August 2, 2006 – Av 11, 5766

Rabbi Joshua Hammerman, Temple Beth El, Stamford, Connecticut

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FLASH MAP OF AREAS TARGETED BY HIZBULLAH MISSILES

http://www.conceptwizard.com/n-israel.html

Special Appeal from Rabbi Hammerman

This Tuesday - Aug. 8th, is the Democratic Primary for our city and our state. Key elected positions - Governor, Senator, Congress are being determined, your vote can and does make a difference. An August primary usually draws a minuscule turnout, meaning that every vote that is cast is magnified five times over. This time, that vote is being watched by the entire nation.

Please remember to go to your polling area and vote for your candidate of choice.

PRAYER FOR ISRAEL

See three different alternatives at http://www.jrf.org/israel/independence-day-prayer.html

Recite a prayer for Israel every day!

Contents of the Shabbat O Gram:

(Click to scroll down)

Just the Facts (service schedule)

The (Occasionally) Ranting 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

Quotes for the Week

(Thanks to Rhoda Dember for this one)

In a recent interview, General Norman Schwartzkopf was asked if he thought there  was room for forgiveness toward Hizbollah
The General  said,

" I believe that forgiving Hizbollah is  God's function.

The Israelis job is to arrange the meeting." 

This next quote somewhat balances the prior one…

“We do not rejoice at the punishment meted out to an enemy;

we have been taught by the holy laws to have human sympathy.”

- Philo (1^st century Jewish philosopher), "Flaccus"

Reprinted from 'A Treasury of Jewish Quotations,'edited by Joseph L. Baron, Jason Aronson Inc.

JUST THE FACTS

Shabbat Nachamu

Super Shabbat – this portion contains the Ten Commandments AND the Sh’ma!!!!

Literally, Shabbat Nachamu means “the Shabbat of Consolation”

As the Calendar turns from the Fast of 9^th of Av, swinging upward toward the New Year, the tone turns from one of foreboding to consolation and comfort, following the destruction of Jerusalem. This week’s haftarah begins with the immortal words, “Nachamu Ami,” “Be comforted, My people”)

Friday Evening

Candle lighting: 7:48pm on Friday, 4 August 2006,- Havdalah is at 8: 48 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/

I am delighted to have the chance to visit many TBE seniors and others at Sterling Glen at 3 this afternoon for a pre-Shabbat service – as part of a program of regular Shabbat and holiday visits that the cantor and I are making there.

Kabbalat Shabbat: 6:30 PM – OUTDOORS – AS THE HEAT WAVE APPEARS TO BE BREAKING – (but if things do not improve enough, we’ll be in the sanctuary)

For those who can’t get enough of Tot Shabbat, Nurit conducts Tot Shabbat Morning at 10:30 am every Saturday morning. All are welcome to attend.

AND SIGN UP NOW TO HOST A TOT SHABBAT FOR NEXT YEAR!!! Contact Jeff and Heidi Trell at jefft@acmesignco.com or contact our Tot Shabbat committee contacts:

Jeff and Heidi Trell 203-322-1531

Deb Goldberg: 203-323-3307

Stuart Nekritz: 203-322-0872

Shabbat Morning: 9:30 AM

Children’s services: 10:30

Torah Portion: V’Etchanan Deuteronomy 3:23 - 7:11

1: 5:1-18
2: 5:19-24
3: 5:25-30
4: 6:1-3
5: 6:4-9
6: 6:10-19
7: 6:20-25
maf: 6:23-25

Haftarah Isaiah 40:1 - 40:26

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

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.

We’ve had a Guaranteed Minyan request for next Friday, August 4.

Please sign up at www.tbe.org - Rosner Minyan Maker

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!

The

(occasionally)

Ranting Rabbi

I recently re-read an article that I wrote several years ago for the Jewish Week and for our bulletin. It seems most appropriate to reprint from time to time as a reminder to everyone, including myself, as to what it is that a rabbi does.

Enjoy the article, and I’d love to hear your comments!

(07/23/1999)

The Toughest Job Around: Being Human

Joshua Hammerman

A letter to my congregants:

Among the many questions that comes up from time to time is, “Just what do you do?” That the question usually comes from someone under 12 is inconsequential, for we know that kids usually ask what many adults wish they could. As a public service, here’s a partial response.

I don’t intend to give a detailed log, in part because no two days are exactly alike. The job is so filled with variety and serendipity; a hidden blessing around every corner. Although my commute is among the shortest around, on any given day I navigate entire worlds of emotions and scale Himalayan challenges.

