Dear Friends:
Thank you to our entire community for another wonderful High Holiday season, my 11th at Kehilat Shalom. It’s always a pleasure to share the pulpit with Hazzan Kim Komrad and it was so great that she is feeling well after so many challenges and in such fine voice. Her davening added immensely to the beauty and spirituality of our services. There are many classic Jewish jokes about rabbis and cantors not getting along but I am happy that we work so well together for the benefit of our community.
So many people worked so hard to make our services happen and in singling some out there is always a risk of omitting someone. But I do want to note Bryan Levenson and Joe Lustig for distributing honors and Charlotte Strauss for doing the Shulcloud invitations for honors and coordinating the responses. Thanks to Terry Strauss for coordinating ushers andBob Goldberg for coordinating security. Thanks to Barnaby Yeh for davening those services that our Hazzan did not lead. Thanks to everyone who chanted Torah and Haftarah or who had other honors, and thanks to our gabbaim. I want to thank the Sisterhood for work beautifying our Sanctuary and Men’s Club for setting up chairs and moving the Machzors into and out of storage. Thanks especially to our office staff, Andi Epstein and Joan Teich, and our custodian Jose Cruz for all their hard work as well. If I have forgotten anyone please accept my apologies.
If you are interested in either reading the texts of my High Holiday sermons or viewing them on video here are the links:
First day Rosh Hashanah Morning:
Kol Nidre:
Yom Kippur Morning:
It was really great to see so many of you in the shul in person, especially on Yom Kippur when our Sanctuary felt almost as full as in “the before times.” I recognize that there are still folks who have valid medical reasons to avoid being exposed to crowds, but if at all possible please attend services in person. Please remember to sign up for tomorrow morning as well as for Monday’s first day of Sukkot followed by a pizza lunch in the Sukkah. It would be especially appreciated to sign up for Monday’s lunch by the end of the day today so we know how much pizza is needed.
Adult Education classes will be resuming starting this coming Thursday night after minyan.
As a reminder, I am having drop-in hours on Thursday afternoon from 2 to 4 at the shul. 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 or 301-977-0768 rather than through the synagogue office. I am happy to meet you at the synagogue by appointment. I have been spending more time in the synagogue recently but 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.
Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach,
Rabbi Charles L. Arian