PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE – May 2026
A Challenge To Our Community:
As everyone knows by now, the heating system in the sanctuary needs to be replaced. It is a big expense and we just cannot pay for it right now. For a couple of months now we have been asking members of our community to contribute. We have received some nice contributions, but so far, the total donations are very far from what we need. The air conditioning works, so we should be able to put off the work for the next several months, but eventually it will turn cold again, so we really need to ramp up our fundraising.
It has been our tradition not to announce the amount of a donation from any particular person, but we have received donations of $250.00, $150.00, $100.00, and so on. One of our members approached me and suggested a challenge to the community to match one of our existing donors. We talked about how to come up with a figure that was meaningful, and we think we have a good suggestion.
According to gematria, the system of assigning numbers to Hebrew letters, and then adding up the numerical values of letters in a word, the value of chai, which is life, is 18. The number 18 is significant also in that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, are mentioned together in the Torah 18 times. There are 18 “commands” in the Torah regarding the building of the Mishkan, the holy Tabernacle. (Our prayer book is Mishkan T’filah, Dwelling Place for Prayer.) Then there is the number 7. In Judaism 7 denotes completeness, holiness, and perfection. The creation of the world took 7 days. Seven times 18 = 126. Therefore, our suggested donation is $126.00.
If each of our member families contributed $126.00 toward the sanctuary heating system we would only have about half of the total expected cost. We hope many of you could go beyond that figure, but we also recognize some of you may not be able to contribute that much. But $126.00 is a good place for each of us to start in evaluating our ability to help us raise what we need for this project. It isn’t an insubstantial amount, but neither is it an unreasonable request. It is going to take the entire Temple family to raise what we need. We are a warm, welcoming community, but we need toheTemple to be physically warm when the weather changes!
Hard to Say Goodbye To One Family:
One family that has helped to make our Temple a warm and welcoming community is the Barlows — Alan, Stacie, and their daughter Rachil. They have always contributed their time, energies, and creativity to Temple Beth Emet. Stacie has often applied her catering skills to make our oneg shabbats beautiful and delicious. She is also thoughtful of the dietary needs of some of our members, and always made sure that when she set the oneg table there was something there for everyone. The Barlows have been thinking about relocating for some time, and even put their plans on hold for some time when Rabbi Janet and Vickie came to us. But they have found their place in Eureka, and we bid farewell to them at Shabbat services on April 3. And of course, Stacie arranged the oneg! We are sad to see them go, but we wish them all the best in their new home, and of course we reminded them that they always have a home here.
— IRA L GOLDSTEIN, President
