March 31, 2006 – Nissan 3, 5766

Rabbi Joshua Hammerman, Temple Beth El, Stamford, Connecticut

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Contents of the Shabbat O Gram:

(Click to scroll down)

Just the Facts (service schedule)

The Rabid Rabbi

Mitzvah/Tzedakkah Opportunities

Ask the Rabbi

Spiritual Journey on the Web

Required Reading and Action Items (links to key articles on Israel and Jewish life)

Announcements (goings on in and around TBE)

Joke for the Week

Quote for the Week

“The road to the sacred leads through the secular.”
Abraham Joshua Heschel

JUST THE FACTS

Don’t forget to “spring forward” one hour on Saturday night!

If you have yet to RSVP for Dan’s Bar Mitzvah on 4/22,

please do so at http://www.tbe.org/dansbarmitzvah/index.htm

INVITATIONS WERE SENT TO THE ENTIRE MEMBERSHIP LIST OF THE CONGREGATION.

IF YOU HAVE NOT RECEIVED ONE, PLEASE LET ME KNOW, BUT KNOW ALSO THAT YOU ARE INVITED! The RSVP deadline is this weekend. We want to be sure to get accurate numbers to the caterer.

Thanks

The Hammermans

Friday Evening

Candle lighting Candle lighting: Candle lighting: 5:59pm on Friday, 31 March 2006 - Havdalah is at 7:03 on Saturday evening. For candle lighting times, other Jewish calendar information, and to download a Jewish calendar to your PDA, click on http://www.hebcal.com/. To see the festivals of other faiths as well, go to http://www.interfaithcalendar.org/

Kabbalat Shabbat: 6:30 PM – in the chapel

Tot Shabbat goes out like a lamb this week - none on the 5^th Friday

Shabbat Morning: 9:30 AM – Mazal tov to Jonathan Arons, who will become Bar Mitzvah this Shabbat morning!

Children’s services: 10:30

Torah Portion: Vayikra: Leviticus 1:1 - 5:26

1: 3:1-5
2: 3:6-11
3: 3:12-17
4: 4:1-7
5: 4:8-12
6: 4:13-21
7: 4:22-26
maf: 4:24-26

Haftarah –: Isaiah 43:21 - 44:23

See a weekly commentary from the UJC Rabbinic Cabinet, at www.ujc.org/mekorchaim. Read the Masorti commentary at http://www.masorti.org/mason/torah/index.asp. University of Judaism, JTS commentary is at: http://learn.jtsa.edu/topics/parashah/. USCJ Torah Sparks can be found at http://uscj.org/item20_467.html. UAHC Shabbat Table Talk discussions are at http://uahc.org/torah/exodus.shtml. Other divrei Torah via the Torahnet home page: http://uahcweb.org/torahnet/. Test your Parasha I.Q.: http://www.ou.org/jewishiq/parsha/default.htm. CLAL’s Torah commentary archive: http://click.topica.com/maaaiRtaaRvQhbV2AtLb/. World Zionist Organization Education page, including Nehama Liebowitz archives of parsha commentaries: http://www.moreshet.net/web/index.asp?f=1 For a more Kabbalistic/Zionist/Orthodox perspective from Rav Kook, first Chief Rabbi of Israel, go to http://www.geocities.com/m_yericho/ravkook/index.html. For some probing questions and meditations on key verses of the portion, with a liberal kabbalistic bent, go to http://www.jewishealing.com/learning.html or, for Kabbalistic commentaries from the Zohar itself, go to http://www.kabbalah.com/k/index.php/p=zohar/weekly/intro. To see the weekly commentary from Hillel, geared to college students and others, go to http://www.hillel.org/hillel/NewHille.nsf/FCB8259CA861AE57852567D30043BA26/DF7D129F15B3DF0885256AB80058E9C3?OpenDocument. For a Jewish Renewal and feminist approach go to http://rabbishefagold.hypermart.net/Torah1.html . For a comprehensive Orthodox viewpoint from the Israeli rabbi, Yaakov Fogelman, go to the Torah Outreach Program at http://israelvisit.co.il/top/previous.shtml. Guided meditations for each portion by Judith Abrams at http://www.maqom.com/kavannah.pdf

For online Parsha quizzes from Pardes in Israel, go to http://www.pardes.org.il/online_learning/parsha_quizzes/ Torah for Kids: http://www.torah4kids.net/ Weekly Lesson of Popular Israeli Rabbi Mordechai Elon: http://www.elon.org/archives/archives.htm - and his parsha sheets: http://www.mibereshit.org/special/download_eng_pdf.htm From Bar Ilan University: http://www.biu.ac.il/JH/Parasha/eng/; http://www.torahproductions.com/weekly_article.jsp

Mincha – Ma’ariv – Havdalah: 5:30PM – Mazal Tov to Mollie Steinmetz, who will become Bat Mitzvah this Shabbat afternoon!

