By: Anita Rubin-Meiller
I was blessed to attend Rav Gavrielle’s Rosh Chodesh service on Friday morning,
June 7 th and felt moved to write this short blog in case it might wake up the desire
for others to join the next month’s gathering.
In his book, “Me, Myself and God”, Rabbi Jeff Roth states that “creating a culture
of holiness is what will deliver us…it is within a culture of holiness that we all can
gain the wisdom and support to open our hearts”. With her wise and
compassionate presence, our Rabbi, is giving us yet another opportunity to
experience connection within the community in a way that accomplishes this.
Although we were on zoom, and not in person, the intimacy of our connection
could be felt as we were invited to pray the Shacharit service together and
welcome the New Moon of Sivan. The service had all the elements of meaning
and beauty that Rav Gavrielle creates in our monthly Shabbat services. We
chanted, we shared gratitudes, we offered healing prayer and observed Kaddish.
We also learned about the significance of the new month we had just entered and
how it aligned with this week’s torah portion, BaMidbar, as the Israelites created
camp at the base of Mount Sinai, preparing to receive the torah on the sixth day
of Sivan, now celebrated as Shavout.
Daily prayer- morning, afternoon, and evening- is a central aspect of traditional
Jewish practice, but my guess is that few of us engage with our Judaism in this
way. The root of the Hebrew word for prayer, tefillah, has multiple meanings
including, to judge, clarify, and decide. A definition of prayer that follows from
this is “the soul’s yearning to define what truly matters…”(Siddur Avodas HaLev) I
found the opportunity to have this space of communal prayer and ritual
observance beneficial for aligning my heart and mind in calm and gratitude before
stepping into the tasks and activities of the day. I look forward to gathering again
in this way.
