Elu V'Elu for February 2006
Rabbi Gayle Pomerantz

To My Dear Temple Beth Sholom Family,

I am thinking about you, as usual, but perhaps even more because, as I write this, this coming weekend will be Mitzvah Weekend. I am so gratified that Chairpeople Suzanne Meltzer and Stephanie Rosen, with the guidance and help of Tamara Kaz and all the incredible captains, have created a fantastic 11th Mitzvah Celebration. I wish I could be with all of you on what my daughter Hannah once called “God’s favorite day of the year.” When you read this, it will all be over, but I hope the inspiration it provided will lead to more and more mitzvah opportunities.

We are continuing to settle in, make friends, and find our way around. It never ceases to amaze me when I actually find someplace new without getting lost and am able to park the car! Just this morning I found the cooking school where I will be attending a class and successfully conducted the entire registration process in Italian, including explaining the rules of Kashrut to my teacher! Who said there are no longer miracles?!

Speaking of miracles, I want to share our Chanukah experiences with you. Our whole family went to Milan for a pre-Chanukah Shabbat dinner with the small liberal congregation there. About 40 people attended, including Italians, Americans, Israelis, and a few Eastern Europeans. It was a wonderful celebration; we ate, sang and shared. At the end of the evening, we turned out the lights and I distributed the light sticks that Mark Baranek so kindly sent me for this occasion. The light sticks were greeted with wonder and amazement. The excitement was palpable – it was almost as if they were as miraculous as the oil which lasted for eight days! We had a wonderful time sharing with this small pioneering group.

To make our Chanukah even more special, Andrea, Bill, Aaron and Andrew Kirsh of Miami Beach arrived at our home in time to celebrate the first night of Chanukah with us. They were returning from a volunteer medical mission in Ghana and were able to stop to see us. We made latkes, sang, danced and kindled the chanukiah. It was so wonderful to have loved ones with us for the holiday.

And if all that were not enough, we had the good fortune to celebrate the last nights of Chanukah in Paris. It was quite cold but stunningly beautiful. There, we were hosted for a Shabbat dinner by a colleague of Adam’s who lives in Paris. He is of Tunisian Jewish descent and his wife is of Algerian Jewish descent. They gave us a tour of Jewish Paris which included a new museum of Jewish, French and European History. It was fascinating. Then we attended, along with our hosts, a small liberal synagogue in Paris for Shabbat Chanukah services. It was wonderful to be with another group of people from all around the world in Paris. But even more heartwarming was the response of our hosts to the service. They had Sephardic Orthodox Jewish backgrounds and had never participated in any kind of liberal Jewish experience. They were thrilled by the whole thing – being able to sit together as a couple, the singing, the dialogue between the Rabbi and the congregation. They said that their eyes had been opened to a whole new world of possibilities. It seems there is great potential for liberal Jewish outreach in Europe!

We are thrilled about our upcoming visit to Miami Beach in February. We will be at Shabbat Services on Friday, February 24 and Saturday, February 25. We hope to see many of you then to catch up on everything.

In the meantime, I am so appreciative of your e-mails and notes to me. Please keep them coming to rabbipomerantz@tbsmb.org. It fills my heart when I read them.

Arrivaderciand Shalom!