HEArtbeat

HEArtbeat: Many Paths. One Alliance.

Caron Blanke

HEA President
president@HEAdenver.org

Six weeks ago, HEA launched the first of several personal stories, captured on video, of some of our congregants. These stories represent the diverse and meaningful ways in which our members connect to HEA. I hope you have had an opportunity to watch them. They are not only beautiful and unique, but they capture what you will be hearing more about this holiday season- there are many pathways that people travel to HEA, ultimately connecting them to one Alliance. While this is the title of our High Holiday giving campaign - “Many Paths. One Alliance.” the concept has never rung more true. More and more, we are hearing from members about the ways in which they have connected to our shul, whether it be from 50 years ago on the west side of Denver to just recently through a new program that we hosted. These stories illuminate the diversity that is created when these journeys converge to create one community.

Modern Hebrew translates a journey made by foot as masa. The Torah uses the word masa to describe the generation-long journey made by the Israelites to the land of Israel. Recalling and reflecting on this part of our history requires that we understand that our individual life journeys are both reflected in and impacted by the larger journeys of our people (and vice versa). Listening to the Pathways’ stories illuminated by this campaign, we are reminded that most journeys are somehow a continuation of those that came before and are shaped in part by those with whom we travel.The power of community is critical both for our individual momentum in life as well as for our communal success. 
 
We are asking each of you, members of our sacred HEA community, to think this holiday season about the path you have walked to arrive at HEA and to please consider making a financial contribution that reflects your connection to our one Alliance. Your path, your story, and your connection matter to us. And your financial gift to HEA allows us to perpetuate and strengthen the important work of the congregation. 

Please participate in our HEA Pathways Campaign by making a contribution HERE and sharing your HEA pathway story by emailing James McKeon at james@HEAdenver.org.

By sharing what we believe, about what we care the most, and from what and whom we have learned and grown, we create ripples that are not bound by the laws of nature but are rather galvanized by the unbreakable connection between the past and the future. Thank you for being a valued member of HEA.  
 
Wishing you and your family a meaningful, healthy and peaceful 5783.

Shana Tova,

Caron

HEArtbeat: HEArtbeat: Elul in the Shul In-Town Shabbaton

Borne out of necessity in 2020, Elul in the Shul was a program designed to offer our community an opportunity for true connection in a safe way to the clergy, staff and lay leadership of the HEA. During the first year of this innovative program, hundreds of you came into the synagogue, drove through our parking lot, or came by to experience the connection of community while preparing for the High Holidays.

Those times were tough, but because of those unique moments that we experienced together, I definitely look back with a smile and a light heart. It is those memories that encourage me to continue the work of bringing community together, even when the together was apart.

Luckily now the together is together! In our third year of Elul in the Shul, we have shifted the programming, much like we have done throughout these last three years. This year we are focusing on the meaning of Elul once again, but rather than giving you our theme for the year, it will be up to you to create your own theme for Elul, with our help, of course.

The first year, our theme was Ayeka (Where are you). We were all lost, trying to find ourselves again. Last year we flipped the theme to  Hineni (Here I am). Like Abraham answering G-d’s call, we, too, were asked to show up for our community once again. This year, we will be enlisting the expertise of a very special Scholar in Residence to find our theme for our own High Holidays. We all have something that we would like to hold on to for our upcoming year or perhaps let go of. Elul in the Shul this year will help to prepare you for the work of letting go of the things not serving you and holding on to what does.

Our Elul in the Shul experience this year will be set up as an in-town Shabbaton with a special guest, Scholar in Residence Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz. Rabbi Shmuly is the founder of Valley Beit Midrash, which partners with HEA for Educational programming. Rabbi Shmuly was named one of America's most inspiring Rabbis by the Forward. This is your chance to learn with him and your HEA community in a fun, warm and inviting atmosphere. We will be hosting many events throughout the weekend, but we will kick things off on Friday, September 16, with a wonderful musical Azamra Kabbalat Shabbat and congregational dinner. All are encouraged to join us for this meaningful evening catered by Cohens Cuisine.

