Betsy Frank is UHC para-rabbinic fellow and president.
Presence involves more than just occupying a seat at a religious service. Presence is the foundation of relationships.
Judaism, meanwhile, is a religion predicated on relationships — with the Creator and to the Torah, including mitzvot directed toward relationships with our earth and all its inhabitants.
Even our religious practices are built on relationships. We can pray alone, but our liturgies are built upon the notion that more than one individual must be present.
The High Holidays have passed, but we still have the opportunity to take stock of our lives.
What obligations and tasks have we performed well? What could we improve? And if goals yet remain, how do we reach those goals?
During this time, I also like to reflect on what is good in my life.
All of us can easily recognize aspects of our daily lives that do not satisfy. But how often do we also recognize the good?
Once again, the month of Elul is upon us and at the end of September, Rosh Hashanah.
This yearly cycle gives us all the opportunity for cheshbon hanefesh, or engaging in an audit or accounting of the soul. This accounting provides us the time to consider how we might improve our personal lives and rectify wrongs done to others.
Personal soul audits are not the only audits we can perform. Our congregation also looks at its collective soul, which is grounded in UHC’s mission statement. What have we accomplished as a congregation? What more can we do to live out our mission statement?
On April 7, United Hebrew Congregation welcomed the Terre Haute South Vigo High School STAND club, whose members commemorated the 25th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide with a program entitled, Together We Remember.
Rwandan genocide survivor Emmanuel Habimana served as the event’s main speaker. He recounted how as a 9-year-old, after witnessing his father’s murder, he escaped through the jungle with another child of similar age.
The local students who planned this moving program under the direction of THS teacher Peggy Grabowski understand their generation must work toward peace and reconciliation amongst all peoples.