1. religion and spirituality
2. judaism

Shabbat Shalom
ouka ,ca
November 1, 2014
8 Heshvan, 5775
Beth David B’nai Israel Beth Am Synagogue
Affiliated with The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
Mazal Tov to our Bar Mitzvah, Ido Feldman!
Mazal Tov to Michael Ordon and Jamie Kroft on the naming of their Daughter
Lech Lecha
Parashah: 69
lk lk
Haftarah: 95
The Haftarah for Parashat “Lech Lecha”
has been dedicated by
Naomi & Abe Gertler
in memory of Anna Paul Gertler
under the auspices of The Gross Foundation of New York.
The Haftarah for Parashat “Lech Lecha”
has been dedicated by
Jack & Phyllis Chisvin
in honour of their children and grandchildren
who bring us so much joy.
The Illumination for the Haftarah for
Parashat “Lech Lecha”
is dedicated in honour of Jack & Phyllis Chisvin
by their children and grandchildren
who are inspired by them to find their paths in the world.
Service Times
This issue of the Shabbat Shalom is sponsored by
Sam & Belle Feldman
in honour of the birth of their 4 th great-grandson
Riley Sawyer.
This issue of the Shabbat Shalom is sponsored
in honour of
Norma & Bernie Rubin, Phyllis & Jack Chisvin
in celebration of their anniversaries
and their life-long friendship.
Members are asked to refrain from
wearing fragrances in the synagogue
Friday
S.....................................
ervice Times
Friday Candle Lighting..............
Shabbat Mincha.......................
Shabbat ends...........................
Sunday -Thursday ...................
6:00 PM
5:53 PM
5:45 PM
6:51 PM
5:00 PM
Mornings:
Shabbat................................... 9:00 AM
Sunday .................................... 8:30 AM
Monday- Friday ..............7:00 & 8:00 AM
PLEASE TURN OFF ALL ELECTRONIC DEVICES WHILE IN THE SYNAGOGUE
55 Yeomans Road, Toronto, Ontario, M3H 3J7 | Phone: 416.633.5500
Fax: 416.633.1740 | www.bethdavid.com
Kiddush Sponsor
Elisheva & Eran Feldman
Belle & Berny Weinstein and Heather Ordon
The Rubin Family
Enhanced Breakfast Sponsors
Esther Kirshenblatt
Elisheva & Eran Feldman
Fay Ganz
Lou Meirovich and Moshe Meirovich
Lorraine Levene
Joe & Karen Weinberg
Sisterhood
Beth David B’nai Israel Beth Am Sisterhood
fashion show
new and exciting boutiques!
Sunday, November 2nd, 2014
Boutiques at noon
Show at 2 PM
Silent Auction
Corporate
$60 and up
Sponsor
$50
Double Chai
$36
Patroness
$25
At the door
$30
To get your tickets:
Noreen Kasman (905) 881-2164 or email [email protected] or
Lisa Levine (416) 787 8887 or email [email protected]
For reserved tables, you need 10 prepaid patronesses.
Deadline for prepaying Patronesses is October 20.
We need volunteers for the evening before and day of.
Don’t wait for your patroness call, buy your tickets today!
We are always looking for sponsors (flowers, our staging, food).
All paid patronesses before the event and any sponsorships are fully tax deductible.
New Sisterhood Members are invited
to join us on
Tuesday, November 11th
for a stimulating, fun filled evening of
"Brain Games"
with Peter Nowell
Sisterhood Hall - 8:00 p.m.
Members Free
Guests Welcome $5.00 Refreshments
Club Chaverut
Sunday November 16, 2014 at 1:30 PM
Sisterhood Hall
RITA, ALEX & FRIEND
Members: $7.00 Non-members: $10.00
RSVP to Rose Haspel at 905 764 8141 by November 10, 2014.
brotherhood
Please join us on
Saturday, November 15
at 10 AM
as our Brotherhood honors our resident
Jewish veterans with a Shabbat Service.
Services will take place at the
Sunnybrook Hospital
Jewish Chapel and a Kiddush will
follow the service.
Parking will be validated.