Saturday morning will bring our Shabbat services, where you have the choice to join us in our traditional Shabbat morning service or at Shir Hadash. After services, we will gather together in the social hall for a lovely oneg, and our first ever joint chevrutah learning in the social hall during kiddush! It will certainly be a lively way to get into the spirit of the holidays.

Our big Shabbaton weekend will come to an end with a very special cosponsored Selichot event with HEA, Rodef Shalom, and Minyan Na’aleh. Starting off with dessert and drinks, we will delight in Havdalah, music, learning and a special Selichot service led by our musical director, Eitan Kantor and Moshe Kornfeld from Rodef Shalom.

This weekend is not to be missed. So call up a friend that you have not seen in a while, and bring them along to what we hope will become an annual event of reconnection and renewal. I wish you all Shabbat Shalom, and I look forward to seeing you at our Elul in the Shul Shabbaton!

HEArtbeat: Jewish Education - It Takes a Tribe

It’s my pleasure to introduce myself to you all! I’m Amanda Eckert (she/her/hers), the new Education Director here at Hebrew Education Alliance. I come to HEA with ten years of education experience and working within communities. Teach for America brought me to Colorado from New York, where I was a Special Education team lead for many years in Denver Public Schools. For the past five years, I’ve led the Girl Scout of Colorado program team by developing new ways to engage young people. I’m very active in the Denver improv theaters, including performing, teaching, and leading their educational school. I also come with a lifetime of Jewish values, identity, practices, and love. As I write this, I am finishing my third week at HEA. In these short weeks, we’ve successfully launched Religious and Hebrew School, hired new instructors, led teacher training, started planning youth programs, and so much more. Who said that slow and steady wins the race?

You may want to know what my educational philosophy is and what my goals are for the HEA Education Department. Rooted in Jewish values, I come from the belief that learning happens by doing, the need to engage creative opportunities for youth to learn, and building a conscious community in the classroom. My goals for this year are to evaluate what is currently working at our school and identity the gaps we want to fill. I will be creating data-driven strategies to allow for meaningful and community lead conversations on how to improve our program opportunities. I’m excited to bring authentic and fun multi-culture programs to HEA through my equity and community partnerships skills.

They say it takes a village to support a child. I say it takes a tribe! What we do, doesn’t happen in a vacuum. What we do, doesn’t stop at the classroom. What we do happens because of the larger community and environment we welcome young people to. The HEA community exemplifies how we show importance and joy in Jewish life and that it is a lifetime journey. Even if you are not active in our school, I greatly appreciate the larger community that welcomes everyone and models the values we want to teach kids.

I’m really excited to be a part of the HEA family and look forward to connecting with you all! Feel free to reach out to me directly at Amanda@HEAdenver.org.

B’shalom,
Amanda 

HEArtbeat: Rabbi Dollin's Last Shabbat Service

My Dear Congregation,
 
As I pondered the last few days of my role as Senior Rabbi of HEA, I reflected on how many services I led on the bema in my 36 years in the Rabbinate. Including all the Shabbatot, High Holidays, and Festivals, it adds up to roughly 2100 services. So many simchas, so many B’nai Mitzvah, so many birthdays, so many anniversaries and anniversaries of B’nai Mitzvah! What a joy it has been. Tomorrow will be the last one: service 2101. It would be great to see you in shul tomorrow to celebrate with my family and me.
 
I have had many thoughts about this transition in my life. When the Torah ends, and we read the last sentence on Simchat Torah, we pause not even a  minute before we read the Haftorah, where we take up the action again with Joshua leading the People into the Promised Land. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks once wrote that the Torah ends in the middle of the story. It is hardly an ending. One might say that we all live in the middle of our stories, stories that continue to be written each and every day. As my career as Senior Rabbi ends, it is only the middle for me. Family, study, reading, enjoying, and waiting for the next opportunity to pop up: that is where I will live after next Tuesday, my last day of professional work at HEA.
 
For 35 years, at this time of year, I would glance up at the moon to see where it was in its cycle. On Tisha B’av, it would be waxing, leading up to its full size on the 15th of the month, which, interestingly enough, was last night. Then it would wane again to disappear for a day as the month of Elul begins. Wax again, wane again, and then there is Rosh Hashanah (which for me always arrived too soon!). Sukkot begins when the moon is full once more.
 
