May 6, 2006 – Iyar
8, 5766
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This week –
our first Friday night OUTDOOR service (at 6:30)!!!
Next week –
our final “Shabbat Unplugged of the season” (at 7:30)!!!
Contents
of the Shabbat O Gram:
(Click
to scroll down)
Just
the Facts (service schedule)
Mitzvah/Tzedakkah Opportunities
Required Reading and Action Items (links
to key articles on Israel and Jewish life)
Announcements (goings on in and around
TBE)
Quote for the Week
“There
is no other day of the year where our hearts beat as one as on this day; there
is no genuine unity which can compare to that expressed so intensely as on
Remembrance Day with a force that encompasses every soul in Israel. I know there are no words which I can say to ease your
pain, but I commit myself to you… I will do all
that I can to strengthen the security of the State of Israel
—Interim
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert,
speaking at the Yom Hazikaron ceremony at Jerusalem ’s Mount Herzl Jerusalem
Friday Evening
Candle lighting:
7:36pm on Friday,- Havdalah is at 8:35
pm 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 – OUTDOORS (Weather permitting)
Tot
Shabbat featuring - 6:45, in the sanctuary
Tot Shabbat will be
hosted this week by Jackie and David Herman, in honor of their children, Nathaniel
and Douglas.
Both children attend Sara Walker.
Attention Tot Shabbat
hosts: You are encouraged to
bring a special decoration with you (including pictures, children’s
drawings, etc.) to help commemorate your special event.
No Tot Shabbat May 19! Due to scheduling conflict, Tot Shabbat
will not be held May 19, but it will be
held during Shabbat Unplugged on May 12, at 7:30 pm. Tot Shabbat will also be held on Friday,
May 26.
Shabbat
Morning: 9:30 AM – Mazal tov to Annie Cohen and Yonatan
Karas, who will become B’nai
Mitzvah this Shabbat morning!
Children’s services: 10:30
Torah Portion: Achare
Mot – Kedoshim - Leviticus 16:1 - 20:27
1: 17:8-12
2: 17:13-16
3: 18:1-5
4: 18:6-21
5: 18:22-30
6: 19:1-3
7: 19:4-14
maf: 19:11-14
Haftarah for Ashkenazim: Amos 9:7
- 9:15
Haftarah for Sephardim: Ezekiel 20:2 - 20:20
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
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
THE ENTIRE
HEBREW BIBLE (AS WELL AS OTHER JEWISH SOURCES) CAN BE FOUND WITH SIDE-BY-SIDE
TRANSLATION AT
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.
A guraranteed Minyan has
been requested for this Monday.
Please sign up at the Rosner Minyan Maker!!!
Excerpts from my
sermon from last Shabbat
So
How
ironic it is that the prayer for
Chapter
66, Verse 13: “As a mother comforts
her son, so will I comfort you;
you shall find comfort in
During the archaeological excavations that were carried out near
the
The inscription on the Western Wall may
well have reflected the joyous prospect that the
I’ve seen that graffiti many times,
most recently last summer, when our group actually prayed under it, since it is
located in that southwestern corner of the kotel
adjacent to what is now called Robinson’s arch. And each time I
look at it, I think of the joy those workers must have felt – and how
devastated they must have been at Julian’s quick demise. They would have been
even more devastated had they known that only a few centuries later there would
be a new religion, Islam, that would build a shrine, the Dome of the Rock would
be built on that very spot, and that it would take 17 centuries for the Jewish
people to regain control over that holy place, but that the temple itself would
not be rebuilt.
Compared to 17 centuries, 58 years is not
a long time to be lingering at dawn, not a long time of “not
yet.” Things are not yet
perfect, but they are not so horrible either. Yes, the Iranian president speaks openly
about incinerating
But how horrible can
things be for the Jews, when doctors in
No, things aren’t so horrible at
all, not even in “not yet”
Ari Shavit, a commentator for Ha’aretz,
describes
True,
Last week,
when a terror attack in Tel Aviv shattered the illusion of quiet in the middle of
Pesach, the country did not come to a standstill. Israelis have learned to live with the
terror –with the operative word being “live.”
