Friday December 13, 2024/12 Kislev 5785
Parashat Vayetze
Hevre/Friends,
This time next week Andi and I will be back in the Laurentians after a beautiful fall season in New York. We spent lots of time with our kids and our friends, and had a busy and productive few months of work. Heading north where we’ll be anchored until April with monthly visits back to NYC, I’m excited for the snow, for ski days and snowshoe treks with friends and neighbours, and for some new rabbinic frontiers. Together with colleagues at Camp B’nai Brith of Montreal, we’re launching the Laurentian Jewish Community Center, the “LJCC@CBB”, creating year-round opportunities for families and individuals in the Laurentians to enjoy meaningful Jewish experiences by offering innovative recreational, educational, holiday and Shabbat programming. As people spend more and more time in the Laurentians - especially after the Covid crisis - there is growing interest in spiritual and cultural engagement amidst its spectacular natural landscape.
I’ve shared about our beloved Ivry community’s summertime weekly parashah classes, Kabbalat Shabbat celebrations on the Lake, Shabbat Shuvah nature retreats, and Sukkot in the Wilderness hikes. This new venture will draw from several different Laurentian municipalities and is being made possible with support from the Goodman Family Foundation, the Azrieli-Blanc family, and the Howard Stotland Family Foundation. Andi and I are hosting a magical Hanukkah party to kick it all off. Over the coming months we’ll be offering “Shabbat on the Slopes” - an opportunity to take a break from your ski day for Kiddush, Hamotzi, and a quick teaching on the Torah portion; musical Kabbalat Shabbat services; a Purim-themed Rabbi on the Rocks Havdalah, and more.
We are clearly not the first to find the beauty of the outdoors stimulating physically and spiritually. In this week’s parashah, Vayishlach, Jacob’s famously transformative bout with an angel takes place along the shore of the Yavok River where the evocative natural setting opened him to the deepest encounter with himself on his way back home.
I’m excited to keep building community with others in a place where Jewish inspiration grows alongside mountain ash, maples and moguls. Like the name of our emerging green Jewish cemetery we’re building up north, Makom Manitou, suggests by using one of the many Hebrew names for God, Makom/Place, our tradition recognizes that spirituality, connection and meaning can blossom anywhere. As Jacob became Israel by the side of a river, we hope our blossoming Jewish community will grow into its name, the LJCC@CBB, among our magnificent mountains. Join us! I can’t wait to share it with you all!
With ongoing prayers for the hostages and their families, the bereaved and the injured, and for a lasting peace in Israel and around the world, I wish you Shabbat Shalom.
Dini
