Rabbi Joshua Hammerman TBE Shabbat-O-Gram

March 7, 2008 – 1 Adar 2, 5768

Rosh Hodesh – Shabbat Shekalim

Rabbi Joshua Hammerman, Temple Beth El, Stamford, Connecticut

IN MEMORIAM:

TO THE VICTIMS OF THE HORRIBLE MASSACRE AT the Mercaz Harav yeshiva

in Jerusalem:

Yochai Lipschitz, 18, of Jerusalem; Yonatan Yitzchak Eldar, 16, of Shiloh;

Yonadav Chaim Hirschfeld, 19, of Kochav Hashahar; Neriah Cohen, 15, of Jerusalem;

Roey Roth, 18, of Elkana; Segev Pniel Avihayil, 15, of Neveh Daniel;

Avraham David Moses, 16, of Efrat; and Maharata Trunoch, 26, of Ashdod.

May their memories be for a blessing

FOR THE LATEST FROM HA’ARETZ:

· 8 killed in terrorist attack at Jerusalem yeshiva

· Jerusalem yeshiva student: I shot the terrorist twice in the head

· U.S. accuses Libya of blocking UN condemnation of J'lem attack

· ANALYSIS: Gazans see attack on yeshiva as unusual achievement

· With a wink and a nod

----------------

Thank you to the Schoenfeld and Cohen families for sponsoring this week’s Shabbat-O-Gram

AND THIS WEEK’S SHABBAT UNPLUGGED

in honor of the b’not mitzvah of Jessica Schoenfeld and Rachel Cohen!

Special Occasion? Sponsor a Shabbat Bulletin, (sent every Friday morning via e-mail),

the Shabbat Announcements (Distributed each Shabbat at the Temple)

& 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

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.”

Prior Shabbat-O-Grams are archived at http://www.tbe.org/sog/index.php.

Dinner begins at 6:30

Even if you did not sign up for dinner, by all means join us at Shabbat Unplugged!!!

The service begins at the special time of 8:00 PM

We have over 200 joining us for dinner!

Unfortunately, reservations can no longer be taken.

Our office is compiling a waiting list in case there are last minute cancellations.

----------------

Contents of the Shabbat O Gram:

(Click to scroll down)

Just the Facts

The (Occasionally) Ranting Rabbi

Mitzvah/Tzedakkah Opportunities

Ask the Rabbi

Spiritual Journey on the Web

The Beth El Bar/Bat Mitzvah Commentary

Required Reading and Action Items (links to key articles on Israel and Jewish life)

Joke for the Week

Quote for the Week

“At the heart of the Conservative movement is the mandate to ask uncomfortable and inconvenient questions,

because comfort and convenience are not religious values,

but intellectual honesty and resolute action are.”

- Rabbi Sharon Brous

JUST THE FACTS

Candle lighting: 5:35 pm on Friday, March 7, 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.

MAZAL TOV TO JESSICA SCHOENFELD, WHO BECOMES BAT MITZVAH ON SHABBAT MORNING

AND TO RACHEL COHEN, WHO BECOMES BAT MITZVAH AT OUR MINCHA-HAVDALAH SERVICE!

THE FULL SERVICE SCHEDULE NOW APPEARS ON THE SEPARATE TBE ANNOUNCEMENTS E-MAIL

Shabbat Services:

Shabbat Unplugged

8:00 Friday night in the chapel

Shabbat morning @ 9:30 AM, Children’s services at 10:30

Mincha-Havdalah: 5:15 PM

Morning Minyan: 7:30 Weekdays, 9:30 Sundays

WE’VE BEEN HAVING DIFFICULTY OF LATE ACHIEVING A MINYAN EACH DAY.

PEOPLE WHO ARE SAYING KADDISH NEED YOUR HELP! PLEASE COME TO MINYAN!

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.

