Schorsch. Rabbi Schorsch is widely considered to be the foremost scholar of German-Jewish history.

He is the son of one of Germany’s best-known rabbis from the generation prior to the advent of Nazism, Rabbi Emil Schorsch of Hanover. Having experienced Reichkristallnacht as a child in 1938, Ismar Schorsch immigrated with his family to the United States 75 years ago, in 1939.

I knew Rabbi Schorsch from my years at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. He was one of my teachers in Jewish history and we developed a close personal relationship. When he became Chancellor in 1987, he invited me to serve on his cabinet and advisory board, and continued to be an inspiration to me, and many others.

Ismar Schorsch was the sixth JTS Chancellor, following in the footsteps of his famous predecessors, Sabato Morais, Solomon Schechter, Cyrus Adler, Louis Finkelstein and Gerson Cohen. Foremost among his major works on Jewish history and Judaism is his brilliant series of Torah commentaries in Canon Without Closure.

Besides his chancellorship and guidance at the Jewish Theological Seminary — the Jewish world’s leading rabbinical school and academic centre for Jewish doctoral students — Rabbi Schorsch spearheaded Project Judaica, aimed at the USSR.  This Jewish studies programme in Moscow became the cornerstone of the revival of Russian Jewry and its lost attachments to Judaism. His public statements and writings have attracted wide attention in both the secular and Jewish press, including the New York Times and other leading papers.

His long-time support of the peace process was capped by an invitation from President Clinton to serve with the official presidential delegation which witnessed the signing of the peace treaty between Jordan and Israel in October 1994.

Rabbi Schorsch will speak about the origins of our synagogue, what German Jewry was like in 1939 and the issue of integration into a new culture, at a special Shabbat dinner on Friday 20 March and at Shabbat morning service on 21 March, and he will also lead a shiur after our celebratory community Kiddush.

We are so fortunate to have him as our guest for this special weekend. Through his academic credentials and achievements, Rabbi Schorsch has made modern Jewish scholarship a central factor in the reconstruction of Jewish identity and self-presentation.

Mark your diaries now and do not miss this opportunity to learn from one of world Jewry’s top rabbis, scholars and leaders.

One month before this event, on Shabbat morning 22 February, the newly arrived Deputy Ambassador at the Israel Embassy in London will be our guest speaker.

Eitan Naeh and I have known each other for almost 20 years. He and his wife, Cheryl, were members of my synagogue in Chicago when he was with the Israeli Consulate in Chicago in the 1990s. His son, Itai, was named in our synagogue and it is a memory we will always share.

He is articulate, eager to become part of our congregation and share his insights on his work for Israel. We will hold a special Kiddush to give him and Cheryl a grand Belsize welcome.

At the beginning of this month, on Monday 3 February, Dr Menachem Fisch, Professor of the History and Philosophy of Science at Tel Aviv University, with a keen interest in the relationship between science and religion, will be our guest scholar. He will address the issue of diversity and pluralism in rabbinic sources and relate those sources to interfaith dialogue, most notably the historic Nostra Aetate document that changed the relationship of the Catholic Church and the Jewish people. Come and take advantage of this extraordinary speaker and scholar.

Let this new month be a month of learning, laughter and celebration, a month of passion on behalf of goodness, Yiddishkeit and the State of Israel, and of making this world a better place each day.

Shalom u’l’hitraot.

Rabbi Stuart Altshuler

L’shana tovah l’kulchem—A good new year to all of you.

We will shortly gather together for the coming of the new year, 5774. A time for our congregation to renew relationships, gather strength from each other, pray for ourselves and our loved ones, our country, our people, the state of Israel, for all humanity. May this be the year in which we find that God’s blessings of peace, compassion, love and justice is realised, so that the gap between what this world is at present and what it ought to become will be narrowed and ultimately disappear.

There is an urgency in our Jewish tradition, as you all know, to live to the fullest—there is simply no time left for the needless killing, the rupturing of relationships, the disharmony that ruins the potential for life in the world. That sense of urgency comes as no accident, for it is an imperative from our Torah, paraphrasing the words from Deuteronomy: “The choice you have is life or death, blessing or curse—choose life so that you and your children may live!” U’vacharta ba’hayim!

