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Note from our Rabbi: Feel the Pain, Sing the Songs
Fall 2026
from the Congregation Newsletter

Twice a year, in Parashat Ki Teitze, shortly before the High Holidays, and in Parashat Noach, shortly after, in our Haftarah reading, the prophet Isaiah calls to us:

Enlarge the site of your tent,

Extend the size of your dwelling,

Do not stint!

Lengthen the ropes, and drive the pegs firm! (Isaiah 54:2)

In the late summer, Isaiah’s words are one of the haftarot of consolation after Tisha B’Av. And the haftarah connects to Noach with an explicit reference to the covenant after the flood. Things have been hard, but they will be better. We’ve been diminished, but we will grow again, Isaiah promises.

But growth takes work. The tent, such as it is, needs care in how the ropes are extended and the pegs refastened, so that it doesn’t collapse. And the more complicated a structure, the more care is required.

I’ve been delighted by the ways we’ve expanded our tent in the past year. With increased social, educational, and musical offerings, we have made room for more and more people to enter, and that’s a beautiful thing. As we embark on a new year, I want to note the challenges that come with an expanding tent.

First, there is the literal work of increasing capacity: if more people are eating, the kitchen needs to become more efficient. If the building is open longer, its energy costs rise. You’ve already received some messages about this and will be hearing more about this through our High Holiday season. Logistical, material challenges that require logistical, material solutions.

Perhaps more challenging are the emotional and spiritual challenges of enlarging the tent. The more people in this space, the harder it can feel to build intimacy. I’ve never met a single TBI member who hasn’t wondered whether they truly belong, which in turn makes it difficult to take responsibility to make others feel welcome. If we want to sustainably enlarge our tent, we’ll need to do the spiritual work of bringing ourselves in, so that, secure in our own belonging, we feel ready to welcome others.

And let’s be honest, that can be difficult too. Sometimes we want to close the door to other people. It’s all too easy to unilaterally decide that someone else doesn’t belong, to be unwelcoming or dismissive of people who challenge us.

So as we enter this High Holiday season, and a year whose theme will be about expanding our tent, I invite you to consider as spiritual challenges the questions: What would it take for me to decide I belong? Whom do I struggle to welcome? And how can I work to make the tent big enough for all of us?​​