Dear friends,
I’m very excited to have the opportunity to share a few thoughts with you as we head into Shabbat in my very first Shabbat message.
I came across a rather lovely piece of news this week from Scotland that I wanted to share. For the first time in around 500 years, beavers have returned to the area around Loch Ness. Having all but disappeared from the area, and from the UK more broadly, due to hunting and habitat loss, a family of six beavers, including three baby beavers (which I think is rather wonderful!), has been released into a rewilding project in the Scottish Highlands. They’re the first of what will hopefully become at least 15 beaver families returning to the area over the next three years.
Beyond being very cute, beavers actually play an important role in their ecosystems. Their dams create wetlands that provide habitats for other wildlife, improve water quality, and help reduce flooding. Their return is a lovely reminder that nature can be remarkably resilient, and that sometimes, with a little care and the right conditions, things that once seemed lost can find their way back.
There’s also something quite lovely about the idea of these beavers returning and hopefully establishing new generations in a place where they haven’t lived for centuries. It got me thinking about this week’s Torah portion, Parashat Toldot, which is all about generations, family histories, and the things we pass on to those who come after us.
This theme feels particularly close to home for me. I come from a family with a bit of a rabbinic tradition: both my grandfather and my aunt are rabbis, and Jewish communal life has been part of my family story for quite some time. It’s something I’ve thought about a lot as I’ve made my own way into the cantorate. It’s interesting how the things we inherit from our families—whether traditions, values, stories, or even a sense of purpose—can shape the paths we take, sometimes in ways we might never have expected.
In Toldot, we meet Isaac and Rebecca and their rather complicated family life with their twin sons, Jacob and Esau. There’s plenty of sibling rivalry, parental favoritism, and a fair amount of family drama! But beneath all of that is a bigger question about what gets passed from one generation to the next. I think there’s something meaningful in considering that inheritance isn’t simply about what we receive, but also about what we choose to do with it. Whether it’s carrying forward family traditions, building communities, or helping restore an environment for the generations that follow, we all have a part to play in shaping what comes next.
I hope that, wherever this week finds you, you have the chance to slow down, spend time with people you love, and enjoy a little bit of the peace that Shabbat brings.
Shabbat Shalom,
Student Cantor Weiner
If you’d like to read more about the beavers’ return, you can find the story here.