THE ENTIRE HEBREW BIBLE (AS WELL AS OTHER JEWISH SOURCES) CAN BE FOUND WITH SIDE-BY-SIDE TRANSLATION AT

http://www.mechon-mamre.org/

Morning Minyan: Weekdays at 7:30, Sundays at 9:30 AM

TO ENSURE A “GUARANTEED MINYAN” FOR THE DAY OF YOUR YAHRZEIT – GO TO THE ROSNER MINYAN MAKER AT WWW.TBE.ORG AND ALSO CONTACT ME AT RABBI@TBE.ORG.

Beyond “Good and Evil”

I’ve come to the sad conclusion that not everyone likes me. Yes, unfathomable as it may seem, it’s true. I discovered that when I checked last week’s issue of the Jewish Press, a notoriously right wing Jewish weekly, especially popular in Brooklyn and parts of Rockland County. See for yourself at http://www.jewishpress.com/page.do/8715/An_Upside-Down_View_Of_Victims_And_Victimizers.html.

Turns out that the writer, Daniel Greenfield, has been stalking me for quite some time:

“…The column wasn’t a Purim shpiel; sadly, many of Rabbi Hammerman’s columns are similar in tone. And there is, after all, a certain logic to it, since liberal Judaism has spent the last generation reimagining the persecutors of Jews as victims and the Jews as persecutors.”

So he picked on my recent JTA article about Haman and totally missed my point. He thought I was advocating a moral equivalence, thereby letting Haman off the hook for his murderous intent. Instead, I was acknowledging that Jewish tradition allows for moral ambiguity where good and evil are rarely, if ever, absolutes. Morality has a foundation that is absolute – God and the Torah – but those teachings have been distilled to us through many filters, including the human mind. Because we are not perfect, neither is our ability to discern good from evil. The Talmud and later codifiers return to that notion again and again. It might seem contradictory that, for example, capital punishment is on the books in Talmudic and especially biblical law, but in practice, it has almost never been carried out. In Israel’s long history of confronting ruthless murder, only Adolph Eichmann has been given the death sentence. Compare that to many US states, where the signs in front of prisons are beginning to look like your neighborhood McDonalds (“billions and billions fried”).

I happen to think Jewish law beautifully combines a strong moral foundation with a pragmatic, humble realism. We possess God’s Word, but not God’s Will. We sort of know what is right and wrong, but we don’t know God.

Greenfield quotes from Isaiah: “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that change darkness into light, and light into darkness, that justify the wicked for a reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him."

No one is calling good evil or vice versa – not in the abstract. What we are doing is recognizing that people are infinitely complicated. It is the deed that is totally good or evil – not the person.

As Robert Louis Stevenson wrote:

“There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it behooves all of us not to talk about the rest of us.”

How Can I Become a Good Person?

The Telushkin Approach

Just a few weeks ago, Rabbi Joseph Telushkin gave is 13 ways that we can become better people. Because the lecture was given on Friday night, no one had first-hand notes as to what those ways are. Fortunately, Rabbi Telushkin has featured similar suggestions in an article in this month’s issue of Reform Judaism, coinciding with the publication of his new book, “A Code of Jewish Ethics.” The book has been receiving excellent reviews, btw, and we can all be proud that it first went on sale here at TBE. Below you can see the listing of his suggestions (which are somewhat different from the lecture he gave here) – the article can be read in full at http://reformjudaismmag.org/Articles/index.cfm?id=1100:

1. Do good deeds often.

2. Cultivate the friendship of people who are both good and wise

3. Avoid people with bad character and unkind dispositions.

4. Live up to the reputation to which you aspire

5. See every act you do as one of great significance.

6. If you offer personal prayers to God for your own well-being and success, pray for others before you pray for yourself.