The essence of my work is to be fully human — to enable that spark of divinity in me to reach out to the image of God that resides in you, and thereby connect us both to a life of meaning and transcendence. But doing that with so many, often in the same compressed time frame, is a supreme challenge. Daily I juggle dozens of lives in the air. Since each one is of equal and infinite importance, I must respond as if each encounter is the most important I’ll have all day — it often is for the other person, so it must be for me. Most people are extremely understanding as to my limitations; I am less so. But at the end of the day, I measure how I’ve done by how human I’ve been in each encounter, not by how many lives I’ve touched.

Part of my being a professional human being is accomplished through study, prayer and scholarship. I try to take time during the busy week to develop my inner life. I read newspapers and magazines voraciously, off and on-line, and determinedly try to read books. Most of the books I read have a potential tie-in to my teaching and sermons, so again the line between personal and professional is blurred. It is a pleasure for me to read, but it is not what most of you would call “pleasure reading” (i.e. not work related). Rarely can I lay my hands on a good trashy novel. Who needs that, I suppose, when I can just pick a Bible and turn to the saga of King David? Overall, it’s not such a bad thing to actually take pleasure in reading books that also happen to be professionally enhancing.

I also try to spend part of each week writing. Often that occurs on Mondays, my “official” day off, but at times on other days as well. In fact, there really is no day off because I am always available for important pastoral needs on Mondays, and because the writing is really an important part of my work. It feeds my other work and is fed by it.

I work quite hard at finding meaning in prayer. If I didn’t, I’d be cheating you, and myself. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I don’t, but I am always struggling and trying to grow. I would want my rabbi to do the same, and dream of the day when all of my congregants will also try to stretch their souls to the limit. I teach quite a bit, formally and informally, and when I do I try to be a learner, too, always open to discovering new truths from my research and the students’ responses.

There’s lots of administrative stuff, too, including letters and phone calls and, increasingly, e-mailing congregants and college students, and team building and program planning among our staff and volunteers.

But there is one final aspect to my job that I find most essential. It’s my job to model, as best I can, what I think a Jew should do and be. Above all that means being a mensch: greeting everyone with a smile, looking at the half-full cup and then both filling it and drinking from it, without worrying so darn much about the empty half. Reaching out to young and old, not robbing banks, and exploring how to use Jewish values and observances as a means to personal and communal growth.

It doesn’t mean being perfect. To do my job correctly, in fact, I’ve got to be imperfect because I also have to model how to be humble and grow from mistakes.

Finally, how could I set an example for you if I neglected my own health and my family? So part of my job is to set aside ample time to be fully present with them. And since the lines between personal and professional are so blurry, it is important for a rabbi, more than almost anyone else, to spend a few significant chunks of time out of touch with most of the congregation. So as you read this I’ll be on a beach somewhere with my family, engaged in my most sacred task: being human.

And now a report from our Israeli sister-city of Afula…

Sent: Monday, July 31, 2006 16:41 PM

Subject: We’re the Good Guys (from Jeff)

Shalom,

I am writing this note on Monday afternoon. Yesterday was the unfortunate incident in Kfar Kana.

I am feeling a little calmer now. You should have seen me last night and this morning. It has to do with the bombing in Kfar Kara and the 48 hour "no air strike" truce we agreed to and Condoleeza's last press conference.

It's like we Israelis are stuck in some Greek tragedy or some movie that has a sad ending with the hero dying. And no matter how many times you see it, the ending is always the same. It seems no matter who Israel is acting/fighting with on the stage, we always end up being the bad guy and the crowd hating our guts. The true villain walks off with the girl and the money. The play is cut short before we get to finish the job we set out to do. I mean haven't we been in this situation before, in 1996 in Lebanon. In 2002 in Jenin (the "massacre").

Have you seen the air force clips that were aired last night? I will ask Benay, my wife, to attach them to the bottom of this mail.

They show how the Hizbolla shoot rockets from behind civilian apartment buildings and then, my friends, you watch as the truck carrying the rocket launcher drives into a car park under a house! How the heck does anyone expect us to clear out these rockets without bombing the house??? The local Lebanese population was warned by Israel to leave the area three days in advance. Some locals stayed because the couldn't afford to leave. I read that Lebanese taxis charge $1000 to go to Beirut. So someone please explain to me why these locals didn't hide in a building where there were no rockets or any ammo dumps?

This morning the reporter on Sky News asked our former foreign minister why the Israeli army didn't go house to house in Kfar Kana and confirm, room by room, just who is in that room and then determine if that person is a civilian or a combatant. For god's sake! Give me a break! Kiryat Shemona was shot with 100 (one hundred) rockets in less than 1 hour yesterday. Did the Hizbollah go room by room looking for civilians? If they had the chance, yes they would. They would find the kids and make sure they shot each one. I know it. You know it . We just lived through it. It was called suicide bombers.

Afula Hospital (Emek Medical Center) prepares for War.

