Saying Thank You

picture: southbayschool.org

Below is my Rosh Hashanah ( New Year's ) Message that I sent out to my faculty.

I just wanted to take a moment and say Thank You!

Thank you for your support
Thank you for your help
Thank you for your understanding and patience
Thank you for all your hard work and dedication

The list can go on but I think you get the idea.

This often is a thankless job and I at times are just as guilty as the next person in not showing my appreciation and HaKarat Hatov (recognizing the good) in all that you do.

In the spirit of being open and transparent, I would like to share with you some of my SMART goals for the coming year some personal and some professional.

I hope to be a better friend and keep connected to friends in other communities

I want to set aside at least 30 min to an hour day for my own learning ( small and manageable)

I want to listen better to your ideas

I want to say thank you to each and every one of you at least once a week

I want to spend more quality time with my family

May we be Zocheh ( merit) a year of health and happiness and may this be a year of prosperity and peace

Wishing you all a Ketiva V'Chatima Tova
Akevy

Chaggigat Ariot

Thank you to Morah Katz!!

Kol Hakavod Kitah Alef

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rosh Hashanah Program

Thank you to Michal and Yehudit for organizing and running the program

Kol Hakavod

Wishing you a Ketiva V'Chatima Tova

Enjoy

A NEW YEAR BRINGS NEW CHALLENGES

This Motzei Shabbat we begin saying Selichot and the season of the Yomim Noraim (High Holiday Season)begins. I believe there are a number of similarities between this special time of year and the beginning of a school year.
There is nothing like the start of the school year when one can feel the excitement in the air. Students and teachers alike are intently anticipating this new beginning, the building is clean and looks bright and shining with fresh paint and new wall displays and everyone is anxious to learn.
In those first couple of days our students are engaged and teachers are utilizing new tools and techniques that they learned at in-service sessions or through their own explorations over the summer. I am no different - for the first day of school I create an Xtranormal video and a wallwisher for my class.
However that leads to the following question and challenge. How do we take this excitement on both the part of the teachers and the students and bottle it so that the same enthusiasm and engagement that we have on day 1 carries over to day 71 and then on to day 171?

The same is true in our connection to Hashem (G-D). This time of year, a time of Teshuvah ( repentance) and renewal, there is a certain excitement in the air. People are preparing for Rosh Hashnah, the shuls looks clean and new as they switch over to the white Parochet, and people are reflecting on the past year and making resolutions for the New Year.
Again, I pose the same question. In a very few months from now, are we going to fill the same way about our commitment to Hashem?

I learned something from Rabbi Pessach Krohn and a heard a similar idea from Rabbi Feigenbaum. The secret is to make our resolution to change something small and manageable. In business and leadership parlance they talk about SMART goals:
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Timely

Rabbi Krohn tells the story that in 1991, during the first Gulf War, people in Israel were told by the leading rabbis that one thing Jews throughout the word should do is to take on a new mitzvah or extra learning, etc. They asked one of the leading Roshei Yeshiva at the time what additional mitzvah he was going to assume and he responded that when he is at home, and only at home, when he says Birkat Hamazon he will say it from a Siddur so that he will have more Kavanah (concentration/intent).

Perhaps the answer is to pick two to three SMART goals in both our academic and religious lives that we can focus on during the year. It is important that they meet the SMART criteria and in that way we can hopefully keep the enthusiasm engendered by the start of a school year and by the “ Yomim Noraim season” all year long.

Wishing you a Ketiva V’chatima Tovah.

How Do I Feel When I Hear The Shofar by Kitah Gimmel

Thank you to Morah Daphna for putting this slideshow together.
Kol Hakavod!

Deep Roots a Key for the Future

I have blogged a lot lately about technology, 21st Century skills and Religion. How does it all fit together. How do we find that necessary balance. For those of you that have read my posts you know that someone who I respect and admire is Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. Rabbi Sacks is one who on has achieved this balance between the modern world and religion.
Here are excerpts of a "Though of the Day" from June 2000 called "Dancing with the Past":
"Religious Jews are among the most enthusiastic users of the Internet for educational purposes; and in Israel, a country of only five million, Jews have created the largest high-tech industry outside the United States.
And yet, when it comes to the Torah, we still write the exactly as our ancestors have done by hand on parchment using a quill.
There is a view I hear often in the media almost every day....forget virtues like honour, fidelity,civility;above all,forget religion.They're old...For heaven sake aren't we living in the 21st Century.

It's a view that couldn't be more wrong. It is when the winds blow hardest that you need the deepest roots. When you are entering uncharted territory. it's when you need a compass to give you a sense of direction. What gives us the strength to cope with change are things that don't change....

I knew beyond a flicker of a doubt that those who carry with them the heritage of the past are those who can face the future without fear."

It is clear that as we move forward and face our changing society head on we can only do so if we take our heritage and religion with us.