Rabbi Howard Morrison

Dear Congregational Family,

During the past year and a half of Covid, the structure of Jewish life has changed drastically. For the most part, I and Rabbi David Grundland have offered noon time classes during this era of virtual synagogue life. In the last several months, Rabbi Grundland has addressed prayer and the Bible, while I have focused on rabbinic literature and the weekly Torah portion. I wish to thank everyone who has joined us over the past year on a full time or part time basis. Given that I will be taking off a couple of weeks here and there over the Summer, my noon time classes will pause for most of the Summer after today, June 3. I and other leaders in the shul will assess how and when classes will resume at the end of the Summer season. Rabbi Grundland's Wednesday noon class will continue until the end of June.

Although formal classes will be put on hold, Jewish learning is a continuous cycle. Traditionally, Pirkei Avot, The Wisdom of the Sages, is studied as a body of literature from after Pesach until Rosh Hashanah. My class will be taking its break while we are in the middle of chapter four in this six chapter literature. My weekly Torah portion class is rooted in the dictum that during the week, "one should study the parsha twice in the original and once in translation." I encourage us to continue dedicating some time during weekdays to study and review the upcoming Shabbat Torah portion.

With warm weather and Summer upon us, I pray that everyone stay as safe and healthy as possible. We look forward to a gradual transition from the last sixteen months into a healthier new world.

Sincerely,

Rabbi Howard Morrison