Blog

Once a pilgrimage festival, Shavuot celebrates the spring harvest and giving of Torah at Mount Sinai.  It arrives with perfect timing as we look forward to opportunities for gathering, emerging from a long period of isolation and separation.  I want to celebrate a community that has persevered, like the billions of cicadas set to emerge throughout the United States any time in April or May 2021 after 17 years underground, ringing and singing with life.
 
Through the religious school, young family and youth programs, we strive to create a space (in person and virtually), where students and teachers learn to explore self and soul, nurturing love of Judaism and love of learning.  Merging the three pillars of Jewish communal Life: Torah (tradition & study), Avodah (service, prayer, Hebrew) and Mitzvah (implementation; acts of loving kindness) with a value or soul trait (midah) each month, we’ve taken a deep dive into the heart of who we are collectively and individually accessing and connecting with God and each other.  Below is a  brief overview of the midot (midah plural) we’ve explored this year.  Ask your children about their experiences and embrace their journey with your own.

• Hitlamdut & Yirah (Curiosity and Awe) - Rosh HaShanah, Yom Kippur:  What can I do to grow my ability to experience wonder and reverence?  What is prayer?
• Cavod (Honor/ Respect) - Sukkot, Simchat Torah;  What can I learn about myself as I struggle with political diversity and division to better honor others while performing civic duty?
• Anavah (Humility) - Shabbat:  View each person we encounter as our teacher and struggle to learn something from them.  Becoming aware of what is our rightful space and place.
• Savlanut (Patience) - Chanukah: Bearing the burden and discomfort of one’s own and other’s limitations with compassion.
• Achrayut & Tzedek (Responsibility & Justice) - Tu B’Shevat:  Being “able” to “respond” to the needs of others to make the world more just.  Celebrating justice being served with the guilty verdict in Minneapolis highlighting the misuse of the power of that responsibility.
• Hacarat HaTov (Gratitude) - Purim:  Noticing what’s good around us, seeking joy and nurturing gratitude.  Nedivut Lev (Generosity of the heart) - Passover:  How can I be generous and authentic in my words?  What is my haggadah?
• Ometz Lev (Courage of the Heart) - Israel Independence, Holocaust remembrance, Lag b’omer. Understanding the power of our words to create or destroy and nurturing the courage to use them wisely.
• Shleymut (Wholeness, Completeness, Integrity) - Shavuot:  seek meaning, find connection, the work of making an ever changing, ever evolving world a better place is never done.  

 
Young Family Opportunities
Come together, join us in person at CBE and around our beautiful county.  See the website and eblasts for a schedule of events and activities your family will enjoy.  RSVP for special “Tot Tevat”; collections of interactive and fun materials for your preschooler to connect Jewishly, learn with and enjoy.  Find PJ library and other great books to read together in our truly exceptional library maintained by long time CBE member and former Director of Education Irene Clurman.  Snack in our amazing garden (check it out in July/August) and plant your seeds of hope and love.

Youth Engagement Opportunities
Thanks to a generous grant from the Hornik Family Foundation, our youth program has been able to continue to experiment with ways to stay connected virtually as well as occasional in person gatherings.  We are looking to ignite more opportunities by starting an Israel fund to support these teens to travel together to Israel in a couple years and participate in more tikkun olam activities locally with global impact.  Mazel Tov, Toda raba Rebekah Romberg, Julia Verheij, Tal and Jonah Arnold!