Ann Arbor Reconstructionist Congregation

You are here: Home / Blog

Blog

AARC’s Year of Water

by

“No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until ‘justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.'” – From Martin Luther King’s I had a Dream, quoting Amos 5:4

וְיִגַּ֥ל כַּמַּ֖יִם מִשְׁפָּ֑ט וּצְדָקָ֖ה כְּנַ֥חַל אֵיתָֽן׃

But let justice well up like water,

Righteousness like an unfailing stream.

(Amos 5:4)

I would like to take this opportunity, on MLK Day 2025, to announce AARC’s Year of Water. We will be bringing attention to water justice and infusing water wisdom from Jewish tradition into our prayer services and other programming during the rest of 5785. We do not have to wait until Shmitta years to shed light on the importance of the miztvah of taking care of our planet.

It is my hope that turning our attention to the theme of Water will not interfere with our other efforts of Tikkun Olam, but rather, that such holy work will sustain and nurture us in all our endeavors, for if we work toward purifying and cleansing our waterways, we also purify and cleanse ourselves. As we already know, 60% (give or take) of us is made up of water.

I know that our community is deeply invested in Tikkun Olam, which has many many different faces, as there is so much brokenness in the world. Our community’s commitment and interest in Tikkun Olam is one of the things that I cherish most about us. May we continue on that path of repairing and healing the world with strength and resilience, as a community and as individuals.

B’ahavah,

Rav Gavrielle

Join as Rav Gavrielle Leads AARC Book Group, January 26, 2025

by

Once a year, our Rabbi selects a book for interested members of the congregation to read and discuss. “It’s become a tradition we all look forward to, and it helps draw new members to the AARC book group.” comments Greg Saltzman, AARC book group coordinator.

All are welcome on Sunday, January 26, 2025 as Rav Gavrielle leads the AARC book group, and any interested friends, in discussing
Loving our Own Bones, Disability Wisdom and the Spiritual Subversiveness of Knowing Ourselves Whole,
by Rabbi Julia Watts Belser.


Lunch and More!

Rav Gavrielle will join us for lunch from 12:20-1 PM at
Emily and Avi Eisbruch’s house
2561 Bunker Hill Rd, Ann Arbor, MI 48105
Please email Emily Eisbruch at eisbruchs@gmail.com if you plan to attend the in-person lunch and indicate any dietary restrictions you have.

From 1:00 – 2:00 PM, Rav Gavrielle will lead a hybrid in-person/Zoom discussion of the book: Loving Our Bones: Disability Wisdom and the Spir­i­tu­al Sub­ver­sive­ness of Know­ing Our­selves Whole
by Rabbi Julia Watts Belser.
(2023, nonfiction, 237 pages).  

I recommended 
Loving Our Bones: Disability Wisdom and the Spir­i­tu­al Sub­ver­sive­ness of Know­ing Our­selves Whole 
because I am fascinated and moved by how Rabbi Julia Watts Belser – a person living with disability, rabbi and scholar of disability studies – artfully weaves together multiple perspectives “to re-imagine our world as more welcoming, pushing against the violence of normativity, and challenging broader systems of marginalization and broader political messages that constrict us in the way we live.”   

– Rav Gavrielle

For AARC history buffs, below are two photos from the archives.

December 2023, Rav Gavrielle led the book group in discussing Judaism Disrupted.

May 2022, Rabbi Ora led the book group in discussing Ladies and Gentlemen, the Bible!

We look forward to seeing you on Sunday, January 26th

Annual Membership Meeting 5785

by

This past Sunday morning, AARC members gathered at the JCC to meet and discuss the state of our congregation and what it means to them.

The first half of the meeting was spent discussing business matters, such as departing (Erica Ackerman, Deborah Fisch, Debbie Gombert, Rebecca Kanner, Keith Kurz) and incoming members of the board (Dave Nelson, Josh Samuel, Robin Wagner), the budget, and other highlights from the past year.

The final half of the meeting was spent on an activity planned by Lisa Wexler, Julie Norris, and Debbie Gombert. Members made pairs, and eventually foursomes and octets, where they discussed what AARC means to them, and notice the themes that came up. Finally, the groups were tasked with making a short poem, song, or human sculpture, that conveyed these themes and ideas.

Near the end of the meeting, each group shared what they had worked on. The results were all unique, and yet each was filled with joy, heart, as well as themes of togetherness, justice, and diversity.

Thank you to all of those who were able to attend and participate!

