Rabbi Phil's Almost Weekly Message

I thought that to celebrate my sixth anniversary here at TBE (six weeks), I’d write a few words.

Wherever the four winds have taken me, it has been my practice to send out a regular message to my congregants. I have always called it my “Almost Weekly,” since I intend to communicate in writing regularly, but realize that it’s not something I can necessarily accomplish every week. But almost every week, I should be able, so count on more of these.

So here I am, a Northeast boy living in southern California with Betsy, a Northeast girl, with whom I will shortly be celebrating our 46th anniversary. It’s startling, isn’t it, just how fast time seems to flow when you look at it in retrospect? We were just under the huppah like, you know, a couple of weeks ago, right? And now nearly forty-seven years later, here I am in Riverside, California. Somewhere in there lurks a sermon.

So we’re here for a year to enjoy the 100 degree temperatures and so much sun that when there are a few clouds in the sky it’s startling. And as you know, I’m here in the capacity of interim rabbi. Here for a year and then back East.

But in the meanwhile, I have the privilege of serving you good folks at Temple Beth El of Riverside. That being the case, I thought I’d spend a moment on my first Almost Weekly talking about part of what I want to do during my tenure here: those things that go beyond the obvious pieces of a rabbi’s rabbinate.

I have always enjoyed teaching a lot of adult education. Here at TBE, I would like to do a few things in that vein.

First, I have already begun teaching a Bible class twice a month on Shabbat morning. I say “Bible” because we almost certainly won’t restrict ourselves to the Torah exclusively. The number of folks wanting to spend a bit of time on Shabbat to study Torah has been impressive, but there’s always room for one more.

Second, sometime after Yom Kippur, I will begin a Thursday evening class called Seminarion, a Hebrew word that means 'seminar.' This will be an evening class devoted to a series of short courses peppered with talks from guest lecturers.

The first course is called "Writing Your Spiritual Autobiography." In this class, I will guide participants in the exploration of their lives as religious men and women. This is the only course I will teach that requires writing, but it will be writing you’ll enjoy. Beyond that initial course, we might include topics like Women in the Bible, A Short History of Israel, Judaism and Bioethics, Three Short Stories by Philip Roth, The History and Meaning of Reform Judaism, and 'Jewish Humor. I am beginning to work on arranging for speakers to join us across the year, either in person or on Zoom.

In addition, I am going to offer an adult bar/bat mitzvah course. This project will consist of a serious and relatively deep dive into the Jewish tradition, culminating in a service that will celebrate our time together.

But wait, there’s more. I’d like to initiate a weekly Lunch and Learn, with an emphasis on lunch (you bring your own). This will be an opportunity to schmooze, perhaps talk about current events, perhaps a chance to teach the new rabbi about the charms of Riverside and SoCal, but with some learning thrown in, because there should always be some Torah in evidence.

With that in mind, let me conclude with a bit of Torah, my favorite pitgam (Hebrew saying): "B’shlosha drachim adam nikar, b’coso, b’ca’aso, u’v’kiso." A person is known in three ways: by their cup; by their anger; and by their pocket. Easy to unpack: There are three characteristics by way of which you can know much about who a person is: How much liquor they drink (by their cup); by their temper (by their anger); and by their generosity, or lack thereof (by their pocket).

So let us drink little, come to anger only infrequently, and for good reasons (for, Lord knows, there are good reasons in this world to become angry), and be generous to our fellow men and women.

Shalom u’v’racha,
Phil
Rabbi Phil Cohen, Ph.D.