And so, on
this week of Yom Ha-atzmaut, we think of those
workers at the wall who inscribed that verse from Isaiah: You shall see and your heart shall rejoice, your limbs shall flourish like grass.”
These words were
recited by Ross and Billie today, and our hearts DID rejoice. We are living at a truly
remarkable time, one that those workers 1700 years ago never could have
imagined. The Jewish people have
been reborn, in our homeland. That
fact has happened – nothing “not yet” about it. We can’t rest on our laurels in
this year of Nach
– but we can rest assured that Isaiah’s vision, and the dream of
these workers, has already been fulfilled.
Independence
Day 2006: 7 Million Israelis
On the eve of
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 Opportunties
Beth El Cares
Cathy Satz (968-9191; csscounsel@yahoo.com)Cheryl Wolff (968-6361; cwolff@optonline.net)BETH EL CARES co-chairs Lock of Love
Todah Rabah to Rebecca
Satz, the latest
Rebecca just couldn’t wait until Sunday May 7 when 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),
join us on Sunday May 7.
Guy Sasson & Company will be coming
to
Advance sign-up is required. Mother and daughter teams will
be accepted-Cathy will volunteer to “adopt a daughter” for her
team!
Contact Cathy Satz to schedule your appointment.
Cathy Satz
968-9191 (
Sunday,
June 4, 2006
The
The Walk/Run will be on June 4, 2006
in the morning at Shippan. Each
year TBE members walk together to raise money for cancer patients and their
families. In 2005, we had 51 walkers and our team raised over
$5,200!! This year our goal is to raise
$6,000.
We welcome all new and past walkers
to come together to form the Sisterhood’s TBE
Walk Team. We always have a great time for a good cause. You can
walk at your own pace and you will have other TBE members to walk with!
The course is either 3 or 5 miles (your choice).
See the special TBE Walk and Run
webpage at http://shf.convio.net/site/TR/819699896?pg=team&fr_id=1030&team_id=1110. You can pre-register there as well as
read a message from Beth Silver – she can also be reached at 967-8852, beth@silverconsulting.net.
Looking forward to
having YOU on the team!
Or go to http://www.jerusalemonline.com/
Judaism and Cremation, Part
2
Following last week’s q and a on cremation, I had this e-mail
exchange with congregant Michael Swartz (who’s Hebrew name is Akiva), that helps to “flesh out” the matter (oy) even more.
With his permission, I reprint it here.
From: Michael Swartz
Hi Rabbi
Thank you for the "Ask the Rabbi" question this week --
it's a question I have difficulty with too. And
you made me think about it quite a bit... (a
good thing) My thoughts on the subject are coming more
from an environmental concern:
How can we continuously bury the dead?
Is it sustainable?
Wouldn't G-d want us to "recycle"?
Won't we one day run out of room?
Everything will turn to dust eventually, so does it really matter
if we cremate or not?
There's an interesting book I read in the library years ago called "God's Junkyard" (or something like that)
-- and it speaks of how our great open spaces are being flattened for
various human endeavors. It seems
to me that you can still honor the dead in other ways --
whilst honoring the living and the earth at the same time.
One more thing: If we are to be humble before G-d, why would we
leave markers? -- Which, essentially, proclaim
our egos for posterity... And one final question:
Besides common law, is there any Jewish law that says you can't be buried
anywhere else but a cemetery? This is heavy stuff --
I'm going to have to think about it some more...
Thanks
-Akiva
Hi Keev
I've often thought about the environmental impact - more so when
burying holy books rather than recycling them . When
we bury people, at least the decomposed nutrients enter the soil and help to
"push up daisies," as the saying goes. There's a big difference
in my mind between that and ash, where the energy is expended, burned, and goes
up in smoke. The space issue is problematic if you are driving through
For me, the smokestacks of
As for other locales of burial, there are differing opinions about
above ground burial as well as stacking beneath the ground and burial at
sea. In the talmudic
era, most tombs were in caves. But in-ground burial is the form that is universally
accepted now.
This is a fascinating, if morose topic. Thanks
for commenting.
Let’s
begin with GOOD NEWS from
This was circulated this
week by our community educator, Ilana De Laney.
