Author Archives: Rabbi Thiede

Your Book of Life, 5772

Posted by Rabbi Thiede on September 23, 2011   |   Comments Off on Your Book of Life, 5772

Dear Temple Or Olam Members,

Every year, I pick a theme for our Days of Awe.

This year’s theme is Abracadabra, an Aramaic phrase that announces, “What I speak, I create.”

During High Holy Days, we will be listening to special prayers and very special music, taking time for meditation.  We will be creating our own magic.  To that end, I have a small gift for each of our member units.

Each family or couple or individual will receive a Book of Life for 5772.  In it, you will find a personal blessing I have written especially for you (family, couple, or individual).  I will also be adding a few little exercises for the Days of Awe, some of which we will do as meditations during our services. 

Over this next year, on occasional Shabbats and during our festivals, I will be sending additional suggestions and exercises to add to your 5772 Book of Life.  These gifts will be handed out on Erev Rosh Hashanah, next Wednesday evening.  Please look for your book; there will be one with your name on it, I promise!

We have an opportunity this year to make a very particular magic, to know what it is to be truly happy in a sacred community.  I look forward to a very sweet year with you all.

With love and blessings,

Rabbi Barbara

More Learning Opportunities — Especially For Busy Moms and Dads

Posted by Rabbi Thiede on August 28, 2011   |   Comments Off on More Learning Opportunities — Especially For Busy Moms and Dads

Come this January or February, I would like to offer an introductory course on Shabbat and the Jewish festivals.  This course will be fun and friendly and designed with those in mind who may not be Jewish themselves, but raising Jewish children.  This course will be eye opening no matter your Jewish experience!

The venue will be particularly convenient for parents of young children; each session will take place on a free conference call line.  Participants need only pick up their phone and enter our virtual classroom.  This method has worked very well for our Torah study group; we all dial in once each week to talk and learn together (we’ll be sending out a refresher about how to join that group soon).

Our Shabbat and Jewish Festivals course will consist of 8 hour-long sessions with handouts rather than long reading assignments.  This should not feel like a burden, but like a refreshing and joyful hour together.  Tuition is $7 per class.

Anyone interested?  Please let me know!  Just send an email to Rabbi.Thiede@or-olam.org

It’s Never Too Late: Announcing TOO’s First Adult B’nai Mitzvah Class!

Posted by Rabbi Thiede on August 28, 2011   |   Comments Off on It’s Never Too Late: Announcing TOO’s First Adult B’nai Mitzvah Class!

Recently, about half a dozen women have been expressing interest in taking an adult bat mitzvah class.  I am making it so, starting sometime late this fall.

Since most women I know are overburdened, overworked, and possess a lot less free time than they deserve, the adult b’nai mitzvah class will not be organized in weekly classes, but in six Shabbat morning study sessions about once every month.  Our last study session will be a weekend retreat at the beach hosted by Temple Or Olam’s own Janet Sternbach.

Students will enjoy having chevruta (partners).   Our learning will include spiritual journaling, partner check-ins, and creative activities or two to try out in between meetings.  Our study plan includes four sessions on the structure of our prayer services, one session on home rituals and the liturgical year, and one session on mitzvot and tikkun olam.

So if you are one of those women who did not have a bat mitzvah, and always wanted one, here is your chance.  And think out of the box –you don’t have to love singing to love this learning or help lead a creative and joyful service, I promise!

Let me know if you are interested by sending an email to Rabbi.Thiede@or-olam.org

The Days of Awe: Spiritual Magic

Posted by Rabbi Thiede on August 19, 2011   |   Comments Off on The Days of Awe: Spiritual Magic

Temple Or Olam is blessed with a boy whose wide-open nature is a constant reminder of what really matters in this world.  The child has autism.

He tells us exactly what is on his mind.  He is without guile.  He does not know subtexts.

Recently, he led a prayer with me at a Kabbalat Shabbat service.  When the last notes had been sung, he announced to the congregation, “This was the best prayer ever.”

Everyone in the room smiled and nodded: It was the best prayer ever.  The boy had told us so.  He had spoken truly.

Abracadabra!

Abracadabra is an Aramaic phrase.  Each word in the phrase mirrors cognate words in Hebrew.  The first part of the word, abra means “I create.” The second part of the phrase, “cadabra” means “like I speak.”  When you say “abracadabra,” you are saying, in effect, “What I speak, I bring into being.”

What are the Days of Awe if not the opportunity to understand – deeply – that by speaking, we create?

In Pri Ha’aretz, Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Vitebsk wrote with tenderness about the power of speech.  His commentary on Parsha Vayera states: “And he who speaks, behold this person is creating new heavens and new earth like that which was at the beginning of creation: ‘By the word of the LORD the heavens were made” (Ps. 33:6).’”

According to Targum Bereishit, the birth of humanity that we celebrate each year on Rosh Hashanah was immediately accompanied with God’s loving gift of our capacity for speech: “There was in the body of Adam the inspiration of a speaking spirit, unto the illumination of the eyes and the hearing of the ears.”

