October 19, 2007
Heshvan 7, 5768
Mazal tov to Aaron Katz (and parents Joy and Larry), who becomes
Bar Mitzvah this Shabbat morning!
Please Note:
Program announcements and the service
schedule are now being sent out by Steve Lander, our executive director. This now frees
up the Shabbat-O-Gram to be able to focus exclusively on editorial
content. There will be some overlap
(e.g. some mitzvah projects, which will also continue to be featured here), but
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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)
SYNAPLEX RETURNS ON
NOVEMBER 2-3!!!
Click HERE
for
the complete November Synaplex Schedule:
And check out our new,
TBE Youth Website,
Quote for the Week
It’s rare a person who wants to hear
what he doesn’t want to hear”
-- Dick
Cavett
Candle lighting: 5:50 pm on Friday, 19
October 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.
THE FULL SERVICE SCHEDULE NOW APPEARS ON THE
SEPARATE TBE ANNOUNCEMENTS E-MAIL
Shabbat Services: 6:30 Friday night, 9:30
Shabbat morning, 10:30 children’s services
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 THEN NOTIFY OUR OFFICE.
Torah
Reading For Shabbat Morning
1: 12:1-3
2: 12:4-9
3: 12:10-13
4: 12:14-20
5: 13:1-4
6: 13:5-11
7: 13:12-18
maf: 13:16-18
Haftarah: Isaiah
40:27 - 41:16
The
(occasionally)
An important announcement!!!!
I would like to announce to the
congregation that a deal has been worked out with the
Yankees, where Joe Torre and I will exchange
positions for a year. While Torre was reluctant to take a one year deal, the thought of
working right next door to Mel Allen’s gravesite was enough to convince him
that this was the job for him. Torre remarked to me that it will
hard for him to get used to the “calm environment of synagogue life” in
comparison with working for the Yankees.
He was also concerned that George Steinbrenner might join TBE and
immediately question his starting lineup of torah readers on Opening Day
Shabbat. Torre
is planning to go with a rookie for the fourth (cleanup) aliyah, a kid barely
past his bar mitzvah. And then he giving the longest
torah reading to his “ace,” who will be going on only three weeks rest! He recognizes the need immediately to begin
strengthening the Torah reading rotation.
As for me, I announced that my first moves as yankee
manager would be to make Derek Jeter a batboy, move Posada to the outfield, and
trade Chamberlain to the Red Sox for a Lake Erie insect to be named later.
J
Seriously – my thanks to all board
members and many other congregants who are working
very hard this week, exercising both their right to be heard and their
responsibility to listen. Special thanks
to our president, Gary Lessen, a listener par excellence. The kind of give and take now occurring
should make us all proud to be part of such a community.
Shabbat Shalom!
Ann
Coulter
Ann Coulter’s comments about how
Jews should be “perfected” should not surprise us in the least. They have been part of mainstream Christian
theology for centuries. Even with the
liberalization of the
As Jews, we need to recognize that for
centuries, Christian theology was (and for some, still is) based on the notion
of super cession – that after Jesus, the New (Testament) replaced the Old, and
that, “Israel” came to mean the wider group of Jesus’ followers. It’s offensive, of course, but so are several
passages from Jewish liturgy that speak of other faiths being “emptiness and
folly,” including a verse that from the Alenu prayer (that some prayer books,
including ours, long ago excised). True
dialogue requires each of us understand that there are aspects of the other’s
faith that might be uncomfortable to us.
But we engage in dialogue nonetheless.
Rabbi Yitz Greenberg and others have gone beyond that, to look for truly
pluralistic approaches, allowing for different shadings of truth to be acknowledged by the different parties, if not accepted
outright.
Dialogue does not seem to be part of
Coulter’s vocabulary. If she is simply
trying to sell books, we are best off ignoring her. But if such comments persist, we might be
better off directing our concerns to those who are inviting her on to their
programs.
Another view, from
Ha’aretz:
Ann Coulter’s Dream of a Jew-Free America
By
Bradley Burston
– Ha’aretz
From time to
time, particularly in the wake of schoolyard shootings, failing markets,
failing wars, failing administrations and the like, Americans take pause to
take stock, wondering what's at the bottom of the malaise that afflicts their
beloved, chronically clueless nation.