The Middle East has been growing date
palms for centuries. The average tree is about 18-
Israeli date trees are now yielding 400 pounds/year and are short enough
to be harvested from the ground or a short ladder.
The cell phone was developed in
Most of the Windows NT and XP operating systems were developed by
Microsoft-Israel.
The Pentium MMX Chip technology was designed in
Both the Pentium-4 microprocessor and the Centering processor were
entirely designed, developed and produced in
The Pentium microprocessor in your computer was most likely made in
Voice mail technology was developed in
Both Microsoft and Cisco built their only R&D facilities outside the
The technology for the AOL Instant Messenger ICQ was developed in 1996
by four young Israelis.
According to industry officials,
In proportion to its population,
With more than 3,000 high-tech companies and startups,
Outside the
The per capita income in 2000 was over $17,500, exceeding that of the
On a per capita basis,
Twenty-four per cent of
In 1984 and 1991,
When Golda Meir was elected Prime Minister of
Israel in 1969, she became the world's second elected female leader in modern
times.
When the
Relative to its population,
democracy, religious freedom, and economic opportunity. (Hundreds
of thousands from the former
Israel is the only country in the world that entered the 21st century
with a net gain in its number of trees, made more remarkable because this was
achieved in an area considered mainly desert.
Medicine... Israeli scientists developed the
first fully computerized, no-radiation, diagnostic instrumentation for breast
cancer.
An Israeli company developed a computerized system for ensuring proper
administration of medications, thus removing human error from medical treatment. Every year in
treatment mistakes.
Researchers in
A new acne treatment developed in Israel, the Clear Light device,
produces a high-intensity, ultraviolet-light-free, narrow-band blue light that
causes acne bacteria to self-destruct -- all without damaging surrounding skin
or tissue.
An Israeli company was the first to develop and
install a large-scale solar-powered and fully functional electricity generating
plant, in southern
All the above while engaged in regular wars with an implacable enemy
that seeks its destruction, and an economy continuously under strain by having
to spend more per capita on its own protection than any other county on earth.
THE STATE OF
From Beth Boyer: “Linking
now for the rest
Thanks
to Marilyn Rodwin for forwarding this moving memorial
to an Israeli soldier on the week of Yom Hazikaron: http://www.alexsinger.org/
·
A funny thing happened on the way to the Iranian bomb: The more alarming the
mullahs' behavior, the more nonchalant the rest of the world seems to be about
it. Israeli intelligence reported last week that Iran
has purchased an upgraded version of the Soviet SS-6 ballistic missile from
North Korea, which is capable of carrying a nuclear payload and has a range of
about 1,600 miles, putting parts of
And the international community's
response?
Last week, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
· Spare the Rod, Spoil
the Peace - J. Peter Pham and Michael I. Krauss
Legally and morally, neither the U.S. nor Europe owes the Palestinians any
assistance - much less hundreds of millions of dollars worth on a continuing
basis. There are plenty of needy causes to which to
devote the scarce humanitarian resources of our overburden governments: Darfurians subject to a genocidal campaign by an Islamist
government, Congolese trying to recover from "Africa's World War,"
Tibetans sitting in exile in
· Three Myths about Islam - Edward
N. Luttwak
The only reason the continuity of Muslim aggression is news to some is because
until recently almost all Muslim countries were under European colonial rule or
subjected to European protectorates. With de-colonialization, the violence resumed. It
has now reached virtually all places where Muslims are in contact with
non-Muslims, so that there are almost daily reports of outrages from
Timor-Leste,
by the way, happens to be mostly Christian, but because it was liberated from
the domination of Muslim-ruled Indonesia, it is now on the list of Islamic
grievances under the Muslim doctrine that any land once ruled by Muslims
belongs to Islam forever, even if the population is mostly non-Muslim. That is the doctrine cited by Hamas to claim the whole of
The
Gathering Storm over Iran - Nile Gardiner and Joseph Loconte
(
- In
October 1938, in the heat of the crisis over German intervention in
- The
Allies were not prepared to resist German aggression at that crucial
moment. The result was a policy of appeasement -
the infamous
- In
the current standoff with
- What
should the
Author A.B. Yehoshua
vexes US Jews
At Washington symposium,
famed Israeli writer says future of Jewish people rests on Israeli identity
alone and not on Judaism; Audience of Diaspora Jews disturbed by comments
Yitzhak Benhorin
WASHINGTON - During a forum on the future of the Jewish people, renowned
Israeli author A. B. Yehoshua emphasized his Israeli
identity as superior in importance to his Judaism, spurring discomfort and
awkwardness among his audience.
