January 2026
Letter from the Rabbi
Dear Temple Israel Community,
Happy secular New Year to you and yours! I hope the first few days of 2026 have found you well and, if you’re local, that you’re enjoying the beauty of the snow as well the comfort of warm indoors.
As you likely saw in a message I shared during Hanukkah a few weeks ago, Rav Talia and I have come to the difficult decision that I will not be continuing in my current full-time capacity as the rabbi of Temple Israel into a fourth contract-year. The past 2.5 years of serving this remarkable synagogue community have been a time filled with meaning and connection and I am deeply grateful to each of you for your part in sustaining this congregation. Now, I am looking forward to another 6 months filled with deepening in our efforts to strengthen our local community, care for each other, and embrace our relationship with Torah, Mitzvot, and Judaism!
January at Temple Israel will be filled with wonderful opportunities for coming together! In our weekly Torah reading cycle, we will begin Sefer Shemot – The Book of Exodus – which recounts the foundational story of our ancestor’s redemption from enslavement in mitzrayim and our reception of the Torah. As we celebrate Shabbat each week, we have a warm group who gathers together to pray and to engage with the parsha. Beginning on Monday January 12th, I will be offering a new opportunity to engage with the weekly Torah portion and to strengthen your foundation in reading Hebrew for meaning.
Many of us, if we learned Hebrew as children, were taught to pronounce the words, but not how to understand the meaning conveyed by them. This class titled Hebrew with the Weekly Parsha will be a unique chance to intertwine language learning and meaningful engagement with the stories and commandments of the Torah. We will gather weekly, in-person and by Zoom, on Monday evenings from 6:30 – 7:45 pm and everyone is invited to participate. Whatever your background, you will be able to gain new knowledge in Hebrew language as well as to unpack new layers of the Torah. You can commit to participating on a weekly basis or simply when you are available. Please, think about coming to learn with me!
Learning has long been a central pillar of Jewish life and, in addition to this new Hebrew with the Weekly Parsha class, there are many other educational events at TI this month. Torah in Our Times resumes this Tuesday 1/6, Hadassah Mativetsky’s class in partnership with the Pardes Institute on the Torah of Being an American Jew will meet for a third session and can still be joined. We also look forward to the January TI/TC Adult Ed Session on Great Jewish Short Stories hosted by Steve Gilbert on 1/11! Last but not least, on 1/21 our regular Hebrew School program will resume as Binghamton University student teachers return to town.
Finally, we are working to put together a couple special Shabbat meals. We have another Community Shabbat dinner scheduled January 23rd and if you would like to help prepare, please reach out. Shabbat Dinners offer a great chance to connect with others in our community across generations. On the first Shabbat of February, we will celebrate Ice Cream for Breakfast Day with Ice Cream at our Shabbat Kiddush, an original Upstate New York informal holiday.
Here’s to a 2026 with ongoing growth and connection for all in our community!
L’shalom,
Rabbi Micah R. Friedman
הרב מיכה שמחה פרידמן
