Following Purim I am often reminded of one of the mostunusual aspects of the book of Esther; it is the only book ofthe bible that does not contain the name of G-d. In fact, itincludes virtually no reference to G-d. Mordecai makes a vaguereference to the fact that the Jews will be saved by someone else,if not by Esther, but that is the closest the text comes to mentioningG-d. The lesson from the book of Esther is that G-doften works in ways that are not apparent, in ways that appearto be chance, coincidence or ordinary luck.

Well, we know that luck is only a small part of life. The wordPurim means "lots" and refers to the lottery that Haman used tochoose the date for the massacre of the Jews. The more significantpart of life is what we do with our luck, bad or good. What reallymatters is how we forge a path forward irrespective of cards weare dealt in life. So I'd like to invite all our members to participatein our strategic planning process - a process of coming togetheras a community to forge our congregation's path forward. Let mesay a little more about why this process is so important and notmerely an act of drafting a document that just sits on the shelf.

What is a strategic plan? This is a five year plan that outlinesour mission, vision and strategic goals. It's our commitmentand a guiding document that gives the membership a voice indecision making and the Board of Trustees direction as theylead the operations and management of our shul. The purposeof the plan is make sure that all our day-to-day decisions buildon our overall direction and reflect a consistent set of priorities.The plan also provides our professional staff, including theRabbi, an opportunity to provide leadership that is consistentwith what members want and need.

We are at an inflection point in our 75 year history. This is atime when the world around us is re-setting; we are beginningto see how the global recession and recovery is leading to verylong lasting, if not permanent, changes in how we live andhow we work. At Congregation Beth El we have had the goodfortune of membership growth and financial stability over thepast 10 years. It's time for us to step back and reflect upon whowe are and where we're going both as a community and a shul.The planning process will be an opportunity for communitydialogue, debate and consensus building.

The Board of Trustees and our professional staff will begin theprocess in mid March and then invite the broad communityto participate in focused discussion sessions to look at visionand goals in several key areas including: • Membership (outreach and in-reach) • Religious life • Social Action • Religious Education (focused on pre-school/nursery schoolage and elementary school age through high school) • Facility planning and other critical aspects of communitylife at Congregation Beth El.

My goal is to have a meaningful plan upon which we canbase our five year financial and annual budgeting process.This plan will be reviewed and adopted first by the Board ofTrustees and then presented to the community at our AnnualCongregational Meeting at the end of April 2010.

We are blessed to have Rabbi Fish with us for the next five yearsand so it is time for us to reflect together on where we've comefrom and where we collectively want to go as a community. Itis time for us to reconnect with our purpose and mission andfocus our programming and Shabbat community to continueto meet the needs of our members for the next 75 years.

I cannot emphasize enough the importance of having you joinus for these conversations and planning activities. Please attendthese meetings and have a voice in our future. Roll up yoursleeves and get involved.

B'Shalom, Hy