SURROUNDED BY TORAH Arbor presents a life story by Eileen Rosendahl!

Shana tova, RSNS, and Gan Shalom families! 

One of the jobs of your clergy is to look beyond the coming moment towards our approaching future. In terms of the holidays, this means looking beyond Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur to what comes next. Sukkot is a celebration of community through the lens of the fragility of life. Will our harvest yield enough for the long winter? Will the shelters we construct weather life’s storms? Will our democratic institutions at home and in Israel survive wave after wave of assaults? As we peer towards the stars through the branches of our sukkah, the answer comes in the culminating holiday of the season: Simchat Torah. As we unfurl the scroll to surround our most cherished possession - our newest Jewish learners - we are reminded that our strength and resilience comes not from wood and stone, cement and steel, but from our stories.

Once again, we are delighted to present our newest Storyteller of the Month, Eileen Rosendahl. In this video, lovingly produced by our friends at arbor, Eileen tells a story familiar to many of you - the wonderful and unique way we celebrate Simhat Torah. She then connects this to our recent Torah repair and celebration, as Eileen reminds us that our stories sustain us from generation to generation. So please, do yourself a favor and take three minutes to enjoy Eileen’s story. Then come eat with us and shake the lulav in the Sukkah on Sunday, October 1st (bring your pets!), and help make new memories for the next generation at our Simhat Torah and Bet Consecration service on Friday night, October 6th.

May you be written in the Book of Life, and may we continue to weave our stories into the Tapestry of our community!

-Cantor Eric

Shaliyah 9.25.23