What is it, really, that's wrong with
If we're taking nominations, I'd like to open the bidding with Ann Coulter. You
may know her as the acerbic, not to say verbally abusive, syndicated columnist
whose bare-knuckles conservative punditry raises hackles and ratings across the
cable news spectrum.
This month, Coulter waded into the mess first made by Republican White House
hopeful John McCain, when he referred to
Barely a week after McCain's comments, Coulter told an exasperated Jewish
talk-show host that in her dreams, heaven - for that matter,
Where would the Jews have gone? She went on to explain that that Jews needed to
convert to Christians in order to be "perfected," noting that
Christians have a "fast track" to God.
Appearing
on CNBC's The Big Idea, hosted by Donny Deutsch,
Coulter was asked what
"It would look like
Asked to expand on the theme, Coulter said
"People were happy. They're Christian. They're tolerant. They defend
Deutsch, growing at once incredulous and offended, responded
"So we should be Christian? It would be better if we were all
Christian?" to which Coulter answered with a simple yes, later inviting
Deutsch to attend church with her.
DEUTSCH: We should just throw Judaism away and we should all
be Christians, then?
COULTER: Yeah.
DEUTSCH: Really?
COULTER: Well, it's a lot easier. It's kind of a fast track.
Deutsch then suggested similarities between Coulter's position and that of
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
DEUTSCH: "Let's wipe
COULTER: No, we think - we just want Jews to be perfected,
as they say.
DEUTSCH: Wow, you didn't really say that, did you?
COULTER: Yes. That is what Christianity is. We believe
the Old Testament, but ours is more like Federal Express. You have to obey
laws.
A commercial break ensued, during which Coulter asked Deutsch for a chance to
explain the comment about "perfecting" Jews. She adamantly turned
aside all suggestions that the comment could be offensive to Jews, that it could be construed as hateful or anti-Semitic. "I don't
think you should take it that way," she said. "But that is what
Christians consider themselves: perfected Jews."
Until recently, I failed to take Ann Coulter seriously. I was wrong.
I was wrong to write off as mere stand-up racism her advice after the September
11 attacks ["We should require passports to fly domestically. Passports
can be forged, but they can also be checked with the home country in case of
any suspicious-looking swarthy males."]
I was wrong to write off as scattershot shtick her comments against women's
right to vote, her suggestion that John Edwards was a "faggot" who
should have been assassinated by terrorists, her depiction of Islam as a
religion whose whose tenets are "along the lines
of 'kill everyone who doesn't smell bad and doesn't answer to the name
Mohammed.'"
I was wrong to see her as some highly intelligent, well-educated, perversely
gifted panderer to the lower common denominator. I was wrong to see her as some
overqualified infotainment shock jock. I should have taken her seriously.
Ann Coulter is my enemy. Ann Coulter is the kind of patriotic, persuasive,
powerful American who is precisely what is wrong with
I'll never underestimate her again. Ann Coulter has a plan for the Jews. She
has one for Muslims as well. And it's her people who are exactly
the kind of Americans who could find the way to try to carry it out.
Mitzvah/Tzedakkah Opportunties
Beth El Cares:
Inreach and Outreach
(from MyJewishLearning.com)
This is Jewish
Social Action Month
Educate,
Agitate, Organize
Poverty,
healthcare, racism, the environment--activism can become overwhelming. Social
justice educator Aaron Dorfman considers how
to set realistic goals, and let Social Action Month inspire change throughout
the year.
Beth El Cares
Christmas
Eve Dinner:
Our next “official” mitzvah project is the
annual preparing of food and serving Christmas Eve Dinner at St. Lukes and Pacific House.
Volunteers are needed to contribute food, pick
up flowers/food, transport food to the shelters and serve dinner. Save the date (Mon. Dec. 24). Please let me know if you would like to
coordinate this project “before” it happens; Cheryl
Wolff and Liz Vaisben will be the “house captains” for the actual dinners.
Toiletry
Collection:
The third grade religious school class will be
collecting toiletry items to give to the guests at
Bar/Bat Mitzvah Projects:
From ~
Shira Durica, who will be
setting up a table during
With Hadassah, i am sponsoring JNF's (Jewish National Fund) Program to plant trees in
Hello.
My name is Eloise Hyman.
My Bat Mitzvah
is coming up soon, so I am starting to work on my Bat Mitzvah project. A Bat Mitzvah project is something kids do to help the community when they come of age to have a bar or bat mitzvah. For my project, I am gathering books to donate for kids in juvenile residential treatment centers.