“My identity is
Israeli,” Yehoshua told participants in a Washington
During the forum held in
the United States Israel
Leon Wieseltier,
literary editor of the New Republic, rejected Yehoshua’s
statements. Yehoshua is
taking the concept “Jewish” and narrowing it down to mean just
Israeli, Wieseltier said. The
concept of Judaism existed long before Israel
"There is Jewish
religion, Jewish culture, Jewish literature, texts that have been with us form
3,000 years," he argued. “Why do you insist
on narrowing it down to Israeliness?”.
The audience in the
auditorium was astonished by Yehoshua’s statements,
and a few of the panelists and guests referred to the tireless contributions
and efforts of American Jews towards the State of Israel in rejecting Yehoshua’s statements.
The panel moderator, news
anchor Ted Koppel, was also ruffled by the comments and told Yehoshua that the great contributions of Diaspora Jews to
the continuity of the Jews as a people could not be disregarded.
"There is something
very very special, universal and easily identifiable
among all Jews; it is beyond territory, it is something we all have in
common," Koppel said.
Executive Director of the
AJC David Harris described Yehoshua as very
impassioned, but subscribing to a classical Zionist viewpoint
which considers the Diaspora as marginal and irrelevant to the future of
the Jewish people.
Yehoshua was not granted much
support by the audience, Harris said. On the contrary,
he pointed out, many in the audience were insulted by
his words, which cancel out their own role in helping to shape Judaism’s
future.
The AJC’s
yearly forum opened Monday in Washington
http://www.ajc.org/atf/cf/%7B42D75369-D582-4380-8395-D25925B85EAF%7D/AJCCENTENNIALSYMPOSIUM_PROGRAM.PDF
More on the JTS
selection of
See http://www.rabbinicalassembly.org/docs/eisen.doc
Also, this from
“Sh’ma: A Journal of Jewish
Responsibility
Sh’ma congratulates Arnie
Eisen on his appointment as the seventh Chancellor of
The Jewish Theological Seminary. A long standing
Contributing Editor of Sh’ma, Arnie’s most recent essay for the journal, “The
Tension between Normalcy and Covenant,” appeared in our award winning
issue commemorating the 350th anniversary of Jewish Life in America (October
2004). In the essay he writes about the ways Jews can
“do good” in
“We dare
not let that difficulty silence us where our public agenda is concerned, just
as we cannot and do not permit our inability to agree on many other Jewish and
general matters stop us from living as Jewish human beings. The
point is to work these disputes out inside diverse and overlapping communities
of Jews, each of which is determined to build a just world with God in its
midst.”
To read more of
this essay, visit www.shma.com. Also on our website is an ongoing blog
on the future of Conservative Judaism, selected essays from our March issue on
pluralism, an audio recording of a panel discussion with founding Editor Eugene
Borowitz on the history of Sh’ma,
and our interactive Talmud page Nish’ma—this
month an artistic visual image.
MYTH
#217
"Palestinians have the right to
sell land to Jews."
FACT
In 1996, the Palestinian
Authority (PA) Mufti, Ikremah Sabri,
issued a fatwa (religious decree), banning the sale of Arab and Muslim
property to Jews. Anyone who violated the order was to
be killed. At least seven land dealers were killed
that year. Six years later, the head of the PA’s
General Intelligence Service in the West
Bank, General Tawfik Tirawi,
admitted his men were responsible for the murders (Jerusalem Post,
August 19, 2002).
