The Kibbitzer APRIL 2015 N I SSA N — IY YA R 5 7 7 5 Temple Am Shalom Mentor, Ohio LEADERSHIP COLUMN H ello friends, Finally, April has arrived and we can look forward to sunshine and showers helping to bring forth the blooming of colorful flowers and green trees. Spring is one of my favorite times of the year. If only we had more of it! Spring also reminds us of the Passover holiday and the family seder meals to share. I enjoy the teachings and history experienced during the Pesach seder meal. It’s a wonderful part of our Jewish heritage that we can pass on to future generations. Don’t forget to join your temple family at our Congregational Seder on Friday, April 10 at 6:00 p.m. The cost is $12 for adults and $6.00 for children 12 and under. Please call the temple office by Wednesday April 8 to RSVP and indicate the number of people attending and the side dish or dessert you will be bringing to share. Inside this issue: Plans to renovate the kitchen are underway, but water issues still have to be remedied before we can move forward. Thanks to those who came to my rescue both times when water in the kitchen area was discovered. I know we are close to the lake, but does it have to be inside the building? A big thank you to Elise, Erik and the entire youth group for another fabulous Purim service and carnival. You never cease to amaze me with your creativity and talent. What a remarkable group of young adults! We are so proud to call you ours! MAZEL TOV! Our school year is quickly coming to an end. We’ve had a very productive year. I want to congratulate Alissa Bittinger and Zoe Werling on their completion of Sunday and Hebrew school classes. Next year they will work with me individually for their Bat Mitzvah training. Good work, ladies! A joyous Passover to all. B’ahava (With love), Renée Blau Beatles Celebration 2 Gallilee Diary–– The season of our liberation 3 Youth Group Activities: details for Leadership Seminar jokes & mys- 3 ticism Torah Portions for April 4 Sh’mini, Leviticus 9:1-11:47 Your Body is a Temple 4/5 Trip to Toronto Fundraiser 5 Fundraising benefits Am Shalom 5 Healing Prayers 6 Counting of the Omer 6 Yahrzeit List 6 Calendar 7 SISTERHOOD— Meeting for breakfast SATURDAY, APRIL 18 10:00 am at Manhattan Deli, Mentor. Let’s schmooz. ¤ SCHEDULE OF EVENTS Shabbat Services Friday, April 10 Seder 6:00p.m Congregational Seder Friday, April 24 Service 8:00pm Board Meeting 7:30 pm Wed April 1 We encourage congregants to attend and get involved! Sisterhood 10:00am SATURDAY, April 18, at Manhattan Deli, Mentor Contact Rita Rose at (440) 867-2268 Men’s Fellowship Group 8:00am Sunday, April 19, at Mentor Family Restaurant. (formerly known as Best Friends Restaurant) Questions? Contact Lee Hawthorne at (440) 257-0024or at [email protected] Hebrew School April 15, 22 and 29 3:30-5:00pm There will be no Hebrew school on April 1st nor 8th Last Day of Hebrew School is on April 29 Sunday School April 12 w/Preschl, 19, 26 w/Preschl, 9:15am There will be no Sunday School on the 5th. Last Day is May 3rd for Parent breakfast and awards. Youth Group APRIL 12TH 12 noon “What our jokes really say about us” APRIL 26TH Mysteries of Jewish Mysticism (details inside, pg. 3) Page 2 THE KIBBITZER The show below features Renée’s Sweet Adelines Chorus (The Greater Cleveland Chorus), and Steve’s Barbershop Chorus (The Men of Independence). They are performing a ―Celebration‖ of the music made famous by The Beatles. This is going to be a fantastic show, and their choruses are excited to put it on! Tickets will be $10.00 each. Please order tickets at your earliest convenience by calling Renée at 216392-5739 (NOT via the Independence Chapter website, Phone orders telephone number, or Mail orders stub.) Please call Renée with any concerns. Page 3 APRIL 2015 The following article is excerpted from Ten Minutes of Torah— Israel Connections from urj.org on April 27, 2011. Galilee Diary The season of our liberation By Marc Rosenstein And when you enter the land that the Lord will give you as He has promised, you shall observe this rite. And