Will Rebecca hear this parsha read next year, too?
At services tonight, for what I'm pretty sure was the first time since I started attending this temple, there was a full-fledged Torah reading -- i.e., with a Torah blessing before and after, and a procession around the sanctuary with the Torah scrolls. (There are Torah readings every week here, but it's almost always from a sheet of paper in English, not from the scroll in Hebrew, and without a Torah blessing. It felt really weird to me when I first moved up here. I'd never heard the Torah read without a blessing before. But, when in Rome...
Anyway, it worked out well for me, because the parsha this week happens to be one of my very favorites, Chayei Sarah. This parsha has always felt very personal to me, because it's about the biblical Rebekah and how she felt God calling her to a new life in a foreign land with Isaac. It also highlights that she was kind to animals, a mitzvah I try to perform every chance I get.
The really cool thing is that even though the parshas don't seem to be read from the Torah on a weekly basis in Reform congregations, this one almost always is. It was one of the very first Torah readings I ever heard, by Rabbi K way back here when my number of visits to the temple were still in single-digits. And it was read last year here, followed up by a very delicious Shabbat dinner where I made nacho casserole for the first time. Hearing it read tonight, I wished again that I could be in two places at once. Like the biblical Rebekah, I guess I'm in a new land.
I still really miss my hometown temple and the people there, but at the same time, I love life in our new city. The fall foliage alone has been worth the move!
Anyway, it worked out well for me, because the parsha this week happens to be one of my very favorites, Chayei Sarah. This parsha has always felt very personal to me, because it's about the biblical Rebekah and how she felt God calling her to a new life in a foreign land with Isaac. It also highlights that she was kind to animals, a mitzvah I try to perform every chance I get.
The really cool thing is that even though the parshas don't seem to be read from the Torah on a weekly basis in Reform congregations, this one almost always is. It was one of the very first Torah readings I ever heard, by Rabbi K way back here when my number of visits to the temple were still in single-digits. And it was read last year here, followed up by a very delicious Shabbat dinner where I made nacho casserole for the first time. Hearing it read tonight, I wished again that I could be in two places at once. Like the biblical Rebekah, I guess I'm in a new land.
I still really miss my hometown temple and the people there, but at the same time, I love life in our new city. The fall foliage alone has been worth the move!