The Kibbitzer OCTOBER 2015 Temple Am Shalom TISHREI—CHESHVAN 5776 Mentor, Ohio
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The Kibbitzer OCTOBER 2015 Temple Am Shalom TISHREI—CHESHVAN 5776 Mentor, Ohio Shemini Azteret Oct 4—Simchat Torah Oct 5 Inside this issue: LEADERSHIP COLUMN Youth Group October 11 2 Youth Group October 25 2 Excavating is under way on the out- Galilee Diary—Free to Be You 2/3 side of the building, first on the kitchen and Me * ello friends, sides, and then on the south side. Fol- Galilee Diary—Nothing to Fear lowing the outside work, the basement 3 HIt was such a wonderful But... * will be sanitized due to the mold and Holy Days, sharing these special mildew down there. Eventually, the Torah Portions for October 4 days with all of you. I love this holi- kitchen will be remodeled. I will keep day season. There is so much go- you updated. Please keep those do- Vayeira, Genesis 18:1-22:24 Hospitality: Can We Do Better? * 4 ing on with, not only the services nations coming in. Thank you to all of which were awesome, but with the you who already have done that. Israel Connections –Glimpsing building and decorating of the Suk- the Jerusalem above * 5 kah for Sukkot along with the tem- The Toronto trip is quickly approach- ple youth group BBQ. The Hebrew ing. Thanks to Ron Rose for all of his Healing Prayers/Letter to Editor/ 5 school had dinner in the Sukkah as hard work making all of the arrange- Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah well as having a chance to shake ments, while the profits made from it the Lulav and Etrog. The next holi- go directly to the Temple. Your efforts Donations/Birthday & Anniversary 6 do not go unnoticed. day to come is Simchat Torah Yahrzeit List 6 which we will celebrate on Fri- Thanks, also, to Elise Aitken for all day, October 9th at 7:00 p.m. her work and dedication in making the Fundraising—how we‘re doing 6 Please join us as we celebrate the High holy Days flow like clockwork. Calendar 7 Torah. She is definitely an asset to the tem- I want to give a warm welcome to ple and I so appreciate all that she * Related articles above Sarah Kammens, who has come does. aboard to help me at Sunday Enjoy the onset of the fall season. It is school. She has an impressive re- so beautiful to see the trees ablaze SISTERHOOD— sumé, including a Masters in Jew- with colors. Another gift from God. Meeting for breakfast SATURDAY, OCTOBER 10 ish Education and has taught at See you soon, many Jewish institutions in the 10:00 am Cleveland area. Welcome, Morah B’ahava, at Manhattan Deli, Mentor. Sarah. Renée ¤ Let’s schmooz. SCHEDULE OF EVENTS Shabbat Services Men’s Fellowship Group Youth Group Friday, OCT 9 8:00am Sunday, OCT 18, at Mentor Family NOON SUNDAY OCT 11 7:00pm Family Simchat Torah service Restaurant. Contact Lee Hawthorne at (440) “Courage and Chutzpah” Leadership Friday, OCT 23 725-6852 or at [email protected] seminar—details on page 2 6:30pm Children’s Service / 7:30pm Adult service Sisterhood NOON SUNDAY, OCT 25 Sunday School 10:00am SATURDAY, OCT 10 at “The Role of Faith in Today’s World” October 4, 11, 18, 25 9:15-11:30am Manhattan Deli, Mentor Contact Rita Rose Leadership Seminar *As we will be watch- Preschool at (440) 867-2268 or [email protected] ing a movie, this seminar will run longer October 4 & 18 10:45-11:45am Board Meeting than usual—plan on approximately 2 hours. Hebrew School 7:30pm Wed OCTOBER 7 Oct 9-10th, 16-17th, 23-24th— October 7, 21, 28 3:30- 5:00pm Congregants, get involved! Friday/Saturday Nights: Haunted No Hebrew School on the 14th Hayrides. See ASYG bulletin board at the Temple or call Elise for more information Page 2 THE KIBBITZER Ever wonder where we Jews found the courage and chutzpah to defy: If you could witness one event from the Torah, what would The Romans? you want to have seen? The Nazis? The 1946 Arab World? Do you need scientific proof of our history,or is your faith Various rulers of countries and city states? enough to believe what you’ve been taught all thse years in What relevance does this have to my life or to Judaism? Sunday School? What does this have to do with music? A little of both? (Come to the Leadership Seminar and find out!) ASYG Leadership Seminar Courage and Chutzpah: “The Role of Faith in Today’s World” Electric Guitar and Drums Sunday, October 25th th Sunday, October 11 12:00 noon Temple 12:00 noon Temple Am Shalom *This seminar will run longer than usual, as we will be watching a video “The Incredible Discovery of Noah’s Ark” *Keyboards, electric guitars, drums will all be provided— however feel free to bring your personal stories of