TEMPLE
ADATH ISRAEL
BULLETIN

 

VOL. 71 NO. 5

A MESSAGE FROM THE RABBI

I remember opening my first law office. I
had a Tandy 1000 and a Daisy wheel
printer that operated at, what was then
break neck speed, 10 characters per second.
I had a state of the art set up. The only problem was that
this printer made lots of noise, so it took a padded sound
buffering case to make it functional (that and a whole
table on which to put it). It was amazing! I could produce
documents that could be changed at will. I don’t know
how law offices operated before computer. Either legal
secretaries had lots more patience or the practice was far
less complex. In any event. I became near addicted to this
wonderful technology, and as it upgraded. so did I. I was
not a techno-file. I never had a Palm Pilot and am not
looking for a computer watch. but I did try to keep a
computer that would run the necessary software and
usually carried a cell phone. I became very thankful for
this blessing. and then. true to form for most of us,
thankfulness left and I began to take it for granted.
1 was once again reminded of the importance of computer
technology in my life this past week. My computer
crashed while I was out oftown. As I stood at the
computer shop and begged for help, I would have given or
promised almost anything to get it back and whole. As I
write this article, I realize that I am once again blessed, I
promise never to take my computer for granted again.
This sounds so much like the way we approach each other
and God. New relationships are special. They are
exciting and fresh. Eventually, we often times forget to
keep them special. and we begin to take them for granted.
or "upgrade” them as our social status or geography
Changes. We do this with God, too. In the midst of our
angst we make all sorts of promises. "If only You get me
through this . . is a frequently heard phrase that many of
make and begin to honor. Yet after the prayer is
answered, we fall back into usual patterns as time goes on,
forgetting the blessing for which we felt indebted. It
seems as though. in this same way, we take our tradition
for granted. We look at the Torah and talk about its

KISLEV-SHEVAT 5764

wonder, but do not spend enough time engaging it.
Rabbi Eric Yoffie, the President of the American
Reform movement, offered us a solution to this
dilemma. At the recent Biennial convention of the
Reform Movement, introduced an initiative seeking
Reform Jews to reinvest ourselves in Torah study.

His idea is that we should spend ten (10) minutes

each day studying Torah. Short lessons will be
planned and available on line, with a goal of making
Torah again relevant to our lives. Candidly, I

endorse the initiative and would hope that we all

take the opportunity to dive back into our tradition

and study, even ten minutes a day. Call the office .
for details. I

C P A? Mllgi‘rlg

F

MARK NOVAK
RENEE BRACHFELD

ARTISTS IN RESIDENCE WEEKEND
DECEMBER 5-7
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