Rabbi’s Update 10/17/2025

Dear Friends:

I have to begin my note to you this morning with some sad news. As you know, our guest High Holiday cantor from Israel, Michael Garmise, had to return home right after Rosh Hashanah because his wife Reva had taken seriously ill and was hospitalized. Sadly, she passed away on Wednesday and her funeral took place in Netanya yesterday morning. Although Mike was only with us for the two days of Rosh Hashanah, I heard from many of you how much you enjoyed meeting him and hearing him lead services with me. Michael and Reva have been active members of the Masorti Movement, the Israeli version of Conservative Judaism, and on behalf of our community I would like to make a significant donation to the Masorti Movement in memory of Reva Garmise. If you would like to participate in this tribute, please donate through ShulCloud as a Rabbi’s Discretionary Fund donation or send a check to the shul made out to the Kehilat Shalom Rabbi’s Discretionary Fund and note that it is in memory of Reva Garmise. Please do so as soon as possible so that I can send the donation to Masorti by the middle of the last week in October.

If you would like to express your condolences to Cantor Garmise, his mailing address is 5 Pierre Koenig Street, Netanya, Israel 4272105 and his email address is mikegarmise@gmail.com .

With the fall holidays having ended this past Wednesday, I’m reminded of a puzzling verse in the Song of Songs. In chapter 7, verse 1, the male lover (who is at least metaphorically understood to be God) says to the female character (understood to be Israel): “how beautiful are your feet in sandals.” What does this mean? It’s not necessarily bizarre that a man might praise the beauty of his female lover’s feet, but why specifically in sandals? 

Rabbi Akiva Eiger in Itturei Torah says that “in your sandals” means the day after Yom Kippur. On Yom Kippur we do not wear leather shoes which in biblical times were the only kind. On Yom Kippur the female lover was barefoot but on the day after, she is wearing sandals. Rabbi Eiger said that while what we do on the holidays is certainly important, that what we sometimes call “real life” is just as if not more important.

So this coming week will be the first one without a holiday in a month. The office will be open every day and we will resume our regular schedule of classes and activities.

This coming week I will be resuming my Thursday night Adult Education classes. At least for a while, I will continue my alternating classes “Wisdom from Our Sages: Pirkei Avot” and “Echoes of the Spirit: Exploring the Psalms’ Wisdom”. I am always eager to receive input about subjects that you would like to study so it remains to be seen how long either or both of these classes will continue. But before resuming my text classes, this coming Thursday night Oct. 23 I want to look at whether and how Oct. 7 and the subsequent war changed the American Jewish community, our relationship to Israel, and our relationships with each other. I intend this to be a discussion rather than a lecture, so please come and share your thoughts and concerns.

As a reminder, I am having drop-in hours on Thursday afternoons from 2 to 4 at the shul. For my drop-in hours, you do not need to make an appointment -- that would negate the whole point of drop-in hours -- but I’d urge you to check and make sure I am there regardless as sometimes there are unavoidable pastoral or other emergencies which might take me away from the building. 

As always, if I can do anything for you or you need to talk, please contact me at rabbi@kehilatshalom.org. I am happy to meet you at the synagogue by appointment; if you want to speak with me it’s best to make an appointment rather than assuming I will be there when you stop by. 

Additionally, if you know of a Kehilat Shalom congregant or another member of our Jewish community who could use a phone call, please let me know.

L’shalom,

Rabbi Charles L. Arian