Everyone knows that when the moon disappears, it is still there, but we just can’t see the sun’s rays reflecting on it temporarily. It is gone for a day, and then a sliver returns, the new month begins, and it's on its way to the great blazing in the sky once more. I see my retirement like that as well. One part of my life is ending, but it is only a day before the light returns, and the cycle continues.
 
We live in the middle. One part seems to end, but the light returns, and the cycle begins yet again. I so look forward to all of this that is happening in my life.
 
I end my HEArtbeat today with gratitude. I have had the privilege of being a part of your lives in the good times and hard times and times when you just wanted to be in community with me and others, learning and praying. I have loved it all. Thank you!
 
I want to wish Rabbi Gruenwald, Laura Intfen, our new clergy team, our professional staff, our lay leaders, and the Congregation only the best in the years to come. The shul is in good hands, and I look forward to its thriving into the future.
 
Tammy and I will remain in the neighborhood. “Kenahora,” Shai and Rebecca Dollin, and Kivi and Michelle Dollin live close by. Yoni is doing his training in Dayton, Ohio, and we see him often and miss him. Vivi and her fiancée, Ryan Fleisher, live in Chicago but are coming home often now to prepare for their wedding here next Spring.   Perhaps one day, all the Dollins will live in Denver, and our Shabbat dinners will be loud and crowded with kids everywhere. With God’s help, may it be so. We have much joy to look forward to.
 
So I bid you all so long. I know we will see each other often in community in the days ahead.
 
With gratitude and love,
 
Rabbi Bruce Dollin

HEArtbeat of Morning and Evening Services

A note from HEA:  We are so thrilled to be able to offer in-person daily minyan again and hope that you will feel the pull of community and join us. Whether it is your first time or you have been coming for years, for whatever reason you are coming, you will be welcomed. Find a time and day that work for you, and we will see you in the Chapel:

• Monday – Friday: 7:30 a.m.
• Friday Mincha/Ma’ariv: 6:00 p.m.
• Saturday Mincha Ma’ariv: 7:30 p.m. (this time may change in the future, please check our website for any changes)
• Sunday morning: 8:00 a.m. 

 
Thank you, Jonathan Defez, for sharing your story. 

Jonathan Defez

HEA Congregant

My fellow congregants:

Nearly 20 years ago, I started attending daily minyan at the HEA. At the time, all it sounded like to me was a bunch of old men mumbling. That’s all I knew.

With the loving guidance and instruction from Fred Karp, I began to understand the prayers, nusach (melody), and meaning. After many years of repetition, I was able to participate more and even started to lead. The service became meaningful.

My primary reason for attending was essentially selfish: I was there to communicate and deepen my relationship with G-d. My secondary but much more powerful reason for being there was to be a part of and support the HEA community. Several people were there to honor a loved one that had died, and by being part of ten adult Jews, a minyan, I helped focus the presence of G-d on our gathering. This allowed us to recite Kaddish and perform a complete service.

Due to COVID restrictions, for over two years, this sacred practice went online. Despite my aversion to this medium, I attended and even led prayers on Zoom. I overcame my aversion for the sake of the community. The clergy has determined that this is the week when we will finally start meeting in person again. They have also determined that only ten adult Jews present in the room will count as a minyan.

I am concerned that after years of the safety and convenience of the online minyan, people will be reluctant to return to the in-person minyan.
I need your help.

My family and I have decided to move my mom home from the hospital into in-home hospice care. I don’t know if I have days, weeks, or months left with my beloved mother. One way or the other, sooner or later, I will need to start saying Kaddish. I do not believe this is merely coincidental timing now that in-person minyans are starting up again.

My request of you, similar to my reasons for attending minyan, is both selfish and communal. Selfishly, I want you there so I will be able to say Kaddish with my community. You will find me there every Sunday morning at 8:00 a.m. and every Friday evening at 6:00 p.m. until sundown dictates otherwise.

My communal request is more impactful. Not only do I need you, but your community needs you as well. Every Monday-Friday morning, your fellow congregants will be there, many of them needing to say Kaddish. If you aren’t there, they will not be able to.

