THE SHMOOZE A Weekly Newsletter for Members and Friends of Bais Abraham Congregation Hyim Shafner, Rabbi Rori Picker Neiss, Maharat Parshat Vayikra Rosh Chodesh Nisan 21 March 2015 Candle Lighting 6:55 p.m. Shabbat Ends 7:54 p.m. (according to www.myzmanim.com) This Shabbat and Bais Abe Events Contacts Shul Office (314) 721-3030 [email protected] Rabbi Hyim Shafner [email protected] Maharat Rori Picker Neiss [email protected] Greg Storch, President [email protected] Kiddush Sponsorship [email protected] Shmooze Submissions [email protected] Davening Schedule Shabbat 6:55 p.m. – Fri. Mincha/Maariv 9:00 a.m. – Sat. Shacharit 6:34 p.m. – Sat. Mincha, Maariv Sunday 8:30 a.m. – Shacharit Monday – Friday 6:30 a.m. – Shacharit Office Hours Monday: 10:00 am – 4:00 pm Tuesday: 10:00 am – 4:00 pm Wednesday: 10:00 am – 4:00 pm Thursday: 10:00 am – 4:00 pm Friday: 10:00 am – 4:00 pm Cholent Kiddush All are invited to a cholent Kiddush lunch following Saturday morning services. IS-REEL Movie Night This Saturday Come this Saturday evening, March 21st at 8:30 pm for the Israeli movie, Children of the Sun. There will be a Q&A with people who grew up on kibbutzim, as well as Israeli refreshments. All are invited! See the flyer in the Shmooze for more information. Preparing for Passover: Heart, Mind, & Spirit-Wednesday, March 25 Take a break from all your cleaning and cooking to focus in on the most important Passover preparation: yourself. Join Rabbi Hyim Shafner and Maharat Rori Picker Neiss this Wednesday from 7:30-9:00 pm at Bais Abe for an exploration of some of the deeper meanings of Passover. Together we will explore Hasidic writings, Rabbinic teachings, and more. Lunch and Learn Next Shabbat – March 28th Next Shabbat we will be joined by Dr. Stephen H. Legomsky who will speak on the topic, “Once We Were Slaves.” The holiday of Passover commemorates our exodus from oppression and the beginning of our journey to freedom and redemption. Yet, how many people in our world today struggle to escape their own suffering? What options are available for those who seek freedom? Join us for a study of immigration policies in the United States and Israel and an exploration of Jewish understandings of refuge. The Lunch and Learn is sponsored by Jessica and Michael Friedlander in memory of Jessica’s parents, Belle and Jacob Kramer; Fawn Chapel and Alan Nemes; and an anonymous donor. This week’s Shmooze is sponsored by Alice Thomas. Shalom and Welcome! We at Bais Abe pride ourselves on hospitality and openness to Jews of all backgrounds. We strive to build a community rooted in mutual respect and commitment to Torah values and Halacha (Jewish law). Please feel free to contact Rabbi Shafner at [email protected] for any information that may be helpful to you. If you would like a place for a Shabbat meal, our eager hosts would love to welcome you. Please email [email protected]. Bais Abraham Board of Directors Greg Storch President Gabe Douek Vice President Daniel Picker Bais Abe Junior Book Club – Next Saturday, March 28 The Bais Abe Junior Book Club will meet next Shabbat to discuss the book Stealing Home by Ellen Schwartz. Tefillat Yeladim will be at 10:30, and the book club will follow at 11:15. For more information, see the flyer in this week’s Shmooze. Treasurer Dan Weisz Secretary Phyllis Shapiro Immediate Past President Passover 2015/5775 Passover is quickly approaching. Go to the Bais Abe website, http://baisabe.com/passover-2015/, for holiday details, directions for kashering your homes, guidelines for shopping, and more. Directors: Aviva Buck-Yael Barbra Danin Larry Friedman Morey Gardner Tessa Gardner Barry Ginsburg Alexander Griffel Judy Hoffman Harvey Iken Judith Medoff Alan Nemes Roz Neuman Michael Novack Dan Scharff Stuart Shilcrat Alice Thomas Rob Wasserman Richard Wise Bais Abe will not be hosting a seder this year. If anyone is looking for a place for one or both seders, please contact the shul office. May everyone have a Chag Kasher v'Sameach, a kosher and joyous holiday. A Passover Gift for Bais Abe Members and Friends Enjoy your coffee or tea with a brand new Bais Abe mug! We have mugs for members and friends of Bais Abe. Pick up your Pesach gift at the shul. Bais Abe Committees We are currently recruiting members for Bais Abe’s committees. These committees carry out essential work for the shul. The work of the committees is done by volunteers and your help is needed. Working on a committee is a great way to help the shul. It is also a great way to meet and get