Shabbat Gathering: Watching for the helpers.

Gud Shabbos Khaveyrim, as is our custom, we will gather tonight at 5.45p ct to welcome Shabbat. These are the coordinates:

Zoom
Meeting ID: 883 8469 4181
Password: 822665
Phone: +1 312 626 6799

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Here we go.

I’m still smiling from the great time I had at the synagogue’s Chanukha party. I volunteered to flip latkes and, after I finished that responsibility, I went upstairs to the lobby and worked as a greeter. I like being a greeter at synagogue events because it gives me a chance to exchange blessings with my friends as they arrive. This time was no exception to that rule eventhough we were all feeling a bit edgy from the horrific news from Australia. But something exceptional happened on that night of miracles.

Our shomers (Hebrew: Watchers. Volunteers who are around just in case.) wear badges identifying them as people to turn to in case anyone begins to feel uncomfortable. I saw someone around the greeters table wearing a shomer badge and introduced myself to him because I didn’t recognize him.

Turned out I didn’t recognize him because he isn’t a synagogue congregant. He’s someone from Abundant Life Christian School. (And I don’t have to go into details how a Great Tragedy happened at the school in 2024 because I know you remember the story so well.)

2025’s tragedies for Jews around the world reached a zenith with the attack at Australia’s Bondi Beach. It turned out that Abundant Life recognized that our level of anxiety, fear, anger, etc was probably as high as ever. (Hashem, why do your children have to live this way?) So the school sent over three people to supplement our own squad of shomers.

You know, the more I learn about foreign languages, I learn that just about nothing is really translatable one word for one word. For example, take the word mensch. Webster’s (I know it isn’t a font of Yiddish translation) defines the word as a person of integrity and honor. That translation of mensch is an apt description of our new friends from Abundant Life but there’s so much more that isn’t communicated in Webster’s translation.

I think mensch has emotional contains warm feeling, sweet feeling, a feeling of hot cocoa on a snowy winter afternoon. Or something like that. Something like being someone’s pal.

I am one hundred percent certain that the good people from Abundant Life are our new pals and that we should make sure we return their support and then some at the first opportunity.

I don’t want to be a downer in this first newsletter of the new calendar year, but sometimes I feel all alone in a cold and dark world, someplace that isn’t at all safe. But then there are times when I begin to believe that maybe, just maybe, we have friends who will help us out. Mr. Rogers, an ordained Presbyterian minister, famously said that when things are scary, we should, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”

As this year begins, I find myself looking for helpers and the great blessing is that my search is yielding mensches at every turn.

And may it be for all of us a blessing.
See you tonight!

Mit vareme grusn,
(With warm regards,)

All my love,
brian.

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