I’ve been there for all of you for nearly 20 years. I’ve attended shiva minyans, daily minyans,  Friday evening minyans, and Mincha/Maariv Shabbos minyans to support those saying Kaddish. Now my fellow regular minyan attendees and I need you.

I promise you will be warmly welcomed and feel good about yourself and your contribution when you are done. If you want to know more about the daily prayers, I would be happy to learn with you, as Fred Karp once did for me.

Thank you for your consideration.

Jonathan Defez
HEA member and regular daily minyan attendee

HEArtbeat: Announcing the Return of Daily Minyan

The experience of the pandemic has taught us many lessons. One of those lessons is that there really is no true substitute for in-person community. For the past two years, we’ve used technology effectively to deliver synagogue programs on Zoom and stream worship services live on the internet. These technologies have given our community access to Jewish religious life when in-person participation was not possible. 
 
Our ancient ancestors could never have imagined technology that would allow people to gather “virtually” at great distances from one another. Yet, they understood that a group of people gathered together is more than the sum of its parts. Sacred community can only really happen when people are in physical proximity. That is why our Sages established the rules of minyan – a prayer quorum of ten adults required to recite communal prayers that invoke God’s holiness. These “divrei bik’dusha” include barchu, kaddish, Torah reading, and the repetition of the Amidah. For thousands of years, these elements of the service were only said when 10 or more adults gathered in the same place. 
 
During the coronavirus pandemic, HEA followed guidance provided by the Rabbinical Assembly, allowing for the constituting of a minyan through video conferencing technologies such as Zoom. For the past two years, we at HEA have been conducting morning minyanim and shiva services via Zoom, counting all the online participants as part of the minyan. 
 
As the danger of the pandemic subsides and most people have returned to in-person activities, it is time for HEA to resume in-person daily morning minyan, weekly Kabbalat Shabbat minyan, and Shabbat afternoon mincha services. Starting Monday, July 18, 2022 we will resume these services in-person, constituting a minyan of those gathered in the room together. 
 
We will continue to stream daily morning minyan, which will allow people to participate remotely in communal prayer, but only those gathered in person will be counted toward the quorum. At the same time, we recognize a countervailing value – the need of mourners to find comfort in reciting mourner’s kaddish. 
 
In 2001, long before Zoom or the pandemic, the Rabbinical Assembly issued a teshuvah (position paper) authored by Rabbi Avram Reisner, addressing remote participation in a minyan. Rabbi Reisner’s well-researched teshuvah concluded that if a duly constituted minyan of 10 or more adults is gathered in one place (like synagogue or a house of mourning), other individuals can participate in the services through video or audio technology. Remote participants can respond to communal prayers and mourners are allowed to fulfill their obligation to recite mourner’s Kaddish with the community. 
 
We at HEA take Jewish law and tradition seriously, and we also desire to make Jewish communal life accessible for our members. After careful consideration of the halachic sources and the guidance of the Rabbinical Assembly, we offer the following policy regarding minyan starting on July 18.
 

1. A prayer gathering only counts as a minyan if there are 10 Jewish adults present in one physical location, such as the HEA chapel or sanctuary, or in a house of Shiva.
2. The shaliach tzibbur – the prayer leader – should be chosen from among the minyan gathered in person. The service should not be led remotely.
3. Those participating through video or audio conferencing (e.g., Zoom) and those viewing a live broadcast of the service (e.g., YouTube) do not count as part of the minyan, but may participate fully in the service, respond to prayers such as Barchu, and may recite mourner’s kaddish along with the community.

 
These policies are intended to align our practices in a way that is both true to Jewish law and normative practice, while also making worship and community accessible to those who cannot attend in person. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Rabbi Gruenwald at 303-758-9400 or RabbiG@HEAdenver.org. 
 

Shabbat Shalom!

Weekly Services Schedule
 

• Weekday Shacharit: Monday – Friday at 7:30 a.m. in the Chapel, Sundays at 8:00 a.m.
• Kabbalat Shabbat: Fridays at 6:00 p.m. (year-round)
• Shabbat Mincha: Saturday afternoons, times vary (check HEA calendar)