January 18, 2008 – Shevat 11,
5768
Happy Shabbat Shira and Tu B’Shevat!
This week’s Shabbat-O-Gram is sponsored by
Marjorie and
Lewis Chimes in honor of Daniel Chimes becoming a Bar Mitzvah.
Special
thanks to Marjorie and Lewis Chimes for the beautiful Sheflera
tree donated to Beth El
to honor the congregation for Tu B’Shevat and in celebration
of Daniel becoming Bar Mitzvah.
Special Occasion? Sponsor a
Shabbat Bulletin, (sent every Friday morning via e-mail),
the Shabbat Announcments (Distributed each Shabbat at the
& the
Shabbat-O-Gram. Sponsor all three publications for only $72
All sponsors will be
acknowledged at the beginning of each of these announcements
and also listed in our
Bi-monthly Bulletin. Call Mindy in the office at 322-6901
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Coming Soon!!!
and, NEXT WEEKEND!!! 
Featuring
scholar-in-residence Yossi
Klein Halevi. Click
here for his bio.
Friday evening: “
Saturday following
morning services: “A Jewish Journey into Islam and Christianity: Experiences
and Lessons.”
Saturday following
lunch: “Beyond Left and Right: How
for Peace with the Palestinians.”
Saturday following
Mincha at the Seuda: (Third Meal) - “Meet the
Scholar”
Saturday following
Havdalah Unplugged (open to all, but especially for Young Professionals staying
for the UJF comedy night program or those staying for our Israeli Movie Night):
“Tracing Israeli
Politics from 1967 to Today Through Israeli Rock
Music.”
Check our website, www.tbe.org
for more details on all events.
Some highlights: Our Yoga team
is putting together a great new session, emphasizing a Shabbat theme.
Interest is growing in
our Meditative Service drew 35 people last time.
Donna
Sweidan will be leading a workshop on “10 Steps to Implementing a Successful Job Search
or Career Change”
Havdalah
Unplugged will be spectacular – Imagine Shabbat
Unplugged with glow sticks!
Daniel
Krauss deals with “Helping our Aging Parents Stay at Home”
Lot Therrio, a therapist and
former minister, has enthralled
people of all ages with his stories from around the world.
My book discussion will be on Emma Shore's new
biography of Emma Lazerus. It is part of the Nextbook
series. Click
here to purchase it.
And of course, it’s SISTERHOOD SHABBAT!
----------------
Above: Our USYers at a Comedy Club in NYC two weeks ago.
And last week, over 30 kids had a blast at our Kadima Movie Night.
For more pix, check out our super, upgraded TBE Youth Website
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
The New
Year of the Trees
By Marge Piercy
“It is the New Year of the Trees, but here
The ground is frozen under
the crust of snow.
The trees snooze, their buds tight as nuts.
Rhododendron leaves roll up their stiff scrolls.
In the white and green north of the diaspora
I am stirred by a season
that will not arrive
For six weeks, as wines on far continents prickle
To bubbles when their native vines
bloom.
What blossoms here are birds jostling
at feeders, pecking sunflower
seeds
and millet through the snow: tulip
read
cardinal, daffodil finch, larkspur jay,
the pansybed
of sparrows and juncos, all hungry.
They too are planters of trees, spreading seeds
Of favorites along fences.
On the earth closed
to us all as a book in a language
we cannot
yet read, the seeds, the bulbs, the
eggs
of the fervid green year await release.
Over them on February’s cold table I spread
a feast. Wings rustle like summer leaves.
NEW! EXPERIMENTAL! NEFESH SERVICE
Friday,
January 18th at 6:30 p.m.
Nefesh means “spirit”
or “soul” and we hope that
you
will try this new soul-filled service. We’ll be focusing
on seeking deeper meanings in the prayers and
enhancing the experience of prayer through chanting
of niggunim (wordless melodies), visioning exercises
and
simple forms of meditation, along with stories and
some
good-old singing along. The service will
be led
jointly by Cantor Littman, Rabbinic Pastor
David Daniel
Klipper and Rabbi Hammerman. Children are
welcome but the Nefesh Service will be
designed for
adults. This will be a work in progress,
an experiment.
