Torah Portion:	Beshalach
Synagogue:	Temple Beth Israel (Reform/progressive)
Walking time from home:	Just over 15 minutes
Reason for going:	Something different
Kiddush:	Big kiddush, lots of variety

As I alluded to last week, the summer season as far as synagogue attendance, is well and truly over. All shules are now back and regular services have re-commenced, so much so that on Friday night I went to a communal Shabbat dinner at a synagogue, and in fact I am actually going to a communal Shabbat dinner every Friday night in February. 

But for Shabbat morning I wanted to try something different. I had been to TBI for Friday night services a few times recently, and mid-last year attended a Bar Mitzvah, but I haven’t been to a regular Shabbat morning service at TBI for a long time. Neither it seemed had many others. For quite a few people, this was their first Shabbat back at shule since before Covid. 

At TBI it was special for another reason too. Recently their long-standing musical director had passed away, and this Shabbat – also known as Shabbat Shira (Shabbat of Song) –  was a tribute to him, with a full choir and many special tunes performed during the service in his honour. 

The song that the Shabbat is nominally named after comes towards the end of the portion, and that particular reading is one of only two in the whole Torah that is chanted differently and is rendered differently in the Torah itself, with greater spacing between verses so that it looks like a song. 

The song itself comes after the Israelites cross the Red Sea, soon after they leave Egypt. It is their song of praise, and the portion of Beshalach always falls in the week of Tu Bi’Shvat – a minor festival that celebrates nature and trees. Whilst its prominence has been rising over the last few years, especially since it is a festival that is now embraced by a growing number of environmentalists, there is a clear connection between the song sung at sea and nature – namely that trees and other plant life need sustenance from the sea, much like the rest of society. As such, this is a festival, or at least a day, that should be held in high regard, and it is good to see that like most things, environmentalism has its origins in the Torah. 

At TBI, by nature of its progressive bent, some things are done differently to how I am used to seeing them and how they are practiced in more orthodox settings. One thing that I really liked, is rather than one random person being called up for each Torah reading, a number of people were called up each time, and all of them for a purpose. For instance, one reading celebrated all the people whose birthdays were coming up this week, whilst another commemorated all those people who are marking a Yahrzeit this week. But because of Tu Bi’Shvat, the penultimate reading celebrated anyone who valued their garden or had an environmentalist connection, whilst the final reading – the one featuring the Song – celebrated the choir and all those who perform. 

Whilst honouring people in this way was quite surprising and different for me to see, it was also very endearing and beautiful. It showed a community that values its members, and one that gives out honours that mean something. It was also wonderful to hear a choir in full voice and a sermon dedicated almost entirely to the memory of someone who was clearly so beloved. For me, going to a shule like TBI is a rare occurrence, but I am even more grateful for the opportunity to go and to write about it because it gave me a chance to see and experience something that I rarely do, and that is always very special and the reason why I write this blog in the first place.