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the Volume 31, Number 7 March 2012 TEMPLE BETH ABRAHAM Adar / Nisan 5772 Volume 35, Number 8 • April 2016 • Adar II/Nisan 5776 R R R R R R R R i i i i i i i i Pu M DIRECTORY SERVICES SCHEDULE GENERAL INFORMATION: All phone numbers use (510) prefix unless otherwise noted. Services, Location, Time Monday & Thursday Mailing Address 336 Euclid Ave. Oakland, CA 94610 Morning Minyan, Chapel, 8:00 a.m. Hours M-Th: 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Fr: 9 a.m.-3 p.m. On Holidays, start time is 9:00 a.m. Office Phone 832-0936 Friday Evening Office Fax 832-4930 (Kabbalat Shabbat), Chapel, 6:15 p.m. E-Mail [email protected] Shabbat Morning, Sanctuary, 9:30 a.m. Gan Avraham 763-7528 Candle Lighting (Friday) Bet Sefer 663-1683 April 1 7:33 p.m. STAFF April 8 7:39 p.m. Rabbi (x 213) Mark Bloom April 15 7:45 p.m. Richard Kaplan, Cantor April 22 7:52 p.m. [email protected] April 29 7:58 p.m. Gabbai Marshall Langfeld Executive Director (x 214) Rayna Arnold Torah Portions (Saturday) Office Manager (x 210) Virginia Tiger April 2 Shabbat Parah Bet Sefer Director Susan Simon 663-1683 April 9 Tazria Gan Avraham Director Jill Rosenthal & Marta Molina April 16 Metzora Bookkeeper (x 215) Kevin Blattel April 23 Pesach I Facilities Manager (x 211) Joe Lewis Kindergym/ April 30 Pesach VIII Dawn Margolin 547-7726 Toddler Program Volunteers (x 229) Herman & Agnes Pencovic TEMPLE BETH ABRAHAM OFFICERS OF THE BOARD is proud to support the Conservative President Mark Fickes 652-8545 Movement by affiliating with The United Vice President Eric Friedman 984-2575 Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. Vice President Alice Hale 336-3044 Vice President Laura Wildmann 601-9571 Vice President Etta Heber 530-8320 Advertising Policy: Anyone may sponsor an issue Secretary JB Leibovitch 653-7133 of The Omer and receive a dedication for their Treasurer Susan Shub 852-2500 business or loved one. Contact us for details. We COMMITTEES & ORGANIZATIONS: If you would like to con- do not accept outside or paid advertising. tact the committee chairs, please contact the synagogue The Omer is published on paper that is 30% office for phone numbers and e-mail addresses. post-consumer fibers. Adult Education Aaron Paul The Omer (USPS 020299) is published monthly Chesed Warren Gould except July and August by Congregation Beth Development Leon Bloomfield & Flo Raskin Abraham, 336 Euclid Avenue, Oakland, CA 94610. Dues Evaluation Susan Shub Periodicals Postage Paid at Oakland, CA. Endowment Fund Charles Bernstein Finance Susan Shub POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Gan Avraham Parents Toni Mason & Lauren Smith Omer, c/o Temple Beth Abraham, 336 Euclid Gan Avraham School Avenue, Oakland, CA 94610-3232. Gary Bernstein Committee © 2016. Temple Beth Abraham. House Stephen Shub The Omer is published by Temple Beth Abraham, Israel Affairs JB Leibovitch a non-profit, located at 336 Euclid Avenue, Membership Ulli Rotzscher Oakland, CA 94610; telephone (510) 832-0936. It Men’s Club Jereme Albin is published monthly except for the months of July Omer Lisa Fernandez/Rachel Dornhelm and August for a total of ten issues per annum. It Personnel Laura Wildmann is sent as a requester publication and there is no Public Relations Lisa Fernandez paid distribution. Ritual Eric Friedman Schools Alice Hale Social Action Marc Bruner To view The Omer in color, Torah Fund Anne Levine visit www.tbaoakland.org. Women of TBA Molli Rothman & Jessica Sterling Youth open i WHAT’S HAPPENING Men’s Club Shabbat Friday, April 8 Saturday, April 2, 9:30 AM 6:15 – 7:15 p.m. Please Join Us for TBA’s Youth Services SHABBAT MISHPACHA for preschool-aged children and their families. Kitah Gimmel classroom. April 1, 10:15 a.m. T’FILLAT Y’LADIM for children in Kindergarten, 1st & 2nd grade and their families. In the Chapel. April 1, 10:15 a.m. JUNIOR CONGREGATION for children in 3rd - 6th grade. In the Chapel. April 16, 10:15 a.m. A special musical Kabbalat Shabbat: ADULT EDUCATION THIS MONTH: Preparing for Passover April 3, at 10:00 a.m. in the Chapel Our own Bette Birnbaum will be teaching us about – Songs of Freedom customs and rituals around Bikhor Cholim, visiting the sick. Bette is a terrific teacher and there is much Please join us as we prepare our to learn about this important mitzvah. hearts and homes to celebrate April 17, 10:00 a.m. in the Chapel our freedom, and the freedom Nitzhia Shaked will return for a one day visit with of the Jewish people. us with more Pesach learning. She’ll be teaching us about Pesach from biblical times