With the month of Elul coming to an end, we know there is little time to cast aside our hurts, to ask or grant forgiveness, to fix our relationships, for tomorrow may be too late. I love that sense of the “now”, the urgency in our Judaism. For generations our people, our rabbis, our sages, have implored the Jewish people to do the right thing; to behave consistently with God’s commandments, for goodness brings life. Judaism’s accent is on behaviour, on the deed, in bringing godliness to today’s world, without expectation of God’s love and rewards in some afterlife. Ours is a behaviouristic religion —all deeds, mitzvot, commandments must be fulfilled in the here and now, not later.

That is one of the major characteristics of Judaism—the mitzvah, the deed bringing righteousness and compassion. All religions, we know, have the same ideals: Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Buddhist, Jain, Sikh and all others will tell you, rightly, that they want the same things as the rest—peace, life, mercy, goodness for all humanity. The key difference among religions is not in the abstract faith objectives but in how each religion teaches its adherents to realise those lofty ambitions. Not in any way disparaging the religious convictions of others, but in the spirit of honest interreligious dialogue, a Christian would tell you that the way to realising our ideals is through correct faith. As Martin Luther taught, the Christian, in order to reach God’s salvation, must make a leap of faith. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, our revered rabbi and teacher, taught that the way of Judaism is to the contrary—Judaism expects a “leap of action”, not faith. Faith comes with the deed, consistent with living God’s will.

Judaism has a long and detailed prescription for realising our dreams, ideals; concretising our beliefs by fulfilling mitzvot, by our sacred deeds. For example, in order to achieve peace between ourselves and nature, between ourselves and others, and in ourselves, we must “live peace”. And the way that we “live peace” is through the means of Shabbat. “La’asot et-hashabbat” we cry out during the kiddush on Shabbat morning after services (from Exodus 34) ….to DO the Shabbat we sing together. We set aside a day without contracts, argument, business, rich or poor, a day of social harmony, a day when we are even instructed to refrain from plucking a flower from its bush—a day in which we say “Shabbat Shalom”…may you have a Sabbath of Peace. Live it, drink it, eat it, speak it, study it, pray it— peace, peace and more peace. By living peace, we train ourselves to strive for peace each day of our lives, now and not tomorrow.

The second most sacred value shared among religions is the reverence for the “sanctity of human life”. As it is taught in our Torah, each human being is created in the image of God and therefore the taking of one life is like taking the life of an entire world. How does Judaism propose that we revere life, that we promote the sanctity of life? Through the mitzvah of kashrut, the biblical dietary laws. Kashrut’s abhorrence for the spilling of blood, its care for the way that we terminate animal life for the purposes of perpetuating human life, and its making the act of mundane eating into an act of God, promote our core belief in the sanctity of human life.

So, this is our Judaism; a way of concretising our ideals, lofty ones, ideals that are more necessary today than ever before. Why is it that so many Jews do not practise Judaism then? In order to perpetuate Jewish life, we need to practise Judaism, fulfil the mitzvot. Why is it then that so many Jews live lives that are indistinguishable from their neighbours, in ritual and in deed? If we Jews understand that without practising Judaism, our ideals will tarnish, our way of teaching them to the next generation will be paralysed, stopped in its tracks, why are we so alienated from our tradition?

That will be the aim of our High Holydays this year, exploring together the dynamics of Jewish deeds, ritual and mitzvot. How are we connected to other Jews and why is the community important? What else should I know about Shabbat and kashrut? What is the Jewish path to holiness, godliness? What are the essentials of Judaism that we should incorporate into our own lives? How does one incorporate these spiritual matters into the mundane, physical world? These are the questions we will ask each other in a few days.

Until we meet, our first lesson needs to be fulfilled—relationships mean nothing unless they are honest and stand upon deeds of love. Reach out to those who have hurt you, to those whom you have hurt, take control of your actions, your soul, by asking and bestowing forgiveness. Be resolved to start afresh for the new year, to bind those gaps in our spiritual and Jewish lives.

May your heshbon hanefesh—the scrutiny of your lives—bring you closer to God, to your families, to your synagogue, to your friends, to each other. Always, always—CHOOSE LIFE! Ella, Micah and I wish all of you and your families, a shanah tovah u’metukah —a good, blessed, peaceful and fulfilling new year 5774. L’shanah tovah, 

Rabbi Stuart Altshuler

Shalom all,

We have become so accustomed to having the modern state of Israel to visit, to admire and to nurture, that we have forgotten what it is like to have no Jerusalem, no Jewish state, and, ultimately, a loss of confidence in the divine promises to our people. We are certainly part of a privileged generation, the first and second generations to experience the existence of an independent Jewish state since the year 74 CE, when the last stronghold of Jewish resistance to the Romans fell at Masada.