Rose Adler
Irving Bain
Morris Baker
Sophie Baker
Sylvia Baker
Jennie Beber
Ethel Berelovitch
Miriam Berelovitch
Morris Bloom
Isadore (Dick)
Bromstein
Gerald Cheskes
Jerry Diamond
Esther Eidelman
Beatrice Elkind
Fanny Etcovitch
Harvey Aaron Farber
Max Fine
Berek Finkelstein
George Friedman
Rose Friedman
Max Funger
Stephen Futerman
Sonia Garber
Leah Garten
Morris Gertner
Belle Gilbert
Ike Golosky
Harold Gordon
Rachel Griner
Jules Heller
William Hennick
Goldie Horenfeldt
Samuel Isenberg
Rachel Kestenberg
Stella Kirshenblatt
Morris Korn
Howard Kruger
Albert Levitt
Ya h r z e i t s c om m e m o r at e d t h i s w e e k :
Upcoming Events
Breakfast Sponsors
Phillip Rubinoff
Dina Prager
Sheryl Korn
Lillian Ander
Albert Lichter
Jack Mirsky
Felix Morton
Charles Joseph
Naiman
Irving Murray Noble
Louis Norman
Dora Nurgitz
Sam Orlan
Sydney Ozier
Israel Press
Laura Rabinovitch
Irving Robinson
Harvey Rochman
Issy Romberg
Molly Rosenberg
Rose Rosenberg
Sarah Rosenzweig
Morris Ross
Sam Lazer Rotholc
Leon Rubin
Fanny Rubinoff
David Rutman
Philip Harvey
Schwartz
Annie Serota
Al Shapiro
William Shiman
Lee Shulman
Irving Silverstein
Tema Simlewitz
Jack Stein
Harry Steinberg
Samuel Wagman
Sandra Weinberger
Abraham Willer
Ida Wineberg
Cesia Wolfowich
David Zeidman
Adult Education
Holocaust Education Week
GUEST SPEAKER - Dr. Waitman W. Beorn
Thursday, November 6th at 7:30 at Beth David
Program Title: Ruthlessly and Mercilessly:
The German Army and the Holocaust
For far too many, the German Army has escaped criticism for
its role in the Nazi genocidal project. In this lecture, Dr. Waitman
Beorn will discuss the participation of the German Army in the
Holocaust in Belarus and Poland. He will focus on the behaviour
of individuals at the local level and lay bare the many ways in
which the German Army or Wehrmacht was complicit in both the
murder and the exploitation of Jews in Eastern Europe. Relying on
archival documents, judicial interrogations, oral history and survival
testimony, Dr. Beorn paints a disturbing picture of an organization
inextricably linked to the extermination of European Jewry.
Dr. Waltman Wade Beorn is the Louis and Frances Bluntkin
Professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies and assistant professor
of History at the University of Nebraska Omaha.
As the host venue, BDBIBA is pleased to share this evening
with the Holocaust Education Centre as part of the 34th annual
Holocaust Education Week.
Generously co-sponsored by the Ganz family, in memory of
Sam Ganz, beloved father, grandfather and Holocaust survivor. Sam
created a successful new life and left an important legacy in the
Toronto Jewish community.
Join us this fall for an exciting learning series when
Dr. Aaron Nussbaum leads us in 3 sessions exploring the
legal, historic, midrashic-aggadic texts.
A fascinating opportunity to discuss the importance and
relevance of the texts today.
Dr. Nussbaum is a university lecturer and
former director of education at
Robbins Hebrew Academy.
THURSDAY: 7:30 PM - 9:00 PM
Oct 30th, Nov 13th and Nov 20th, 2014
Admission is FREE & everyone is welcome.
youth/families
Yiddish Literature with Rabbi Edward Goldfarb
Classes for November 2014 cancelled, to be rescheduled in 2015.
Yiddish Literature - Self Study
MONDAYS: Boardroom, 10-11 AM
Open to all
Tanach Reading Opportunity Corner
Our Women’s Study Group
Led by Rabbi Philip Scheim and
Ritual Director Michael Rubin
Topic for 5775:
“Genesis: The Beginning of
Desire”
A year-long course (based
on the writings of Avivah
Zornberg) exploring the roles and traditions
of women in the Book of Genesis.
Books
Classes meet twice monthly.
are available
for purchase in
1st & 3rd TUESDAYS: from 10:30 AM to
the office for
12:00 PM. Next class November 4th
$20
Admission Free Open to all
S H A B B AT S I D R A L U N C H E O N
S a t . N o v. 2 2 n d : Following morning services.
Bernard Schimmer will lead a discussion
of Toledot and the accompanying Haftarah.
Advanced registration for luncheon required: $10.00
by Tuesday Nov.18th.
Register online at www.bethdavid.com or call BDBIBA at
416-633-5500 or e-mail [email protected]
This corner is for those who would like to read Torah or a
Haftarah in general, but also especially for anyone who might like
to mark the anniversary of their Bar/Bat Mitzvah celebration or
Wedding Aufruf by reading from the same portion chanted on that
special occasion. You will find here a list of coming Shabbatot &
Festivals when there is no Simcha taking place at our Synagogue,
meaning the Haftarah and any Torah reading is open to our
members. If you are interested, please contact Michael Rubin
directly by email –[email protected] – and confirm your
chanting assignment!
