High Holy Days 5780: If Not Now, When?
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Check out our YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/user/RodefShalomPgh Tammuz 5779 - Cheshvan 5780 | August - October 2019 Issue No. 111 the connection High Holy Days 5780: New High Holy Days Ticket Policy If Not Now, P. 15 When? Schedule on Back Cover also in this issue: Learn Hebrew: Alef-Bet Boot Camp If It Is To Karen Brean, President, p.3 Begin 5780 with a Sense of Urgency Be, It Is Rabbi Sharyn Henry, p.5 Up To Me Servant Leadership and Shared Success barry weisband, By Rabbi Aaron Bisno, p.4 Murray Klein Executive Director. p.6 Tammuz 5779- Cheshvan 5780 | August-October 2019 Contents Issue No. 111 3 Learn Hebrew at Alef- 11 Inspired Reading for Bet Boot Camp We are a Reform Jewish congregation the High Holy Days karen brean dedicated to melding the traditions of sam siskind our faith with contemporary life. Our 4 If It Is To Be, It Is Up To Me congregation was chartered in 1856 and 12 RodefShalomCares: rabbi aaron bisno is one of five synagogues on the National Seize the Moment; Care for Register of Historic Landmarks. We are a diverse congregation engaged in social 5 Begin 5780 with a Our Community Now issues, culture, and learning—made up Sense of Urgency marian allen of multigenerational, multicultural, and rabbi sharyn h. henry interfaith families and individuals; our 13 Our Community is Defined and doors are open to everyone. 6 Servant Leadership Strengthened by Immigrants Staff Phone Extensions and Shared Success martha berg 412.621.6566 barry weisband 14 Mazel Tov: Archivist Martha Berg Celebrates 18 Years at Rodef Shalom Rabbi Aaron Bisno 123 7 New Director of J-JEP: Rabbi Sharyn Henry 126 anne molloy Sherry Bell 137 Rabbi Larry Freedman Martha Berg 131 15 West View Cemetery Intoduces Yael Eads 130 8 Telling The Story of New Pricing and Short-Term Rabbi Larry Freedman 116 Rodef Shalom Discounts Dr. Walter Jacob 125 mayda roth Kristin Karsh 120 16 Mazel Tov! B’nai Mitzvah Bob Kelly 148 9 Preparing for Another Kate Kim 111 17 If Not Now, When? Bringing Amy Langham 117 Successful School Year Mimsie Leyton 127 mimsie leyton Back Traditions Through Marlee Lyons 112 Women of Rodef Shalom Don Megahan 190 10 You’re Only a Kid Once: teri cowan Michael McHugh 144 Make the Most of It Now! Hope Nearhood 143 yael eads 18 Looking Ahead at Helena Nichols 132 Brotherhood in 5780 Christine Ranasinghe 182 tim litman Stephanie Rex 124 Mayda Roth 140 JoAnn Ruffing 110 Rodef Shalom Congregation is a member of the Rabbi Aaron B. Bisno Barry D. Weisband Union for Reform Judaism. Dave Seskey 128 Frances F. & David R. Levin Murray Klein Sam Siskind 179 Senior Rabbinic Pulpit Executive Director Melanie Solomon 122 Rabbi Sharyn H. Henry Mimsie Leyton Olivia Tucker 133 Sidney & Shirley C. Rapport Walter Jacob, DHL Family Center Director Barry Weisband 119 Rabbi Emeritus/Senior Scholar Don Megahan Music Director & Organist The Gift Corner 115 The bulletin of Rodef Shalom Congregation, 4905 Fifth Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, is published four times annually. Lippman Library 180 Periodical postage paid at Pittsburgh, Pa. Postmaster: Send address changes to: Hakesher, 4905 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15213. USPS 537–660 Rodef Shalom Congregation The mission of Rodef Shalom Congregation is to build and sustain a vibrant Reform Jewish community. We guide and support our members in living full Jewish lives throughout the life cycle, based on Torah (study), avodah (worship), and gemilut hasadim (acts of loving kindness). We strive to be a national and international leader in Jewish thought and practice. Learn Hebrew at Alef-Bet Boot Camp Karen Brean, President, Board of Trustees [email protected] ∧ (412) 621–6566 f learning how to read Hebrew is on your list of things to do one day, consider joining me to do it now. Beginning Sept. 8, I’ll once again be teaching an Alef-Bet Boot Camp, a five-evening class that will give Iyou the opportunity to learn how to read Hebrew letters and vowels. And, recognizing that a week is not enough time to • If you participate in Jewish prayers and rituals, solidify your knowledge, Rabbi Henry and I will be studying the Hebrew of the Bible will help you offering a follow-up class to meet semi-monthly to understand where the words came from and what build on your new language skills. they mean. The class will focus • There is a unique on basic literacy way of conveying of the alef-bet, but ideas in the Hebrew will also provide Bible, a distinctive an introduction view of the human to the meaning