Pull up a comfy chair and join us in the lobby as we
journey
into Shabbat together….
Candle lighting: 4:35 pm on Friday, January 18,
2008. 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- Special Nefesh Service: 6:30
Friday night in the lobby
Tot Shabbat Friday at 6:45 pm. in the chapel
9:30 Shabbat morning (Children’s
Services at 10:30).
Mazal Tov to Daniel Chimes, son of Lewis and
Marjorie Chimes, who becomes Bar Mitzvah this Shabbat morning.
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.
Reminder
of our “No School No Shul” policy: On days when Stamford
Torah
Reading For Shabbat Morning
Parashat Beshallach
Crossing the
1: 13:17-22
2: 14:1-4
3: 14:5-8
4: 14:9-14
5: 14:15-20
6: 14:21-25
7: 14:26-15:26
maf: 17:14-16
Haftarah for Ashkenazim: Judges 4:4 - 5:31
Haftarah for Sephardim: Judges 5:1 - 5:31
The
Song of Deborah
- myjewishlearning.com
- Torah
from JTS
- JTS Podcasts
- American Jewish University
- Academy for Jewish Religion
“Funny, You Don’t Look Jewish”
my
column from this week’s Jewish Week at http://www.thejewishweek.com/viewArticle/c55_a1804/Editorial__Opinion/Opinion.html#
by Joshua Hammerman
Special To The Jewish Week
There are times
when a rabbi looks at the weekly portion and a sermon just screams back. This
weekend, when we will celebrate both the legacy of Martin Luther King and the
crossing of the Red Sea — affirming that liberation comes in all colors — we’ll
also be able to say for the first time in American history that someone who is
not a middle-aged white male has a front-runner’s chance to become president.
And as if to place an exclamation point on that premise, the Haftarah features
a female military champion named Deborah and her
sidekick named, of all things, Barak. If either Hillary
Clinton or Barack Obama
eventually becomes commander in chief, we can say that we heard it here first,
in the book of Judges. Throw in the real chance that a Jewish third party
candidate may join the fray and we’ve got, at long last, a presidential campaign
that looks like
Setting aside position papers for the moment, we, as Jews, should be
celebrating the diversity of this year’s slate. For too long we’ve been
preoccupied with group survival, focusing on how we are different: why we don’t
celebrate Christmas, order pepperoni or work on Saturday. These
distinctions are important, but only in that they point us to a life of
holiness, whose ultimate goal is to create a society where artificial barriers
separating people are dismantled. Among the most insidious of these barriers
are those of race and gender, which, along with ageism and disableism, are
based primarily on appearance rather than substance.
“Look
not at the flask,” we learn in
tractate Avot, “but
at what is within it.” Long before Gutenberg, Jews were teaching
their children not to judge a book by its cover. But while our sages dared to
hope for an end to worldwide prejudice and our liturgy resounds with the desire
for Oneness, after services we retreat to psychological ghettos of
similitude. We cry for unity but settle for uniformity. It is
understandable to want to live among like-minded neighbors who can reinforce
our deepest values. But somewhere along the line, we convinced ourselves
that like-minded people have to look
alike too.
Fortunately, the Internet generation has grown up in a much smaller world,
where those barriers have begun to dissolve. It’s telling that in the preteen
mega-hit “High School Musical,” it’s not the WASPy
blonde girl, Ashley Tisdale, who gets the guy. The shy Hispanic girl
does. It’s even more telling that, when Tisdale — who is Jewish on her mother’s
side — recently had rhinoplasty, she needed to defend that choice on medical
grounds. Her fans were incensed. They liked her nose just the way
it was.
That old joke, “Funny, he doesn’t look Jewish,” isn’t so funny anymore.
With the proliferation of conversion, adoption, donor eggs and surrogate
motherhood, too many Jews simply don’t. Interracial Jewish couples are
becoming more common both here and in
As a student of religions, I’ve long been fascinated by the Baha’i
faith. Here is a group that shares much with the Jews, including a home
base in
The great Baha’i prophet, the Baha’ullah
(1817-1892), called racism the greatest challenge to global unity. Jews should
be champions of this ideal. Long before the Baha’ullah
walked this earth, Jews were the world’s greatest conduit of multiculturalism.