when your children ask you, “What do you mean by this rite?” You shall say, “It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, because He passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, but saved our houses.” - Exodus 12:24-27 Notes on Passover in the land, 2011: Schools close a week before the holiday, for a two week vacation. For many families this is a disaster, as the parents cannot take off work, and child care can be a daunting challenge. So there are short-term day camps provided by community centers, youth group excursions, etc., as well as a certain amount of chaos, juggling, frustration, and TV. The weeks before Passover are boom times for housepainters, appliance dealers, and houseware shops, as a kind of frenzy of spring cleaning and renewal sets in, often with no clear relationship or proportion to the religious requirement of removing chametz (leavened bread). The supermarkets in Jewish towns generally remove or cover all items that are not kosher for Passover. Every year Jewish food technology advances, so there are fewer and fewer foods that are not available kosher-for-Passover (a trend that some love and some hate). Meanwhile, the bakeries in Arab towns and villages are very busy during Passover, supplying the needs of the many Jews who do not observe the prohibition of eating chametz. Despite warnings published in the media and announced over loudspeakers at the border crossing, over 20,000 Israelis went to Egypt for Passover, camping and scuba diving in Sinai. Meanwhile 300,000 headed for Turkey, Greece, and points north and west. And these numbers don’t seem to have been seriously affected by matters of diplomacy or even by revolutions. One day during the holiday we went to a mall, to shop for the patio furniture we’d been promising ourselves. If one doesn’t shop on Shabbat, and works on Sunday, it is often hard to find time to make such non-routine non-local purchases. Needless to say, we were not alone there. As we drove out of the parking garage around noon, the line of cars waiting to enter stretched for blocks. Not only shopping, but craft activities for the kids were offered, and half of the films in 23-plex cinema were animated features. The next day we left for a two-day camping trip in the Golan Heights. We planned carefully, trying to figure out how to avoid the crowds. The dramatic canyons of the northern Golan are a huge attraction, so we opted for the more moderate trails above the southeastern quadrant of the Kinneret. Here too we were by no means alone, but our planning paid off and there were sections of trail where it was just us—and the JNF campsite where we camped was gratifyingly empty. And we somehow managed to avoid the horrendous highway traffic jams to and from the Galilee and Golan that are characteristic of Passover. But with or without company on the trail, the views, the foliage, the soaring hawks and storks, the play of sun and clouds (and rain) over the Kinneret below us—all contributed to a feeling of spring renewal and liberation. Some people would argue that we ―liberated‖ the Golan in 1967. Others claim that the Golan will be ―liberated‖ when we negotiate a peace treaty and return the Heights to Syria. In that day of redemption we will cross the border freely for our camping trip (like we do to Jordan and Egypt) and reminisce about the days when we were slaves to an outmoded, irrational world order. ¤ AM SHALOM YOUTH GROUP “In the beginning of time, there was a tree that grew in the Garden of Eden. This Heard any good jokes lately? ASYG Leadership Seminar “What our jokes really say about us” Sunday, April 12th 12:00 noon Temple Am Shalom *Bring your sense of humor and any Jewish jokes you’ve heard to share with everyone! tree bore ten branches, and each branch was touched by the power of God. When the mystics meditated on the symbols of this tree, they saw that each of the ten branches opened to reveal a gate, which connected the powers of Heaven and the powers of Earth, and the powers of God with the powers of each human being. We, as children