Dear JCOGS Family,
The next several weeks are filled with holidays and celebrations. Tonight, we are gathering for Shabbat services and an oneg in honor of beloved JCOGS member Mel Siegel’s 92nd birthday. A week from tomorrow (March 23) is our Purim Party, replete with a potluck, megillah reading, silly spiel (Purim play), dance party, and more. Finally, we are very much looking forward to our Second Night Community Passover Seder where we will welcome Rabbi David back from sabbatical.
We break a glass at a Jewish wedding, because our tradition asks us to acknowledge the world’s brokenness, even while we are rejoicing. So too, as we celebrate our upcoming holidays, I know we will continue holding the ongoing loss and heartbreak in Israel and Gaza.
In this spirit, there is one more holiday I want to add to our calendar, one in which celebration is also blended with sadness. According to the Talmud, the 7th of Adar (which begins tomorrow night and ends Sunday evening) is Moses’s yahrzeit, the anniversary of his death. The Torah describes Moses being buried by God, prompting rabbinic commentators to understand the work of caring for the dead and their loved ones to be one of the most sacred—literally, “Godly”—acts of care human beings perform for one another.
As such, the 7th of Adar is historically a day when Jewish communities celebrate the work of the Chevra Kadisha, the “holy society” responsible for preparing the deceased's body for Jewish burial. The people who carefully and lovingly prepare a body for dignified burial typically carry out this sacred task quietly and anonymously. The work is often referred to as “chesed shel emet,” loving-kindness in its truest form.
The JCOGS Cemetery, Darchei Shalom (Paths of Peace), is a pillar of our community, foundational to JCOGS founder
Marvin Gameroff’s vision. This 7th of Adar, I want to celebrate all those who have contributed to the building and sustaining of the JCOGS Cemetery. I especially want to lift up the work of past Cemetery Chairs Steve Lichtenstein z"l and Steve Berson, current Cemetery Chair Lynne Gedanken, and our Cemetery Superintendent, Bruce Godin.
In keeping with the 7th of Adar, I also want to honor the JCOGS volunteers who offer their support to grieving members in many ways: attending funerals, making minyans for those saying kaddish, picking up the phone to offer condolences and an empathic ear, and organizing meals of consolation, such as when our community recently came together after the funerals of Steve and Carole Lichtenstein z"l.
The Torah’s image of Moses being buried by God—according to one midrashic interpretation, “with a kiss”—is beautiful and poignant. It is also a lonely one. Save for the divine presence, Moses dies alone. This 7th of Adar, I am grateful to be part of a JCOGS community that supports its members both in times of happiness and hardship. Whether in celebration or mourning, you are not alone.
Shabbat shalom,
Emmanuel Cantor
Rabbinic Intern