Now you can become more comfortable with the prayers of our morning service by heading to…

http://www.tbe.org/site/sog/minyanmastery.htm

Reminder of our “No School No Shul” policy: On days when Stamford public schools are cancelled or delayed, morning minyan is officially cancelled. During school vacation weeks, please use your own judgment. If significant snow has fallen during the night, it is unlikely that our lot will have been plowed out by morning. On Sunday, when our religious school is cancelled because of weather, minyan is also cancelled. Friday night and Shabbat morning services are never cancelled, but people are asked to use their own good judgment on days when the weather is very bad.

Torah Reading For Shabbat Morning

This week we have a rare “trifecta.”

We read from three Torah scrolls,

one for the weekly portion,

one for Rosh Hodesh

and one for the special Shabbat, Shabbat Shekalim

Torah Portion: Exodus 38:21 - 40:38

1: 38:21-23
2: 38:24-27
3: 38:28-39:1
4: 39:2-7
5: 39:8-14
6: 39:15-18
7: 39:19-21

On Shabbat Rosh Chodesh
Numbers 28:9-15

On Shabbat Shekalim

Exodus 30:11 - 30:16 (special maftir)

Haftarah: II Kings 12:1 - 12:17

Commentaries

A Personal Message

I am overjoyed to respond to the e-mail that our president Gary Lessen has sent to the congregation, announcing an agreement on a contract renewal designed to bring stability and growth to our congregation. After a prolonged process and a very difficult 2 ½ years for all of us, it is over.

The journalist Paul Cowan z’l once commented, while undergoing cancer treatments, “I try to maintain hope – or at least the memory of hope – when I am consumed with fear or despair. I believe that hope is a part of the will to live.”

Hope is something that is built into our Jewish DNA, so much so that when Barack Obama was searching for a way to describe hope, he chose a Jewish expression, “Repair of the World,” Tikkun Olam. I don’t know whether he’d be a good president or how he really feels about Israel, but when he looked for an idiom to express something that has struck a chord all over this country, he looked in our Jewish lexicon.

I can promise you, that if I weren’t at heart a hopeful person, I would not be here right now. I am here today for a variety reasons, some having to do with my own sense of what is right and just and some with what I hope my children will tell their children about the rabbi and person their father was. But mostly, I am here because of you, the dedication and trust you’ve placed in me, and my belief - which has never wavered - in the goodness and potential of this congregation. The fact that, over these two very difficult years, we have accomplished so much, is a tribute to you, to the entire congregation. The amazing things we have achieved financially and programmatically gives us a glimpse of what we’ll be able to accomplish when stability reigns, when the issue at hand is not contract renewal but communal rejuvenation, and when we can fully realize this partnership between us, a partnership for growth.

It is now time to check our negativity and fear at the door.

A congregation is truly fortunate when the rabbi, cantor, educator and youth advisor are all philosophically on the same page. We have that now and that spirit will continue with our next educator. A congregation is extraordinarily fortunate when the rabbi, executive director and president speak in one voice, as we have now. When there is harmony at the top, it filters down everywhere, to the executive committee and board and to the committees and the congregation. When this agreement was announced by our the negotiating committee and our extraordinarily menschlicht president at Tuesday’s board meeting, there was applause and a palpable sigh of relief. We are poised to do great things. And we need to.

To quote the great philosopher, Randy Moss, who also announced that he is staying put a little north of here: “We have unfinished business.”

I intend to hit the ground running, even before all the contractual i’s have been dotted. We cannot afford to wait. We can not waste a minute of our precious opportunity to make a profound difference in the lives of our congregants and in the Jewish world. But if we are going to do that, all of us must roll up our sleeves. It’s no longer about whether you support “the rabbi,” it’s now all about whether you support Beth El. There is no two party system here, it is one party and that party is us. We need all of you to come to our programs and services. We need for people to set aside differences, shorten their memories, forgive, forget and move on. I can tell you that the spirit of healing is already being felt especially at the leadership level. We need you to open your minds to new and creative ideas, to dream big dreams and then go out and help us fulfill them. Our fellow congregants and our descendents deserve no less. The Jewish people deserves no less.

