A Message from Rabbi Yitzhak (January, 2007)

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Time for Renewal and Growth

Shonna and I will bring these physical things, but much more will be coming with us. We will take along feelings of gratitude for our community providing us this opportunity for spiritual and physical replenishment.  I will certainly carry a heart filled with gratitude for the ocean of blessings that saturated me at the celebration of my sixtieth birthday. My heart had to expand to take in all of the wonderful wishes and kind words offered me as most precious birthday gifts. Thank you for making me feel so well loved. Shonna, my beloved artist, no doubt will be taking along images. Visions of the sanctuary and other sacred spaces that have been the consuming focus of her life for many months as she enthusiastically and joyfully joined community artists and craftspeople to design the aesthetic elements of our emerging new home.  I know that even as we will do our personal spiritual work and learning, we will certainly reflect on and view the progress of our building with the help of the web cam on our TBI website.

We hope to return in three months with new insights and ideas gleaned from synagogues in the Bay area. Shonna and I have several friends there who are congregational rabbis and we intend to gather many new ideas that will enrich TBI's future. I will also study Mussar texts and the Jewish practice of character development. We hope to put our personal health in balance. At times, it falls off the list of priorities in the whirlwind of TBI activities. This is a time for rebalancing.

It is also a time for growth in our congregation. There is a concept called tzimtzum, or withdrawal in order to allow new possibilities to emerge. One of the areas we're opening for exploration is Shabbat and in particular Shabbat morning. I hope and trust that in these coming months you will step forward with willing hearts to support Rabbi Maurice and the lay leaders in our community as they experiment with enlivening our Shabbat experience.

We go on this journey with excitement and a sense of discovery and hope that you too will use this time well and discover new strengths and possibilities. We also anticipate with excitement rejoining you and sharing what we all have discovered. This is a most amazingly wonderful time in the life of our congregation. I know that we will continue to focus our communal energies toward many worthwhile goals. As Shonna and I head off on our journey, we send you Blessings for all that is good.

Shalom U'vracha (With peace and blessings),
Rabbi Yitzhak