May 13, 2006 – Iyar
15, 5766
Shabbat Shalom, Happy Mother’s Day
and Happy Lag B’Omer!
Send your friends and relatives the gift of Jewish awareness -- a
Shabbat-O-Gram each week, by signing them up at www.tbe.org. To be removed from this mailing list,
sent e-mail request to office@tbe.org. If you have signed up and are not
receiving our e-mails, check your spam filter to make sure that TBE is not
being “spammed out.”
This week
our final
“Shabbat Unplugged of the season” - at 7:30!!!
Sponsored by
Barbara Brafman, her family and friends
With a special Oneg
sponsored by the Littman family (our very own Cantor Littman and her family) in
honor of Leona Littman’s 90th Birthday
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
“Of course Mama and I care about your progress in
English and science and religious studies, too. Sure,
we want you to grow up to be good at math. But it's
even more important that you grow up to be a mensch.
It's a message I try to reinforce whenever I can. After
every meal, I tell you constantly, make sure to thank the person who prepared
it -- and that includes the "kitchen ladies" at school. When you play with your brother, you're not allowed to
torment him -- kindness and courtesy aren't only for outsiders. "Make us proud of you," I say each morning when
I drop you off at school -- a daily reminder that while your parents' love is
automatic, their admiration is something you must earn.
At 9, you're off to a great start, Caleb -- bright, energetic, inquisitive,
articulate. Who knows what great things await you? Just remember: Whatever else you grow up to be, make sure to be a mensch”.
http://www.townhall.com/opinion/column/jeffjacoby/2006/04/03/192214.html
“Letter
to a Mensch-in-Training,” by Jeff Jacoby
JUST THE FACTS
THIS
WEEK – OUR FINAL SHABBAT UNPLUGGED
OF THE SEASON!!!
It begins at 7:30 PM.
We’ll also have a
program with Nurit in the chapel at that same time for the younger kids.
We are grateful to
Barbara Brafman, her family and friends, for
sponsoring this week’s Shabbat Unplugged in honor of Barbara’s
birthday; and to Cantor Littman’s family for
sponsoring the Oneg Shabbat in honor of Leona Littman’s 90th
birthday.
L’hitraot to our 3-5th
graders, headed out today on their damp Shabbaton!
Friday Evening
Candle lighting:
7:43pm on Friday,- Havdalah is at 8:42
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: 7:30 PM – OUTDOORS (Weather permitting)
Tot
Shabbat – 7:30 in the sanctuary
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
Children’s services: 10:30
Torah Portion: Emor - Leviticus
21:1 - 24:23
1: 22:17-20
2: 22:21-25
3: 22:26-33
4: 23:1-3
5: 23:4-8
6: 23:9-14
7: 23:15-22
maf: 23:19-22
Haftarah Ezekiel
44:15 - 44:31
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.
We’ve had several people coming lately
who are saying kaddish following recent deaths in the
family. We want to make sure we
have a minyan each day. Your presence any morning is
greatly appreciated!
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
From Doug Jossem:“Thanks to you, I did it!”
You might
recall TBE grad Doug Jossem’s mitzvah project
in memory of his mom, Karen (whom so many here recall with great love). Here is Doug’s latest dispatch:
It was a
warm Sunday morning in
I have been
training and raising money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma society for the past 5
months. I was training as much as I could (about 6 days a week), needless to say I am now in good shape. Physically I
feel great but even more than that, mentally I feel better! I raised
a total of $12,908! For the St. Anthony's Triathlon group in NYC, out of
120 of us I was the 2nd highest
fundraiser. The
As I had
mentioned before, I feel great. I feel great for many reasons,
I trained hard and accomplished a difficult goal. I raised a lot of
money, but even more than that I feel great that I
know all of you. The monetary, emotional and mental support that you have
provided means a lot to me. More than I can ever express.
The swim
was tough with the 4 foot swells, people were throwing
up around me, but I continued and did not give up. I didn't give up
because of this cause, goal, and the fact that I did not want to pay you all
back! Once I finished the swim it was time for
the bike. I was going as hard as I could in my old bike from 1972.
No gadgets on this old bike and when I thought I was done I saw a sign
that said 10 mile mark and knew I had a long way to
go. I then started to think again about what I was doing and why I was
doing it. It brought tears to my eyes and I don't think I have ever been
happier. Finally I finished the bike and now it
was time for the run. I was tired and sore but I was not giving up.
I got a few cramps during the run, but I trekked on and ran through the
finish line! This was on of the proudest moments in my life and one that
you all shared with me in spirit.
We made a
difference, and we should all be proud of ourselves. Some of you are probably
curious if I will ever do something like this again. The answer is easy
and with no hesitation I will. I encourage you
all to try this, do it with me! It is the most rewarding thing I have
ever done!
I know my
mom is proud and she was with me the entire ride. Hopefully
we are one step closer to finding a cure and ending this disease!
