Last month, I received an email from WRJ inviting me to share my understanding of this week’s Parashat Chayei Sarah. I began my research, hoping to uncover a mesmerizing commentary. I knew that many of you were knowledgeable about the early Genesis stories. In Chayei Sarah, for example, we learn that Abraham buys burial ground from his Hittite neighbors, land that gives us Jews a claim to our promised homeland; we meet Rebekah at the well and she becomes Isaac’s bride. I read, I studied, and I reflected. What I felt was a deep tug to travel in an entirely different direction. I finally realized that I wanted, or needed, to share the tale of a contemporary matriarch who was intimately connected to the Reform Movement throughout her 92 years. I needed to tell you her story. Her name was Eleanor ‘Ellie’ Schwartz z''l.  Ellie, who died September 18^th just two months shy of her 93^rd birthday, was the second Executive Director of NFTS (now WRJ), serving from 1976-1992.

This week’s Torah portion, Vayeira, contains several stories with which we are all familiar. It opens with God revealing through three mysterious visitors that Sarah will have a child. Next comes the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. In it, Abraham argues for the potential innocent when God threatens to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. In the end, there are not even ten innocent people, so God destroys the city. After the story of those two cities, Isaac is born. Sarah pushes for the expulsion of Hagar and Ishmael who almost starve in the wilderness, but are saved at the last minute.  The portion ends with the story of the Akeda in which Isaac is almost killed by Abraham but is saved at the last minute by God.

No two words resonate more deeply within the Jewish psyche than Lech L’cha. God’s injunction to Abram to “Go forth” from his father’s homeland involves much more than a physical journey. Abram’s wanderings with Sarai, Lot, and their household present problems, resolutions, and, ultimately, the supreme declaration by God of a particular covenantal relationship with Abram and Sarai’s progeny.

This summer, I traveled to China with my family. We visited the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, the Guilin District, and Shanghai. It was a fascinating trip and we enjoyed the food, the people, and the sights. While in Shanghai, we decided to visit the Ohel Moshe Synagogue, one of only two synagogues in Shanghai, and now the home of the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum. This was one of the highlights of our trip and a moving experience for the history buffs in our family. The Ohel Moshe Synagogue, built in 1927 and renovated by the People’s Government of Hongkou District in 2007, and the adjacent exhibit halls of the Shanghai Jewish Refugees Museum, are located in a peaceful residential area, far from the glitzy and upscale Bund, in an area once known as “Little Vienna.” To walk into the synagogue, a small, serene sanctuary with one room, a bimah and a balcony, is to walk back in time.

It is September—my favorite time of year. The weather begins to change and the leaves on the trees turn magnificent colors. After summer hiatus, it is time again to get back to our typical, daily routines. It is the month of Elul. The High Holidays are upon us. It is a time for reflection and repentance. It also begins a new season for WRJ sisterhoods and women's groups across North America and beyond. Imagine at your first meeting you begin in song, hinei ma tov—a song that repeats the same few lines in Hebrew that translate to: “how good and pleasant it is for brothers and sisters to sit together in unity.” Imagine the connection that women feel at your first gathering in your kehillah kedoshah, your sacred community.