A Message From Rabbi Hanan

Shalom Y'all, (carryover from my Austin days)

I am grateful to be able to co-lead one more set of High Holy Day services.  I have just gotten in touch with, and am surprised to realize, that I have lived one third of my life here in Eugene.  That's a GVALT and a blessing!  Let me share a little bit – without getting into an entire “organ recital” - what is happening for me now.  Physically, energetically, I am being seriously challenged vis-à-vis my health and physical well being … and realize that I need to spend the coming year focused on paying attention to improving my health.

I'm very excited and anticipating our sharing of these special holy days together.  It would not be possible to carry them out without a significant number of people.  Please be sure to check out the Thank You handouts at services.  Most crucial was the initial planning circle of Rob Tobias, Beth Rose and Jordan Michels, the people who are most involved in scripting the liturgy.  It consisted of a wonderful process of considering my limitations in regard to health, age and energy, and  and also initiating a process of envisioning what we might do and where we might go in the present year and in the future – including critiquing what we have done in the past;

Having celebrated my 74^th birthday in February, and halfway through my 75^th year, I am smack in the middle of my eleventh seven-year cycle and seriously being called to pay more attention to all of the factors attendant to aging.  Our Board President, Dr. Jordan Michels, gives a very clear and accurate picture of what is involved in answering the call to follow the path of “Spiritual Eldering.”  Please check out this piece in the High Holy Day mailing on page 4, paragraph 4.  Suffice it to say that this call to elderhood demands considerable quiet time for reflecting and for the deeper inner work which is necessary for Life Review  and Life Completion, and a deep “Forgiveness for Self and Others” work, which is also so crucial before leaving our earthly life.

This work also blesses us, “for in preparing for death, we may return to living with a heightened sense of calling and purpose, which in turn can inspire us to new manifestations of the fruits of our life.”  You can get a sense of this, if you yourself really get into the deeper inner meaning of these Days of Awe, and as Jordan reminds us.

For me, these lessons were amplified this last winter when I lost 3 dear Rabbi friends (two younger) and one of my dearest women friends – and the

30-year-old daughter of a couple who are dear to me – all in the space of a couple of weeks.  It was shocking to lose such precious friends all at one time !!

Confronted by these realities, I'm also strongly motivated to complete the next stage two of my project of recording mostly Hebrew and liturgical chant with Rob Tobias; to complete my editing of a Shabbos Home Guide; putting together a relatively short book of writing on the What, Why and How of Worship; and putting out some teaching tapes.  I also want to make sure we have sufficient funding to finally put out the Ad Olam Singers High Holy Day musical tapes.

That's a lot on my plate, considering all of the health and healing challenges I am facing right now, as well as other tasks like divesting of certain books and papers in a responsible manner.  In addition, on the very top of my personal agenda is to make more space for my children and grandchildren, including the latest addition, my newest – and fifth – grandchild, Sophia, born to my daughter Maria and her husband Carlos just this week.

For me, “legacy” includes both personal imperatives – vis-à-vis my work and family … and communal imperatives in terms of what follows for Ad Olam after I'm gone.  On the communal level, this mean you.  I would love to know that even after I'm gone, there are people in our community who will be gathering at the Yomim Noraim and both commemorating and celebrating these High Holy Days in such a juicy, creative, sweet, heimesh (warm), edgy and meaningful way, as we do now.

My first intentional measures to move in the direction of empowering others to step up to the plate, and for me to step back, occurred when I turned 70 and called together the Ad Olam Board to vision what that might look like, and how we could make that transition.  Since then, each year we've been increasing Hevre participation in both the organizing and carrying out of all facets of the High Holy Day Services and happenings.  I'm grateful for the response and impressed with what our Hevre has been manifesting.

So far I have touched on all but one of the major elements of this year's High Holy Day planning meeting, namely the critiquing of past years' services.

At the core of our critique was a question raised by Reb Rob:  How can we create a genuine, warm and engaged community?  Rob pointed out that in addition to the daven'n and music, the most heart-felt shared experiences we have as a community are:  the Kiddush, sharing apples and honey, music and fellowship following the Rosh Hashanah eve service, and the Yom Kippur concluding Neilah Service and Break the Fast at Reb Jordon and Susi's home.  Rob was right-on about that.  He also was right-on in regard to “timing” being an essential ingredient, which can make or break the success of those gatherings.  He pointed out that at times we've tended to lose our community toward the end of the service because of our disregarding agreed-upon  reasonable time limits for the sermons and/or for the service itself; and that when the services conclude in a timely fashion, it allows for more personal interaction with members of our Hevre.  I applaud Rob for sharing that truth.  We're taking it to heart in our scripting of the services, which, unlike my Orthodox childhood Shul, are not intended to go on for a minimum of 3 to 4 hours in the evening and as much as 8 to 10 hours during the day.

Warmest personal regards and blessings to you and your loved  ones, and may you all be written in the Book-of-Life for a healthy, fulfilling, productive and sweet year ahead. I’m looking forward to sharing these special Holydays with you.

Sincerely,

Rabbi Hanan and Shaloha (carryover from my Hawaii days)