I’ll be setting up meetings in the near future with past presidents and community leaders, to help strengthen all the partnerships that are so vital to our future. I’ve invited the board to a visioning and strategic planning session that will take place at my home in early June. I am also working on several other new initiatives that will strengthen our impact on the community and the Jewish world and to draw us closer to our movement and to Israel. Along those lines, I hope many will join me in Norwalk next Thursday to welcome the new JTS chancellor to our county, and I also invite congregants to join me in Washington this coming June at the annual AIPAC Policy Conference, which I’ll be attending. You’ll hear about other initiatives in the near future. There is important work that has been set aside for too long.

After more than 20 years in one community, it is very easy for a rabbi to coast and for the entire community to stagnate. It happens more often than not. We have the unique opportunity now to reap the benefits of both long-term stability AND a renewed sense of purpose, creativity and energy. We now have a reason to roll up our sleeves and get to work.

We have accomplished so much together, even during these past few difficult years. No one would have chosen this tortuous path to a new contract, but I feel that I have grown from the experience, that my family has come closer together through it and that we all have learned much about ourselves and our community. I’ve certainly come to a far greater appreciation of just how wonderful this congregation is. I would be remiss if I didn’t thank all those who put themselves on the line for me, in a variety of forums, because it is clear that the voices of the congregation were heard and made a tremendous difference. I also thank those who expressed their support more privately, and to those who are less enthusiastic about this news, I will always continue to try harder. And I thank the Board of Trustees, in particular, for their diligence and fairness. This Rosh Hodesh Adar is a time for all of us to be joyous (though now mixed with sadness because of last night’s attack in Jerusalem). No one can say that what we’ve been through was for the best, but we are a stronger congregation today and because of what we’ve experienced, we’ll be stronger five years from now than we are today.

We’ve come a long way. I look forward to continuing this journey for some time to come.

Thank you for the trust you have placed in me.

So come and sing and dance with us this Shabbat! Be doubly happy! It’s Adar II!

Rabbi Joshua Hammerman

"Town Hall" Meeting to Feature JTS Chancellor – Next Thursday, March 13 in Norwalk

EACH CONGREGATION HAS BEEN ASKED TO COME UP WITH A QUESTION TO ASK THE CHANCELLOR THAT NIGHT.

PLEASE SEND ME ANY IDEAS YOU HAVE AS TO WHAT YOU THINK TBE’S QUESTION SHOULD BE!

Professor Arnold M. Eisen, Chancellor of The Jewish Theological Seminary, will discuss “Standing Up for Conservative Judaism” in his first public address in Connecticut. The “town hall” style meeting will take place at 8:00 p.m. on Thursday, March 13 at Congregation Beth El, 109 East Avenue, Norwalk.

Community partners include Congregation Rodeph Sholom, Bridgeport; Congregation Beth El, Fairfield; the Carl and Dorothy Bennett Center for Judaic Studies at Fairfield University; Temple Sholom, Greenwich; Congregation Beth El, Norwalk; Temple Beth El, Stamford; and the Conservative Synagogue of Westport, Weston and Wilton.

Chancellor Eisen, one of the world's foremost experts on American Judaism, has worked closely for the past twenty years with synagogue and federation leadership around the country to analyze and address the issues of Jewish identity, the revitalization of Jewish tradition, and the redefinition of the American Jewish community.

A product of the Conservative Movement, Chancellor Eisen has regularly served as a faculty member of the Wexner Heritage Program, the Wexner Fellowship, and the Nahum Goldmann Fellowship of the Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. He has served, and is now serving again, as a member of the Board of Governors of the Jewish Agency and has long been well known as a passionate advocate of strengthening the connection between American Jews and Israel.

Chancellor Eisen's publications include a personal essay, Taking Hold of Torah: Jewish Commitment and Community in America (1997); a historical work entitled Rethinking Modern Judaism: Ritual, Commandment, Community (1998); and The Jew Within: Self, Family and Community in America (2000), coauthored with sociologist Steven M. Cohen. He is currently at work on a book that probes new possibilities for the meaning of Zionism.