Beit Sefer’s Mock Kabbalat Shabbat

by

After weeks of preparing blessings and ritual objects, Beit Sefer students and their parents gathered this past Sunday to stage a mock Kabbalat Shabbat. Throughout the morning, students braided miniature challah loaves, placed candles in their candlesticks, and filled plastic wine goblets with grape juice.

Rav Gavrielle was gracious enough to lead alongside Head Teacher, Morah Emma Shimovich. The pair, with Emma strumming her guitar, guided families through the blessings and various Shabbat songs and prayers.

The concluding activity allowed students to spend time crafting blessings for their parents, which they then read aloud to the group. We all swayed to our familiar priestly blessing as the morning closed out, and we continued to go about our Sundays.

Many thanks to Rav Gavrielle, Morah Emma, and all of the Beit Sefer families for making our mock Shabbat a success!

On Continuity of Care

by

Young Jewish children sit at tables in the childcare center at the Joodsche Schouwburg in the Amsterdam Jewish quarter, 1942. Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Hilde Jacobsthal Goldberg

Over the past week, I have processed the election results both privately and in community. I was especially grateful for our Second Saturday Shabbat Service, where I could connect with our community and be held by the sounds of our liturgy. As I parse through my feelings, my worries and fears always come back to the children in my life.

I spend my weekdays in the Duck Room at the JCC, a toddler classroom of 13 brilliant and beautiful souls. I feel so honored to be trusted with their care, to see them forming words and learning how to use their bodies. More than anything, I treasure the deep, loving, trusting connections I have built with them and their families. 

When the Ducks were dropped off last Wednesday, I exchanged quiet looks of sadness, anger, and fear with their parents. A few of them said they wished they could just stay home and be with their kids. I certainly hugged them extra tight throughout the day.

Although it was a sad day for many of the adults, it was business as usual for the toddlers. Their routines and rituals are what keep their world round. I was, and am, grateful to the presence that these children require. They keep me much too busy to allow my mind to wander to matters of dread and despair. 

My thoughts have also been with our class of Beit Sefer students in this time. Their relentless energy, curiosity, wit, talent, stubbornness, and playfulness give me hope and solace. 

We will be staging a mock Kabbalat Shabbat this Sunday, using ritual objects made and decorated by the students, and led by Rav Gavrielle. When the future is unknowable, I hope the practice and passing down of traditions may help us feel rooted in safety and security.

Finally, I think of my niece, at almost three months old, and what the world has in store for her. There are infinite paths of fear and doubt that I could go down. Thankfully, however, there are just as many of strength and perseverance. 

In grieving and in growing, as we stand on this precipice, I come back to the priestly blessing we sing at the end of services. May all of the children in our communities, both near and far, know safety, health, courage, and ease.

Words for a Pre-Election Shabbat

by

Dear Ones,

With our deep concern about the outcome of the upcoming election, I thought it would be helpful to create a special ritual for entering this particular shabbat.   

After lighting the Shabbat candles, let each of us sing Shalom Aleichem, the liturgical poem in which we traditionally call in the ministering angels and angels of peace.  In reciting these words tomorrow evening, let us call in what Abraham Lincoln referred to as “the better angels of our nature” — the spirit of empathy, compassion and interconnection, of family, friends and community.  Let us sing Shalom Aleichem with all our hearts, and use our holy imagination to form a resounding chorus of households that activates the angelic potential of our community so strongly that it magnetizes the angelic potential of all the citizens of this country.  

Then for a chatima, a final blessing, let us offer the prayer below, based on the magnificently crafted language of the founding fathers of this country:

We the People of the United States pray for a more perfect union, to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity for the United States of America, and for all the people who dwell on this Earth.  And let us say Amen.

Shabbat Shalom & Shalom Aleichem (Peace be upon you).

Love,

Rav Gabrielle

Link to Shalom Aleichem (Nava Tehila):  https://youtu.be/xt0ZoWfYMUk?si=RgS2kH-WNXaLOFVX

Text for Shalom Aleichem:

Shalom aleichem mal’achei hasharet

Mal’achei elyon mimelech mal’achei ham’lachim

Hakadosh baruch Hu.

Bo’achem leshalom mal’achei hashalom

Mal’achei elyon mimelech mal’achei ham’lachim

Hakadosh baruch Hu.

Bar’chuni leshalom mal’achei hashalom

Mal’achei elyon mimelech mal’achei ham’lachim

Hakadosh baruch Hu.

Tzetchem leshalom mal’achei hashalom

Mal’achei elyon mimelech mal’achei ham’lachim

Hakadosh baruch Hu.