of God, all contain holy sparks which connect us to each other, to God and to ourselves” —Rabbi Shoni Lebowitz ASYG Leadership Seminar Mysteries of Jewish Mysticism Sunday, April 26th 12 noon Temple Am Shalom *No, we will not be using Tarot cards or ouiji boards, but this topic does require some sensitivity and maturity, so be prepared for something completely different! Page 4 THE KIBBITZER April Torah Portion The following article is excerpted from Ten Minutes of Torah — Reform Voices of Torah from urj.org on April 5, 2010. Rabbi Joe Rooks Rapport (at the time of this writing), is co-senior rabbi with his wife Rabbi Gaylia R. Rooks at The Temple, Congregation Adath Israel Brith Sholom, in Louisville, KY. Rabbi Zachary R. Shapiro is the rabbi of Temple Akiba in Culver City, CA. D’VAR TORAH Sh’mini, Leviticus 9:1-11:47 Sh’mini: Your Body is a Temple Joe Rooks Rapport My father had his first heart attack at the age of fifty-three. I am fifty-two now, on this path of my life, and instead of simply waiting for my heart to wait for me, along with the lifechanging challenges that by-pass surgery would represent, I carry within me a tiny metal stent smoothing the flow of life giving blood to and from the heart that beats steadily within me. I got the same speech they give everyone after heart surgery, telling me it was time to make some changes in my life: eat better, exercise more, stop smoking, stop drinking, take more time for the calm of meditation and prayer. The difference for me, and I suppose the irony as well, is that I have already done most of those things and I have been doing them for most of my life. I don’t drink, I don’t smoke—aspirin and antacids were my only drugs. I actually use all the exercise equipment I buy from those TV infomercials. I haven’t eaten meat for more than a decade. And as for meditation and prayer, well let’s just say, I do that considerably more often than most. My heart surgeon paused at this point from his usual litany of life-changing lessons and then he laughed. ―If you were going to have heart surgery at fifty, you could have been having a lot more fun!‖ What I learned from this experience and the contemplation of the patterns of my life that would follow, was that when you strip away the supposed benefits of the lifestyle choices we all make, you find that there lies at the core of what we do, an expression of who we are. I choose a healthy lifestyle, despite the fact that my physical health may never be guaranteed by this choice. This week’s Torah portion, Sh’mini, introduces the biblical dietary laws that form the basis of the practice of kashrut. ( Lev 11:1-47). I follow these laws, so I am often asked, ―what do you get out of keeping kosher?‖ My usual reply is, ―that depends on what you put into it.‖ There is more here than a clever response that cleverly avoids truly answering the question. What we see in the dietary laws of Parashat Sh’mini depends entirely upon the way we have been trained to see. Torah Portions for April April 4 April 11 April 18 April 25 — — — — First Day of Passover Eighth Day of Passover (Yizkor) Shemini Lev 9:1 - 11:47 Tazri’a-Metzora Lev 12:1 - 15:33 The Torah provides no explanation for the incredibly detailed and complicated arrangement of clean and unclean animals that are presented here in the text. Honest as this response may be, it leaves open the broader question of the logical basis for the practice of these laws in biblical times or for today. In the absence of any logical explanation for the many determinations of clean and unclean animals on land, in the sea, and among the birds that fly through the skies, many classic commentators have felt the need to offer their own justifications for these laws. Maimonides maintains that food forbidden by the Law is somehow unhealthy. ―There is nothing among the forbidden kinds of food whose harmful character is doubted‖ (Guide to the Perplexed, 3:48). And since Maimonides was a physician, one can understand why he saw in this carefully crafted dietary code a concern for health and safety. One can just