I am now asking for your help. I am collecting books in good condition for boys and girls aged 14-18. Could you please look through your rooms, bookshelves, and closets for any spare books that you think kids might enjoy. You could also tell your friends, and I could collect books from them as well.
The books that are allowed are fantasy, romance & teen books, history, novels, mysteries, sci-fi, science, poetry and anything else you can think of (but no sex please)!
How will you get me the books? You can:
- give them to me at school,
- have me pick them up at your house,
- send them to me,
- Or bring them to Temple Beth El the day of my Bat Mitzvah (October 27)
I
will be collecting books from September to November. The books for the
boys will be going to the
Thank
you, for reading this and I hope you will be able to help<!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->
.
See you in October.
Eloise
Hello my name is Nick Hyman.
My Bar Mitzvah is coming up soon, so I’m starting my Bar Mitzvah project.A Bar Mitzvah project is something bat/bar mitzvah kids do for their bar/bat mitzvah to help the community. For my project I am collecting books to donate for adult inmates in prison. I ask for your help.Could you look through your closets, bookshelves, and roomsfor any spare books that you think adults might enjoy reading.
I am collecting books for men and women ranging in age from 20-80. What types of books are allowed? History, Thrillers, Mysteries, Romance, Poetry, Sci-Fi, Science, and even Math.
How can you get me the books? You can:
· give them to me at school,
· have me pick them up at your house,
· send them to me,
· or bring them to Temple Beth El the day of my Bar Mitzvah ( October 27)
I will be collecting books from September to November. The books do need to be in good condition.I will be giving the books to the Moshannon Valley Correctional Center in Pennsylvania My address, e-mail, phone number, and AIM: 755 Westover Rd. Stamford CT. 06902,nhyman@klht.org, 203-316-8228, or nickthekiwi106 Thank you, for reading this and I hope you will be able to help me.If you have friends with spare books, pass this note on and I’ll collect their books as well. Nick
The
Highest Level of Tzedakkah
Helping someone to find a Job
Let me know if you can help in either of these
situations –
both involve congregants
who are extremely talented and dedicated workers…
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Proven track record
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Seeking full-time or consulting
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teamwork, performance excellence and continuous improvement.
Business
Ethics
How do non-disclosure, conflict of interest, easy credit all
violate Jewish Law?
By Dr. Meir Tamari
An expert in Jewish business ethics explores the
ramifications of the Torah’s ban on placing a "stumbling
block" before the blind (lifnei ivver)
as applied to the contemporary financial world. Here Dr. Tamari addresses
issues that have arisen in prominent scandals in multinational corporations
whose accountants acted both as auditors, responsible to the public, and as
business consultants, responsible to the corporate client. (This is the second
of two articles on applying this principle. The first is "Assisting the
Perpetrator of an Evil Deed.") Reprinted with permission from The Challenge of Wealth: A Jewish
Perspective on Earning and Spending Money (Jason
Aronson).
[One] view of the lifnei ivver concept refers to the injunction of giving
misleading advice. This is not the same as providing business consultancy that results in a loss, but refers to the kind of information
in which the recipient is blind either to the final effects of the advice or to
the special interest that the consultant has in such advice. Consultants and
advisers such as accountants, lawyers, insurance agents, investment advisers,
and stockbrokers would seem to be obligated to review the advice given to their
clients in order to obviate the possibility of putting a
stumbling block in the path of the blind.
The Midrash relates
to lifnei ivver
by enjoining us, "Do not offer another advice that is detrimental to him.
Do not tell him to leave a town early in the morning, knowing full well that
there is a danger of him being attacked by robbers, nor [tell him] to leave in
the afternoon, knowing that this will cause him to lose his way. Do not tell
him, 'Sell your field and buy a donkey' when you intend to buy a field [and Rashi
adds: to sell a donkey]." (Sifra to Leviticus 19:4)
Underlying the simple example provided by the Midrash and the
commentators is an important and primary injunction, relevant to the whole
gamut of financial and advisory services. In view of the modem explosion of
these industries, lifnei ivver becomes more important perhaps than ever before
in economic history. A number of examples of its present-day relevance should be considered here.
