January 26, 2007–
Shevat 8, 5767
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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)
Photos from our Bar/Bat
Mitzvah “Mock Wedding” Family Program of last week.
Check out www.tbe.org for more photos of the wedding
and our extensive library of photo
albums,
articles, sermons, info about
the temple,
Shabbat-O-Grams and links to
the Jewish world.
NEXT WEEK!
See my Synaplex retrospective comments
below.
Please fill out the survey at
our website, www.tbe.org
Quote for the Week
”The question is, how do we restore hope?
Amazingly, very few people, either in
They don't know, anymore, that the Zionist movement, and then the State, took
as its national anthem a poem called "The Hope." They know the
melody, and Israelis know the words. But they have no idea what it's about.
They can't begin to articulate the notion that
They're so consumed with the plight of the
Palestinians (a horrific plight, obviously, that has to be addressed -- as soon
as the
Palestinians make that their priority) that they don't resonate at all to the
pride Jews once felt about the rescue of Ethiopian Jews, or the rescue at
Entebbe, or the technological prowess of Israeli companies, or by the now stereotypical tanned and
hardened Israeli youth, stark contrasts to the common portrayal of Europe's
Jews as pale and passive. They
don't understand that it's because hope -- life over death – was at the
core of this country that explains why there are still huge book fairs in this
country, celebrating the mere simple fact that thousands of books are published
each year in a language that 150 years ago, virtually no one in the world
spoke. It was why dance became an integral part of this culture, and why Jews
got excited about a song celebrating a sprinkler, written when the National
Water Carrier project was completed. What person in their right mind sings
about a sprinkler? Who dances to the idea of a sprinkler? Jews did, and do,
when the sprinkler brings water from the north to the south, when it bring life
to the desert, when it bespeaks not just the flow of water, but the possibility
of hope when there could have been nothing but despair."
Daniel Gordis, from his
essay, This
Place Called Hope , found on his website: http://www.danielgordis.org.
A Time to Plant –
Special Guest Micha Danieli
During last summer’s war between
Micha Danieli is the
In the recent past, Micha was involved with Keren Hayesod a
fundraising organization that primarily helps
Micha
Danieli received his BA in Economics and MA in Development of Country Economy
from
Friday Evening
Candle lighting: 4:46 pm on Friday, 26 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.
5th Grade
Class Dinner – 6:30 PM
Tot Shabbat: 6:45 PM
– in the chapel
Shabbat Evening service:
7:30 PM (note later time) – to be led by our 5th grade
Shabbat Morning: 9:30 AM – Guest Speaker: Micha Danieli of the JNF
Special Blessing for our TBE Bi-Cultural 8th
Graders
who will soon be
departing for
Children’s
Services: 10:30 AM
Our Torah Reading
for Shabbat Morning
Parashat
Bo
Exodus 10:1 - 13:16– the Ten Plagues,
first Passover
1: 12:29-32
2: 12:33-36
3: 12:37-42
4: 12:43-51
5: 13:1-4
6: 13:5-10
7: 13:11-16
maf: 13:14-16
Haftarah: Jeremiah 46:13 - 46:28
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
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
Winter Weather Advisory
Note that in the case
of bad weather, weekday minyan does not take place when
The Beth El Bar/Bat Mitzvah
Commentary
The
(occasionally)
FOCUS ON THE NEXT GENERATION…
Keeping Young Jews “In the
Fold”
A SYNAPLEX RETROSPECTIVE:
“Only Connect”
E.M Forster’s famous admonition:
“Only Connect,” should be any synagogue’s guiding
philosophy. We’re in the
business of building Jewish connections.
Those connections need to be intensified for all ages at all times, but certain
demographic groups are most vulnerable to being lost at the fringes, and
beyond. One prime goal of Synaplex
has been to bring back to the synagogue those who might easily have strayed
from it – and once again last weekend, the results were very
encouraging. We’ve seen that
on these Shabbats we are attracting many who would not otherwise have reason to
be here.
As Adam Eitelberg, one of
our Synaplex co-chairs pointed out this week, it was especially gratifying to
see people pulling into our parking
lot at 3 PM on a Shabbat afternoon, specifically to attend the four sessions
that were offered then. Some came
to study Torah with Eric Hoffman, others for heart-to-heart dialogues on issues
with interfaith families, with Elise Klein, and intergenerational family
dynamics, with my wife Mara and Elissa Stein. Others, who are between jobs or
otherwise unhappy with their employment situations, gained some comfort and
sound advice from Donna Sweidan; she fulfilled Maimonides Highest Level of
Tzedakkah – a supreme Jewish value of supporting people so they can
support themselves. Some of the attendees had never been inside our building
before.
Earlier in the day, teens and
middle schoolers came out of our “No Hate But Harmony” session
literally moved to tears by what transpired in that room, and the younger kids thoroughly
enjoyed Jonathan Cahr’s rousing tunes. At breakfast, 15 people (at 9 AM!!!)
were inspired by Arthur White’s visionary efforts at “tikkun olam,” and how much he
cares for the weakest among us. Our
scholar, who was also fantastic, said to me after all was said and done, “You’ve
got one happy congregation.”
