January 19, 2007– Shevat
1, 5767
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.”
Check out www.tbe.org for our extensive library of photo
albums,
articles, sermons, info about
the temple,
Shabbat-O-Grams and links to
the Jewish world.
THIS
WEEK!!!
Feb. 3 (sign up
NOW)
FULL
Synaplex Schedule and
The fun begins Friday night:
SHABBAT UNPLUGGED
IS BACK!!!
With Cantor Littman
And Scholar in
Residence Benjamin Gampel
Dancing! Singing!
Meditation! Celebration!
For all ages, the
Spirit of Shabbat
Friday, Jan. 19
@7:30
For
the full Synaplex Schedule,
click here.
With so many events taking place here on
a Synaplex Shabbat, it is hard to pick which ones to feature.
Of course we all know how amazing Shabbat
Unplugged can be, or how spiritually moving many have found Rabbinic Pastor Dan
Kilpper's meditative service. We'll
be able to sample some other special guests this weekend - we'll be able to
study the portion of the week with Rabbi Eric Hoffman and hear about
Maimonides' Highest Level of Tzedakkah (finding employment) with Donna Sweidan
or sharing Elise Klein's sensitive advice on issues related to interfaith
families.
So many of our topics are about relationships
- how we all can get along. The
learner's service I'll be leading, entitled "The Power of the Word,"
will focus on how our prayers can teach us ways to communicate better with one
another - and with God.
Mara and Elissa Stein's session was a
real hit last time around, and this time they'll be focusing on family systems
and how Jewish traditions, rituals and values can strengthen family
relationships.
As I mentioned in prior e-mails, Arthur
White's breakfast session will focus on ways to improve life for seniors, and
the "No Hate But Harmony" session for teens (7th grade and up) is
generating tremendous buzz. It's
all about relationships.
Of course we've also got a traditional
service that will be led by David Hirshfield and other congregants, Havdalah
Under the Stars at the Nature Center (and, with the forecast for clear and
crisp, it's filling up - PLEASE RSVP to cshapiro@optonline.net). Observatory Entrance
and parking is ¼ mile up the street from the
Oh yes, there is also, of course, the
scholar in residence, Benjamin Gampel, who happens to be a marvelous and
entertaining speaker, who will demonstrate how relevant medieval Jewish history
can be for our times.
For TBE’s Full Synaplex Schedule
for the weekend, including lecture topics and times for sessions, go to
http://www.tbe.org/site/docs/temp/2007_Jan_Synaplex.pdf
All Shabbat events are free and open to
the public – casual dress is encouraged
A special thank You to Our Sponsors: Penny & Michael Horowitz for the
Scholar-in-Residence presentations, in memory of Bessie Silver & Millie
Reiss, Our Anonymous Donor Family for Shabbat Unplugged and Sisterhood for
“Havdalah Under the Stars.”
Contents
of the Shabbat O Gram:
(Click
to scroll down)
Just
the Facts (service schedule)
The Beth El Bar/Bat Mitzvah Commentary
(new)
The (Occasionally) Ranting Rabbi
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
"Remember that there is a
meaning beyond absurdity. Be sure that every little deed counts, that every
word has power. Never forget that you can still do your share to redeem the
world in spite of all absurdities and frustrations and disappointments."
-Abraham Joshua Heschel
Friday
Evening
Candle lighting: 4:38 pm on Friday, 19 January 2006. For candle lighting times, Havdalah
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/. The United Synagogue has updated its
candlelighting information. To learn more, click here.
Shabbat Evening service:
7:30 PM (note later time)
SHABBAT
UNPLUGGED
Shabbat Morning: See Synaplex
Schedule
Our Torah Reading
for Shabbat Morning
Exodus 6:2 - 9:35– the Ten Plagues
(well, seven of them)
1: 8:16-23
2: 8:24-28
3: 9:1-7
4: 9:8-16
5: 9:17-21
6: 9:22-26
7: 9:27-35
Shabbat Rosh Chodesh
maf: Numbers 28:9-15 (7 p'sukim)
Haftarah: Shabbat Rosh Chodesh / Isaiah 66:1 - 66:24
If
you liked Storahtelling, you’ll LOVE Storahtelling’s new weekly
blog about the Torah portion Find it at http://storahtelling.blogspot.com/. ORT
Navigating the Bible; Rashi
in English; BibleGateway:
Useful for comparing different translations: Note- this is a Christian site.
What’s
Bothering Rashi (Bonchek) Each week, one example from the parashah is
deconstructed. 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://www.jtsa.edu/community/parashah/.
