Message from Religious Practice

What it means to be part of the community a Congregation Beit Shalom…

The Torah tells us to be a Kehillah Kedoshah. We at Beit Shalom make a genuine effort to rise to the words of Torah. This is made evident in the actions we take in our day to day interactions with others. If we have fallen short, we try to repair our relationships. We liken this to a ladder. Step by step we hear the Torah read, we study Talmud. We learn Hebrew, Jewish values and ethical conduct, and we focus on praying with intention. Some of our time and money is spent performing acts of loving kindness. We make our lives meaningful by observing our religious days and supporting the State of Israel. We embrace the process of Jewish identity development and neither judge others nor preclude others in their efforts to acquire increased self-understanding and practice expressions of their love of G-d through increased study, mitzvot and observance.

Beit Shalom in s a diverse community. We have members of all ages, differing backgrounds, having diverse talents, interests, lifestyles, and perspectives. We are unified as a people in the demonstration of our love and support of the State of Israel. The violence there saddens us all. We take action on our commitment to our ancestral homeland via our replacement of trees destroyed by the rockets that recently burned so much of Israel’s northern region. We pray together for peace. At the same time, we assume our obligation as a sacred community to make our waords into deeds by performing Tikun Olam: repair of the world.

As a community, Beit Shalom celebrates Shabbat & the holidays, prays, studies, mourns, and works together to repair the world. We are a creative, committed, sometimes opinionated, warm, serious, and thoughtful. We take learning seriously. We learn from the Torah and teach to our children that the path to being a Kehillah Ledushah or sacred community is through Lashon HaTov or positive speech and behavior. Tolerance, respect, support, creates  unity and describes the process of becoming more connected to our heritage. We pray and work to strengthen the development of that holy spark of G-dliness within us all.

At Beit Shalom we focus on that spark of the spirit– given to each of us by G-d — and we appreciate the spark as it warms, heats, and sustains. That spark is the soul that, due to its essence, makes us all equal.

L’Shalom,

Cynthia Fischer Simonian, Para-Rabbinic Fellow
Director of Relgious Practices
Congregation Beit Shalom
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