as easily respond, however, that any dietary code that allows for salt and schmaltz (―chicken fat‖) cannot have been constructed by an all-knowing God for our physical health and well being. Scorpions, snakes, and various insects large enough to have a bend in their knee, are all considered ―clean‖ by the standard of Leviticus. Whatever the intention of the text, it cannot be seriously considered as a blueprint for a healthy diet, even by the standards of the time. Medieval rabbis of the ghetto and the shtetl saw within these complex rules of diet and ritual a purposeful desire to separate the Jewish people from the non-Jewish world that surrounded them (see Nehama Leibowitz Studies in Vayikra, [Jerusalem: WZO, 1980], pp.83-4). Given the forcible separation and the persecution of their age, one can see why they saw this in Leviticus as well. Leviticus would simply answer the question with a question. What fits and what is unfit? The category of animals that are fit to be offered as sacrifices on the altar in the Tabernacle of Israel’s God. In other words, your body is a temple. What you put into it is a reflection of the holiness you hope to achieve. Here is the lesson of this week’s Torah portion; holiness is the commitment to reach for a higher standard in life, not for real or perceived gains, but for the opportunity for holiness and nothing more. ―For I the Eternal am the One who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God: you shall be holy, for I am holy‖ (Leviticus 11:45). How we might interpret these words for our own age may differ, but the value of the principle remains the same, ―You are what you eat.‖ So let me ask you—yes, you who are reading these words: ―Who are you?‖ And having asked that somewhat existential question, let me ask you an even more personal question: ―What should a person like you choose to eat?‖ D’VAR ACHER Holy Connections, One Meal at a Time Zachary R. Shapiro The first time I flew on El Al, I was surprised about the option to order a kosher meal. ―Aren’t all meals on El Al kosher?‖ I (Sh’mini Continued on page 5) Page 5 APRIL 2015 (Sh’mini Continued from page 4) asked my sister. ―Yes,‖ she answered, ―But there’s kosher, and then there’s super-kosher.‖ I remember another time when a Jewish friend in college was upset during Passover that his shrimp was fried in a bread batter. (The shellfish was OK, but bread on Passover was unthinkable!) Let’s face it. Jews often have a unique approach to food. Whether it’s the age-old dilemma of not being able to sit down to one meal without discussing the logistics of the next one or arguing over charoset recipes, food is what has grounded our identity for thousands of years. I did not grow up keeping kosher. I’m from Boston, after all, and the bountiful seafood and pork products of New England nourished much of my childhood. But as a third-year rabbinic student at Hebrew Union College—Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR) in Cincinnati, I studied the laws of conversion. The M’chilta describes a convert whose heart was not in it as a person with ―swine between his teeth.‖ On one particular morning, I had enjoyed an Egg McMuffin at McDonald’s. As I ascended the steps of HUC-JIR, I could feel a bit of the bacon in my teeth. I realized the irony, and made a decision that day to stop eating pork and shellfish. Why? Because I wanted to make sure that every time I ate, I would be making a conscious decision. I don’t find holiness in the abstention. Rather, I find holiness in the connection with Jews backward in time, forward in time, and across the globe! ¤ AN INVITATION TO Temple Am Shalom Members & their Guests! All inclusive—oNe cost adults only Toronto Show Tour October 13th and 14th, 2015 (Passports or passcards needed) Highlights—7 Attractions (1) Motown, the Musical—tremendous seats! (2) “Kinky Boots” - Best Musical, Canadian Cast Meet & Greet (3) Dave Latshaw’s narrated tour (4) “Niagara-on-the-Lake” - Revisit the 1890s (5) Outstanding Movies on the Motorcoach with frequent stops! (6) Cinguacousy Park—Brampton