From the Rabbi rabbi rebecca birk

I’m tempted to remind you all of the joke I shared from our last Humour issue. But I’ve found an alternative.

Mr Cohen goes into a restaurant crying his eyes out and says, ‘It’s the anniversary of my mother’s death. Get me a plate of fish balls - just like she used to make.’ The waiter goes away. ‘And give me a kind word like she used to give me.’ The waiter comes back with the plate of fish balls. Mr Cohen starts eating them and says to the waiter, ‘What about my kind word?’ The waiter bends low and whispers in Mr Cohen’s ear, ‘If I were you, in this place, I wouldn’t touch the fish.’

It’s Purim this month and we can now accept that this strange festival offers us a bit of levity, since Rabbi John Rayner suggested to Liberal Judaism that we can cope with a little playfulness. I rather like this. But even more, what poet Yehudah Amichai notes when he appreciates the impossibility of compartmentalising and separating our joy from our pain. In his poem, A Man in His Life, Amichai writes:

‘Kohelet was wrong about this [that there is a time for every purpose].

A human must hate and love at the same moment,

To cry and laugh with the same eyes’

Have we learned that ability of being able to reach for highs and lows simultaneously? This extreme of highs and lows that we all have to manage is very much part of the human condition and our Jewish tradition very much speaks to that.

I am so conscious that this year of anniversary will demand of us - both celebration and also hard thinking as we all consider how much we might give towards our building renewal and its longevity. We will be providing updates every month and hope you will be joining us along the way. Our first invitation to you is our ‘Sip and See’ evenings to hear about our refurbishment plans and the funds we need to raise. It is exciting and daunting in equal measure, which I think we will take in our stride.