June 23, 2007–Tammuz 7, 5767
The Shabbat-O-Gram will be taking its annual summer hiatus and
will return in September.
Meanwhile, don’t be a stranger!
Join us at services or simply stop by to schmooze.
We’ll also continue to keep you posted.
Meanwhile, catch up by looking at prior issues of the O-Gram,
dating back to January, 2002, which are
archived on our web site, www.tbe.org
I hope your summer is filled
with relaxation and renewal.
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.”
Mazal tov to
our adult b’not mitzvah,
to our high
school graduates –
and to all who
celebrate a rite of passage this month!
Contents
of the Shabbat O Gram:
(Click
to scroll down)
Just
the Facts (service schedule)
The (Occasionally) Ranting Rabbi
Mitzvah/Tzedakkah Opportunities
The Beth El Bar/Bat Mitzvah
Commentary
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
What Being
Jewish Means to Me
Our recent
7th grade graduates composed brief responses to the question,
“What does
being Jewish mean to me?”
Here is one
response. Read them all online at
http://www.tbe.org/site/sog/7thgradeWHATBEINGJEWISHMEANSTOME.htm
Alyssa
Gold
(who this week read Torah at the Western Wall in
a special Bat Mitzvah Affirmation Service)
As a Jew, I
know I am part of something big. Each holiday is celebrated by all Jews. When I light the Chanukah candles or have a
Passover seder, I know that children and adults from
all over the world are doing the same thing.
When I chant Hebrew blessings, I think of the struggling Jews 2000 years
ago or in the Holocaust doing the same prayers in the same language. Being a
Jew makes me feel special.
Candle lighting: 8:11 pm on Friday, 22 JUNE
2007. For 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.
Friday Evening:
Kabbalat Shabbat: 6:30 PM
– Outdoors
JOIN US FOR WHAT PROMISES
TO BE A GORGEOUS EVENING, TO CELEBRATE SUMMER AND OUR ADULT B’NOT MITZVAH
Tot Shabbat: 6:45 PM – in the lobby
Tot
Shabbat will be hosted this week by Steve and Cheryl Bader-Goldblum and their
children, Evan, Rachel, and Danny in honor of Danny’s 7th
birthday and in honor of Nurit for another wonderful year of the music and joy
of Tot Shabbat. Come join us for Oneg
Shabbat immediately following the service.
Shabbat Morning:
See
synaplex schedule above
at
the end of the main service, there will also be a special blessing for those
who will be going to camp and going to
Children’s Service (with Nurit ): 10:30 AM
Our Torah Portion
for Shabbat Morning
1: 20:22-21:3
2: 21:4-10
3: 21:11-16
4: 21:17-20
5: 21:21-25
6: 21:25-33
7: 21:34-22:1
maf: 21:34-22:1
Haftarah: Judges
11:1 - 11:33
If you liked Storahtelling, Storahtelling’s new weekly blog about the Torah portion is at http://storahtelling.blogspot.com/. Also check out Torahquest at http://www.torahquest.org/commentary_list.php 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 TorahTHE 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
PLEASE
SIGN UP AT OUR WEBSITE WWW.TBE.ORG – THE
ROSNER MINYAN MAKER!
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 a guaranteed
minyan request for Friday, July 6. If you can make it, please click on the
Rosner Minyan Maker at our website, http://www.tbe.org
click on the designated date, fill in the information and register.
As people
begin to leave for vacations, attendance becomes less predictable. This is also the perfect time for those who
are on vacation at home, including college students, to take advantage of this
opportunity for a meaningful Jewish experience - any morning, not merely on our
guaranteed request days. We nearly
always have people here saying kaddish. Thanks in advance for performing this
mitzvah.
The
(occasionally)
Birthright
Another group of young Jews,
ages 18-26, has just returned from yet another successful Birthright
Check out the website at http://www.birthrightisrael.com/bin/en.jsp?enPage=HomePage
and read the success stories. And now,
the graduates of the program (and there are more than 100,000) have the chance
to keep things rolling with alumni activities and learning opportunities.
Since we have many
Birthright
The TBE Kvell-a-thon Continues
Mazal tov to TBE
seniors who were awarded scholarships. Elena Schacht graduated from
Some Suggestions for Revitalizing the Conservative
Movement
http://www.tbe.org/site/sog/ConservativeRevitalize.htm
Check out this
interesting perspective from the Alban Institute
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· Hospitality to the Stranger (from the Alban Weekly) |
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by Thomas G. Long In his thoughtful book The Company of
Strangers, Quaker educator Parker Palmer launches a critique of what he
calls our culture's "ideology of intimacy"--a nest of attitudes
that together posit that the main purpose of human life is the development of
autonomous, individual personalities and that this development takes place
only within the context of warm, intimate, interior-directed relationships.