Anyone who has toured with me knows I love maps. But I probably have never pointed out or mentioned Afula. It is a small town dead in the center of the Jezreel Valley. It's famous for "Golani Falafel" and until "Golani Falafel" is publicly traded on NASDAQ, most of you will never hear of  Afula.

Last week Afula hospital was targeted by Hizbollah long range missiles. How do I know it was "targeted"?  5 rockets of the 5 shot landed near Afula hospital. Take a look at one of the attached photos. There are no army bases or sensitive facilities in Afula. Hizbollah targeted the Afula hospital. Should you be surprised that Hizbolla targeted a hospital? Well, they've already targeted Rambam hospital in Haifa and hit the hospitals in Nahariya and Tsfat. So they intentionally target our hospitals and the world expects us to go room by room looking for civilians in Lebanon. But we covered this topic in the first part of this mail. 

Benay volunteers in the ER of Afula hospital. 
She has prepared 300 files for a mass-wounded situation. The ER is in the basement of the hospital and it is built as one huge bomb and chemical warfare shelter. Funny how there isn't a single hospital in the Arab world that would even consider the necessity to build a hospital in a bomb shelter. Why? Because they know we would never target a hospital.

Yesterday the hospital decided to empty out its top floors and bring all the patients down to the lower levels. Lets think what this entails. Cancel all unnecessary operations. Kick out any patient you can. Double up on bed space in the lower floors and have the staff and patients live and work in 1/3 of the space they are used to. Wards are now intermingled. Patient beds are doubled up. Have I mentioned about privacy, sanitation, confusion...

Here's a quote from the instruction sheet given by the hospital's director to the various wards:

- Dept. heads will do their utmost to lower the number of patients in their departments.

- Social Services will encourage patients to go home. 

- The operating rooms will perform only cancer and emergency operations.

But how does the head of the hospital end her directive?

And here's the part that keeps me going:

"In this war we will be tested as a society, as an organization (hospital) and as individuals.

Working together, in full cooperation, we will complete the very complicated task before us:

- to clear the wards

- work in very tight surroundings

- give the best service that we can

- be prepared for a mass-wounded situation."

So what's the part that keeps me going, that makes me proud of being an Israeli and a Jew? It's the fact that Afula Hospital, that same hospital being targeted by Hizballah, is used by Arabs and Jews. It is staffed by Arabs and Jews. 17% of its Department Heads are Arabs, proportionate to their percentage in the total population. The Moslems and Christians and Druze and Circasians all work together and treat all their patients equally... and guess what? That won't change no matter how many rockets Hizbollah drops on the Afula Hospital. That's what makes us different from our enemies. That’s what's makes me proud.

So you see, we are the good guys. And we have to win.

We're all in this together,

Jeff

7 missiles fell in our region yesterday carrying 100 KG of explosive each. The second time happened at 4 PM while all the 20 participants of the upcoming delegation to the JCC-Maccabi Games in Stamford were gathering in the community center where my office is located. Two of the missiles fell just a few hundred meters from us in an open field (Thank god) and we heard and felt it very well. We started our meeting in the bomb shelter and then moved to a nearby classroom which enabled us to go back to the bomb shelter within seconds if necessary.

After the attack the streets in Afula were almost empty and part of the businesses and shops in the commercial areas were closed.

Civilians in the region are requested to stay all the time in close proximity to a protected area in case of another missile attack.  

Eshel       

--------------------------

Israel's Emek Medical Center (EMC)

Affiliated with the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion, Haifa, Israel

August 3, 2006

With things happening as fast as they are, it seems that as soon as I finish one update for you that something else happens that you should know about.  Yesterday afternoon Afula was struck by another barrage of deadly long range Fajr missiles.  Several fell around our hospital and others in and around Afula.  Miraculously, nobody was injured ... physically.  Today, throughout the Human Resources corridor of offices, less than half the employees have shown up for work.  They all live in and around Afula and the drive to and from the hospital has become like running the gauntlet.  One young woman, Olga, was driving home up the hill towards Nazareth when rockets blasted into the side of the road where she had just moments before passed by.  She was too afraid to risk the drive in today.  At the last moment, I had decided to visit my daughter and grandson in Afula instead of driving straight home.  That left turn instead of making my normal right turn may have saved my life as I would have been driving very close to where that missile landed.  Every day, every hour you may hear similar stories ... "I just walked out of that room when the katyusha came slamming through the roof and onto where I was sitting" ... "The neighbors moved south two days ago and today their home was destroyed by a direct hit" ... "The missile landed in the middle of a residential neighborhood and didn't explode" ... "I felt and heard the steel ball bearing pellets whiz by my head during the explosion.  I cannot believe that I am here talking about it".    

