Friday, August 28, 2026/16 Elul 5786

Friday, August 28, 2026/16 Elul 5786

Parashat Ki Tavo, Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8
Sixth Haftarah of Consolation, Isaiah 60:1-22

Dear TBE Community,

For this newsletter I am sharing a poem that I wrote in November 2016, for an open mic contest that I ended up winning. The working title of the poem was “American Poem” but then I later changed it to Daylight Saving Time. To me, in its confessional prose-poetry style, it had and has a very American feel to it. It echoes Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen songs, as well as some east coast Americana references, and it was a new way of writing for me. While my poetry tends to me more lyrical, I do have a few prose poems that sometimes just empty themselves out on the page as a stream-of-consciousness, like this one.

Why am I sharing this as the newsletter message for Parashat Ki Tavo?

Come to services tonight in person or tune in on Zoom to learn more about why I recalled this poem as I was preparing to speak about this week’s parasha: What is worse, a dream unlived or unfulfilled?

Daylight Saving Time

On the last evening of Daylight Saving Time, the sky stands still in pink and orange, the clouds are dunes, ruffled by a desert wind. Silent shimmer fills the avenue and for an instant, your life makes sense, until the universe slips away again. Seven years you’ve been in this country, and you haven’t planted anything, not one of one million trees, no herbs in a community garden. You can’t afford to buy a studio in the Bronx, you barely make rent, you haven’t given birth to a first generation American. Not that you haven’t tried. Seven years, and your roots remain above ground. Every year come November, you wait for someone to pity the poor immigrant and have you over for Thanksgiving. No, you don’t hate your life. Yes, sometimes you wish you would’ve stayed home, wherever that was—but what is worse, a dream unlived or unfulfilled? You don’t know if it’s a lie if it don’t come true. You know that nobody has taken you to any river in many years. Since when do memories make you feel lost, not safe? Since when can’t you get rid of those extra pounds? Since when do you cry on the subway, held, delayed? You have no patience for people who tell you in this let’s-get-to-work-and-heal-this-country manner that you grow from your challenges, that life is about learning, that the journey is more important than the destination. You have grown and learned and journeyed, you can fill books with your accumulated growth and strength and yet, after seven years in this city, you still don’t know a conman when you see one. Is it foolish or arrogant to believe that not everyone is looking for the bigger, better deal? Do you underestimate or overestimate the men you fall in love with? Is unrequited love actually love or some surrogate experience? What is the sense of amassing memories that end up aborted, miscarried, stillborn, that you can’t share with anyone because those you shared them with are no longer in your life? People say, leave the past behind, but how can you leave it behind when the past defines your present and your future, when every street corner, every movie theater, every subway line, every prayer reminds you of dreams lived but unfulfilled? You search your purse for the keys and think of your bikini in the beach bag, the empty sunscreen flask, the Luna card, napkins from Nathan’s and for a moment you tell yourself that there is space between despair and bitterness, between net worth and worthless, between indifference and obsession, between knowing and not knowing, between forgetting and remembering. You just saw it in the sky.

See you at Temple Beth El – Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Julia Knobloch

More Torah Tidbits

Hadas Cootware

Torah School Coordinator

Hadas Cootware has been teaching Hebrew and Jewish Studies for over a decade, joining our Temple Beth El Community in 2018. Born and raised in Israel with Hebrew as her native language, she previously served as a combat soldier and operations officer in the IDF. Drawing on her studies in acting and psychology, she published a children’s book in Hebrew, The Marshmallow Story, which focuses on delayed gratification. Outside of teaching, she is the proud mother of her son, Henry, and loves to travel.

TBEtorahschool@bethelsp.org

Ilan Davidson

Cantor

Cantor Ilan Davidson has been pleasing audiences with his singing since before he could read. At age five, he began singing with his Cantor, Philip Moddel, and hasn’t shut up since. At ten, he made his Operatic debut with the Fullerton Civic Light Opera’s production of Bizet’s Carmen, as a street urchin. Since then, he has performed roles in opera and musical theatre, performing, directing, and producing world-class productions.

Among his many accomplishments, Cantor Davidson is also known as a contemporary Jewish songwriter and performer, having delighted audiences all over the world, including Israel and Lithuania with the soulful sounds of his music. His recordings, Stained Glass (1995) and In A Hanukkah Mood (2007) are collections of original and covered songs by himself and many contemporary Jewish artists. His most recent recording, God Is In This Place (2020), is a collection of original liturgical pieces for the Friday night Shabbat Service, commissioned and written in honor of his 25th Anniversary as the Cantor of Temple Beth El.

Cantor Davidson left the stage and in 1995 joined the Temple Beth El family, in San Pedro, where, in his nearly 30 years of service, he has brought many new programs and much enthusiasm to all he does. Coming from a long line of Cantors, it must have been Besheret for Cantor Davidson, although talented in all areas of musical performance, to finally settle down into his career as Hazzan for Temple Beth El in San Pedro, California. In 2007, Cantor Davidson founded a new foundation, KindredSPIRITS, producing an annual world humanitarian aid event. KindredSPIRITS premiered on June 5, 2008 at Walt Disney Concert Hall, adding that prestigious concert hall to the ever growing list of venues around the world, where Davidson has performed. During the 10 years of humanitarian events, Global KindredSPIRITS, Inc., as an official 501©3, raised awareness and close to $500,000 for its beneficiaries over the decade.
As a past president of the South Coast Interfaith Council, Ilan fought for tolerance and understanding of ALL faiths in a difficult climate. For the past 7 years, Cantor Davidson has been service as an LA County Commissioner, representing the 4th District on the Human Relations Commission, where he currently serves as President. Whether it is raising his voice for justice, Hazzanut, Pop, Opera, Musical Theatre, or folk music, Cantor Ilan Davidson shares his soul and genuine love in every note.

When asked about his finest accomplishment, Cantor Ilan invariably responds, “After all the great concerts, services, and roles, my finest role in life is that of husband to my beautiful wife, Jodi, and daddy to my gorgeous daughters, Jordan and Zoe.”

cantor@bethelsp.org

Office: (310) 833-2467 Ext. 106

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