Also, we would like to update our records of when your Bar/Bat
Mitzvah took place. Please email Michael Rubin with details –
Gregorian date and Parashah. We look forward to hearing you relive
the excitement of that special day, however many years ago!
Reading Openings:
Shabbat / Festival
Shabbat November 15
Shabbat November 22
Shabbat December 20
Shabbat December 27
Shabbat January 3
Shabbat January 10
Shabbat January 24
Shabbat January 31
Shabbat February 7
Shabbat February 14
Shabbat February 21
Shabbat February 28
Shabbat March 7
Shabbat March 28
Parashah
Hayei Sarah
Toledot Mikeitz – Hanukkah
VaYigash
VaYechi
Shemot
Bo
B'Shallach - Shirah
Yitro
Mishpatim - Shekalim
Terumah
Tetzaveh - Zachor
Ki Tissa
Tzav - haGadol
Haftarah Torah
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This week’s Tora h r e a di ng :
Lech Lecha lk lk
Parashah: 69 Haftarah: 95
his seventy-fifth year, Abraham is suddenly
Incommanded
by God:
“Lech Lecha: Go forth from your native land and from
your father’s house to the land that I will show you.”
This is our introduction to Abraham.
The vagueness of his itinerary notwithstanding,
Abraham immediately accepts the mission and
undertakes the journey with his wife Sarah and nephew
Lot, and “ve’et haNefesh asher asu b’Haran: the
persons that they had acquired (literally, that they had
made) in Haran.” Rashi suggests that the people “that
they had made ” refers to converts; “Abraham converted
the men, and Sarah converted the women” to worship of
God. To this day, converts to Judaism are referred to as
the son/daughter of Abraham and Sarah.
Abraham continues his journey until he reaches
Shechem, in the heart of what would later be the Land
of Israel. God promises him the land as an everlasting
inheritance, Abraham builds an altar, and continues his
journey southwards toward the Negev.
“No sooner does Abraham receive the divine blessings
than the contrasting reality of the present asserts itself.
The promises of nationhood and territory seem to be in
danger of miscarrying. Famine drives him from the land,
and physical peril threatens him and his wife. But God’s
purposes cannot be frustrated by human powers. The
hand of providence is ever ready to deliver those whom
He has chosen.
Dear Members,
When calling the office for your various Synagogue activities and needs,
please note the extensions listed below for our office staff.
This will help make your office experience more efficient.
Cari Kozierok Bahar (ext. 22)
Robyn Zajac-Cooper (ext. 35)
Jeev Logan (ext. 27), Kisanth Sathi (ext. 25)
Helene Jacobs (ext.28), Faye Major (ext. 0), Simmi Toby (ext. 24)
The theme of peril and reaffirmation of promises is a
recurring one throughout the Book of Genesis.
“As Abraham approaches the Egyptian border, he fears
that Sarah’s great beauty might tempt some malevolent
person to murder him and take her. In order to save
his life, he asks his wife to pass herself off as his sister.
Sure enough, his fears prove to be well-founded. Sarah
is spotted by Pharoah’s officials, who carry her off to
the royal palace. Only divine intervention protects her
honour, and she returns to her husband unviolated.”
(Nahum Sarna, New JPS Torah Commentary: Genesis)
Again, God repeats His promise to Abraham, this time
telling him that all the land visible in all directions will
belong to him and his descendants. Again, Abraham
builds an altar. Lot, his nephew, is kidnapped. Abraham,
in alliance with three kings, mounts a military campaign
to rescue his nephew. He succeeds, acquires much booty,
out of which he refuses to keep for himself “as much as a
thread or a sandle-strap.”
God establishes His covenant with Abraham in the
brit bayn ha-betarim, the Covenant of the Pieces
(Ch. 15). Abraham, through concubine Hagar, sires a
son, Ishmael. God further restates the covenant with
Abraham and institutes Brit Milah, the covenant of
circumcision. Abraham is told that Sarah, is to give birth
to a son at age 90, news that Abraham, understandably,
receives with laughter
Rabbi Philip S. Scheim
Philip S. Scheim - Rabbi | Marshall Loomer - Cantor | Michael Rubin - Ritual Director
Cari Kozierok Bahar - Executive Director
David Bienstock - President
Andy Pascoe - Vice President, Finance and Administration
Madeleine Sarick -Vice President, Programming and Ritual
Steven Risenman - Vice President, House and Property
Karen Bernstein - Secretary
Jerry Paskowitz - Treasurer
Ettie Schimmer - Past President
Steven Risenman - Brotherhood President
Lisa Levine - Sisterhood President
Chairman of the Board - Barry Levine