7. Cultivate and develop your moral strengths

8. Keep a daily "character journal" focusing exclusively on the area in which you wish to improve yourself.

9. When trying to correct a bad trait, temporarily embrace the opposite extreme.

10. Avoid even sins that seem minor because, as a rabbinic maxim teaches, "One sin will lead to another" (The Ethics of the Fathers 4:2).

11. When confronted with a situation that leaves you uncertain as to whether you are taking the right action, ask yourself one question: "What is motivating me to act in this way, my yetzer tov (good inclination) or my yetzer hara (evil inclination)?"

12. Look at your life from the future.

13. Emulate God

Jewish Farmers in Connecticut

A Jewish author is writing a book about Jewish farmers past and present in Connecticut. If anyone knows of someone who has information on this subject, please contact Dr. Kenneth Libo at KenLibo@aol.com or 212-227-0732

COMING THIS FALL!!

For more information, go to www.starsynagogue.org

If you are interested in participating in our steering committee or would like an info packet, contact me at rabbi@tbe.org

Mitzvah/Tzedakkah Projects

Introducing

Our latest “Locks of Love” Mitzvah hero,

Rebecca Satz

Rebecca’s quote: “It’s very short, Mommy!”

Before After

From a Student in our Hebrew School

Hello.  I am doing a fundraiser for "Walk Against Hunger".  I am going to be walking with my mom for 3 miles on May 7, 2006.  I was wondering if you could please help support me by including this in your shabbatogram. If any TBE member would like to contribute, they can do so by writing checks (which are tax deductible) to "Connecticut Food Bank" or "Walk Against Hunger."  The checks can be sent to me at 57 Saw Mill Road, Stamford CT, 06903.  When people donate, we as a whole are helping the hungry.  

Thank you very much,

~Haley Erskine~

TBE Job Bank (the Highest Level of Tzedakkah)

I received this blurb from a student who is now teaching some of our teens at Kulanu:

A JTS graduate student and Columbia alum is available for Hebrew & Jewish Studies tutoring. Take advantage of a friendly, fun and flexible learning experience tailored to your specific needs. For details please call Ariela at 646-369-6887 or email her at APelaia@gmail.com

Beth El Cares
Cathy Satz (968-9191; csscounsel@yahoo.com)
Cheryl Wolff (968-6361; cwolff@optonline.net)
BETH EL CARES co-chairs
 
 
Blood Drive
Give the Gift of Life! Get involved in a short term mitzvah project that will save lives. 
Who benefits from these blood donations? 
People who are born prematurely, people with auto-immune and other blood disorders, people involved in accidents… 
Many people, including temple members, have received blood transfusions in the past and some people need regular blood transfusions. 
 
On Sunday, April 30th between 8:30 am and 1:30 pm we need 125 healthy adults who are at least 17 years old, 
weigh at least 110 pounds and have not given blood since the beginning of March. 
The Red Cross will provide the “beds”; we need to put “arms in the beds”. Color War points will be awarded to your child’s color war team!
 
Contact Cheryl Wolff to schedule your donation time or to volunteer to help. 

Lock of Love

As promised, Beth El Cares will be hosting another group donation for children and teens to cut their hair for “Locks of Love”.  

If your hair is 10” or longer (in a ponytail), mark Sunday May 7 on your calendar.

Guy Sasson & Company will be coming to Temple Beth El to start haircuts at 12:00 noon

(right after Religious School). Advance sign-up is required. 

Mother and daughter teams will be accepted! Rebecca and Cathy Satz are hopeful they’ll both have their 10” by then-they’re close!

Contact Cathy Satz to schedule your appointment.

Beth El Cares Shabbat

We hope you can join us at Shabbat morning services on Saturday April 15,

when we will be hosting a panel discussion regarding Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. 

We will feature at least two panelists, Gabi Birkner, staff writer for the Jewish Week

who has been to the south several times since Hurricane Katrina and has written some moving reports

and Rosaline Feinstein, congregant, who has also written a moving report detailing her recent visit to the south.

The panel may also include some students who recently spent a few days performing mitzvah projects in New Orleans with the JCC.

SAVE THE DATE, SAVE DARFUR.