to know other members of the congregation. Below is a list of committees with their chairs. Please contact shul president Greg Storch, [email protected], if you are interested in joining a committee or if you would like more information. Finance – Greg Storch Development – Dan Scharff Membership – Aviva Buck-Yael Programming – Barbra Danin and Phyllis Shapiro Chesed – Fawn Chapel and Roberta Gutwein Ritual – Alan Nemes Building/Design – Barry Ginsburg and Tessa Gardner Community Service Committee Meeting – April 12th & Volunteer Opportunities The next meeting of the Community Service Committee will be April 12th at 10:00 am. We would like to receive your suggestions for volunteer opportunities for Bais Abe members. These opportunities should be fully organized existing projects which we can join with no financial expense. Please email your suggestions to Alice Thomas at [email protected] or call 314-683-8333. Also, on Wednesday, March 25th at 3:30 up to 4 volunteers are needed to create team captain packets for the NAMI WALKS event at NAMI's Brentwood office. NAMI is the National Alliance on Mental Illness. They also need volunteers to help set up the NAMI WALKS Team Captains' Luncheon at the Hilton Frontenac Hotel the morning of Friday, March 27. Please contact Alice if you would like to volunteer for either or both of these opportunities. Additionally there is an interesting project at The Crown Center Kosher Café. The flyer is attached to the Shmooze. Bais Abraham Joins AmazonSmile Every time you shop on Amazon, you can benefit Bais Abe. Amazon donates 0.5% of the price of your eligible AmazonSmile purchases to the charitable organization of your choice. It's simple to register. Just click on this link and designate Bais Abraham Synagogue as your charity of choice. http://smile.amazon.com/ch/43-0782212 Make your pre-Pesach purchases really count! Contact Phyllis Shapiro [email protected] with any questions. Passport to Israel If you would like to sign up through Bais Abraham for Passport to Israel which will enable you to save money and receive matching funds through the Jewish Federation for future Israel trips for your child please click here: http://www.cajestl.org/i-passport.php. Our Weekly Shabbat "Tefilat Yeladim" (Children's Service) Our weekly Tefilat Yeladim is a wonderful opportunity to introduce your children (or grandchildren!) to the beauty of praying with a community on Shabbat morning. We use a special colorful children's siddur with illustrations (by Koren publishers) that familiarizes the children with the prayers they will hear in shul as they grow up. Spearheaded by Caley Chill and supported by the Benot Sheirut, services will be at 10:30 every Shabbat in the Bais Abe auditorium. Tefilat Yeladim is sponsored by the Feen family and an anonymous donor. Shul Announcements Bais Abraham’s New Website Bais Abraham's new website is now live! A big thank you to Russel Neiss for all his hard work redesigning our site. We are in the process of editing some content and adding pages. If you have any updates for the site please send them to Jennifer Lorch, [email protected]. Passover Food Collection There is now a blue food collection bin in the shul lobby. Please bring Kosher for Passover ONLY items to place in this bin, which will then be donated to the Harvey Kornblum Jewish Food Pantry. Help others in the community celebrate Passover! See Marty Geller with any questions. Volunteer Numismatist Needed Do you enjoy collecting and researching currency? Bais Abe has a volunteer project for you! Please contact the office for more information. Bais Abe Building Access If you require access to the Shul on a regular basis please contact Rabbi Shafner or Barry Ginsburg for a side door code. Shmooze Sponsorship Bais Abe’s weekly newsletter, The Shmooze, is a community effort and can use your help. Sponsor a week’s publication for only $10. Please contact the office for more details. Bais Abe Board Meetings Bais Abe board meetings are held on the 2nd Tuesdays of each month. All Bais Abe members are welcome. If you have any questions contact [email protected]. Bais Abe Committees Have something to contribute? Want to make a difference here in your own community? Take action and join one of Bais Abe's committees. To find out more about joining a committee please contact [email protected] Support the Shul While Shopping Every time you shop at Schnucks, you can earn money for Bais Abraham. Our shul participates in Schnucks’ "Scrip" program. It's easy. Just