It wasn’t just that we
saw hundreds of happy people here, from “Shabbat Unplugged” on one
end to “Havdalah Under the Stars” at the other. It’s that each event enabled
people to connect with others, and with their Jewish selves, all at the deepest
level. But there is always more
that needs to be done. What follows
are some current efforts and information that pertain especially to young adults,
college students and teens. We need
to read and to learn.
-------------------------------
Synaplex accomplished, to a
degree, what ideally a retreat can do - to see a great series on the power of
retreats, from the Jewish Life Institute, go to http://www.jewishlife.org/pdf/autumn_2006.pdf.
See also this article by Sue
Fishkoff: http://jta.org/page_view_story.asp?intarticleid=16476&intcategoryid=4,
detailing the results of three recent studies –excerpts below:
Reboot, a nonprofit that promotes
creative Jewish initiatives, just did a study of the same age group, and
found that they’re proud to be Jewish, avoid institutional affiliation,
are interested in Jewish culture and have diverse allegiances.
Sociologist Steven Cohen of
The last few months have seen a flood
of studies of Gen-Y Jews — young people aged 18-25 — all trying to
map their sense of Jewish identity, affiliation patterns, needs, hopes, beliefs
and behaviors.
Why is everyone looking at the same
population? And is all this work necessary, or a duplication of effort?
First, there are the numbers: almost
half a million Jewish college students, the future of this country’s
Jewish community. The very few studies on record, particularly the 1990 and
2000-2001 National Jewish Population Surveys, indicate that large numbers of
young Jews aren’t going to synagogue, joining Jewish organizations,
marrying other Jews or giving money to Israel or Jewish charities.
They’re opting out, which has
led to great hand-wringing and head-shaking on the part of American Jewish
officials.
Yet the new studies show an
up-and-coming generation that is proud of its Jewish identity and culturally
creative, is coming up with new methods of religious expression and feels part
of a global community linked by Jewish Web sites and blogs.
Researchers say it’s cause for
cautious celebration….more
What Are We Doing for Our High School Students?
Check out the Kulanu Video done by our teens. How many TBE students can your count???
We also have a growing youth program, thanks in large part to our active
Youth Commission, chaired by Roz Rubin and Carl Shapiro. I can attest to the many hours that this
committee has devoted to helping our kids to connect. Just last weekend, the Youth Commission
put together the Havdalah program (for younger families) at the
And now, concrete and exciting plans are in the works for a regional Jewish
High School.
See their academic philosophy below.
I have a copy of their power point presentation and would be happy to
forward it to anyone on request.
Upon three things the world stands:
The Torah;
The worship of God; And
The bestowal of loving kindness.
-Shimon the Righteous, Pirkei Avot
We are creating a school that encourages students to become independent
thinkers with a moral and ethical grounding in Jewish values and practice. Our
school will be a diverse and pluralistic community, embracing klal yisrael
(Jewish unity and participation). We will integrate the imperative of gemilut hasadim (acts of loving kindness) and the demand of tikkun olam (to improve the world in
which we live.) Our educational
approach and values will consciously connect intellectual creativity with
responsible action. Our students will graduate knowledgeable and passionate
about their Judaism and their responsibility to make a difference in the world.
Academic Philosophy:
Our students will be
encouraged to attain the full measure of their talents and aspirations. We will
create an innovative curriculum where knowledge and skills are acquired through
interdisciplinary study, experiential learning and community involvement. Our
approach to learning will be guided by an open-minded spirit of intellectual
inquiry encouraging students to challenge, ask questions, and work at their
highest intellectual potential.
The curriculum will
provide a rigorous college preparatory program in the humanities, social and
natural sciences, arts, mathematics, technology, foreign languages, physical
education and the texts, traditions, history, practices and beliefs of the
Jewish people. Our students will study and engage in a relationship with the
language, culture, land and people of the State of
We will encourage
athletic achievement and the importance of sportsmanship. We will use
technology and the arts to enhance all aspects of the curriculum.
Our school will be a
place where our students, faculty, parents and community members are partners
in fulfilling the educational mission of the school. The faculty will engage
and inspire students to be enthusiastic about learning and powerful
communicators.
Spiritual Environment:
Our commitment to
leading an ethical life will guide all aspects of our program. We will teach derekh
eretz (ethical decency), creating
a community that respects each other’s uniqueness and the responsibility
for others. We will nurture a Jewish community characterized by our shared
tradition, a common dedication to social justice and a love for learning. In this
way, we will instill in our students a deep and abiding love for
Our school will
follow the rhythms of Jewish life. We will create programs and activities that
will teach and celebrate our Jewish traditions. We will create a curriculum
that uses a pluralistic approach to Jewish texts, concepts and practices. We
will challenge our students to understand and interpret Judaism as a source of
religious obligation, spiritual opportunity and joyous celebration. We will be
devoted to equal participation by girls and boys, women and men, in all aspects
of the school community. We will recognize the needs of our diverse community
by offering prayer options.