December 7, 2007- Kislev 27,
5768
Rabbi Joshua Hammerman,
…And Rosh Hodesh Tevet (on Monday)
…and to commemorate Pearl Harbor Day – read of some of the Jewish
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Contents
of the Shabbat O Gram:
(Click
to scroll down)
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)
Quote for the Week
““Judaism has moral authority in the
American imagination,
providing Jewish
leaders an opportunity to make a moral case for environmental protection before
the nation at-large.”
—COEJL
COEJL
(Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life) recommends 3 ways to be a Light
Among the Nations this Hanukkah: Save Energy,
Impact Policy, Make a Communal Statement. Act now on their specific suggestions!
And commit to The
Mazal tov to Matthew Schwartz (and parents Joy and
Barry Schwartz),
who becomes Bar Mitzvah this Shabbat morning.
Candle lighting: 4:08 pm on Friday, December 7, 2007 (light Hanukkah
candles before Shabbat candles). 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.
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Torah
Reading For Shabbat Morning
Parashat Mikketz (The story of Joseph continues)
Genesis 41:1 - 44:17
1: 41:1-4
2: 41:5-7
3: 41:8-14
4: 41:15-24
5: 41:25-47:38
6: 41:39-43
7: 41:44-52
On Shabbat Chanukah - Day 4 maf: Numbers 7:30-41
Haftarah Shabbat
Chanukah / Zechariah 2:14-4:7
What Now with
The shocking revelation this week by
the
These questions all remain to be answered. But what
is also true is that the grave threats made by and posed by the Iranians have
led to a mobilization among Jewish groups fueled by this existential fear. We cannot allow that mobilization to dissipate
– but we need to find a more level headed approach. Fear and loathing are not the way to sustain
a mobilization. Only constant vigilance,
skepticism and awareness can. Hence the need to stay informed! The Shabbat O Gram will do its best to help
in that regard. You can find some early
assessments of the new
I’m Dreaming of a Green Hanukkah
Ever since that little cruise of
oil was discovered at the temple, Hanukkah has always
been about conserving scarce resources.
So it was natural that, at a time of grave environmental concerns (see
this YouTube clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDsIFspVzfI – for more on how terrifying they are), this
theme would become a prominent one of the holiday. Well, one group has taken the notion to an
extreme, recommending that we light fewer candles to make the conservationist
point. As you can imagine, this
suggestion has drawn fire (so to speak), especially among rabbinic authorities,
especially in
“The founders of the Green Hanukkia campaign found that every candle that burns
completely produces 15 grams of carbon dioxide. If an estimated one million
Israeli households light for eight days, they said, it would do significant
damage to the atmosphere. "The campaign calls for Jews around the world to
save the last candle and save the planet, so we won't need another miracle,"
said Liad Ortar, the
campaign's cofounder, who runs the Arkada
environmental consulting firm and the Ynet Web site's
environmental forum. "Global warming is a milestone in human evolution
that requires us to rethink how we live our lives, and one of the main paradigms
of that is religion and how it fits into the current situation."
Rabbi
Benny Lau of
Read the entire Jerusalem Post article
So if one wants to make an
environmental statement this Hanukkah, how can that be
done without making a mockery of the mitzvah?
The simplest answer? Blow out the shamash! That
helper candle is not itself one of the “official” candles on the Hanukkah
menorah. If it is
recycled throughout the holiday, that in itself will make a powerful statement.
It is interesting that the word “shamash” is related to “shemesh,” the sun.
Just as the sun is, in a spiritual sense, the servant of God (rather
than itself being a god, as many
ancients supposed), so is this extra candle the servant of all the others. Now we can put it to use, not only in the
service of the Hanukkah ritual, but in the service of
environmental education. It is worth
noting that our building has taken on a distinctly green tone of late, as, with
the help of uor maintenance staff, Steve Lander has been answering emphatically
that old question, How many executive directors does it take to screw in an
environmentally friendly (and more economical) lightbulb?”
So put your shamash to work this Hanukkah! And in that same spirit, here are some new
lyrics to an old favorite…
I Have a Little Lightbulb
(sung to the
tune of "I Have a Little Dreidel")
I have a little lightbulb
It's called a compact fluorescent
It's better than the usual bulb
And makes a great Hanukkah present
Refrain:
Oh lightbulb, lightbulb, lightbulb
It helps save energy
Oh lightbulb, lightbulb, lightbulb
Come save the world with me!
The thing about this lightbulb
Is that it gives off much less heat
And therefore uses less electricity
Wow, now isn't that neat?
Refrain
I have a dream for this lightbulb
To go in every home and Hebrew school
Not mention office buildings
And every single shul
Transport Yourself to
Find the Kotel webcams at http://english.thekotel.org/cameras.asp
Click twice on the live TV picture and it
will fill your screen!