In Welcoming the Stranger: A Public Theology of Worship and Evangelism,
theologian Patrick Keifert builds on Palmer's
critique and calls upon the church in its thinking about worship to replace
the theologically insufficient category of "intimacy" with the
biblical category of "hospitality to the stranger." He states,
"Hospitality to the stranger implies wisdom, love, and justice--rather
than intimacy, warmth, and familiarity--in our dealings with others in
public." To put this issue of hospitality to the
stranger into practical terms, imagine that you are one of the greeters at
the door of the church welcoming people to worship. A couple you do not
recognize--visitors, strangers--comes to the door. How are
you to view these people and what is your responsibility toward them?
Should you imagine that the most important thing you can know about these
visitors is that they bring needs for intimacy that you and the congregation
are to meet? To do so would be presumptuous and theologically naive. It would
assume that these visitors are really just like you, that there are no real
differences between you and them, and that the highest goal possible is that
you and the other members of your congregation will become intimate friends
with them and invite them into the private spaces of your life. The reality, however, is that these people
are not exactly like you; indeed, they may not be much like you at all. They
are the other, strangers, different. Because they are the other, they bring
the promise of gifts and wisdom the congregation does not yet have. Because
they are different, they also bring challenges and potential dangers. They
may be hard to accept, disruptive, or even violent, or they may have needs,
financial or otherwise, beyond the capacities of your congregation to meet.
Regardless of their promise or their danger, the church is
called to be hospitable to these strangers, and you are on the front
line of this ministry. This hospitality goes far beyond the narrow bounds of
modern notions of intimacy and self-fulfilling friendship. Like Abraham and
Sarah by the oaks of Mamre, we are commanded to
show hospitality when strangers appear at the flap of the tent, to open our
house and table and God's house and table to these strangers so that they
will find safe lodging, nourishment, cool water for the face, the oil of
blessing, and rest for the soul. |
See how TBE is featured in the
Mitzvah/Tzedakkah Opportunties
Inreach and Outreach
Beth El Cares
Cathy Satz (968-9191; csscounsel@yahoo.com)Cheryl Wolff (968-6361; cwolff@optonline.net)BETH EL CARES co-chairs
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What Was Miriam’s Well?
The legends of Miriam’s well are based on some passages in this
week’s portion, juxtaposing the death of Moses’ sister with the Israelites’
thirst for water and a reference to a mysterious well in the wilderness. The well has been chosen
by our adult b’not mitzvah as a focal point of their service and in their
honor, I’ll be discussing the legends of this well during a Synaplex session
prior to the service. (That session will
replace the discussion/sermon that usually happens during the service – and it
gives us a model for more extended Torah study that can take place here outside
of the formal service times).
Join us at 8:30, grab some breakfast, and we’ll learn more about
this fascinating mystery. Some initial
tidbits below…
According to legend, at twilight on the second day of Creation,
God embedded a precious liquid jewel in the earth, a miraculous well of pure,
sparkling water. From one generation to the next, the well belonged to those
who knew how to draw up its water. Filled with mayim chayyim,
living waters, the well was a reminder to all who drank or drew from it, that
the Torah, the way of the Jewish people, is also a well from which all may
drink and be restored. (Penina Adelman, “Miriam’s Well”)
Three
thousand years ago--and in most parts of the world even today--being a woman
was itself disqualification from public recognition or accomplishment. With so
few female heroes, Miriam stands out precisely because we are now more
sensitive to just how difficult it is for a woman to gain public recognition.
Today's parasha comments on the death of this prophet, that
"Miriam died there and was buried there, and the community was without
water."
Rashi (11th Century, France) noticed the strange
juxtaposition of Miriam's death and the shortage of water, and assumed that
there must be a connection between the two. "From this we learn that all
forty years, they had a well because of the merit of Miriam." Miriam's Well entered the realm of Midrash as testimony to the
greatness of this unique leader.
As the Jews wandered through the wilderness, lacking
adequate water would have been fatal. However, the power of Miriam's integrity,
piety and caring was such that God provided a moving well of water, one which followed the people throughout their wanderings until
the moment of her death. Without Miriam, there was no more water.
Miriam's place in Jewish legend points to two lessons we
can carry with us through our own personal wildernesses. While male prophets
emphasize the power of words, the centrality of rules of conduct, of sanctity
and of justice, Miriam's prophecy was one of deed. Rather than stirring
speeches or administration of justice, Miriam focused on teaching her people
how to sing in moments of joy, and she saw to their sustenance during their
period of exposure and fragility.
- Rabbi Brad Artson http://www.myjewishlearning.com/texts/Weekly_Torah_Commentary/hukkat_artson5762.htm
Summer Reading
What will I be reading this summer?
I’ve got a stack a mile high and can’t wait to
turn off this computer and get to them.
The two novels I am most looking forward to reading are The
Ministry of Special Cases by Nathan Englander, author of the masterful
short story collection, For
the Relief of Unbearable Urges: Stories, and Michael Chabon’s The
Yiddish Policemen's Union: A Novel.
These novels deal on some level with the eternally perplexing
Jewish condition.