Ontario’s finest park (7) Horseshoe falls—Niagara Falls FIVE (5) GREAT MEALS (1) Breakfast at Cracker Barrel (2) Dinner at Tucker’s Marketplace, Burlington, Ontario (3) Continental Breakfast—Hilton Garden Inn, Brampton Ont (4) Lunch at Frankie Tomattos—full buffet (5) Dinner at Mandarin—Niagara Square Mall SNACKS BETWEEN MEALS: Tour also provides water & soda DELUXE ANDERSON MOTOR COACH— Leaves from Temple Am Shalom. Parking available at Am Shalom. DELUXE HOTEL ACCOMMODATIONS— Hilton Garden Inn, Brampton, Ontario Fundraising Can Benefit Am Shalom As your Treasurer it is my responsibility to make sure we are currently paying our bills. With our expenses, we must be able to depend on fundraisers in addition to our dues. Last year our Toronto fundraiser earned over two thousand dollars, which will be used to pay our bills in the next few months. Last month, I announced a new Toronto Fundraiser on October 13-14, 2015, which is an all-inclusive trip including two major Broadway Shows, five meals, accommodations, transportation and sightseeing attractions for $415 a person, double occupancy. What we can accomplish with this fundraiser, in addition to benefitting our temple, will benefit you as well. For example, let’s compare our price to the retail price of the trip: Am Shalom Price: $415 per person (double occupancy) v. Retail Cost of Trip Greyhound Bus (round trip)..........$194.81 Tickets to Shows (vivid seating)..........$783.00 (Motown $311, Kinky Boots $472.) Hilton Garden Inn (One Night)............$213.57 Various restaurant meals (5).........$104.00 Total Retail Price..........................$1295.38 Thus by helping your temple pay its bills, you are saving a projected $880.38! That’s my idea of a fundraiser! Ron Rose—440.867.2268 ¤ All inclusive Cost: $415 pp Dbl Occ; $475pp Sngl Occ $200 deposit—$215 balance due Sept 1 (Single Balance: $275) Make Checks payable to Temple Am Shalom/Toronto c/o Ron Rose, 5636 Primavera Dr., Mentor OH 44060-9106. Please enclose your email or phone number. Trip is limited to 56 passengers. This trip is a fundraising activity of Temple Am Shalom. Please contact Ron Rose at 440-867-2268 or by email at [email protected] Stepping Back Elise Aitken will be stepping back from some of her duties starting in April. She assures us she will still be doing Youth Group and High Holy Days but other duties will be on a limited basis. Page 6 THE KIBBITZER Yahrzeits Thank you for your Donation Light Yahrzeit candles the evening before the date. David Newman Of Brockport New York These names will be read during services in the month of April: Name 38 Prayer Books Donations are most welcome. Possible areas for donation: Operating Expenses; Oneg Expenses; Kitchen donation Sefirat HaOmer Counting of the Omer The people of Israel departed Egypt on the 15th of Nissan (the first day of Passover); on the 6th of Sivan, seven weeks later, celebrated ever since as the festival of Shavuot they assembled at the foot of Mount Sinai and received the Torah from God. The Kabbalists explain that the 49 days that connect Passover with Shavuot correspond to the 49 drives and traits of the human heart. Each day saw the refinement of one of these sefirot, bringing the people of Israel one step closer to their election as G-d’s chosen people and their receiving of His communication to humanity. Each year, we retrace this inner journey with our ―Counting of the Omer.‖ Shavuot, the ―Festival of Weeks,‖ is the product of this count, driven by the miracles and revelations of the Exodus but achieved by a methodical, 49-step process of self-refinement within the human soul. Date of Death Phyllis Jean Lannoch Dorothy ―Debbie‖ Rosenberg Hattie Neibauer Elizabeth Wagner-Bezoski Arthur Sherman Frances Weinberg Sarah Wolfe Ruth Alscher Louise Clar George Crosby Michael S. Schwartz 4/2 4/5 4/8 4/8 4/10 4/11 4/12 4/13 4/13 4/25 4/29 Hebrew Date (Nissan 4, 5766 (Adar 12, 5765 (Adar-II 5, 5766 (Nissan 3,5749 (Nissan 1, 5765 (Nissan 9, 5763 (Nissan 14, 5766 (Nissan 13, 5774 (Nissan 27, 5759 (Iyyar 4, 5764 (Iyyar 7, 5734 Exact year, month