I also believe that in order for us to truly appreciate what we have today and to recognise how fortunate all Jews are to have a Jewish state, we must also remember our past. You appreciate something when it is lost and then recovered, and we are compelled to remember days when our people could only hope for what we too often take for granted today.

That is why we have Tisha B’Av (the 9th of Av) in the Jewish calendar, to remember when Jerusalem and both Temples were destroyed on the same date, one in 586 BCE, the next time in 70 CE.

Our services will take place on Monday 15 July, 9-10:15pm. Cantor Heller and I, along with participants, will be chanting and reading the Book of Lamentations (Megillat Eicha), studying one of the kinot (lamentations) composed for the observance of Tisha B’Av during the Middle Ages. I will present and we will discuss the contribution of the Dead Sea Scrolls to our understanding of Judaism during the volatile first century CE, which witnessed the Jewish people’s greatest calamity, Hurban Bet Hamikdash, the Destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem.

We will also hold our unique Belsize Square commemoration at Pound Lane Cemetery, on Sunday 14 July, 11:30 am, where a moving service will remember those who perished during the Holocaust and who have no one to remember them. Please join us for both commemorations—it is too easy to forget.

Some notes about Tisha B’Av

1) Tisha B’Av is the only other FULL fast-day on the annual calendar aside from Yom Kippur. It is the saddest day of the Jewish year, for on this very day both Temples were destroyed, and subsequent to 70 CE, many other tragedies befell the Jewish people on this exact date, including the subject of my very first Tisha B’Av with the congregation, the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492.

2) The observance of Tisha B’Av begins at sundown, and not earlier, hence the late beginning to our own service on 15 July. Generally, a simple meal precedes the fast, called seudah mafseket (the meal of demarcation) and many customs and traditions follow in the synagogue: the parokhet (curtain) that covers the Ark is replaced with a black one reminiscent of the pall that covers a casket on its last journey to the grave. It is customary to turn off the lights and to light candles instead to maintain a mood of solemnity. We read the Book of Lamentations, probably composed by the prophet Jeremiah, describing the horrors of the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. It is customary to sit on the floor, or on low stools or cushions, as a sign of mourning, as aveilim (mourners) traditionally do at the shiva home when they lose a loved one.

As on Yom Kippur, it is customary to not wear leather shoes (seen as sign of luxury), refrain from sexual intimacy, refrain from washing for pleasure and not wear perfumes or use scented oils.

The maariv (evening) service is chanted in a low voice, with congregational singing muted because of the mournful undertones. It is also customary to recite kinot, or dirges that were written over the course of Jewish history, mostly from the medieval period, all of them dealing with the theme of the loss of the Temple, of Jerusalem, and of Jewish life.

3) The Shabbat preceding Tisha B’Av is called Shabbat Hazon (or the “Sabbath of the vision of Isaiah”), and is chanted in the trope normally used for Tisha B’Av.

4) There are no restrictions on working during Tisha B’Av, but joyful things are usually avoided, as mourners would show restraint during their period of mourning for a loved one.

5) There is some controversy as to whether there should be any connection made between the Shoah and Tisha B’Av. After all, the first proposed date for a commemoration of the Holocaust was supposed to be Tisha B’Av, eventually rejected by consensus in the new state of Israel. The feeling of many authorities is that the two should remain separate, to highlight the fact that the Holocaust is sui generis, one of its kind, never was, is, and hopefully never will be again.

6) There is another controversy because of the existence of the modern state of Israel. Some feel that with the rebuilding of Jerusalem there is less of a need for Tisha B’Av. I disagree, for the reasons I shared above: remembering history, our past, enables us to appreciate what we have today, and the triumphs of today are interwoven with the tears shed by our ancestors.

7) Tradition tells us that Tisha B’Av will also be the day the promised Mashiach (Messiah) will be born. In other words, our Sages never gave up their fervent hope that even in the darkest of days of the Jewish people, would be made up one day with the redemption of Israel and humanity as a whole.

To all of you, good wishes during these summer months. I do hope to see as many of you as possible for the observance of Tisha B’Av here at Belsize Square Synagogue.

In shalom always,

Rabbi Altshuler