Hello everyone, my name is Iris Grossman and I am happy to be sharing with you all a reflection on my hopes for the future.  When Rabbi Greene first emailed me about this topic I thought gosh that is a bit ambiguous, does she mean my personal hopes for the future? My hopes for our Sinai community or the broader Jewish community? Or my hopes for Israel for the future? Thinking about this more, I realized it was probably intentionally ambiguous, and that all of those different groups likely have similar and intertwined future hopes.  My hopes for the future, including for myself, our Sinai community, our broader Jewish community, and the state of Israel, are all rooted in the past.  For the past year at Friday night services, we have been including a prayer for the state of Israel which is on page 484 (no need to turn...

 Hi, I’m Al Rosenbloom, and it’s an honor to speak to you for a couple of minutes. Four years ago, I retired from a 30-year career teaching marketing and international business at the university level.  One of the many things I learned is that students are very honest – especially when it comes to course evaluations. I remember one really, really well. It read:  “Professor Al. I really enjoyed many of your lectures. (Interesting word “many.”) Many of your lectures were so chocked full of interesting/good ideas that they often made my brain hurt.  And to tell you the truth, you can also be a little longwinded, and on those days, the part of my body attached to the seat of my desk hurt even more.”  I took that advice heart.  Let’s see if I can make good on not creating any pain and not being too long-winded. At...

 When Rabbi Greene asked me to reflect on the significance to me of the Shofar Service, two somewhat irreverent thoughts from my childhood immediately came to mind: the first recalled our experience following the Yom Kippur children's services. The alderman of the fifth ward rented The Harper Theatre and all the Jewish children in Hyde Park, of which there was a great number in those days, were treated to a double feature and many cartoons to occupy us while our parents observed the holiday. we were also each given a sack of candy including Milk Duds. This obviously left an impression on me.  The second memory was more specific to Sinai. Although I had started Religious School in the last Kindergarten class to start in the Grand Boulevard (now Kind Drive) building and continued through Confirmation, I never heard a Shofar blown at Sinai until long after I was...

Rabbi Greene asked me to share some memories of mine with you of what the Shofar has meant to me over the years, both in Grand Rapids, where I grew up, and where Barb and I married, and lived for 45 years, and started our dear family, and then came here and our dear Chicago Sinai Congregation, which became our second home, and our two dear Rabbis, Rabbi Greene and Rabbi Bennof.  The Shofar reminds me of eloquent remarks by Elie Wiesel. My hero. Many reflect about this pivotal icon because of his catastrophic experiences in Auschwitz with his dad. Importantly, we have also become aware of Elie Wiesel’s later lifetime eloquent remarks, reminders to us of a profound lesson from that ill-fated cataclysm, that is, not to stand by when we are aware of tragedies and bad things occurring in front of our eyes.  Not to be indifferent to...

When Rabbi Greene asked me to give my reflections on holiness, I thought Holy Cow.  And as I have taken a close and personal reading of the parashat, I started with the definition of holiness which means to “set apart”.  Because we are the Jewish people, we are set apart by God and reminded that we are supposed to mimic God in holiness.  But as a Jew, I have questions.  Are we inherently holy or do we earn our holiness through our deeds and actions every day?  How often should holiness present itself because there is no realm of the holy without the common or routine?  And when we are engaged in holy acts, are they even righteous enough? I certainly have not achieved absolute moral perfection as governed by the holiness code.  I usually falter on the gossip piece, not the murder one, in case you were wondering. But...

 In ancient times, the sound of the shofar was a powerful call  for our people to gather at the Temple for significant events  and religious ceremonies. Its resonant tones signaled us to  assemble, particularly during festivals and special occasions.  Today, much like then, we come together as a community.  This unity not only feels uplifting but also strengthens us and  builds hope for the future.  Reflecting on the enduring strength and unity of our  community through the ages is especially impactful during the  High Holidays. This sacred time prompts many of us to  contemplate our connections to faith, family, and community.  Such introspection inspires us to plan and work towards  making things better, both individually and collectively.  Being part of a community involves a profound sense of  belonging—a powerful feeling that comes from being part of  something greater than ourselves. It offers social interactions,  which are among the greatest...

 I am exhausted, and if I’m being honest, I don't think I’m the only one. This past year has brought a litany of unfamiliar experiences and emotions.  This year, we’ve had to wrestle with questions like - Where do I fit in? And - what does it mean to live as a Jew, to be part of a local and global community, to be part of a peoplehood and also part of a modern society where we are an ethnic and religious minority?  Perhaps some of us are perfectly comfortable, we do not feel so different from anyone else around us. For some of us, this has been a persistent feeling throughout our lives - antisemitism, hate, feeling like we are on the outside, like we are other. For many of us here, this is a new reality that we have had to grapple with over the past year....

 “If we just sat here, all of us, and cried together today, that might be the most eloquent response to the year we’ve just lived through.” These are the words that Rabbi Rachel Timoner opened with on Rosh Hashanah morning five years ago.  I don’t know about you, but the anticipation leading up to these High Holy Days have felt different than ever before. This year was filled with so much communal grief for the lives of all of the victims of the horrific pogrom of October 7. So much grief for the thousands of innocent victims of the war that began on October 8. This year has been filled with so much fear as Antisemitism continued to rise and then rise again to the surface and explode in our faces, here in America. This year, I prayed and prayed, as did so many of us – that all...

   My Dear Chicago Sinai Community,  As we come together this Kol Nidre evening, I can't help but reflect on the shock and devastation that enveloped us in the wake of October 7. In those heart-wrenching moments, countless of our Israeli brothers and sisters, and many of us, too, found ourselves saying "ayn milim"—there are no words. Yet now, 372 days later, I stand before you with words that I feel compelled to share. I come to you from a place of vulnerability, aware that some of you may resonate with my thoughts while others may not. In this moment of uncertainty, I am reminded of a beautiful Talmudic teaching. The Torah, in recounting the story of the Exodus, tells us that Moses says the redemption will take place “k’Chatzot”—around midnight. This raises an important question: why the word “around”? The Rabbis explain that this ambiguity teaches us something...

 My first month living in Chicago, on a quiet Friday, I took my bike out at 6:30 in the morning to ride up to Montrose Harbor, because of an instagram post. 7AM, I arrived, completely unsure of an exact location, nervous going to something by myself, scared that I had no idea where in the city I was, yet, as I got closer to the harbor, I saw people walking and biking, together in groups with inner tubes and pool floaties. I locked up my bike and followed the crowds of people towards the water where a few hundred people were jumping into the lake at 7AM. I dumped my things on a step and approached the edge of the water. I was terrified. All of a sudden, I hear an affirming shout- “are you going to jump?” and a young woman and her friends start cheering me on...