Voices of WRJ
By Rozan Anderson, 10/23/2020
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been hanging on to some hope for a reset for our world. I worry a lot. Sometimes I have trouble sleeping. I often have difficulty focusing on tasks beyond staying current with the latest news of the day – and we seemingly have crises in the United States every few hours. It’s exhausting. While many of the issues I worry about pertain primarily to my country, and to my state of Wisconsin, our entire planet seems to be at risk of imploding, whether it be from a global health pandemic, severe weather phenomena due to global warming, racism,... Read More
By Jane Taves, 10/16/2020
B’reishit. “Beginning.” A new beginning. How thrilling that every year we get to start over. The gift of an unblemished new start, untouched by triumphs or challenges. We finish the story and we immediately begin it again. At my congregation for Simchat Torah, we unroll the entire Torah scroll. A small army of volunteers pull on white cotton gloves and arrange ourselves in a large circle. The Torah is unscrolled, and the community supports it, inch by inch, as it makes its way around the circle. One hand at the bottom, one hand at the top, we all share the profound experience of holding up... Read More
By Sara Charney, 10/08/2020
V’zot Hab’rachah, “This is the blessing,” is the Torah portion read on Simchat Torah. This is the final blessing Moses will proclaim to the ten tribes of Israel prior to his death. The tone is positive and forward-looking; Moses’ words are filled with praise and encouragement to all. Moses addresses each tribe individually and blesses them with hopes of protection from enemies, a prosperous and fertile land, and the continuance of the covenant made with God. Each of these aspirations depends on God’s beneficence and power. Moses addresses the fears, longings, and circumstances of... Read More
By Carol Berger, 10/02/2020
You shall live in booths seven days; all citizens in Israel shall live in booths in order that future generations may know that I made the Israelite people live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I The Eternal your God. (Leviticus 23:42–43) As a child, we visited our cousin’s Sukkah each year, and I promised myself then that someday when I was adult, I would build my own Sukkah. Each year we built the Sukkah on our deck, first as just adults and later including children as our family grew. Many times, our Chavurah came to help build the Sukkah. We saved all... Read More
By Karen Goldberg, 9/25/2020
“Give ear, O heavens, let me speak; Let the earth hear the words I utter! May my discourse come down as the rain, My speech distill as the dew, Like showers on young growth, Like droplets on the grass.” (Deuteronomy 32:1-2) So begins the last great lecture of Moses to the people of Israel. Moses and the people are at the border, waiting to enter the land promised to their ancestors. The journey has not been easy, and the future holds its own set of challenges. Moses pours out his heart to his people, with a particularly eloquent passion and purpose, to remind them that they carry... Read More
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