Are we witnessing miracles or just blind luck?  The difference between the two is faith.  This is a war of blatant Islamic aggression against a nation whose only sin is to have been born Jewish.  The loss of every life leaves an unfillable gap in our people and every injury is felt by us all.  But something inexplicable is happening.  Literally thousands of rockets and deadly missiles are being sent against Israel, enough to have killed many thousands.  But, they are somehow missing their intended targets.  Empty houses.  Empty chairs.  A left turn instead of a right.  Miracles?  Luck?  History will look back on these events and ask many questions while making even more observations.  Theologians will offer their input into the unexplainable. 

Yes, some of our people have died painful deaths.  And many more bare the scars of physical trauma.  But the Islamic madmen will have to explain to their bosses and sponsors why they missed their targets and so miserably failed.

Israel's Emek Medical Center continues to fortify its windows, treat patients in cramped facilities and do what it does best ... exemplify humanity at its best.  And you, dear friends are full partners in our quest.      

Larry Rich

Israel's Emek Medical Center

Director of Development & International Public Relations Afula 18101, Israel

Phone in New York: 646-546-5970   

Phone in Israel: 972-4-649 4417

Mobile: 972-50-5737 641

Fax: 972-4-652 2642

Email:  rich_l@clalit.org.il

www.haemek.co.il

"Like a multi-screen theater,

Synaplex™ offers a variety of Shabbat experiences

for our diverse Jewish community."

-- starsynagogue.org

INTRODUCING

Save the date for our Grand Opening:

Oct. 27-28

Featuring

SHABBAT UNPLUGGED, THE FIRST ANNUAL TBE “ROSNER BOWL” TOUCH FOOTBALL GAME, TBE PET PALLOOZA, TORAH YOGA, and much more…

And save the following dates as well…

SYNAPLEX at TBE 5767

Friday and Sat., October 27-28 GRAND OPENING Synaplex Shabbat

(Including Shabbat Unplugged on Friday night)

Friday, December 8 - Synaplex Shabbat

(theme of diversity, exotic multi-cultural Shabbat dinner, December Dilemma)

Friday and Sat. January 19 and 20 - Synaplex Shabbat/Shabbat Unplugged

Scholar in Residence Dr. Benjamin Gampel

Fri and Sat. February 9 and 10 - Synaplex Shabbat

Sisterhood Shabbat

Scholar in Residence, Rabbi Burt Visotzky

Havdalah Unplugged

Friday March 9 - Synaplex Shabbat, Shabbat Unplugged,

Shabbat, April 7 – Beth El Cares Synaplex Shabbat - Passover

Friday May 3 - Synaplex Shabbat/Shabbat Across America,

Friday, May 10 – Synaplex Shabbat/Shabbat Unplugged

Shabbat, June 23 -Synaplex Shabbat, adult b’nai mitzvah

Download a volunteer form at

http://www.tbe.org/site/sog/SynaplexVolunteerPackage.htm

contact our Synaplex committee at

tbesynaplex@optonline.net

Fill it out and send it back – and join the dozens who have already stepped forward!

And for more general information about Synaplex,

go to www.starsynagogue.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

BETH EL CARES

We hope you all enjoyed your summer.

Please give generously to the 2006

HIGH HOLIDAY FOOD DRIVE!

September 22- October 2, 2006

Each year TBE members help to start the New Year off with a Mitzvah. You can join the team by bringing in food that will stock the pantry at PERSON to PERSON in Darien. Bags will once again be available for pick up at temple on ROSH HASHANAH. Please take one or more and fill it up with non-perishable, unopened and not expired food. Then, bring it back to temple by Yom Kippur. Your donation will then be delivered on Tuesday, October 3, 2006. Volunteers will be needed that day at PERSON TO PERSON to help unload, sort food and stock the shelves. To help, contact Cheryl Wolff (968-6361) or Cathy Satz (968-9191).

Attached is the Beth El Cares Article for the bulletin.

In addition, we have the following information for the Shabbat-o-gram, that we did not include in the bulletin since you're trying to save space:

HABITAT FOR HUMANITY VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

Habitat for Humanity is recruiting volunteers to assist with the planning and building of 6 to 9 housing units on West Main Street in Stamford (near the Kentucky Fried Chicken). The actual timing of the building depends on site plan and other approvals, but the ceremonial ground breaking should take place in October 2006. Please contact bknebal@habitatcfc.org if you want to help in any way. Assistance is needed now in the formation stages, as well as later with the building. Bob Knebel, CEO, can tell you what jobs are available.

LOCKS OF LOVE HAIR DONATIONS CONTINUED

Any one wishing to donate 10 or more inches of hair to Locks of Love can contact Cathy or Cheryl for more information on how to donate and how to get your before and after photo on the TBE web sit

Cheryl Wolff

Cathy Satz