In many countries, commercial bankers serve as investment advisers to
their depositors, yet at the same time buy and sell stock on their own account,
issue their own stock to be traded on the stock exchange, and underwrite the
issue of corporate stock to the public. They are also related
through various devices to insurance corporations, mortgage banks, and even
industrial or commercial enterprises. It may very well be that a conflict of
interest exists between those functions and the advice given to their
depositors, which if not revealed, would seem to be a case of lifnei ivver. One
of the reasons for the regulation of the financial institutions after the
Depression in the
Banks, credit institutions, and large retailers maintain a sophisticated
and intensive advertising campaign to encourage people to buy goods or services
on credit, while concurrently consumer credit is made
relatively easy to obtain. People unable to withstand the temptation of
instantly gratifying their wishes, use such credit
without any knowledge of their future resources or even the feasibility of
repayment. Social welfare studies have shown that such ill-considered use of
consumer credit in all its forms can be a major cause of poverty despite a
relatively high income. Perhaps it is stretching the concept of lifnei ivver beyond
its halakhic framework, but it would seem to the author that the implications
of such advertising for those blind to the consequences of debt necessitate
further halakhic examination.
This examination is, however, complicated by
the problem of interest. One way in which consumers may be protected against
the ill effects of credit is by making mandatory full disclosure of the real
cost of delayed payment. This enables the consumer to evaluate more correctly
the burden he is assuming. However, credit sales for a known interest rate are
usually not allowed in Jewish law because they may constitute avak ribit
[literally, "the dust of usury"] -- interest through commercial
transactions, [which] is rabbinically forbidden (in
contrast to interest charged on a straight loan, which is forbidden in the
Torah).
An insurance broker recently described to the author how he had handled
the problem of lifnei ivver
in regard to advice given to his clients. Since his
commission varied among the different policies and different corporations, he
became concerned that perhaps the policies he was offering were more a
reflection of his own potential earnings than the needs or benefits of the
specific client. By programming all the data regarding the client and his
family, he was able to let the computer choose the best policy and conditions,
so saving himself from [violating the injunction of] lifnei
ivver.
It is important to stress that irrespective of whether lifnei ivver is
understood as giving misleading advice or as helping someone do acts harmful to
himself or forbidden by Halakhah
[the subject of the parallel article, "Assisting the Perpetrator of an
Evil Deed"], a common element of secrecy exists. The Bible closes the
verse in Leviticus 19:14 forbidding placing a stumbling block in the path of
the blind by adding, "and you shall fear the
Lord." Wherever this phrase appears in the Bible, it is understood by the
Rabbis to refer to actions hidden from the human eye and operating in the
recesses of the human heart. Since white-collar crime, economic oppression, and
misplaced trust operate primarily in secret, this affirmation of the fear of
God is Judaism's major defense against them.
"Children of the Border”
Last
week, we featured an enthralling travelogue by TBE’s Own David Rodwin. This week,
also from
Dear
Friends,
I would like to invite you to view my updated photography website: www.DianaSabreen.com As always, this is a
work in progress. Please check in often for updates.
You may also view and purchase stock photos, event photos, albums, and general
goodness at: www.photoshelter.com/user/dianasabreen or follow the link from my site. If you do
not see the photo you would like to purchase, please
contact me. For those of you in the
Visit my website for more
info.
Please contact me with any questions, comments, stories, or high-fives.
Hope all is well in your various corners of the world.
Cheers,
Diana Sabreen
The Beth El
Bar/Bat Mitzvah Commentary
Michael Sosnick on Parshat Noach
Shabbat
Shalom
About
a month ago, I received the early Bar Mitzvah gift that I had been waiting for forever…
well, since June. Grandma and Poppy were sitting at my house when I came home
from school and they presented me with this year’s great technological
breakthrough, the Apple iPhone.
I’ve
always loved technology. Even in my baby pictures I
can be seen banging on a keyboard. So when I heard about the iPhone you can imagine how excited I was about it.
And
I haven’t been disappointed. At the risk of sounding like an Apple commercial,
what I love most about the iPhone is its portability.
Imagine having in your pocket your entire music collection, access to any
information you want, and the ability to communicate with anybody anywhere by
phone or by email. Human beings have not been able to communicate like this
since the
As
somebody who loves technology, I need to realize that even though I think
communication is getting easier, there are some dangers that we have to keep in
mind. For example, if you go to the city, you will see people walking down the
street, looking like they are talking to themselves. They’re really on their
cell phones, and they are oblivious to everything that’s going on around
them. A person in front of them could be
in trouble and they could just keep going merrily along their way. The