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Rabbi’s Update 7/31/2024

Dear Friends:


On Monday night August 12 at 8 pm, we will be hosting joint services for Tisha B’Av with five other synagogues from central and upper Montgomery County. We will be joined by clergy and congregants from B’nai Shalom of Olney, Shaare Tefila, Kol Shalom, Tikvat Israel, and Shaare Torah. We have participated in joint services for Tisha B’Av and Selichot with various combinations of these congregations for many years, but in the last few years have rarely been able to host because our building was being used by one or another of our tenants. Because this year Tisha B’Av evening is on Monday, when we do not have renters, we are able to host and return the hospitality of the other congregations. If for no other reason, it is important that we have a respectable turnout of Kehilat Shalom congregants that evening.


For many of us Tisha B’Av is an observance with which we have an ambivalent relationship. It is in theory a fast day commemorating the destruction of both the First and Second Temples and praying for the construction of a Third Temple and restoration of the sacrifices which were offered in the prior Temples. In all honesty, while I am distressed at the loss of life and of Jewish sovereignty associated with the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 CE, I have no desire to build another Temple or restore sacrificial worship. Like most contemporary Conservative rabbis, I view the replacement of sacrifices by prayer, Torah study, and acts of lovingkindness as an improvement over sacrifices and not as a temporary substitute for them.


In the wake of October 7, for many of us Tisha B’Av takes on a new valence. For the first time in my adult life, I can imagine the possibility that the existence of the State of Israel is in danger. And like 70 CE, this danger comes from two sources which strengthen each other: external threats from our enemies and internal threats from societal disunity and governmental failures. Tisha B’Av is more relevant today than it has been in some time.


We send our condolences to the family and friends of Andrew Garfinkel who passed away last week. Funeral services will be held at Kehilat Shalom this coming Sunday, August 4, at 1:15, with burial following at the Garden of Remembrance in Clarksburg. May his memory be a blessing and may God comfort the bereaved.


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 or 301-977-0768 rather than through the synagogue office. 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




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