Rally to Stop Genocide

Sunday, April 30th

2:00 - 4:00

(Group will gather beginning at 1:00)

The Mall Washington, DC

Carl Weinberg is working with Beth El Cares to organize a group from Stamford to attend this rally.  

For more information about the rally and other Darfur initiatives,

contact Carl at 539-5560 (day), 322-8675 (evenings) or carl.r.weinberg@us.pwc.com.

DARFUR UPDATE – April 9 at 11:00 here at TBE!!!!

The Darfur Support Coalition of Fairfield County has been very active in raising awareness of the terrible genocide taking place in Darfur (Western Sudan). Some of their recent activities include:  
      o Participation in a national Million Voices for Darfur post card campaign to
         President Bush asking him to use his influence to create an international
         force to protect the refugees in Darfur.
o Planning and recruiting for a bus trip to Washington on April 30 to join the
         national rally to stop the genocide in Darfur.
      o Working in concert with other Darfur support groups  to convince the State of
Connecticut to divest itself of companies that are investing in or otherwise
         supporting Darfur.

There are still too many people who are unaware of what is happening in Darfur. We will be seeing a presentation designed to raise awareness of the crime against humanity that is taking place there, and what we can do to help stop it. The presentation includes an overview/background of the current situation, a 10 minute DVD, a Q& A period and handouts.

Passover Resources

Here is the link to updated and expanded 5766 / 2006 Pesach materials from Rabbi Barry Dov Lerner.  The new material includes a complete Haggadah with Seder Songs. There are Seder Supplementary Readings and Passover Preparation information.

http://www.jewishfreeware.org/downloads/folder.2006-01-07.0640323187/5766Haggadah/

The link will take you to these resources:

NEW COMPLETE 5766 /2006 HAGGADAH: PDF
This is a complete traditional Haggadah, updated for 5766 / 2006 in Hebrew, English and Transliteration and including the updated Seder Songs collection and in PDF to preserve Hebrew and English formatting. Each Haggadah section and each song appears on separate page(s). To edit for your use, download the document and then print one copy. From the printed pages, select those Seder and Song elements appropriate to your Seder needs from which you can make sufficient copies for your Seder participants and bind them into individual Haggadot.

5766/2006 Haggadah NEW SEDER SONGS 5766 / 2006
This is the most up-to-date collection of Seder Songs which is printed in a PDF format and one song per page. Download and then print a copy. Now select those songs, place them where you wish for them to be part of your Seder, print as part of your Haggadah or separately as a Songbook and then bind in sufficient quantity for all of your participants.

5766/2006 Haggadah NEW for 5766/2006 Jewish Family Haggadah: Very Brief Format
This is the most recent update of a "minimum" edition of a Seder which can be customized for your Seder.

5766/2006 Haggadah NEW For 5766 / 2006 JEWISH FAMILY HEIRLOOM HAGGADAH
You can create your own Haggadah that reflects the wants, needs and interests for your Seder participants. Here is a list of ideas on how your Haggadah becomes a Family Heirloom Treasure. Add to the texts in Hebrew, English and modern transliterated Hebrew your preferred readings, Seder Songs, digital pictures and drawings.

Download it now and get some fantastic hits like:

Who Let the Jews Out

(Sung to "Who Let the Dogs Out" by Jonathan Gleich; kosher4passover.com)

Who let the Jews out?

Oy, Oy, Oy, OY!

Who let the Jews out?

Oy, Oy, Oy, OY!

Who let the Jews out?

Oy, Oy, Oy, OY!

Who let the Jews out?

Well Pharaoh was angry,

Nefretiri was weeping

(di, di ,di , di)

The Jews were all

Leaving the hall.

(di, di ,di , di)

there's no one to build all the pyramids

(di, di di, di)

No one there to build them a mall.

And Nefretiri shouted

Who let the Jews out?

Oy, Oy, Oy, OY!

Who let the Jews out?

Oy, Oy, Oy, OY!

Who let the Jews out?

Oy, Oy, Oy, OY!

Who let the Jews out?

Oy, Oy, Oy, OY!

Moses came to me, saying

All the Jews have been praying

That there leaving, don't be grieving

Taking everything that they own.

And Pharaoh really got angry

Oy, Oy, Oy, OY!

And told them that they could not go

Oy, Oy, Oy, OY!

So Moses pointed his staff at the ceiling

Oy, Oy, Oy, OY!

And frogs it began to snow