Shabbat Shalom to the Sha’are Shalom family,

Two days ago we heard the uplifting news that a deal was made to begin releasing some of the hostages from captivity in Gaza. For those who get to return home, we pray for their physical, mental, and spiritual healing as they reunite with family and friends.

 Closer to home -- In honor of doing service work to remember the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we’ll be sprucing up our synagogue this Sunday. While we already have a wonderful group of volunteers signed up to help, we’d love for you to join us!

 Over Shabbat and through the weekend we’ll reflect on what Dr. King continues to teach us through the lens of the Book of Exodus, the new Book of Torah we will start reading this Shabbat. The Exodus was a meaningful story in the civil rights movement and long before the 1960s. Harriet Tubman was known as “Moses”, and following Reconstruction former slaves called themselves “Exodusters” as they headed north toward what they hoped would be a more free and prosperous future.

The Exodus story continues to be central to Jewish belief and practice as well. When our ancestors achieve freedom from Egypt they become a self-determining people who will receive the Torah and start a new covenant with God. This journey informs our values, our holidays, and the work we do every day to elevate ourselves and our communities through the mitzvot.

 These things – community service, the mitzvot, building up our community - liberate us from focusing on what is superficial and enable us to focus on what is transformational, as Dr. King said, “Now let us begin. Now let us re-dedicate ourselves to the long and bitter, but beautiful, struggle for a new world.” If the conflict or polarization in our world is getting us down, join us this weekend, join us to serve meals at the shelter, for prayer, for learning, and more. Working together we strengthen one another.

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Tow