A Message from Cantor Giglio
A semblance of normalcy is returning to CMI. Since September we are back in the Sanctuary having services, and I am again teaching my B’mitzvah students in person. We are back inside the building, the CMI Community has returned! COVID has proved to be much more of an ongoing challenge to all of us and our families but like everything else in life, this too shall pass. Not only will it pass but it will make us so much stronger. It is amazing how much you realize you need something when it is taken away. Little things like meeting my students in person and being able to come to my office seem so huge to me now. We get caught up in the madness of the everyday pressures of life, so when it comes to a grinding halt we suddenly are faced with a new reality, a new perspective. It is sad it takes something so terrible as a pandemic to start to value all that is around us, all the miracles that have blessed us but that is the silver lining of this terrible event. We had the time to sit back and touch our spiritual selves and realize that something as simple and wonderful as sitting peacefully in our Sanctuary can be so wondrous! The CMI community is again worshipping together in our magnificent and very spiritual space. Religious School has returned, children are running down our magnificent halls and we can bring in our hanukkiahs and light the Hanukkah candles together again!
Rabbi Nachman of Breslov points out; every day of Hanukkah we add a new candle day to the hanukkiah, yet we also rekindle the candles of the preceding days. In this way we include and remember our past even as we move towards the future. In other words, “Our future lies in our past.” For all of us, we cannot move away fast enough from the recent past, but it will forever reshape our future. Do you wonder, like I do, what life would have been if this pandemic had never occurred? How many thousands of lives would have been saved? How are present and our future would have been different? The poignant words of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov really resonate for me. The past is the light that guides us to our future and the flicker of Hanukkah lights recall those memories, good or bad. Despite all the things that could have or should have happened in our lives, every one of us here today are blessed, very blessed!
Speaking of Blessings, celebrate Chanukah with us on December 3rd. Bring your favorite Hanukkiah so we can light the candles, sing songs and praise God for letting us be together. December brings us another blessing with the return of David Chevan and the Nu Haven Kepelye on December 25th. Join us as we return to our tradition of a few hours of unmitigated joy with the tunes of Klezmerim and maybe some Yiddish Too! Come, kvell, dance in the ailes, clap and shout with joy because the Kepelye will lift you out of your seats like never before. Watch the CMI announcements for the exact time!