Page 13 - jr090121withlinks

Rabbi's Corner Life-cycle events

Remind us who including births, b'nai mitzvah, engagements, weddings, anniversa-
The Jewish Review publishes news and photos from life-cycle events

we can become ries and landmark birthdays. Please submit your life-cycle news to
editor@jewishportland.org.

Hashiveinu Adonai elekha v’nashuvah, ha- BIRTH
ORION BACHARACH
desh yameinu k’kedem — Turn us, Infinite One, Orion Bacharach, was born

toward You so that we might return; renew our at home just after midnight,
Saturday, August 21, to Ariel
days like those of old. ~ Lamentations 5:21 and Janique Bacharach. Orion
was 8 lbs. 9oz, 21 inches. Both
Janique and Orion are doing
BY RABBI BENJAMIN BARNETT well. Orion is welcomed home
This verse is somewhat of a theme song for this season. The first by brothers, Gideon (5) and
and fourth words in the Hebrew come from the root sh-u-v, mean- Adrien (3). Rabbi Gadi Levy,
ing “turn” or “return.” They express these days’ core practice, Te- who performed Adrien’s brit,
shuvah: Return, Repentance, Renewal. returned from Chicago for
Each year, the verse is chanted first on Tisha B’Av, then follows Orion’s brit.
us into this month of Elul and on into Rosh Hashanah and Yom
Kippur — the Ten Days of Teshuvah. “Return us to You,” we say, WEDDINGS
or “Turn us toward You.” One way or another, we are asking for
help in our efforts to turn toward what is true and life-giving, to ALEX PERRIN-JOSIAH HAMOVITZ
return to who we aspire to be in our lives and in the world. Alex and Josiah Hamovitz
As always, translation is interpretation. There are several words were married on Aug. 22 at
here that could go in various directions and create slightly different Horning’s Hideout.
meanings. But the ambiguity is even more pronounced in the end The couple will live in Port-
of the verse: hadesh yameinu k’kedem. Those first two words, “re- land. Josiah works in resto-
new our days,” are straightforward. But what do we mean when we ration ecology, and Alex is an
say, k’kedem? Literally, “like they were of old” or “as they were in instructional assistant at Port-
ancient times,” the phrase feels perplexing and even bothersome in land Jewish Academy, from
this light, as if we were calling for a period that is “great again.” Is which she graduated. She hopes
there a presumed better time to which we are longing to get back? to pursue a career in wildlife re-
No, I do not believe that there is. Kedem is a word layered with habilitation/conservation in the
meaning though. While it refers to the past, it also carries conno- near future.
tations of the future. Kadimah means “forward,” and kedem itself Both Alex and Josiah are
can also mean “east.” It is a point of origin, yet also a place toward graduates of the University of
which we look for things to arise or re-awaken. There is a reaching Oregon. Alex is the daughter of
back as well as an imagining of what is possible. Perhaps the verse Jon and Susanna Perrin.
is saying: Remind us who we can become.
I think of Mother Teresa’s claim that “we have forgotten that we DEVORAH BRODKIN-EZRA EPSTEIN
belong to each other.” Help us remember this, we are saying. Help
us remember any vital wisdom with which we have lost touch. Devorah Brodkin, daughter of Rabbi Ken and Aviel Brodkin of
There may not have been a time in recorded history when we Congregation Kesser Israel, married Ezra Epstein of Bergenfield,
truly lived with collective wisdom and mutual care. Certainly, in N.J., on Aug. 22, 2021.
the history of the Jewish people back to our most ancient ances- The couple married in Bal-
tors, the rights and well-being of everyone were never safeguarded timore and will be residing in
equally. But this verse is a call not to remember who we were, but Silver Spring, Md., where they
to recall our potential for who we can be. met. Ezra will be studying for
Amidst this precarious moment in human history, these words his rabbinic ordination as he
and this season challenge us to recollect what we might have for- prepares to work in Jewish ed-
gotten and reconnect with essential parts of ourselves that we right ucation. Devorah is currently
now profoundly need. pursuing an MBA while work-
Renew our days, so that we may ing for the Kemp Mill Syna-
remember who we are. Remind us of gogue.
who we might become. Ezra’s family has old Jewish
southern roots from before the
Benjamin Barnett is the rabbi of Civil War. His extended family
Havurah Shalom in Portland and enjoyed spending Shabbat She-
the current chair of the Oregon va Brachot in Portland, getting
Board of Rabbis. a taste of the Pacific Northwest.

Jewish Review Sept. 1, 2021 13