Good Morning, Yesterday

Dear Friends,

The time has come for my wife, my boys and I to say to goodbye to our time at Ner Tamid.  Two weeks ago, in Parshas Matos, we read the long story of the Jews travels in the desert. The RAMBAN explains that it is Moshe's goodbye message to the Jewish people. Moshe reviews the good times and where they travelled together. He reminds them that although they traveled in the dessert and it was not always easy, in 40 years they only had to move 42 times.

As a youth director one of the most meaningful events we would share with students was a kum zitz. Kum Zitz is a Yiddish phrase meaning "Come Sit". I can remember hundreds of Kum Zitz on the floor of the Ner Tamid Social hall and other shuls and odd locations, where we sat around in the dark illuminated by candles and shared memories and music. One of our NCSY favorites was "Just One Shabbos" from Mordechai Ben David. It has a slow part to build up the emotions and then a room of teens can really get pumped as the song build in energy. Just One Shabbos is all I have left with our friends, former students and students of Ner Tamid. I hear the song in mind as I am writing this letter.

Another song is playing in my head. Paul Anka's Times of our Life.

Good morning, yesterday.  You wake up and time has slipped away.

And suddenly it's hard to find, the memories you left behind.

Remember, do you remember?

The laughter and the tears, the shadows of misty yesteryears.

The good times and the bad you've seen, and all the others in between.

Remember, do you remember, the times of your life? (do you remember?)

Our family has spent the majority of our adult lives at Ner Tamid, and we have memories which we share with so many of you.

To all you who accepted an outsider into the shul and mentored me and together we built a great program for our students, thank you.

To those of you who made this shul a wonderful place for our children to grow up, thank you so very much.

To those of you who shared Shabbos and singing and fun, and occasional tears, thank you for being our friends.

For those of you who have made my mother's transition to the Baltimore community so wonderful. You have made her life complete, by welcoming her as everybody is welcomed in Ner Tamid, with open arms, hearts and homes.

To those of you we met in later years and we have not yet built the bond which we would like, we will still be in the community and we hope to get to know you better.

To the students of our shul community, I'm sorry that there were times I was too distracted to chat with you. I'm sorry that there were times when I got frustrated or lost my patience. But mostly, I'm sorry that we ran out of time. I'm sorry that this is our last Shabbos together, and I'm even more sorry that I won't be seeing any of you regularly after this. Truth be told, I'm going to miss you all quite a bit. I'll miss your jokes and your smiling faces. I'll miss the funny things you say that crack me up. But mainly, I'll just miss you.

Morah Rachel is going to be so very amazing. She is already planning a great color run at the Endless Summer BBQ, and she has many more fantastic ideas. She is a great friend to all of her students and you will learn that more than anything, she wants to hear what you have to say. I look forward to hearing from students about the new story being written and the new kinds of kumzitz which will inspire.

People have asked me where I will be on Shabbos, and I have been evasive. That is not because I am trying to be difficult. After 19 years of waking up at 6:45 am for a 7 am minyan, so I can share my Shabbos morning with the shul students, I do not know what is next. For 4 weeks my wife has made plans for us to be out Baltimore for Shabbos. Silver Spring, Bradley beach, NJ, Far Rockaway and Nashville, TN. Then I do not know. I hope to be involved in helping the Levindale Shabbos morning minyan once or twice a month, and I may be asking friends to come with me. I may wake up later on Shabbos, or it just may be that I have become a 7 am Shabbos minyan guy after all these years. I hope to visit Ner Tamid and actually get to hear Rabbi Motzen speak. I have heard great things. After so many years of doing one thing, I am not sure what I will find as who I am. What I do know is I plan to enjoy the journey.

When we teach in Hebrew class the word Shalom, we tell students it means "Hello", "Goodbye", and "Peace". The truth is, that means Peace and we always bless people with Peace when we greet them and when they are leaving us. Shalom is one of the names of G-d (some say not to say Shalom in the bathroom because it is G-ds name) and represents wholeness. When two people meet they are bringing together more of our people and humanity and making our people and our world whole. For years I said Good Shabbos to everyone I meet on Shabbos. It is a mitzvah of remembering Shabbos, but lately I have leaning towards saying Shabbat Shalom (or Shabbos Shalom), to say it is not just a Good Shabbos, but Shabbos of Peace and Wholeness.

Thank you and Shabbat Shalom

Sam Wach