chutzpah, Plan on 2 to 2½ hours for this session. personal heroism, etc. Participants are encouraged to bring lunch as limited munchies will be provided. WE HOPE TO SEE YOU THERE! The following article is excerpted from Ten Minutes of Torah— Israel tures are so very different, and everyone has historical bag- Connections from urj.org on July 29, 2015. Rabbi Marc Rosenstein gage as well as a bundle of fears both rational and irrational. is presently the director of the Israeli Rabbinical Program of HUC-JIR, Then we drove to a much small Bedouin community—just a in Jerusalem. dozen families—Hamdun, adjacent to Kibbutz Lotem. We Galilee Diary met with M., a charming and articulate Bedouin man of about 35, who speaks unaccented, colloquial Hebrew. Dressed in Free to Be You and Me jeans and a polo shirt, he showed us around the village, By Rabbi Marc Rosenstein proudly pointing out all the fruit trees he has planted, and Rabbi Huna in the name of Bar Kappara said that Israel deserved to discussing his building plans. Even though the villagers had somehow received building permits years ago, so they live in be redeemed from Egypt for four reasons: They never changed their houses (not tents or shanties), they were unrecognized as a names, they never changed their language, they never engaged in community, meaning they were ―off the grid‖ for water, elec- gossip, and they never engaged in sexual immorality. tricity, and roads until the mid-1990s. By then, many families —Midrash Song of Songs Rabbah 4:12 had left for nearby large Arab villages. But M.‘s family and some others refused to trade in their rural independence, Recently I went on a tour sponsored by the local Hebrew- leading to, among other hardships, a long trek to school eve- Arabic webzine Dugrinet, to visit examples of Bedouin and ry day. Though initially, when the kibbutz was established in Jewish communities living in close proximity. We first visited the ‗80s, it was fenced in (and the village fenced out), even- Kamaneh, a large Bedouin village, and Kamun, a rural Jew- tually relations developed, and M. was taken under the wing ish community of a few hundred families. The two, which of a kibbutznik who apparently recognized his talents. The share a mountaintop east of Karmiel, have been struggling to kibbutz employed him, and encouraged him to pursue his find a modus vivendi (compromise) for years, and both sides education. Today he commutes to his job as manager of the have invested much effort. On the whole the project has been industrial poultry farm on a much larger kibbutz. And the aid successful, but there are still issues and incidents, as the cul- (Free to Be Continued on page 3) Page 3 OCTOBER 2015 discrimination. Israel Connection—Galilee Diary Here at Shorashim, which has a history of membrs‘ activism The following article is excerpted from Ten Minutes of Torah— Israel on behalf of Jewish-Arab cooperation, and a number of families who sent their children to the bilingual ―Hand in Connections from urj.org on August 5, 2015. Rabbi Marc Rosenstein Hand‖ school, the issue never came up...until a few months is presently the director of the Israeli Rabbinical Program of HUC-JIR, ago, when out of the blue (it seemed) the executive as well as the director of Makom ba-Galil, a seminar center that engages committee proposed an amendment to our constitution in programming to foster pluralism and coexistence. requiring members to be ―observant of the Jewish tradition.‖ Galilee Diary There were two public meetings to discuss the amendment, and the supporters made it clear that its only purpose was to Nothing to Fear But . provide a tool for justifying rejection of potential Arab By Marc Rosenstein candidates. Do not follow a majority to do evil. Some of us argued that such restrictions have no place in a —Exodus 23:2 democracy, contradicting a basic human freedom (the Israeli For decades, it was taken for granted that rural communities supreme court decision includes a long disquisition on the based on some form of economic communalism (like the support of the Jewish tradition for equality); that Jews if kibbutz or moshav) were justified in vetting new members, anyone should be sensitive to this (remember ―restricted usually involving a vote, a year of probation, and another vote. deeds‖ and ―Anglo Saxons only‖?). The more radical of us After all, the commitment of and to the community was lifelong even suggested that separation only contributed to fear, and economically significant—and the community was weakening the overall social fabric and sustainability of the generally relatively small and isolated.