and/or day not given Jacqueline Axelrod Gloria Franco Florence Greenbaum Samuel Greenberg Sarah Greenberg Ronnie Abrams Steven Blau Benjamin Magid Zoe Ann Werling Andrew Kenen Sam Magid Bobbie Abbey March 24, 2015) March 16, 2015) March 30, 2015) March 23, 2015 March 21, 2015) March 29, 2015) April 3, 2015) April 2, 2015) April 16, 2015) April 23, 2015) April 26, 2015) Olive W. Hall Marvin Kauffeman Rebecca Levine Beatrice Lieberman Kate Siebert Cemetery plots at Western Reserve Memorial Gardens (Rt. 306 in Chesterland) are available. Temple Am Shalom has our own section. Plots cost $750 for members. Call Bob Weinberg if you are interested at (440) 256-0835. The Memorial Board at the temple has 4 spaces left. Memorial plaques are available for $225. Contact the Temple at (440) 255-1544. Birthdays 4/1 4/6 4/7 (19) 4/11 4/13 4/14 (26) 4/14 (19) 4/18 — — — — — — — — — — — Cemetery Plots are Available Happy Happy Mark Negin David Fischer Shayna Swerdlow Mark Obenour Elise Aitken Kate Bezoski Ben Whitney Ben Weinberg Yizkor Date 4/19 4/20 4/22 (15) 4/22 (12) 4/24 4/25 4/30 Anniversaries None listed for this month Correction Pene and Mark Obenour were inadvertently left off the anniversary list for last month. They celebrated their fifteenth wedding anniversary on March 23. Healing Prayers THE TEMPLE RECYCLES Put recyclables in the recycle bin in kitchen Plastic—glass— cardboard—paper—pop cans Doug Aitken Elise Aitken Leonard Cohen Arlene Everly Richard Hughes Pene Obenour Mirel Schlesinger Nadine Sherman Bob Sobol Betty Stein Marc Steindler MISSING If anyone knows the whereabouts of the faded yellow, 8-foot stepladder that was on loan to the temple, please contact the office, Jerry Kozack or Lee Hawthorne. 12 Key: 25 Omer Hebrew School (Last Day) 3:30-5:00pm 29 18 Omer Yom Hazickaron Israel Memorial Day Obs Hebrew School 3:30-5:00pm 22 11 Omer Yom Hashoah Hebrew School 3:30-5:00pm 26 Omer 30 Yom Ha’atzma’ot Israel Independence Day Observed 19 Omer 23 12 Omer Holocaust Rememberance Day 16 7:41 pm 8:05 pm 27 Omer 1 7:58 pm 20 Omer Shabbat Service 8pm 24 7:50pm 13 Omer Shabbat Srvc 6:45pm 17 7:43pm Seventh Day Pesach Congregational Seder 6pm 6 Omer 5 Omer 10 7:35pm 18 9:10 pm 28 Omer 2 9:01 pm 21 Omer 25 8:53pm 14 Omer 10:00am Sisterhood Manhattan Deli, Mentor 8:44pm Eighth Day Pesach 7 Omer Yizkor 11 8:36pm 4 Pesach I First Day of Pesach 3 Sat Pesach Eve First Seder Fri Fourth Day Chol Hamoed 9 15 4 Omer Third Day Chol Hamoed 8 Board Meeting 7:30pm 2 1 Search for chametz After nightfall Thu Nissan—Iyyar 5775 Wed Havdalah or End of Holiday 24 Omer 28 27 23 Omer 17 Omer 21 10 Omer 14 Rosh Chodesh (1 Iyyar) 16 Omer 20 9 Omer 13 Candle Lighting time Sunday /Pre-School 9:15 ASYG Leadership Seminar 12 noon Mysteries of Jewish Mysticism 22 Omer 26 Rosh Chodesh (30 Nissan) Mentor Family Restrnt 15 Omer 8am Men’s Fellowship Sunday School 9:15 19 ASYG Leadership Seminar 12 noon “What our jokes say about us” 8 Omer Sunday/Pre-School 9:15 8:37pm 2 Omer Second Day Chol Hamoed 3 Omer First Day Chol Hamoed Second Day Pesach 1 Omer 7 6 5 Tue Mon Sun APRIL 2015 Temple Am Shalom Page 7 APRIL 2015 Renée Blau, Spiritual Director & Cantorial Soloist Elise Aitken, Asst. Spiritual Dir. & Cantorial Soloist The Temple Board President Steven Blau Vice President Jason Sobol Secretary Pene Obenour Acting Treasurer Ronald Rose Youth Group Elise Aitken Education Director Renée Blau Facilities Maintenance Jerry Kozack M embers at Large: Lee Hawthorne, Erik Nehamkin, Rita Rose, Bob Sobol Please kibbitz with us by contributing to our newsletter! Address your news, articles, suggestions or … corrections to Rita Rose at [email protected] (be sure to include an identifying Subject line in your email); or send mail to her at the temple (by the 21st of the month prior to the issue you want your information to appear): P.O. Box 1507, Mentor, Ohio 44061-1507. Thank you! Check us out at www.amshalom.org also at: clevelandjewishnews.com/ CJN Connect / Am Shalom Temple Am Shalom P.O. Box 1507 Mentor, OH 44061–1507 (440) 255-1544 www.amshalom.org
© Copyright 2024