USCJ Torah
THE ENTIRE
HEBREW BIBLE (AS WELL AS OTHER JEWISH SOURCES) CAN BE FOUND WITH SIDE-BY-SIDE
TRANSLATION AT http://www.mechon-mamre.org/
100
Blessings: Download information about the grace
after meals (see Birkat
Ha-mazon explained in Wikipedia and in the Jewish
Virtual Library) The actual
prayer can be downloaded at Birkat
Hamazon [pdf]
Morning Minyan
7:30 Weekdays, 9:30 Sundays
We’ve had a Guaranteed
Minyan request for a yahrzeit on Monday, January 22. If you can make it, please take a moment
to sign up at the Rosner Minyan Maker at www.tbe.org.
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!
Please sign up at the Rosner Minyan Maker at www.tbe.org
The Beth El Bar/Bat Mitzvah Commentary
During
this lull in our Bar/Bat Mitzvah schedule, we have a chance to reflect on the
deeper meaning of the event. Here
is an account, from the Jewish Virtual Library, of the first Bat Mitzvah
EVER… how far we’ve come in so short a time: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/firstbat.html
The First American Bat Mitzvah
(March 18, 1922)
On Saturday morning, March 18, 1922, twelve-year old Judith Kaplan, the daughter of Rabbi Mordecai M. Kaplan, stepped to the bimah of her father’s synagogue, the Society for the Advancement of Judaism. She recited the preliminary blessing, read a portion of the Torah sidra in Hebrew and English and then intoned the closing blessing. "That was enough to shock a lot of people," she later recalled, "including my own grandparents and aunts and uncles."
The shocking event they had just witnessed, according to historian Paula
Hyman, was the first bat
mitzvah conducted in the
As Hyman notes, "The bat mitzvah ritual was introduced into American Judaism as both an ethical and pragmatic response to gender divisions in traditional Judaism." In Jewish law, a girl reaches majority at age 12, but until the invention of bat mitzvah there was no ritual ceremony to mark this passage. Mordecai Kaplan intended bat mitzvah to give females equal standing with males and stimulate Jewish education for women so they would be better able to transmit Jewish knowledge to their children.
While it started with Reconstructionism, Hyman attributes the further evolution of bat mitzvah to the American Conservative movement. In the mid-19th century, American Reform began moving away from traditional ceremonies such as male bar mitzvah. Instead, Reform congregations introduced group confirmation ceremonies when the boys and girls in their religious schools completed their education, around age 15. Confirmation, then, was more of a graduation ceremony than a bar mitzvah. Traditional Orthodoxy did not allow women to read the Torah. Thus, if girls of 12 or 13 were to have a coming-of-age ceremony equivalent to bar mitzvah for boys, it fell to the Conservative Movement to define what that ceremony should be.
Change came gradually. As late as the 1930’s, despite Judith Kaplan’s pathbreaking example, only a handful of Conservative synagogues had adopted bat mitzvah. By 1948, however, one-third of Conservative congregations conducted them and, by the 1960s, the ceremony became the norm within Conservatism.
The earliest American bat mitzvot were, ritually, not quite the same as bar mitzvot. They were usually held on Friday nights, when the Torah is not read or, if held on Saturday morning like Judith Kaplan’s, the bat mitzvah girl would read from a printed humash, or book containing the Bible, rather than from the Torah scroll itself.
The first recorded bat mitzvah at a Reform congregation occurred in 1931 but, as with the Conservative movement, the ritual did not catch on right away. By the 1950’s, only one third of Reform congregations conducted them. Since the 1960s, as Reform has placed increasing emphasis on traditional rituals, bat mitzvah has grown to near universality in that movement’s congregations. A number of modern Orthodox congregations have now adopted some form of bat mitzvah as well. Bat mitzvah, an innovation in 1922, is now an American Jewish institution.
The introduction of bat mitzvah, which was originally meant only to mark the passage from Jewish girlhood to Jewish womanhood, raised a series of issues. As Paula Hyman puts it, "How could a girl be called to Torah as a bat mitzvah and then never have such an honor again?" Both Reform and Conservativism grappled with this problem and, by the 1970’s, a majority of congregations in both movements called women to the Torah.
If no thunder sounded when 12-year old Judith Kaplan read at the bimah of
the Society for the Advancement of Judaism, Kaplan herself went on to make a
joyful noise of her own. A brilliant child who learned to read English at age 2
and Hebrew at age 3, she studied at what is now the Juilliard School of Music
from ages 7 to 18. She received her B.A. (1928) and M.A. (1932) in music
education from
As Judith Eisenstein, she began a distinguished career as a teacher of musical pedagogy and the history of Jewish music at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America’s Teachers Institute. In 1959, at age 50, Eisenstein entered the School of Sacred Music of Hebrew Union College, obtained her Ph.D. and remained as a member of the faculty until 1979. By the time of her death in 1996, she had composed a significant body of original liturgical music, created and broadcast a thirteen-hour radio series on the history of Jewish music and authored a number of books, including the first American Jewish songbook for children (1937).