condition, the of the words that mystery of God, you’ll be reading. and the sublime I recall that, as things in nature. a young Hebrew • Learning Hebrew student preparing forces you to slow for my Bat down, taking in one Mitzvah, I found word or phrase at a some satisfaction time. This leads to in being able to thinking about the read phonetically, relation between but I didn’t really words and phrases “get it” until I studied Hebrew at an ulpan (intensive, – something called close reading. immersive language program) in Israel. It was during that time that I began to understand the meaning of • And, finally: The language of prayer and Torah is the words I was reading, and as a result, I developed the heart of Jewish life. a much deeper connection to Jewish culture through I know that it may seem like a daunting task. It’s a language. new alphabet, written right to left, with odd marks scattered above and below the letters. If you’re still wavering, I recently came across a blog post by “The Hebrew Nerd” from 2015, giving a whole I invite you to spend five evenings with us and see raft of reasons to learn Hebrew. Here are some of my where it leads. If Not Now, When? favorites: • Your cerebral cortex, the thinking part of your Please visit www.rodefshalom.org/rsvp for more brain, hasn’t done sit-ups since the days you left information on Alef-Bet Boot Camp and to sign up today. college behind. Seriously. It’s time. Issue No. 111 Tammuz 5779 - Cheshvan 5780 | August-October 2019 HaK ESHEr the connection 3 If It Is To Be, It Is Up To Me Rabbi Aaron B. Bisno, Frances F. & David R. Levin - Senior Rabbinic Pulpit [email protected] ∧ (412) 621–6566 x122 ∧ @rabbibisno s I write this, I am seated on the grounds of the genteel, lakeside Wannsee Villa just outside of Berlin, Germany. From 1941-1945, this handsome (and now infamous) home was used by the German SS as a conference center and A guest house; it is here, on January 20, 1942, that senior representatives of the Nazi High Command met to plan the “evacuation” of the Jews of Europe. I am in Germany as a faculty member for FASPE (Fellowships As we say, l’havdil... Nothing could be further from the truth! at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics) co- leading 14 seminarians of nearly as many faiths, each Responsibility for the world we imagine, the relationships one of whom has come here and to Auschwitz, outside we desire, and the people we are intended to be... Krakow, Poland, to study the choices (and lack thereof) which led to the systematic dismantling of democracy All of this rests in each of our own hands. The responsibility and the murder of more than 12 million innocents, fully six is fully our own. We are the very solution we seek. million of whom were Jews. Thus, if our world and we are to be better in 5780 than all Ours is a fellowship wherein future rabbis, priests, has been true in the years gone by, we must take seriously and ministers come together to reflect on the both the lessons of history and our own hopes for our responsibility we each have to confront, challenge lives. Or - as I’ve learned from the fellows (in ten simple and change the real problems we face in our society two letter words): (and within ourselves) today. IF IT IS TO BE, IT IS UP TO ME!! As we confront the darkest chapter of the last century, I cannot help but be struck by the enormous number of What a wonderful paraphrase of our High Holy Days theme, everyday decisions made by otherwise ordinary folks, which is, of course: who, through silence, selected ignorance, or complicity lent tacit (and often overt) support to the most horrendous IF NOT NOW, WHEN? of actions taken in their name. The stately Wannsee Villa stands in silent contrast to the How did this come to be? Simply. Good people chose to urgent need we have today for choices and voices that will ignore their responsibilities to self, to others, and to the bring a new reality (in a new year) into our world. timeless ideals of their faith. In this way, people not unlike you and me allowed themselves and their values to be May the year 5780 see each of us helping to fashion a co-opted, such that these fellow travelers came to believe reality that fully reflects our highest ideals. changing reality really wasn’t their role. I wish you a year of blessings yet to be. L’Shana Tovah! 4 rodefshalom.org Begin 5780 with Sense of Urgency Rabbi Sharyn H. Henry, Rabbi [email protected] ∧ (412) 621-6566 x126 n 2014, Emma Watson, who played the role of Hermione in the Harry Potter series, spoke before the United Nations in her capacity as Goodwill Ambassador for U.N.