When I first arrived at EHRS in April 2020, the world looked a little different. It was a rather small world for a little while. But life needed to carry on in multiple ways that we had to make work, including families wanting to apply for Jewish schools. We found ways to monitor attendance and allow families to collect their points, and so it was, that the first members of EHRS that I met in person who weren’t in mourning, were Valerie and Guy, who needed their CRP form signing for Joel. We sat in your garden as only outdoor meetings were permitted. There were no hugs or hospitality. And yet I was instantly welcomed into your sense of family and community, and it quickly became a apparent that both of these are core to who you are in a way that means today holds such a depth for you all – and that for me it is the perfect way to return to work after my sabbatical: celebrating this milestone with a family who care so much about each other and so much about what it is to be a part of a community.
I have missed EHRS a huge amount over the last few months. One piece of work I did do though was our family camping weekend, where Joel’s family suffered the indignity of being our neighbours, but also continually demonstrated what it is to be a part of community. After we had spent a very stressful 3 hours failing to erect our tent in pouring rain, leaving us with a tent that was soaked through to the inside. Valerie arrived with towels, helped ensure children were entertained and diverted away, and all in between helping to get dinner ready. When we finally made it over to the communal area to kick off Shabbat and have some dinner, Joel was manning the Barbeques, and everyone had been helping to get folk set up and fed. Then later that night off you all trundled on a night time explore into the dinosaur park where we were staying. You demonstrated what it is to be part of the whole, looking out for everyone, and also making sure your very special family unit had their own fun and adventures.
The beginning of this week’s torah portion is a bit about that too. We are commanded to make sure we donate a percentage of our produce or income, in order to feed the poor and the Levites, the Priestly class, while very powerful religiously, had no land from which to support themselves. The torah reminds us again and again to ensure that we can not only look after ourselves, but use the systems of being a community to ensure help gets to where it is needed.
But as we heard Joel read so brilliantly this morning, being part of the whole, or being part of adult life, can bring blessings, and it can bring curses. Perhaps a bit like a very very long bike ride Joel! Things are never perfect for everyone, and that is where community really comes into its own. Community helps us celebrate and honour the blessings, like today, but it also helps us give and find support when we need it. As a family, you Kaye’s have modelled an understanding that community isn’t just there for you to use when you need it, but to be a full part of it so that whoever needs it, in good times or in bad, has it available to them.
We are now 2 weeks away from Rosh Hashanah, and this period, the month of Ellul, is gifted to us to help us take time and to take stock. We will have all experienced blessings and curses over the last year, and we may well have been changed by them. So as arrive at the start of a fresh new year, we have the chance to decide who we are going to be in light of these blessings and curses, how do we want to be in the world, in our families, in our community. Personally I definitely want to be more like Joel, willing to take on huge challenges in order to do something for others, always willing to lend a hand, but also making sure to enjoy life and have fun along the way, celebrating the blessings as well as holding the curses.
With the passing of each year we take stock, we look forward as well as back, perhaps we stand between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, between blessings and curses. In some we have choices we can make, in others there is no choice, just the hand life has dealt us.
Along with the whole EHRS family I know we will want to wish Joel and all his family a huge Mazal tov, and as you walk into a new year as a newly minted young man Joel, I hope you will continue to feel you want to make the choices that ensure both you and all those around you are blessed as much as is possible. May we all be able to do so, regardless of what life throws at us. Cain Yehi Ratzon, may this be God’s will. Venomar, amen.
