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H desh September – November, 2019
From Rabbi Lerner Emunah at 60 This past Spring I was fortunate to have celebrated twenty years in the congregational rabbinate. In some traditional and Orthodox communities ordination is called semikhah. Semikhah shares the same root as the letter samekh, a circular shape with a squared left corner, the 15th letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Each letter of the Hebrew alphabet is assigned a numeric value, and the value of the letter samekh is sixty. I enjoy statistics and playing around with numbers, and gematria, the spiritual interpretation of numbers, is an approach that combines my love of math and Jewish sacred texts. It was especially meaningful to me, then, when I realized that my two decade rabbinic anniversary coincides with our upcoming Emunah@60 celebration. After sixty years, our community is marking the diamond anniversary of Temple Emunah. In Pirkei Avot (The Ethics of the Sages), the rabbis explain that sixty is “ziknah – old age.” This made sense two thousand years ago, when someone who turned 60 years old had reached a significant and slightly more rare milestone. Today, however, with people (God willing) living longer, sixty is a time when people will plan for a new phase of life – perhaps becoming empty nesters, welcoming adult children back home, contemplating retirement or a shift in work, embracing grandchildren, or maybe opening themselves up to avocations they did not have time for earlier in their lives. (continued on page 20)
Elul – Kislev 5780
www.TempleEmunah.org
Emunah Welcomes Rabbi Perkins Rabbi Leora Kling Perkins joins the Temple Emunah family as our new Assistant Rabbi. Deeply committed to building and sustaining Jewish communities, she is a caring listener and relationship builder who supports all individuals in finding personally relevant ways to engage with Jewish observances, knowledge, and community. “Rabbi Kling Perkins brings deep knowledge and a wonderful ability to connect with people of all ages in diverse settings,” said Rabbi Lerner. “I am looking forward to teaching and learning with her, and to having her strengthen our multi-generational community.” A Needham native, Rabbi Kling Perkins is a graduate of Brandeis University and earned rabbinic ordination and an M.A. in Jewish education from the Jewish Theological Seminary (JTS) in New York. While in Rabbinical School, her internships included the Solomon Schechter School of Manhattan, Temple Emanuel in Hartford, CT, Park Slope Jewish Center in Brooklyn and Camp Ramah in the Rockies. She was the Secretary for the Conservative Movement’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standard, and during her JTS year in Israel, she was a T’ruah Israel Fellow. “My goal,” Rabbi Kling Perkins said, “is to help people find meaning in our traditions and bring them into their lives, to their bonds with each other, and their communities.” Before becoming a rabbi, Rabbi Kling Perkins studied at the Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem. Upon her return to the Boston area was a fellow with JOIN for Justice, a national organization dedicated to training, supporting, and connecting Jewish organizers and their communities. She then spent several years working as a program coordinator for the Greater Boston Jewish Coalition for Literacy. She is married to Matthew Goldstone and enjoys cooking local vegetarian food, hiking and gardening.
Inside: President................................... 2 High Holy Days.......................3-5 Religious Services/Worship.... 4-7 Adult Ed.................................8-11 Family Ed..................................11 Religious School/Youth...... 12-14 Pre-School................................15 Ladle Fund/Keruv .................... 10 Library......................................11
בתוך Sisterhood .............................. 16 Brotherhood/Shomrei Adamah.....17 Ladle Fund/Library.................. 18 Inclusion/Mak’haylah.............. 19 Rabbi....................................... 20 Yahrzeits............................. 21-24 Donations...........................25-28 Family Table............................ 28 Calendar............................. 29-31