One new book that takes on that topic dramatically is David Mamet’s short but powerful book, The
Wicked Son: Anti-Semitism, Self-hatred, and the Jews . I just finished it and would LOVE to lead a
book discussion on that one. It’s a Synaplex session waiting to happen, but we
could discuss it anywhere, anytime. You
name it.
If you’re in a nostalgic mood for
Speaking of Israel, three books in my stack have to do with the
current situation in the region, one of them written by our Hoffman lecturer,
Michael Oren, is an exploration of American policy: Power,
Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East: 1776 to the Present. Oren also wrote what has been until now the
definitive history of the Six Day War, Six
Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East. Now plan to read Tom Segev’s
revisionist history of the same period, 1967:
Israel, the War, and the Year that Transformed the Middle East. The other
Israel-related new book I am reading is former Hoffman lecturer Dore Gold’s The
Fight for
As long as we’re talking about upcoming speakers at TBE, I’m proud
to announce that this coming year’s scholars in residence will once again be
among the best around. In early
December, we’ll meet Brandeis professor Reuven Kimelman and
in late January, Yossi
Klein Halevi, author of At the Entrance to the Garden of Eden: A
Jew's Search for God with Christians and Muslims in the Holy Land, which
describes his encounters as a Jew with Islam and Christianity in the Holy Land.
I’ve developed a real interest in the genre of Mussar
(Jewish ethical literature), so I’ll be reading Everyday
Holiness: The Jewish Spiritual Path of Mussar. And
there is always last year’s scholar in residence Joseph Telushkin’s A
Code of Jewish Ethics: Volume 1: You Shall Be Holy, a must, if you
haven’t read it yet.
And that’s only a small sampling of my stack. Have a good summer.
Spectacular Slide Shows
Thanks to Jerry Kanovsky for pointing the way to some spectacular
photographic power point programs about
On the anniversary of
last summer’s fighting, see the impact (literally) at…
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and the |
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on the 19th day of |
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Hurfeish and Nahariya, on the 10th day of war
in |
For other shows, see http://www.guyshachar.com/pps_dl.htm#diaspora.
It seems to work best to save them before running.
The Beth El Bar/Bat Mitzvah Commentary
Lauren Pollack’s Commentary on Parshat Korach
Those of you know me know
that I love to dance. I started at age
three in my neighbor’s garage when Emilie and I used to run around in circles
while my neighbor, who was my tap teacher, tried to teach us.
Over the years, I’ve taken
tap, jazz, ballet and hip-hop. Right
now, I am focusing on hip hop. Recently,
I’ve come to realize that hip-hop has an image problem. I never really focused on the lyrics that
much, but when I did I began to notice how harsh hey are and some songs are
especially degrading to women.
You don’t have to be on the
The music can also be harsh
at times. Some might even say that it
isn’t really music. And even dance steps
are often supposed to be very forceful. We do things like punching out our arms
and making our steps very prominent.
It’s definitely not like ballet!
But I have also learned
that, tough as the choreography can be, it doesn’t have to match the music’s
harshness. The rabbi asked me how I could
like hip-hop so much when the lyrics are so offensive. I replied when I dance
hip hop, it doesn’t come out looking harsh at all. The point is that it’s not about the
material you are given, but rather it’s all in the way you present it.
Something similar happens in
my portion, although in reverse. With
hip hop, the bad lyrics get softened when presented by
a good person – ME! Korah
is a bad man who makes a mess out of good material. His argument was actually very sound. He was asking for more democracy. He said that all the people should be considered holy and that Moses was wrong to put
himself above the others.
The problem is that Korah wasn’t the right guy to deliver that message, because
his true motive was very selfish. He
preached equality but really wanted to gain power for himself.
I feel this is an important
lesson for us all. It’s not so much
about the material we are given so much as it is about the king of people we
are and how we communicate its message to others.
As I become a Bat Mitzvah
today, I realize that I have been given the material to work with —The Torah
and Judaism. But I now know that what
matters most is not what is written down, but how it
comes alive through me. Just as I do
with hip hop, I want to share the Torah with others in a gentle and loving
way. As I continue to grow, I know that
I will be choreographing my own Jewish dance.
Emilie Pollack’s Commentary on Parshat Korah
When I was looking at my
haftarah, I was happy to discover in it one of my favorite things of all time …
dogs. The haftarah for Rosh Hodesh describes Isaiah’s vision of how people will
come together in the end. But at the beginning, people are corrupt and one way
that the prophet demonstrates that corruption is how they treat animals.
Interestingly, dogs are singled out here the abuse of dogs is seen as an
example of corruption.
I’ve always believed that
loving animals can change our lives and make us better people. I’ve always been
a real animal lover…. Right now I have two cats, one
dog and a manatee. Yes, that’s true –a manatee.
When I was in third grade as a project for school, I researched manatees
and I fell in love with them so I became a sponsor of a manatee in
My cats are twins too. Well, they’re