FROM THE RABBI
Dear NLJC,
Greetings in a gloomy February! We just celebrated Tu B’shvat, the Festival of the Trees, which in the land of Israel heralds the first glimmerings of spring… Here in Britain it’s still the heart of winter! With New Year’s and the hols properly behind us, though, we look toward the spring and quite a few rebirths – new Israeli elections in March, Pesach (sign of our people’s rebirth) in April, and the British General Election in May. All are openings for renewal and change, whether spiritual or material. After what for some in the Jewish community – because of Paris, talk of heightened security in the British Jewish community, etc. — has been a difficult winter, I’m concentrating on what to look forward to as the days lighten and grow longer again.
I’m very much looking forward to our February and March Shabbat services, Kabbalat Torah with a wonderful group of fourteen to sixteen year olds in our community, a packed-out cheder classroom, and those in our community whom I know are studying for conversion, bar mitzvah, or other goals. Our membership is growing what seems almost monthly, we’ll be having new Council elections in the spring, and we enter 2015 in a very good place, one that I hope will only get better as we enter the warmer months!
Wishing you good wishes, a warm February and see you soon,
Rabbi Leah