show your Bais Abe scrip card when you check out and your purchases create automatic contributions to the shul of up to 3% of your purchase price. Our mathematical consultant ran the numbers and estimates that if we have full participation, the shul can make approximately $6,000 a year. Email or call the office for a scrip wallet or key-chain card and begin earning money for the shul on your next trip to Schnucks. Do you “Like” Bais Abe on Facebook? Find Bais Abe on Facebook at www.tinyurl.com/BaisAbeFacebook. Sponsoring a Kiddush at Bais Abe Sponsoring a Kiddush or "Lunchish" is a wonderful way to mark a simcha or yahrzeit. Or you can honor a loved one by sponsoring one of our monthly Lunch & Learns. Now, you can also sponsor seudah shlishit for just $54! If you would like to sponsor (or co-sponsor) any of the above, please contact the office or Kiddush Chair, Judy Hoffman ([email protected]). They will go over costs and help you plan the Kiddush or lunch you want. Please help shul members plan ahead by letting us know about your wish to sponsor at least 10 days in advance. Thank you! Reminder: No perfume/cologne in the synagogue Please refrain from wearing perfume/cologne in the synagogue because some of our members are highly allergic. If you inadvertently arrive at the shul wearing any scents, please wash them off. Attention: people with nut allergies If you have a nut allergy, for your safety please assume that any foods or beverages served at Bais Abe may contain nuts or have been prepared on equipment that processes nuts. Please feel comfortable asking those in charge of food or beverages about their nut content and they will try to provide it if possible. Upcoming Kiddush and Shabbat Calendar March 28 Lunch & Learn with Dr. Stephen H. Legomsky Jessica & Michael Friedlander in memory of Jessica’s parents, Belle & Jacob Kramer; Alan Nemes & Fawn Chapel; and an anonymous donor April 4 Cholent Kiddush Sponsor Invited April 11 Cholent Kiddush Sponsor Invited To RSVP for an event email [email protected] or call 721-3030. Halacha Highlight Shabbat Rosh Chodesh Nissan – A Busy Time on the Bima There will be a lot of activity during the Torah reading this Shabbat morning, with three Torahs involved, due to the fact it is Rosh Chodesh Nissan, the first day of the month of Nissan. We will take the three Torahs out and walk around the shul with them all (with women carrying them through the women’s section). We will read the regular Shabbat parsha (portion – this week, Vayikra) from first Torah, and re-wrap it. Then we will open the second Torah and read the special section that is read on Rosh Chodesh (Bamidbar 28). After we re-wrap that Torah, we will open the third Torah and read the fourth of the Arba Parshiyot (the four special Torah readings leading up to Pesach). It comes from Shemot 12, and among other things, contains the rule of eating Matzah on Pesach. This Shabbat is also when the law of the blessing over trees in bloom begins. This is a beautiful blessing that we each get to recite only once a year – the first time after the first day of Nissan that we see a fruit tree in bloom (Shulchan Aruch 226). Here is the blessing so you can be prepared for when you first see a fruit tree in bloom! “Baruch Ata Hashem Elokeinu Melech HaOlam shelo chiseir b’olamo klum, u’bara bo briot tovot v’ilanot tovot l’hei’anot bahem bnei adam (Blessed are You, Hashem our God, King of the universe who did not omit anything from his universe, and created in it good creatures and good trees for the benefit of humankind).” Jack Shapiro Bais Abraham Learning-at-a-Glance Class Instructor Basics of Judaism Rabbi Shafner “Torah on Tap” Rabbi Shafner Women’s Class: Book of Shoftim (Judges) Alternating between Rabbi Shafner and Maharat Rori Picker Neiss Midrash Tehillim Maharat Rori Picker Neiss Parshat Hashavua Maharat Rori Picker Neiss Women’s Torah Learning Group Beit Midrash Chevruta (Partner) Study Deepen Your Davening/Explanatory Prayer Class Time & Place Mondays, 7:30 p.m. at Bais Abe Periodic Monday nights see Shmooze for exact dates and times Tuesdays, 9:30 a.m. Gardner Beit Midrash Wednesdays, 9:15 a.m. Home of Leslie Litwack Wednesday, 1:00 p.m. Home of Adinah Raskas Maharat Rori Picker Neiss Wednesdays, 5:00 p.m. at Bais Abe You and your chevruta (partner) Wednesdays, 7:30 p.m. in the Bais Abe Auditorium Rabbi Shafner Each Shabbat, approx. 