Lots of
love, sore legs and from a TRIATHLETE, Thank you
again,
Doug
Here is an
article about my race- http://www.sptimes.com/2006/05/03/Tampabay/Scary__but_race_went_.shtml
Beth El Cares
Cathy Satz (968-9191; csscounsel@yahoo.com)Cheryl Wolff (968-6361; cwolff@optonline.net)BETH EL CARES co-chairs TBE
Job Search Strategy Group: JUNE- JULY 2006
Sudden or involuntary unemployment is difficult under any
circumstances and the ensuing job search is always a challenging process:
confusing, unpredictable and demoralizing. Even more
so, if you are doing it alone -- Research shows that job seekers, as well as
career changers who meet regularly with others in a similar position succeed
quicker in finding a new job, than those who don’t.
Donna
Sweidan, a career coach and counselor in
Donna
has facilitated numerous “Job Search Strategy groups” in her work
as a career counselor. Before starting her own
business, Careerfolk, she was the Founding Director
of Career Services at The New School in
She
is graciously offering this valuable seminar to her TBE family free of
charge. No advance registration is
required, but it would be helpful to know who is coming (and whether that time
works for those who need these sessions).
To discuss this or for more information, contact Donna
directly at donna@careerfolk.com.
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!
What is Lag B’Omer?
Lag B’Omer, falls this coming Monday night and Tuesday. This minor holiday is as fascinating as
it is confusing. The following explanation,
written by Francine Klagsbrun is excerpted from http://www.myjewishlearning.com/holidays/Shavuot/TO_Shavuot_Community/Isaacs_Omer_654/Lag_BaOmer.htm
and her wonderful book, Jewish Days: A Book of Jewish Life and Culture
Why We Celebrate
The explanations begin with
the Omer period itself, those forty-nine days that are counted off one by one
between the two festivals (Passover and Shavuot). This
is a time of semi-mourning, when weddings and other celebrations are forbidden,
and as a sign of grief, observant Jews do not cut their hair.
Anthropologists say that
many peoples have similar periods of restraint in the early spring to symbolize
their concerns about the growth of their crops. But
the most often cited explanation for the Jewish practice comes from the Talmud, which tells us that during
this season a plague killed thousands of Rabbi Akiva's
students because they did not treat one another respectfully.
The mourning behavior is presumably in memory of those students and
their severe punishment.
According
to a medieval tradition, the plague ceased on Lag Ba'Omer,
the thirty-third day of the Omer. (The Hebrew letters lamed and gimel which make up the
acronym "Lag" have the combined numerical value of 33.) As a result, Lag Ba'Omer became
a happy day, interrupting the sadness of the Omer period for twenty-four
hours.
The talmudic
explanation makes most sense when put into historical context.
The outstanding sage Rabbi Akiva
became an ardent supporter of Simeon bar Koseva,
known as Bar Kokhba, who in 132 C.E. led a ferocious but
unsuccessful revolt against Roman rule in Judea. Akiva not only pinned his hopes on a political victory over
A completely different
reason for the holiday concerns one of Rabbi Akiva's
few disciples who survived the Bar Kokhba revolt,
Rabbi Simeon bar Yohai. He is said to have died
on Lag Ba'Omer.
Rabbi Simeon continued to
defy the Roman rulers even after Bar Kokhba's defeat,
and was forced to flee for his life and spend years in solitary hiding. Legend places him and his son Eleazar
in a cave for twelve years, where a miraculous well and carob tree sustained
them while they spent their days studying and praying. When
they finally emerged, Simeon denigrated all practical occupations, insisting
that people engage only in the study of Torah. For
this God confined the two to their cave for another year, accusing Simeon of
destroying the world with his rigid asceticism.
But Rabbi Simeon's
otherworldliness resonated with mystics in his own time and later, so much so
that tradition ascribes to him the Zohar, the key work of the Kabbalah
(although critical scholars attribute it to the thirteenth-century Spanish kabbalist Moses de Leon). And in
Unrelated to Rabbi Simeon,
the kabbalists also give a mystical interpretation to
the Omer period as a time of spiritual cleansing and preparation for receiving
the Torah on Shavuot. The days and weeks of counting,
they say, represent various combinations of the sefirot,
the divine emanations,
whose contemplation ultimately leads to purity of mind and soul. The somberness of this period reflects the seriousness of
its spiritual pursuits.
What's so Jewish About Mother's Day?
A man calls his mother in
"Not too good," says the mother. "I've been very weak."
The son says, "Why are you so weak?"
She says, "Because I haven't eaten in 38 days."
The man says, "That's terrible. Why haven't you
eaten in 38 days?"
The mother answers, "Because I didn't want my mouth to be filled with food
if you should call."