On May 5, 1997, Palestinian
Authority Justice Minister Freih Abu Middein announced that the death penalty would be imposed
on anyone convicted of ceding “one inch” to
During the Palestinian
War, few, if any Palestinians tried to sell land to Jews, but the prohibition
remained in effect. Now that the war is over, the
persecutions have begun again. In April 2006, Muhammad
Abu al-Hawa was tortured and murdered because
allegedly sold an apartment building in
This article can be found at http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/myths2/exclusives.html#a54
Source: REVISED
Myths & Facts Online -- A Guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict by
Mitchell G. Bard.
At Borders
The topic for the
session:, Jesus and Muhammad, will carry over May 9 at 7:30
First
Ever! Sisterhood Cookbook
Delicious
Recipes! Kosher! Family Favorites!
Please
help to defray the costs
\be
a sponsor, place an ad, order your copies now ($18 each).
**Proceeds
to fund kitchen renovation and other TBE capital improvements**
**Call
Beth Silver 967-8852 for information**
DUTIFUL
DAUGHTERS / MAXED-OUT MOMS
CARING
FOR YOUR FAMILY WITHOUT LOSING YOURSELF
How many of us find ourselves today caring for an
aging parent, juggling our children’s and family’s schedules and
running the house, while desperately trying to find time for ourselves?
A unique program is being offered in our
community, dedicated to women of the “
Facilitated by professionals: Roni Lang, Betsy Stone, Isrella Knopf, Netta Stern, Susan
R. Greenwald, Susan Sirlin and
The program is being co-sponsored by Jewish Family Service and the Sisterhood of
Join us when we discuss
the various aspects of the relationship between adult daughters and their
elderly parents with the goal of becoming more knowledgeable, self-confident,
and directed so that you may plan a more certain future with your parents.
Save the date – June 1 at 8:00 PM
Our Annual Tikkun Leyl
Shavuot
Shavuot service, dessert and study session
Joined by
“Spirituality, Religion, Ethnicity and Identity:
Does one have to be “religious” to be Jewish?”
Thanks
to David Arditti for forwarding this one!
The
Great Coffee Debate
A man
and his wife were having an argument about who should brew the coffee each
morning.
The wife
said, "You should do it, because you get up first, and then we don't have
to wait as long to get our coffee."
The
husband said, "You are in charge of cooking around here and you should do
it, because that is your job, and I can just wait for my coffee."
Wife replies,
"No, you should do it, and besides, it is in the Bible that the man should
do the coffee."
Husband
replies, "I can't believe that, show me."
So she fetched the Bible and
opened the Old Testament and showed him at the top of several pages, that it indeed
says 'HEBREWS.'
Thanks to Beth Boyer for
forwarding this beaut.
A priest, a Pentecostal preacher,
and a Rabbi all served as chaplains to the students of
One day, someone made the comment that preaching to people isn't really all that hard. A real challenge would be to preach to a bear. One thing led to another and they decided to do an experiment . They would all go out into the woods, find a bear, preach to it, and attempt to convert it
Seven days later, they're all
together to discuss the experience.
Father Flannery, who has his arm
in a sling, is on crutches, and has various bandages, goes first. "Well,"
he says, "I went into the woods to find me a bear. And when
I found him I began to read to him from the Catechism. Well, that
bear wanted nothing to do with me and began to slap me around. So I quickly grabbed my holy water, sprinkled him and, Holy Mary Mother of God, he
became as gentle a lamb. The bishop is coming out next week to give
him first communion and
confirmation."
Reverend Billy Bob spoke next. He was in a wheelchair with an arm and both legs in casts. In his best fire and
brimstone oratory voice he claimed, " WELL brothers, you KNOW that we don't sprinkle! I went out and I FOUND me a bear. And then I began to
READ to my bear from God's HOLY WORD! But that bear wanted NOTHING to
do with me. So I took HOLD of him and we began to
WRESTLE. We wrestled DOWN one hill, UP another and DOWN another until
we came to a creek. So I quick DUNKED him and BAPTIZED his hairy
soul. And just like you said, he became as gentle as a lamb. We spent the rest of the DAY praising Jesus."
They both looked down at the
rabbi, who was lying in a hospital bed. He
was in a body cast and traction with IV's and monitors running in and out of him He was in bad
shape.
The rabbi
looked up and says, "Looking back on it, circumcision may not have been the best way to start."
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