While Christians and Muslims spent most of the Middle
Ages building fences and re-drawing borders, Jews were constantly traversing
them, carrying the best that every culture could offer.
Baha’i followers view interracial marriage as the
ideal relationship. Until all too recently, many Jews considered such
matches a shandeh
(disgrace), even when both spouses were Jewish. Part of that is attributable to
a legitimate concern that children of such marriages would be subjected to
ridicule on the playground. But part of it is outright racism.
Now those views are thankfully changing. People no longer assume that an
African American in our High Holy Day choir is a non-Jewish ringer. It no
longer startles anyone that there are children in our Hebrew schools of Asian
or Latin American descent. There is much greater recognition that not all
Jews need to be cut from the same lox-and-bagels
mold. Finally, we are looking less at the flask and more at what lies
within.
I perform many conversions, for adults and children, and each Jew-by-choice
adds something special to our people’s fabulous mosaic. I ask each
bar/bat mitzvah student to construct a family tree and I’ve seen ones that
trace back to leaders like Rashi on one side and
Daniel Boone on the other. They are all part of who we are and
where we come from.
The Jewish family tree is more colorful even than Barack
Obama’s. He may hail from
On MLK Weekend, nothing could taste sweeter.
The Other Meaning of MLK Day
We often link the legacy of Martin Luther King
to the civil rights struggle here – and rightly so. But while he was campaigning for equality
here in
Natan Sharansky was the great icon of that
movement. His liberation from the Gulag,
not long before that rally, was a watershed event. So now Shaansky’s daughter has just gotten married, in the hills
outside
Messianism Run Amok: Is Chabad Jewish?
There are many wonderful things that Chabad has done for the Jewish world, but beneath the great
marketing and glitz lies a messianism that is at best dangerously naďve and at
worst a radical break from normative rabbinic theology and ethical norms. Read this important article from
the Forward on the darker side as it has been expressed
recently by a Chabad leader in
Yes, that’s why they call it messianism –
because things can get very messy!
Internet Anonymity Run Amok: Is Obama a Moslem?
Wednesday’s New York Times
highlighted a major smear campaign against Barack Obama that has been burning up the Jewish internet. No, he is not a Moslem (not that there would
be anything wrong with that!). While I
do not endorse candidates and I’ve yet to make up my mind personally anyway, it
is very disturbing to see the freedom and anonymity of cyberspace abused to
such cynical ends. Anyway, nine major
Jewish leaders saw fit to respond to this rumor campaign. See the Times article here
and Michael Chabon’s response to such “fear
mongering” here.
And now, by popular demand, another
Shabbat-O-Gram exclusive from Our Man in
When you read this, you’ll see how David has become
the envy of every
Adon Olam in
Rural
By David Rodwin
My Jewish education continues to help me in unexpected ways and
places, most recently at a small school in rural
Since August, I’ve been in
This past
December, the vocational training center shut down for vacation. I decided to
use my free week to visit a few of the boarding primary schools for Dalit children run by the non-governmental organization
(NGO) that operates the center.
Transportation
in
When I arrived
at the school, a few teachers gave me a quick tour. The school is just two
years old, and basically consisted of four relatively
small concrete buildings set in a field. There were a total
of about 100 students from 5th to 7th grade, and
it seemed that all of them wanted to practice the little English they
knew.
“What’s your
name? What is your village? What’s your father’s name? Mother’s
name? Do you have brothers and sisters?” I barely had time to give an
answer before the next question would come. I keep some photos of my little
sister in my wallet, and when I passed them around there were audible oohs and ahhs.
I knew I’d be
teaching some English songs, and on the phone the previous day
my mother had suggested the preschool classic Hello, my name is Joe, complete with its frenzied gestures. I had
the help of one of the teachers to translate it, and this song turned out to be
a big hit with everyone. In what was left of my first day at the school, I also
taught Head, shoulders, knees and toes,
and Inch by Inch, Row by Row, both of
which went over very well.
