Today was the Shir Hadash Board Retreat, an all-day event where the Board focuses on important issues for the synagogue. It’s usually held in the summer to help the new Board strengthen its ties, but that was infeasible this year for the obvious reason.

It was a productive day; we drafted a new mission statement for the synagogue and used that to establish goals to bring the statement to life. There is still a lot of work ahead (and a Board Work Day to come in January), of course – I’m looking forward to it.

After I got home, we lit the menorah for the last time this year. We were a little nervous having 9 candles burning without being in the room, but we didn’t want to stay there – so I set up the world’s most boring Zoom meeting so we could watch the candles while doing other things (mostly watching TV).

Happy Hanukkah!

It was Shabbat and I spent most of the day doing things with Shir Hadash. This morning we attended Torah Study and Shir Shabbat, on Zoom as usual; we’re getting deep into the Joseph story which always leads to interesting discussions.

This afternoon, we were physically on campus for a Limmud (learning session) led by one of the candidates for the Senior Rabbi position. The candidate took us through the evolution of the Hanukkah story, looking at texts from I and II Maccabees, Josephus, and the Babylonian Talmud and discussing the similarities and differences. I hadn’t realized that the “miracle of the oil” wasn’t part of the original story – it was added in Talmudic days (about 500 CE). It was a very interesting session, followed by wine, snacks, and Havdalah.

And I got the first paper issue of my revised Economist subscription today – fortunately, it’s one without bonus sections so there’s a chance I’ll finish it before the next one arrives!