Volume 26 Issue 28 15 Sep 2017 24 Elul 5777

From the Head of Jewish Life

Rabbi Daniel Siegel

A firmly rooted future

Last Thursday night as I was listening to the שורשים/Shorashim (Roots) presentations being shared by our Year 7 students with their peers and their families, I was experiencing the opening words of this week’s parashah, addressed to our ancestors, as they were about to enter the Promised Land.

“You stand this day, all of you before the Lord your God, from your elders to your children, to enter into the Covenant.”

Our school parents and grandparents, assembled to learn how their children and grandchildren, our Emanuel students, recognised and celebrated their family’s past, while appreciating, at the same time, how it would firmly root them in the future.

Our parashah adds:

“It is not with you alone that I enter into this covenant, but with both those who are present with us this day and those who are not present today.”

The word שרש (root) is related to the word שרשרת (chain). Roots are of no consequence if not feeding a live tree which bears fruit for future generations. “Choose life”, our parashah tells us, “so you and your children may live”. Our future is predicated on a past that lives in the present.

That afternoon, our Year 7 students were excitedly rushing about setting up their שורשים/Shorashim projects. One student accidently bumped into another, severing a branch from the family tree he constructed. Mr Dean, standing by the student, came to his assistance and together they repaired the tree. That evening our students, in sharing the tales and journeys of family heirlooms, at the same time were relating the strength of family bonds, history and traditions. Our branches flourish where our roots remain strong. As we say of our people’s traditions and our shared covenant, represented in our Torah, “It is a tree of life, to those who hold fast to it”.

We applaud our Year 7 students for their dedicated efforts in theirשורשים / Shorashim projects and their commitment to a future firmly rooted in a living past.