Transitions … Stuart and Barbara Rapaport will be leaving Grand Rapids in June. We honored them at a Kiddush last month and will be sad to see them go. Stuart will be returning this fall to lead our service on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

We can’t replace Stuart’s deep impact on the religious life of Ahavas Israel, but we have been able to replace much of the roles that he has played as cantor: leading services, reading Torah, and regularly reading Haftarah.

Eliott Buyce, Barukh Hales, Calev Ben Avraham, Daveed ben Avraham, Akiva Roni Reese are new Torah readers following my Torah reading class last fall. David Reifler will be teaching Haftarah trope this summer. My next goal is to increase the number of people who can lead different parts of the Shabbat service.

My six week absence, from June 8 through July 20, the second half of a planned Sabbatical that began last summer, will be challenging, but I am grateful that Rhonda Reider, David Reifler, Sandy Freed, and others have stepped up to meet the challenge.

I’ll be visiting a couple of other small to medium size congregations over Shabbat, catching up on a lot of reading, and looking after my physical, mental, and spiritual health during my time away. When in town, I’ll be available for urgent matters. Call or message Ann Berman, the president of Ahavas Israel, at (616) 633-7922 in case of emergency.

Turning towards the fall … what would you like to hear from me on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Feel free to send me topics, article to react to, and questions to address. I can’t promise to address everything, but I’m curious to hear about what’s on your mind.

Hebrew word(s) of the Month:

• Azakah – an emergency siren
• Tzeva Adom – “color red” The special alert, with a rising and falling sound, for rocket or missile attacks in Israel.
• Tzefirah – The continuous level siren that sounds for two minutes at 10:00 am on Yom Hashoah and twice on Yom Hazikaron, as the day begins in the evening and again in the morning.