Shabbat Message - January 1, 2021
This message has 651 words and will take about 3 minutes to read.
Back when we were in school we had a fresh start each September. New pencils, new notebooks, a new classroom and a new desk (well, new to us, anyway). The first day of school was always full of a special kind of excitement and anticipation. When you grow up and enter the workforce you lose that annual fresh start, so the ones you retain seem more meaningful, like this New Year.
The start of 2021 feels like it is full of more potential for positivity than any fresh start we’ve had in a long time. Yet, we know that people are still struggling and will be for some time. This can feel very conflicting, which then begs the question: How do we make the most of the opportunity before us?
I read two articles this week that helped me balance the greater struggles we and others may be facing with the need for positivity and the start of the (Gregorian) New Year, and I want to share them with you.
The first is by Amy Klein, which highlights what she calls the “hierarchy of grievance." The answer, she says, is found in compassion, which brings us to the second article.
In Demark, they cultivate empathy by teaching it to school children alongside subjects we might expect, like math. As part of the curriculum children share their struggles with their classmates, who then all help find solutions. You can read the article here.
One of the ultimate examples of compassion in our community is Dr. Robert Krell, founding president of our partner, the Vancouver Holocaust Education Centre. We were so pleased to hear the news that he was awarded the Order of Canada this week. He was joined by another member of our community, the incredibly talented photographer, David Cooper. Mazel tov to them both!
We have more good news to share, too. The 2020 Annual Campaign has just passed the $8 million mark, which indicates a strong performance from our community. Thank you to everyone who has given so far. We still have a way to go, and we really need everyone to participate. As we often say in our first Shabbat message of the year, there’s no better way to begin the New Year than by giving tzedakah.
I was privileged to see our community’s tzedakah in action this week when my wife, Rachel, and I joined MLA Michael Lee and his wife, Christina, to volunteer at the Jewish Food Bank. The work of all of our partners is so important in these moments, and I hope that above and beyond your campaign gift and your Community Recovery fund gift, you will be able to support those partner organizations whose work most touches your heart. I know it’s a great deal to ask, but the needs are greater than ever this year.
We all have high hopes for 2021, including our former president, Jonathan Berkowitz. He sent us a delightful 2021 “Englimatria” (English gematria, as he calls it). We love it, and we hope it will leave you with a good feeling for the coming year.
2020 was, undoubtedly, a very negative year. 2021 will be, we pray and predict, a much more positive year. Here’s the rationale:
Write 2021 in words; that’s: TWENTY TWENTY-ONE. Assign numerical values to each letter, using A=1, B=2, … Z=26, and add them. TWENTY TWENTY-ONE gives a total of 248.
According to Jewish tradition, there are 613 commandments. Some are positive – things we should do, and some are negative – things we should not do.
There are 365 negative commandments and… 248 positive ones.
That’s enough to have something negative for each day of 2020 (except the leap day), and 248 positive things for 2021.
There’s the proof, in our tradition and our text. 2021 will be a very positive year.
Shabbat shalom and happy New Year,
Ezra S. Shanken
Chief Executive Officer