When I was growing
up, I used to love the little satiric book by Dan Greenberg, "How to be a
Jewish Mother." It contained the typical jokes
about dominating, overprotective mothers and obedient, castrated sons. There's still lots of Jewish Mother jokes on the Web, such
as those found at http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/6174/jmom-food-def.htm, "Jewish
Mothers' Food Definitions," http://dave.editthispage.com/discuss/msgReader$148?mode=day, "Jewish
Mother Jokes," and more assorted jokes at http://www.mazornet.com/jewishcl/humor/humor-mothers01.htm and http://www.zipple.com/weeklyzipple/joke.shtml#jewishmother. Here's a typical
one:
A Jewish young man was seeing a
psychiatrist for an eating and sleeping disorder. "I
am so obsessed with my mother... As soon as I go to
sleep, I start dreaming, and everyone in my dream turns into my mother. I wake up in such a state, all I can do is go downstairs
and eat a piece of toast." The psychiatrist
replies: "What, just one piece of toast, for a big boy like you?"
Of course, Jews
didn't always stereotype their mothers negatively. When
Rabbi Yosef heard his mother enter the room he would
say, "I must stand up, for the glory of God enters."
Rabbi Tarfon used to help his mother get into
bed by bending down and allowing her to use his back as a step ladder
(nowadays, most people prefer to tell their mothers to get OFF their backs). For Jews, it used to be that every day was mothers day.
In 1907, Anna
Jarvis campaigned for a national day to honor mothers. It
is said that she was at odds with her mother at the time (ah… the power
of maternal guilt). Read about her at http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvtaylor/mother.htm. For Jews, the
"patron saint" of maternal figures would have to be the matriarch Rachel,
who stands watch over her children even in death, as in life.
At http://www.ucalgary.ca/~elsegal/Shokel/910501_Mothers_Day.html, you can read how
Rachel's Yahrzeit has been transformed into a national Mothers Day of sorts in
To read the fifth
commandment is to understand that Mother's Day is indeed a daily occurrence for
Jews -- or at least it should be. Sometimes it isn't
easy to respect our moms. Take this Talmudic account,
as related in a sermon by Rabbi Elan Adler of
Baltimore (with whom I shared many great times when he lived here in
The Talmud tells of Dama
the son of Netina, who was once wearing a
gold-embroidered silken cloak sitting among Roman nobles. It
is clear that Dama ben Netina
was highly regarded and respected. One day, his mother
came to where he was sitting, tore off his elegant gown, struck him on the
head, and spat repeatedly in his face. The Talmud says
that with all this, he did not shame her. For he knew
that the Torah demanded, "kabed et avicha v'et imecha,"
honor your father and your mother in all circumstances. The
word "kabed" without vowels can also be
read as "kaved", meaning a heavy load or
burden. Sometimes, it is a heavy burden to respect our
parents, especially when they are no longer capable, or when we don't see eye
to eye with them. (find the
rest of the sermon at http://www.btfiloh.org/adler.htm).
And indeed, there
are also times when we can't honor our parents as much as we would like,
specifically when they are abusive. Aish's Web site discusses these limits in an article found at
http://www.aish.com/literacy/mitzvahs/Honoring_Parents.asp.
But, for the most
part, mothers are due the highest respect and honor. As
the saying goes, "God could not be everywhere, so God created
mothers."
HAPPY MOTHERS DAY, MOM AND MARA, FROM ALL THE HAMMERMEN!
Let’s
begin with GOOD NEWS from
Israeli
phys ed teacher uses movement to break down barriers
It is hard to be angry and resentful when you are dancing - and an Israeli
physical education teacher believes that dance steps can be the key to opening
hearts and minds and helping break down barriers between individuals and groups. Levi Bar-Gil's Movement in Time (MIT) technique has been
taught successfully to men, women and children in Israel, the US, and Europe,
and he now plans to use the technique to bring Israeli and Palestinian children
closer together. More...
Technology | Buffett acquisition of Wertheimer's
Iscar puts Israel on the investment map
Warren Buffett's acquisition of industrialist Stef Wertheimer's Galilee-based
metal-cutting tool manufacturer Iscar for $4 billion
is being viewed as a tremendous vote of confidence in the Israeli economy. "I believe in the Israeli market and the Israeli
economy and I think that this is a good time to invest in it," said the
world's second richest man, who plans to invest in more Israeli companies and
issued a public call to receive information about other worthy ventures in the
vibrant Israeli market. More...
Technology | Israeli
professor envisions a bright future
Silicon
Valley Gets a Taste of Israel in Film Fest - Dan Pine (Jewish News
Weekly of Northern California)
The second annual Silicon Valley Israeli Film Festival in San
Jose offers multiple views of Israeli life, from Turkish immigrants in Tel Aviv
to a fictional look at the rescue of Ethiopian Jews in Operation Moses.
The documentary "39 Pounds of
Love" tells the story of Ami Ankilewitz, an
American-born Israeli in his 30s who was diagnosed at age 1 with a form of
muscular dystrophy that left him immobile, except for one finger, which he uses
to work as an animator.
now for the rest
· Ahmadinejad's Letter to President Bush - Editorial
In Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's
"letter" to President Bush, published Tuesday, he tells Mr. Bush:
"Those with insight can already hear the sounds of the shattering and fall
of the ideology and thoughts of the liberal democratic systems. We increasingly see that people around the world are
flocking toward a main focal point - that is the Almighty God....My question
for you [Mr. Bush] is, 'Do you not want to join them?'