Chancellor Eisen received a PhD in the History of Jewish Thought from Hebrew University; a BPhil in the Sociology of Religion at Oxford University; and a BA in Religious Thought from the University of Pennsylvania. Before assuming his role as chancellor, he was the Koshland Professor of Jewish Culture and Religion at Stanford University. He previously served as senior lecturer in the Department of Jewish Philosophy at Tel Aviv University, and assistant professor in the Department of Religion at Columbia University.

The event is free and open to the public. For more information and to RSVP, please contact Joan Goodman, director of the Northeast Region of JTS, at (212) 678-8861.

What does this chart below tell us?

From the Atlantic Monthly: “And The Winner Is...:

The coming religious peace”

by Alan Wolfe

“…Breathless warnings about rising religious fervor and conflicts to come ignore two basic facts. First, many areas of the world are experiencing a decline in religious belief and practice. Second, where religions are flourishing, they are also generally evolving—very often in ways that allow them to fit more easily into secular societies, and that weaken them as politically disruptive forces. The French philosopher Blaise Pascal once famously showed that it would be irrational to bet against the existence of God. It would be equally foolish, in the long run, to bet against the power of the Enlightenment. The answer to the question of which religion will dominate the future, at least politically, may well be: None of the above.”

Now Playing in Stamford – the highly acclaimed Israeli Film, “The Band’s Visit”

It is being held over for one more week!!!!

See the schedule at http://www.avontheatre.org/calendar.html

THE BAND'S VISIT
Directed by Eran Kolirin
rated PG-13, 1 hr 29 min
Visit the official site

Israeli filmmaker Eran Kolirin’s debut feature, THE BAND’S VISIT, is a subtle, heartfelt, and humane work that goes a long way toward dissolving the incredibly complex cultural divide that continues to plague the Middle East. When the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra flies from Egypt to Israel to perform at the opening of an Arab culture center, they are left stranded at the airport. Their leader, Tewfiq (Sasson Gabai), orders the handsome violinist, Khaled (Saleh Bakri), to solve their predicament, but it turns out that he’s gotten the wrong information. By that time, it’s too late. All eight members are left standing alone in a quiet desert town far from their intended destination with no way to get where they need to go. Tired, hungry, and confused, they find shelter at a restaurant run by the pretty but brash Dina (Ronit Elkabetz). It’s clear that Dina is bored with her lonely life, so she talks Tewfiq into letting the band stay over for the night: he and Khaled will stay with her, and the others will be put up at the home of Itzik (Rubi Moscovich). Over the course of the night, Tewfiq and Dina bond, Khaled helps a hapless local discover his inner Romeo, and the other band members find themselves caught up in a domestic situation that is less than perfect. Kolirin perfectly navigates his film’s slice-of-life tone, blending comedy and drama and poignancy without ever succumbing to one completely. In the wrong hands, this material could turn into a quirk-fest that parodies everyday life. Yet under Kolirin’s assured command, it becomes something that feels like life itself. THE BAND’S VISIT is funny, lonely, inspiring, sad, and beautiful all at once.

Beth El Cares:

Inreach and Outreach

Yesterday afternoon, a new Honda Odyssey was hit in our parking lot, probably by a car backing out of another parking space. Perhaps the driver didn't realize how hard s/he tapped the bumper. If you have any information about this, please contact Cathy Satz at csscounsel@yahoo.com as she would like the driver to pay for the repairs to her car. If you prefer to do this more anonymously, please contact either Rabbi Hammerman or Steve Lander. Thank you.

BETH EL (REALLY) CARES

We are currently embarking on some new initiatives for inreach, including groups of people who will do visitations at nursing homes and hospital, rides to temple events, providing baby sitters for congregants, as well as those sustaining and growing our daily minyan, along with other inreach initiatives. If you are interested in participating in any of these endeavors, please contact me at rabbi@tbe.org