God fashioned humanity through divine speech in Genesis 1.  God’s own creation inherited the capacity to create, like God, through speech.

What would godly words sound like from human beings?  They would be words of truth and possibility, of kindness and understanding, of forgiveness and atonement.  They would be the very words of love.

This year, during Temple Or Olam’s High Holy Days, we will consider the power of our words.  A new year opens wide before us.  Let us name the things we must make.  By articulating those things, by naming them through prayer and reflection, we can make them real.

Abracadabra.


Southern Jewish Life Part of History Channel Special

Posted by Rabbi Thiede on August 17, 2011   |   Comments Off on Southern Jewish Life Part of History Channel Special

Tonight, the HISTORY CHANNEL will premier “You Don’t Know Dixie” at 9 pm.  The special will include a look at the contributions of Southern Jews to Southern culture and history.  Enjoy!

Kabbalat Shabbat Service: Diamonds in the Rough?

Posted by Rabbi Thiede on August 12, 2011   |   Comments Off on Kabbalat Shabbat Service: Diamonds in the Rough?

In the opening to this week’s parsha, Moses begs God to allow him to enter the good land God has promised the Israelites. God answers: ‘Rav l’ach’ – you have abundance. At this Kabbalat Shabbat service, we will hear a story of a diamond, a story that tells us that our lives, however flawed, have the capacity to sparkle, to shine, and be the fulfillment of our own reams.

Join us for a joyous family Kabbalat Shabbat!

When: Friday, August 12 at 7 p.m.
Where: McGill Baptist Church, Concord NC


Tisha B’Av Study Session

Posted by Rabbi Thiede on August 5, 2011   |   Comments Off on Tisha B’Av Study Session

Daughter Zion has one of the most powerful voices of Tanakh. We hear her cry out in the opening chapters of the Book of Lamentations where she is not afraid to confront God with the evidence. God, she insists, has cruelly brutalized the people Israel.

Lamentations is read annually on Tisha B’Av, the anniversary of the destruction of the both the first and second Temples. The First Temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonian king, in 586    BCE.    The Second Temple was demolished by the Romans, in 70 CE.

The poetry of Lamentations is haunting, sorrowful, seeming, in some respects, to foreshadow the horrific destruction of Jewish life in the twentieth century.

This year, we will engage in special study session of Lamentations on August 9th. If you are interested in joining the conversation, please email Rabbi Barbara at Rabbi.Thiede@or-olam.org and she will send you more information.

Blessing the people Israel…

Posted by Rabbi Thiede on July 13, 2011   |   Comments Off on Blessing the people Israel…

This Shabbat our tots will enjoy a goodly amount of dancing, singing, and processing during their Shacharit service.  They’ll also learn how to hold their hands when they bless the people Israel and even hear a story about how the famous and oldest blessing of our tradition came into being.

Please feel free to join us for a short and sweet Shabbat morning service – though the service is intended for 2-5-year-olds, older children (of any age) are welcome to join in the fun.

Bagels and cream cheese, anyone?  We ask that everyone bring something to nosh after our service.

Event: Tot Shabbat
Date: July 16
Time: 10 – 11’ish
Location: McGill Baptist Church, 5300 Poplar Tent Road, Concord.

A Red, White, and Blue Feelin’ Groovy Kabbalat Shabbat

Posted by Rabbi Thiede on June 29, 2011   |   Comments Off on A Red, White, and Blue Feelin’ Groovy Kabbalat Shabbat

Our July 8 service will include melodies from Woody Guthrie, Simon and Garfunkel, Cat Stevens, the Beatles, and more. We won’t change the words much, if at all, because we’ve chosen songs to reflect on the themes expressed in our traditional liturgy — feeling grateful for the gift of Shabbat, celebrating our community, and resolving to help heal our world.

(Besides, we’d like you to sing along!)

Per request from one of our beloved youngsters, please wear your Or Olam T-shirts if you have them. Feel free to match up their radiant blue tones with red and white. Or just wear American colors. As you wish, of course.

Please join us for a Kabbalat Shabbat feelin’ altogether groovy…..

Event: Kabbalat Shabbat Service
Date: July 08 at 7 pm
Location: McGill Baptist Church, 5300 Poplar Tent Road, Concord.

Temple Or Olam Presents: Rumble in the Desert

Posted by Rabbi Thiede on June 16, 2011   |   Comments Off on Temple Or Olam Presents: Rumble in the Desert

Korach on one side; Moses on the other. The two face off over leadership, holiness, and God’s real intentions.

Who will win the battle? The upstart Korach or the much-beleaguered Moses? Is the battle really about who has the right to lead in the first place?

Join us as we see Torah presented as we’ve never seen it before at our June 24th Kabbalat Shabbat service in 3d!

Event: Kabbalat Shabbat Service
Date: June 24 at 7 pm
Location: McGill Baptist Church, 5300 Poplar Tent Road, Concord.