President's Message

Our lives are far too hectic. It has been a wonderful year, while creating our Torat Aynayeem, to s l o w down and take the time to reflect on and participate in a project which allowed each of us a chance to create, preserve and remember the most precious things in life.

Our sages teach that within us all is a divine spark. Surely we all shine that much brighter for having created a legacy for our future generations. Torat Aynayeem has indeed allowed us to see the future (and help to create it) by remembering our past.

My many and heartfelt thanks to all those who have allowed this project to come to fruition, including our incredible staff at Beth Shalom led by our Office Manager Helena Khazanovsky and each member of the various committees who worked so tirelessly. In addition, to our Sofer Neil Yerman, whose insights and creativity have allowed each of us the true ‘mitzvah moment’ feeling. Also, to Barry & Ida Katz and their family, for allowing our congregational family to have this opportunity to celebrate its 75^th Anniversary in a most meaningful way. And, first and foremost, my deepest gratitude to our Rabbi, David Kunin, who has shone as our brightest star in every way to help us understand and appreciate the full and extended meaning of what we have created, and who has served as our leader in guiding this project from start to finish and in every possible way.

Finally, my thank you to each member of our congregation. You have chosen to create for yourselves and for our extended synagogue family the strongest of possible foundations for us all as we celebrate our first 75 years. May we all continue to grow from strength to strength.

Howie Sniderman

Chairman – Torat Aynayeem Project

p.s. This article is reprinted from the Beth Shalom 75^th Anniversary Souvenir Book distributed at the dinner held March 11, 2007 to celebrate the conclusion of the Torat Aynayeem project.

This message is brought to you by the letter ‘Vav’

What’s your letter? Mine is ‘Vav’ (in Hebrew it looks like this – ו ). Very small; pretty straight; not a tough one to write.

Took me maybe 15 seconds to create it - and that’s only because our Sofer Neil Yerman was generous with me (and everyone) and understood I was nervous; so I think he purposefully drew out the moments for me so I could savour them a bit longer than was absolutely needed to create the relatively simple letter.

But those 15 seconds are seared in my brain and have expanded in a geometric fashion into an almost unbelievable number of memory pathways (and this is not just the normal ‘Howie can’t keep his thoughts straight again’ situation for me).

Just for starters:

The letter ‘Vav’ stands alone (as can each other letter in the Hebrew alphabet) and has a variety of meanings. I choose this meaning – “and”. The letter ‘Vav’ means ‘and’ – it is used in that fashion a whole swack of times in the Torah.

In particular, it is used over and over to signify the generations of man and of Israel – “and he begat (insert indecipherable name); and he begat (insert different indecipherable name)…..

What does my letter in our Torat Aynayeem mean to me? It means the memory of having my wonderful wife at my side (and mine at hers) as we wrote letters in the Torah. It means the memory of having my parents at our side as they celebrated their 50^th Wedding Anniversary by writing their letters in the Torah. It means being in a room filled with other members of our congregation – friends all – and watching them each take the same individual journey as I did as they waited their turn and then participated in the mitzvah. Parents and/or children each of us.

What’s your letter? What does your letter mean? What does your letter mean to you?