Thursday, June 3, 2010

RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL: BETH YAM : HILTON HEAD ISLAND : MEGILLAH RUTH: SHAVUOT

 
RABBI ARTHUR SEGAL: BETH YAM : HILTON HEAD: MEGILLAH RUTH: SHAVUOT
 
Dear Editor:
 
We would like to publicly thank Rabbi Brad Bloom, the ritual committee, the board and the membership of HHI's Congregation Beth Yam..
 
For the  Shavuot (Pentacost) holiday, we commissioned, from a renown rabbinic scribe, ''The Megillah Ruth.'' This scroll is a work of art, with much spiritual, religious, and material value. The Megillah stresses acts of loving kindness. God rewards Ruth to become the great grandmother of King David, and the matriarch of the Messianic lineage. Ruth is a foreign alien.
 
The Megillah was given altruistically to Beth Yam, ''in honor of Rabbi and Rebbetzin Bloom, and all of the congregants, from Rabbi and Rebbetzin Arthur and Ellen Segal.''
 
Rabbi Bloom, with such kindness in his heart, allowed us at Shavuot services, to present the scroll,  and to ask  God to bless him, the board, and all of the members. He then gave us the great honor of Arthur chanting the blessings before and after reading from the scroll, and gave the honor to Ellen of reading from the Book of Ruth. Afterwards he publicly asked God to bless and to keep us. We were moved beyond words. The Megillah was placed in the Holy Ark, next to the Torah.
 
May God continue to give Rabbi Bloom the strength to teach God's simple will for us: to be kind and loving to all, to be just, and to walk humbly with the Divine.
 
Shalom,
Rabbi and Rebbetzin Arthur and Ellen Segal
Hilton Head Island, SC
{Rabbi Segal is a leader and teacher in the Jewish Spiritual Renewal movement and the author of numerous books and Talmudic , spiritual and ethical essays.}
Rabbi Arthur Segal www.jewishspiritualrenewal.org
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Jewish Renewal www.jewishrenewal.info
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Hilton Head Island, SC, Bluffton, SC, Savannah, GA