On my second
day, though, I was faced with constant demands for new
songs, also with motions and gestures, and I was fresh out. I invented some
gestures for Inch by Inch, but I
didn’t know where else to go.
I was walking
around the campus, just thinking about life there at the school. It is
committed to total gender and caste equality, so all of the students wash their
own dishes and clothes, and everyone rotates to do kitchen duty and
bathroom-cleaning duty. These tasks may not seem so revolutionary, but in
India—where only girls and women cook, wash dishes, and do laundry, and only
the “lowest” castes clean the bathrooms—they constitute a crucial part of the
school’s education, and form the center of the school’s identity.
Without even
realizing it, I started to put these activities to the tune of Adon Olam. You know which tune I mean—it’s upbeat, and always a
crowd favorite. I quickly went to my notebook, grabbed a pen, and in five
minutes I had it. Here it is, with the corresponding lines of Adon Olam next to the new lyrics:
We wash our
clothes / Adon Olam
We clean our
plates / Asher Malach
We exercise / B’terem Kol
And we play
games / Y’tzir Nivrach
We love to
learn / L’et Nasah
We love our shoooool / Bchevtzo kooool
It’s so much
fun here under the sun /Azai melech
sh’mo nikrah
Please come visit soon! / Adon Olam!
The melody is
so cheerful and catchy, and it didn’t take the students long to pick it up. For
each line, I assigned a matching physical motion, which increased their
enthusiasm, and because the lyrics corresponded to their own lives and their
school, there was immediate interest.
By the
afternoon, I had a hundred Indian kids—and even a few teachers—walking around
singing to the tune of Adon Olam.
The next day, I left for another of the NGO’s schools,
and the new song proved to be equally popular there, too. In early January,
there was an event at the vocational training center for all the students from the
three schools operated by the NGO. During the talent show, three nine-year-old
little girls performed the song, complete with all the motions. The song had
left a lasting impression, and hopefully will continue to be
taught for years to come.
In the following years there may
be new AJWS volunteers here, and I hope they make it to the schools. I just
wish I could be there to see their faces when they recognize the tune to the school’s
theme song.
An account of
David’s experience in
Mitzvah/Tzedakkah Opportunties
Beth El Cares:
Inreach and Outreach
The Latest
from
The Jan Gaines
Report (Special to the Shabbat-O-Gram)
Dear friends, It’s time I finally wrote a few things. My computer is now updated to MicrosoftXP and
it does make a difference. What? you say? What took you so long?
Another
glorious Shabbat without rain. And without Bush in the
Otherwise,
I think everyone took that with a
grain of salt.
I'm busier than ever.
My favorite volunteer work is helping Ethiopian kids with English. That's once
a week for 3 hours. I just love these kids. They are enthusiastic,
rambunctious, curious. If I could work with them
every day I think it would really make a difference. I
keep reminding myself that English is their 3rd language so whatever I do is
better than nothing.
The Nutrition Project is still
happening weekly, along with an additional program for Seniors.
If I only had more money we could expand it even
further. The Ethiopians should be the focus of most of U.S. dollars
because they need it badly. Even a small thing like building a garden next to
the senior center (where both Sue and Barbara visited) so that older Ethiopian
men could grow their own veggies takes about $5000 in order to put in lights
and fences, etc. Aida has asked me if I have any sources of
funds. What can I say.?
I'm in charge of a TuB'shvat Seder at
the synagogue. We have a new young rabbi who is trying hard.,
but the Masorti movement still struggles to be viable. As long as there
is only a day and a half weekend, and as long as the Orthodox keep a stranglehold on religion here, I don't see Masorti
growing. But we're having a Seder and expect about 100 people - - hardly any
families with kids tho. There's the problem.
So., that's a summary of things. As always, my roots here
grow deeper and all my "retiree friends"
are not retired at all from being active and involved., We are a group
committed to our "community" and this country and I am proud to be a
part of their world.
Love, Jan
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30 QASSAMS SLAM INTO SDE |