10:15 a.m. in the Gardner Beit Midrash Shalhevet Women’s Kollel Partnered learning + shiur with Maharat Rori Picker Neiss 1 and 3 Tuesdays of the month, 7:30 p.m. – 9:00 pm at Bais Abe Hinenu Shabbat Study Group Stuart Klamen Each Shabbat, 1 hour before the printed mincha time st rd St. Louis Jewish Community News Maos Chitim Fund Each year the Vaad Hoeir collects money for those in need of extra funds to buy food for Passover. If you want to donate to the fund please mail a check to: "maos chitim" Vaad Hoeir of St Louis, #4 Millstone Campus Dr. St. Louis, MO 63146. If you require monetary assistance for Passover and would like to make use of the communities' maot chitim fund please contact Penina Glassman 7261021. [email protected]. All requests will be held in strict confidence. Interfaith Hunger Seder – March 25th An Interfaith Hunger Seder will be held on Wednesday March 25, 5:30 to 7:00 PM at Ladue Chapel, 9450 Clayton Road. All are invited to learn more about the problem of hunger in the region and beyond, as well as what can be done to help. Participation requires a canned food donation. Space is limited and RSVPs are required by March 20 to 314-442-3871 or [email protected]. Chabad Student Association presents: From Auschwitz Survivor to Wash U. Student Wednesday, March 25, 7 PM Graham Chapel, Washington University Professor Eugen Schoenfeld (B.A. 1951) shares reflections on the Holocaust, morality, and the problem of evil. Eugen Schoenfeld was born in 1925 in the Carpathian town of Munkacs in what is now Ukraine. He was raised and educated in the deeply rooted traditions of the Jewish faith amid a large and active Jewish community. However, Hitler’s Final Solution would irrevocably change his close-knit family. Having survived the ghetto and internment in Germany’s infamous camps, the young man immigrated to the United States to begin to rebuild his life and complete his formal education with an education at Washington University in St. Louis. He later went on to an illustrious academic career, in which he chaired the Department of Sociology at Georgia State University, where he developed the department’s Ph.D. program. Supported by Student Union of Washington University in St. Louis. Eight Months Post-Ferguson: The Journey from Recovery to Rebuilding - April 16th There will be a panel discussion, “Eight Months Post-Ferguson: The Journey from Recovery to Rebuilding,” Thursday April 16, 7:00 to 8:30 PM, at the Sheet Metal Workers Local 36, 2319 Chouteau. The event is free and open to the public. Reservations are requested: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/eight-months-post-ferguson-the-journey-form-recovery-to-rebuildingtickets-15975172170. Please contact Gail Wechsler at JCRC with any questions, 314-442-3894. Community ListServe The St. Louis Jewish Community has an active ListServe where members can offer items for sale, ask for items or services, read about community events, and more. The ListServ is a perfect place to offer items that you no longer need that someone else may enjoy. Many people benefit from such posts. To become a member of the community ListServe just email [email protected] Posting is easy! Just email your post to [email protected]. Shmooze Classified Wise & Scott, LLC Certified Public Accountants 2333 Grissom Drive, Suite 106 St. Louis, MO 63146-3322 Phone: (314)569.0301 Fax: (314)569.0878 We are a full service CPA firm providing traditional financial reporting, taxation and management advisory services, including estate planning and real estate, tax controversy and litigation services. Richard M. Wise, CPA, JD Kenneth Scott, CPA Fabric Art by Berta for Passover Get your order for Passover from Fabric Art by Berta. A donation will be made to the Shul with every purchase. The matzoh cover with the afikkomen bag is $45.00 and the Apron is $22.00. Call or email Berta for more information, 314-725-7499 or [email protected]. Advertising in Shmooze Classified You can advertise in Shmooze Classified for two weeks for $18. We have a readership of about 200. Please send text to [email protected] and a check to the shul office. שלום שבת Submit articles and announcements for publication by Thursday morning to [email protected]. Advertise in the Shmooze Classified section and on Bais Abraham’s website for two weeks for $18. For further news and general information about our shul please check out our website at www.baisabe.com. The Shmooze© is a community publication of Bais Abraham Congregation, 6910 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, Missouri, 63130. Hyim Shafner, Rabbi.
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