Saving Our
Synagogues
See Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin’s op ed in this week’s
Jewish Week for some hard truths about what needs to be done to revitalize
synagogues: See it at http://thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c55_a1255/Editorial__Opinion/Opinion.html
Considering
Cool
Read the latest e-news from the journal
Sh’ma:
“Sh'ma
recently launched a monthly guest column focusing on cool
—musing about what it is, what is the Jewish communal (and philanthropic)
fascination with cool,
our relationship (or not) with it. Check out our most recent
postings on this topic.
Here’s a provocative thought written by Ruth
Andrew Ellenson:
To be Jewish is to be uncool — to not follow trends, to lack hipness.
Judaism at its coolest refuses to pander to the mainstream; rather, it creates communities and
dialogues that draw people in naturally. If to be Jewish in all of its
permutations is to live within a community, to be a truly cool Jew, then, is to
find a community in which you are at home.
I understand her point, that we shouldn’t
pander to every cultural trend in order to reframe what is Jewish. But the power of cultural touchstones is not
to be underestimated. Why else would a
class on the Simpsons be so popular among our
teens. And when popular TV shows or
movies show Jewish holidays and lifecycle events, whether it’s the Simpsons, Thirtysomething or Sex
in the City, does that not help to authenticate those practices in the eyes of
Jews and non Jews everywhere?
An interesting discussion to be had…
“Keeping Kids Healthy”
Nationally Syndicated show to include “Learning
and Latte” Crew!
Tune into channel Thirteen/WNET on Friday,
December 14, at 2:30 pm, and repeated on Saturday morning, December 15, at 6:30
am (that's what Tivos are
for...). It's the second half of a
2-subject show:
Premature Babies: Good Things Come in Small Packages / Circumcision: Is It Right for Your Child?
The program features participants in the
“Learning and Latte” monthly dialogue:
The “Keeping Kids Healthy” series is produced by
Mitzvah/Tzedakkah Opportunties
Beth El Cares:
Inreach and Outreach
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 St. Lukes and Pacific House on Christmas Eve. These toiletry items are the only holiday
gift some of these individuals receive. Clean out your hotel amenity stash and
your samples or buy full size items to donate.
Watch for details in December telling you where to drop off the items.
* SocialAction.com
has ways to make the fun-filled Hanukkah holiday a little less commercial and a
little more meaningful, from buying Fair Trade chocolate gelt
to participating in the Coalition
on the Environment and Jewish Life's "A Light Among the Nations"
project. One especially noteworthy program, Ner Shel
Tzedakah, or "Candle
of Righteousness", asks us to light the 6th Hanukkah candle for hunger
and to donate the value of the gifts we would otherwise exchange to organizations
that assist the needy. In addition, SocialAction.com
presents exciting alternative social justice programs for Jewish teens. Read
all about it in the next e-letter!
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Bar/Bat Mitzvah Projects:
From Dana Gordon
Dear Friends and
Family,
Part of becoming a
Bat Mitzvah means being a mench or doing good deeds
for others in need.
Five years ago, I was diagnosed with Auto Immune Thrombocytopenia Purpura (I.T.P). My
body thinks my blood platelets are the enemy and destroys them. I’m extremely lucky because at Dr. Joe’s
office I receive an intravenous treatment to help my body maintain a safe
number of blood platelets. Every time I
receive an infusion I see kids of all ages who aren’t
as lucky as I am because many of them suffer from pediatric blood cancers. At the end of your each treatment, you get
the joy of choosing a toy from the toy closet.
I would like to be a part of that joy by helping to restock the toy
closet at the doctor’s office.
Please bring new
and unwrapped games and toys for donation and place them in the box that is labeled “Dana’s
Thank you very much
for your support and generosity.
Sincerely,
Dana Gordon
For more
information about I.T.P., visit the platelet disorder support
association at www.pdsa.org
The
Highest Level of Tzedakkah
According
to Maimonides’ Eight Levels of Tzedakkah,
the
highest level is to provide a person with employment.
I received the following from TBE
member David Satz, who is currently transitioning. If you can help him out, please contact him
directly. Thanks in advance for your
help!
Technical leader with a proven ability to develop and
implement quality solutions through effective management of people, projects
and technology. A dedicated, details-oriented
technologist who can lead a project or development team from beginning to end
or work as hands-on team member in a developers role.
Here are my strengths:
1.
the ability to be a productive project team member for all aspects of the
development lifecycle from gathering requirements to coding to production
support
2.
strong background in application development and database design and
development
3.
ability to quickly learn new skills: both technical and non-technical
Here are my strongest technical skills:
1.
Web development with ColdFusion, including HTML, CSS and
JavaScript
2.
Database design, development and administration with Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle.
3.
Documentum development and administration for Webtop and
Web Publisher.
For my information, please see my online resume at http://www.geocities.com/davidsatz
or my LinkedIn profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidsatz
Jewish High
School Seeking Head of School