Of course, her monumental "first" remains her own bat mitzvah.
From: American Jewish Historical Society
The
(occasionally)
How Can Conservative Judaism Thrive Again?
That’s the question incoming JTS
Chancellor Arnold Eisen is going around the country asking these days. In that spirit, and in light of the
recent law committee decisions, the movement sent out a detailed survey
recently to rabbis and other assorted leaders. Read about it, and bloggers’
reactions, at:
JTS
Poll Out (Jewish Week)
The survey itself can be found here.
Meanwhile, I’ve put together some
of my own suggestions for the movement:
Some
Suggestions for Revitalizing the Conservative Movement
By Joshua
Hammerman
·
Be “The Movement that Looks Like
o
Most Americans agonize
over complex issues like abortion, capital punishment and sexual orientation.
Their religion should, too. Americans are craving an authentic spiritual alternative to the so-called
“moral clarity” of fundamentalism, a few questions to go with all
the pat answers. This muddle in the
middle is an uncomfortable place to reside, but it is equally a dynamic one. So while other movements offer easy
responses (which for Reform often is “Why not?” and for Orthodoxy,
“No way!”), Conservatives look for the kind of dialectic that has
been central to rabbinic Judaism since Talmudic times.
·
Embrace Theological Humility and Intellectual
Honesty
o
Be the true inheritors of
the title” Yisra-El” (those who struggle with God) – questioning
truths rather than owning them; embracing science, validating doubt. There is no such thing as a knee-jerk
Conservative response to anything, and that is how it should be, because what
people yearn for is a religion based on the humble assumption that no human
entity possesses the entirety of Truth.
The strength of Conservative Judaism lies in the creative tension that
is at the core of its ideology. Like
most of us, Conservative Judaism lives in a real world of tough questions. It
thrives on the unresolved conflicts that force us to confront imperfection:
Judaism’s, society’s and our own.
·
Advocate “Passionate Centrism” –
not Muddy Compromise
o
Being a passionate
religious centrist means never being afraid to say “tayku,” while
affirming that even diametrically opposing positions can be the words of the
living God.
o
Don’t apologize for
not being God. That’s a strength, not a weakness.
·
Revelation is Here and Now
o
“The classical
Jewish view teaches “the decline of the generations” — since
Sinai we have grown further from revelation and stand, as a result, on a lower
level of holiness. This is not a true covenantal understanding. The covenant
does not fade or weaken with time. Our future is as promising as our past is
powerful. For the Covenantal Jew, dialogue between the Jewish people and God
began in the Bible and continues today.” (Rabbi David Wolpe)
o
Our own self image has
impact on our self image as a movement – we’re the movement that is
always slouching, the “ever dying people.” It’s time to straighten up and
stop slouching.
·
“Apocalypse Later”
o
“If you are planting a
tree and the Messiah comes to the gates of the city, finish planting the tree,
then go out to greet her.” (Talmud)
o
It makes sense to finish
planting the tree, for two reasons. 1) If the Messiah turns out to be Al
Gore, you’ll get some real brownie points. And 2), because in rabbinic Judaism, the Messiah’s actual coming is beside
the point. For the rabbis, the key to waiting for the Messiah was
the waiting itself. They
understood how dangerous it is when messianism gets out of hand –
that’s why they call it messianism: because things get so messy -- and the Judaism that
they created was expressly designed to prevent that from happening. The
early rabbis following the destruction of the second temple had seen the dangers
of messianism run amok at least twice in their lifetimes, with the rise of
early Christianity and with the Bar Kochba rebellion of the year 132. But the rabbis didn’t dare
eliminate the messianic strain entirely from Jewish tradition. The belief
in some sort of end of days, the ultimate goal of a perfect world, a Nirvana --
is essential to all spiritual quests. So while we dare not eliminate
speculation about the Messiah, nonetheless, authentic rabbinic Judaism falls
squarely on the side of Apocalypse
Later.
·
“They Like Us…They Really Like
Us!” We Need To Capitalize on
Judaism’s Popularity
o
…the Wall Street
Journal ran a front-page article titled “You Don’t Have to Be
Jewish to Want a Bar Mitzvah,” detailing the growing trend of non-Jewish
children begging their parents for big bar/bat mitzvah bashes of their own.
When non-Jews can so casually assimilate what has long been the decisive
generator of Jewish identity, it makes us wonder what sort of monster
we’ve created. A successful
monster, that’s what. Think
about it: Mainstream
·