Posted on June 27, 2025 by Cantor Risa Wallach
I have been reflecting on our past year at Temple Beth-El, a unique year in the life of our congregation and indeed the world. And, to be perfectly honest, each year at TBE has been different from the last for me personally, given that I arrived here in 2020, as the COVID pandemic was just beginning.
During this past year, many students joyously became Brit Mitzvah in our sanctuary, joined by families and old and new friends of the congregation. We celebrated a raucous festival of Purim and reading of Megillat (the scroll of) Esther, which was much-needed after many months of relentless grief and suffering in Israel and the Gaza strip. We observed Tikkun Olam Shabbat and Refugee Shabbat through the work and support of our incomparable Tikkun Olam volunteers, in the face of a dispiriting loss of federal support for refugees and a frightening rise in violence, uncertainty and anti-Semitism here in the US. We installed a new board and Temple president. RAC New Jersey launched a campaign to protect immigrants in our state through advocacy for the Immigrant Trust Act. We hired a new settled rabbi under the gifted leadership of Steve Weitz and his devoted committee. And there are many important accomplishments I haven’t even mentioned!
This week, in the blistering heat, we eagerly anticipate the beginning of Rabbi Noah Diamondstein’s time with us.
And so, we find ourselves in liminal time at the end of June and the start of the month of Tammuz, which falls on June 26 and 27. The word “liminal” comes from the Old French “limite;” is probably related to the Latin word “limen” for a threshold, and is defined in Merriam-Webster as “of, relating to, or being an intermediate state, phase, or condition.” The author Susan Beaumont in her book, How to Lead When You Don’t Know Where You’re Going, writes:
“Liminal seasons are challenging, disorienting and unsettling… Liminal seasons are also exciting and innovative. The promise of a new beginning unleashes creative energy, potential and passion. All truly great innovations are incubated in liminality. God’s greatest work occurs in liminal space.”
In our parashah this week, Parashat Korach, we learn of the rebellion of Korach and his followers against the leadership of Moses, and the plague visited upon the Israelites by God in retaliation. Following these events, God commands Moses to have the leaders of each tribe bring their staff with their tribal name inscribed upon it, and Moses brings them to the tent of meeting. Numbers, verse 17:23 reads:
“The next day Moses entered the Tent of the Pact, and there the staff of Aaron of the house of Levi had sprouted: it had brought forth sprouts, produced blossoms, and borne almonds.’ The tribe of Levi is held responsible for the sins of Korach, of which the sprouted staff is a reminder, and yet they are elevated and obligated to minister through service in the holiest rituals of offerings to God.”
In a profoundly liminal moment, a new path is created for the future in the central rituals of the Israelite tribes. There is fear, danger, even terrible loss. The instructions to Aaron and his descendants are very strict and very specific, to prevent more loss of life. But the way forward for God and the people soon becomes clear, and the people are reconciled to their creator.
In this in-between, liminal and potential-filled time, as we move into our next rabbinic relationship as a community, may it be filled with excitement, innovation, joy and creative fruition for all of us.
Ken y’hi ratzon, may this be God’s will.
