Joliet Jewish Congregation

Shalom!

 

 

On Sunday, the Joliet community came together for our yearly Spaghetti Dinner. This celebratory fundraiser always brings together our congregation in person: as volunteers in the kitchen and serving line, people packing up the to-go orders, those who cooked and baked, sold the baked goods, set up the event, advertised for the placemats, donated to the silent auction, to the raffle, bake sale and diners. Thank you to every-one who participated! Your help is much appreciated!
This past weekend, we also celebrated Robert Joloy’s Bar Mitzvah. Rob has worked hard, and it shows! He’s made a lot of progress on reading Hebrew, learning the prayers and knowing the ins and outs of the Shabbat morning service. He’s been studying to be a Bar Mitzvah unofficially for quite awhile, but had only been preparing this Haftarah and Maftir Torah portion for the past few weeks. Mazel tov! The synagogue presented Rob with a Bar Mitzvah certificate and a Kiddush cup. May he continue to celebrate Shabbat, both with his family at home, and here at the synagogue. We’re fortunate that Rob and his family are part of our congregation! Today, he joins his eldest son, Emmanuel, as a Bar Mitzvah!
This past week, our Torah portion was “LechLecha,” and it began with G-d’s wishes and directions for Abram to leave his home. This is so early in the Torah that Abram’s name has not yet been changed to “Abraham,” and Sarah is still “Sarai,” rather than Sarah. “And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and be thou a blessing,” G-d says to Abram. And thy descendants shall be as numerous as the stars, G-d says.
And so, Abram, Sarai, and Abram’s brother’s son, Lot, go on their way, taking their belongings and journeying through many lands. They pass through a famine and down into Egypt. There, G-d brings plagues unto Pharaoh, foreshadowing the muchlater plagues that Pharaoh and other Egyptians experience. We carry them with us and remind ourselves of them during Passover all these years’ later. Indeed, during a dream that Abram had in the Torah, G-d told him that the Jews would become strangers in a strange land, and serve the people there for 400 years.
In “Lech L’Cha,” G-d changes Abram’s name to “Abraham” after Sarah’s handmaiden, Hagar, has a child (Ishmael) with him. G-d calls Abraham “the father of a multitude of nations.” Then G-d promises Sarai that she, too, will have a child, and changes her
name to Sarah. (This boy is later named “Isaac,” meaning “to laugh,” which is what Sarah does when G-d’s angels tell her she will have a baby.)
In this past weekend’s portion, G-d professed that the Jews will become as large in number as the many stars. This could be considered the consequence of Abraham and Sarah following the famous command from the previous week’s Torah portion, “go forth and multiply.” The covenant here establishes circumcision as a requirement for being a male Jew. This is an outward marker of being in the Jewish community. Like a bris, a baby naming today is often considered par the course for a baby girl, as a way of welcoming them into the Jewish community.
In Lech L’Cha, we began to build our generations, to create a reason for the phrase, “L’dor va dor,” from generation to generation.
If you undertake a life cycle event like a Bar/Bat Mitzvah, may you carry your Judaism and accompanying work, study and ceremony with you, as you move forward in our Jewish community here, and in the larger Jewish world.
Looking forward to the rest of the calendar year, occasions include the non-religious holiday of Thanksgiving, the religious celebration of Chanukkah and many Shabbats. May we remember coming together for the Spaghetti Dinner, and how a common goal brought our community forward to honor and celebrate our congregation and larger community.
“Chazak, chazak v’nitchazek!” meaning, “Be strong, be strong, and let us strengthen one another!”
May we move forward with continuity and connection together.

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L’shalom, 

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Cantor Jessica