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Here in St. Petersburg, the humidity has arrived. No matter the weather, we still come together. For much of June, I will be back and forth from our other religious home--Camp Ramah Darom. There I will support our campers, work to inspire the next generation of Conservative Jewish leadership, and refresh my soul. CBI is my home. It is the place where we connect our souls together to reach higher and higher. Together we strive to live in the presence of the Holy One. Also here we have the challenge of work and other obligations. At camp, we are all committed to celebrating Shabbat, keeping kosher, and feeling Judaism in everything we do.
Looking at next year, I want to bring that spirit back to CBI. For the last few years, I have wanted us to have a CBI retreat, where we could celebrate Shabbat as a community, uninterrupted by the obligations of home (or planning a meal). As much as I would love for us to spend a Shabbat at Ramah (maybe we can one day), the logistics of getting to North Georgia as a community can be challenging.
Instead, we can start closer to home and journey together. Join us for Shabbat at Sea, March 20-24, 2025. We will sail on the Enchantment of the Seas from Tampa and journey to Cozumel. We will bring a Torah on board, and celebrate Shabbat together. I am trying to arrange fresh kosher food options, but at present, there are vegan/vegetarian meals, as well as packaged kosher meals. This should be fun for the entire family. Bring your children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren from anywhere to celebrate Shabbat with us! To make reservations with our CBI group, call 813-308-8747 or reach out to Rob Steinfeld at rsteinfeld@expediacruises.com
Make sure to let him know that you are sailing with CBI!
Since Pesach, we have counted the Omer each night. On Tuesday, June 11 we will complete our count and begin to officially receive the Torah. We will study and pray together Tuesday evening at 8 PM, with cheesecake accompaniment. Wednesday and Thursday morning we will gather at 9 AM to sing Hallel and the beautiful melodies of a Festival. I can’t wait to see you there. I hope that we all have a peaceful, blessed, enjoyable summer.
Shavuot is the celebration of the Giving of the Torah at Sinai. Appropriately, we mark this occasion by reading The Ten Commandments. The public reading of The Ten Commandments is interesting liturgically, in part because The Ten Commandments have two sets of ta’amei ha-mikra, or “tropes:” the ta’amei elyon, or “ upper accents,” and the ta’amei tachton, or “lower accents.” The “lower accents” divide The Ten Commandments into twelve verses of “normal” length, such that each of the twelve verses constitutes a typical sentence. The “ upper accents,” on the other hand, parse The Ten Commandments so that each Commandment is a verse. Thus, The Ten Commandments are parsed into ten verses, each Commandment comprising a verse.
In current Ashkenazi custom, the “ upper accents” are used for all public readings of The Ten Commandments – on Shabbat Parashat Yitro, Shavuot, and Shabbat Parashat Va-etchanan. This way, the Torah reader reenacts the revelation at Sinai during the public reading.
An interesting “side effect” of parsing each Commandment into its own verse is that some of the verses are very short, and two of the verses are very long. “Thou shalt not murder” is a verse. “Thou shalt not steal” is a verse. Conversely, the second Commandment is rendered as one long verse:
You shall have no other gods besides Me; you shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, or any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth; You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am an impassioned God, visiting the guilt of the parents upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generations of those who reject Me, but showing kindness to the thousandth generation of those who love Me and keep My commandments.
That’s one long verse.
I look forward to sharing with you the experience of hearing The Ten Commandments on Shavuot. And for those of you who wish to follow the “ upper accents,” they may be found in the back of the Etz Hayim Chumash.
B’Shalom, Cantor Jonathan Schultz
As we prepare for Shavuot, the revelation of Torah at Mt. Sinai, I’m reminded of a favorite midrash. God is about to give the children of Israel the Torah, but first there’s some business to conduct. God says “What will you give Me as a guarantee that you ’ re worthy to receive this gift?” The first reply is “Our elders, the pillars of the community,” but God doesn’t accept this. The second reply is “Our ancestors, the foundation of our community,” but that, too, is not an acceptable guarantee. The community of Israel finally offers “Our children,” which God accepts and then transmits the Torah to the Israelite community, those who are standing there and those not standing there. In other words: we were there, too!
To honor our guarantors, our children, there is no better time to talk about the accomplishments of our youth and school community than in the days leading up to Shavuot. We welcomed nine new families with a combined total of 20 children, fourth grade and younger. We added a Sunday morning preschool class and registered 8 children, ages 2 to 4, bringing the total of students in our PRTT to 45 students. We had four multi-grade classrooms, and attendance was so strong in our K-2nd grade class that we hired an additional teacher in January. We had 4 area college students teaching, and three will be returning for the next academic year along with the rest of our Sunday faculty. We had a wonderful Madrich (teen aide), Mitchell Sorkin, who we also hope returns, and our recent Bat Mitzvah, Eleanor Dworkin intends to volunteer as an aide in our preschool class next year! Our students 3rd through 7th grade (with three second graders) worked hard in midweek Hebrew, attending either Tuesday or Wednesday afternoons.
We welcomed three B’nai Mitzvah into our adult community last year, and we will welcome six B’nai Mitzvah in 2025. There are four CBI members attending Camp Ramah Darom, and two rising seniors attending Ramah Poland-Israel Seminar this summer. We are grateful to CBI, Sisterhood, Mitzvah Men’s Club, and the A-Team for providing substantial scholarships to four of these students. Our combined youth group membership is slowly growing, too: we had 11 members in combined Gesher (formerly Kadima) and USY this year, and eight were able to attend Yom Islands of Adventure with other HaNegev USY Chapters. We will have 14 members next year, and there will be 20 in the following year, despite graduating 3 students who I’ve had the pleasure of knowing since they were in second grade!
One of my favorite Israeli songs was written to celebrate Israel’s 70th birthday, and there’s a memorable line in the chorus that perfectly describes our CBI traditions and our youth community: “Avoteinu Shorashim V’anachnu Haprachim: Our Ancestors are the Roots and We are the Flowers.” Stay tuned to see how we continue to grow from strength to strength!