to the Haggadah. Featuring music and So timely right before the first Seder the following weekend. sermon-in-song by TBA’s April 10, 10:00 a.m. in the Chapel Judy Bloomfield, Denise Davis, Rabbi Art Gould is teaching a class on Rodef Shalom. Jeanne Korn and Jill Rosenthal. Wednesdays, starting April 13, 7:30 p.m. in the Baum Center Basic beginning Hebrew class (pre-reg is required) taught by Susan Simon. See PAGE 8 for events for Women of TBA and Men’s Club 1 FROM THE RABBI A Civil War Passover By Rabbi Mark Bloom The theme for this Omer’s issue led me to pull one of my favorite books off my shelf; Phillip Goodman’s Passover Anthology. In it, I found an intriguing Passover experience written up by Joseph A. Joel, a soldier in the Union Army during the Civil War stationed in the mountains of West Virginia. They had received matzahh from the military chain. But how would they find the rest of the materials? Here is an excerpt: “We decided to send parties to forage in the country… We obtained two kegs of cider, a lamb, several chickens and some eggs. Horseradish or parsley we could not obtain, but in lieu we found a weed, whose bitterness, I apprehend, exceed anything our fore- fathers ‘enjoyed.’ The necessaries for the choroutzes (sic) we could not obtain, so we got a brick which, rather hard to digest, reminded us, by looking at it, for what purpose it was intended. At dark we had all prepared, and were ready to commence the service. There being no Chasan present, I was selected to read the services, which I commenced by asking the blessing of the Almighty on the food before us, and to preserve our lives from danger. The ceremonies were passing off very nicely, until we arrived at the part where the bitter herb was to be taken… I said the blessing; each ate his portion, when horrors! What a scene ensued in our little congregation it is impossible for my pen to describe. The herb was very bitter and very fiery like cayenne pepper, and excited our thirst to such a degree that we forgot the law authorizing us to drink only four cups, and the consequence was we drank up all the cider. Those that drank more freely became excited, and one thought he was Mosses, another Aaron, and one had the audacity to call himself a pharaoh. The consequence was a skirmish, with nobody hurt—only Moses, Aaron and Pharaoh had to be carried to the camp. There, in the wild woods of West Virginia, away from home and friends, we conse- crated and offered up to the ever-loving God of Israel our prayers and sacrifice. Since then a number of my comrades have fallen in battle in defending the flag they volunteered to protect with their lives. I have myself received a number of wounds all but mortal, but there is no occasion in my life that gives me more pleasure and satisfac- tion than when I remember the celebration of Passover of 1862.” Learn Torah with Rabbi Bloom & other TBAers Each Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. at the Woodminster Cafe. No knowledge of Hebrew is required. 2 FROM THE PRESIDENT The Passover Table By Mark P. Fickes The Passover seder (literally “order”) is perhaps the most widely kept family ritual of the Jewish calendar. The source for the commandment of telling the Exodus story is in the Torah. In the third of the fourteen books that compile the Mishne Torah, Maimonides codifies the laws of the Sabbath and festivals. One of the sub-sections in this book is entitled “Laws of Chametz and Matza” (the laws of leaven and unleavened bread). The seventh chapter in this section deals primarily with the laws of the Passover seder service and instructs us how best to officiate such a service. Maimonides tells us it is a commandment to talk of the miracles and wonders faced by the Israelites in Egypt on the night of the fifteenth of Nisan. In Exodus 13:3, we read: “Remember this day, on which you left Egypt.” The Torah continues in Exodus 13:8: “And you shall tell your son on that day, saying: ‘It is because of this…’” implying the command- ment is to be fulfilled when matzah and maror are placed before you. The commandment applies even though one does not have a son. Even great Sages are obligated to tell about the Exodus from Egypt. Whoever elaborates concerning the events which occurred and took place is worthy of praise, according to Maimonides. What else characterizes this night of Jewish ritual? Maimonides quotes the descriptive legal text introducing us to the other two biblical commandments of the evening – the matza and maror. Both of these rituals were designed to enable the literal tasting and through this the experiencing of the story.