Welcome Rabbi Donna Kirshbaum! We look forward to learning with you, to davening with you, and to enjoying an enlightening and enjoyable 2019 with you in bethlehem.

Shalom everyone. I’m pleased to be greeting you as your Rabbi for the 2019 season. Although I’m no stranger to American synagogue life or to northern New England, I have much to learn from you about Bethlehem, about Jewish life in the North Country, and about how your own lives in particular intersect with this beautiful place. I’ll be joining you at BHC from my home near Beersheva, Israel and as such I confess to feeling a bit like the rabbi played by Gene Wilder in The Frisco Kid, compelled to trust in the wisdom of this new turn; eyes, ears, and heart wide open to the wonder that new places afford us when we’re lucky.  If, by the way, it’s been a while since you’ve seen this 1979 classic with Wilder and Harrison Ford, I’m going to recommend, as my first order of rabbinical business, that you postpone binge-watching Midge Maisel (yes, I know, I know, the second season’s out) and hurry on over to 1979. If you’ve got a minute and twenty seconds to spare right now, do watch the Frisco Kid’s most famous clip, the Rebbe and the Chief, and savor the whole movie later. Later as in soon.)   

The civil year is about to begin as I write this and it happens to correspond this time with the beginning of sefer Shmot, the Book of Exodus. You may remember the opening verse, These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob. Only, it happens that Exodus doesn’t actually open with the phrase, These are the names [eleh sh’mot] but rather with the phrase And these are the names [v’eleh sh’mot]. The letter vav may appear thin and unprepossessing at the very beginning of Exodus, but in fact it does the heavy lifting needed to connect the end of Genesis  [sefer B’reishit] the first book of Torah, with what follows. Put a little differently, the tiny sound “veh” made by the letter vav connects the first book, Genesis, about individuals and families with the second book, Exodus, about their evolution into an entire community.  That modest letter vav offers us a small, neat reminder of the continuity that inheres in these two separate books of our foundational text and, by extension, the continuity that inheres in our tradition.  Thus if we look out through a Jewish lens, I have no doubt that we, too, will find enough vavi’m [plural of vav] – little connections, modest hooks, small interdependencies that contribute to the comfort of continuity – despite the transition to new rabbinic leadership for BHC, a new civil year, and very likely, new challenges in our families and in the often-fractious larger world.

b’vrachot,

Rabbi Donna Kirshbaum

Omer, Israel 

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Since 1920, the Bethlehem Hebrew Congregation has served the religious, social, cultural and educational needs of New Hampshire’s North Country residents year ’round as well as seasonal residents and occasional visitors. Its historical building, dating back to the 1880s, is a landmark of American Jewish history, has been lovingly maintained and restored through the generosity of both residents and visitors.