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Rabbi's Message Shofar Shvat - Adar I 5779 • January/February 2019 In this issue...you can click on the Rabbi’s Message page you would like to read first. Acts of Tzedakah ....................................... 15 Sabbatical: Of Crops and Teachers Brotherhood............................................. 18 (Including Rabbis) Calendar .............................................26-27 Among the many revolutionary ideas of the Torah is Cantor .................................................4, 6-7 the practice of the sabbatical year — an extrapolation of the weekly Sabbath day as a time for renewal and College Connection ................................... 18 rejuvenation. The Torah’s vision of the sabbatical is a year in Education Directors .................................... 9 which the land is allowed to lie fallow so that it can regain its vitality and fertility. It is a time in which farmers relinquish mastery over their Jewish LIFE ............................................... 12 fields and simultaneously liberate themselves from the hard work of tilling and Legacy Circle ............................................. 10 tending. The sabbatical year magnifies the scope of the Sabbath day. Going beyond Lifecycle (TBE Family News) ...................... 14 the weekly respite from physical labor, the sabbatical declares that there is President .................................................... 8 more to life than work, and that the value of life is intrinsic and transcends Rabbi’s Message..................................... 1, 3 Continued on page 3 Renaissance ............................................. 19 Sisterhood ...........................................20-22 Social Action (IHN) ..............................22-23 TBE Reads ................................................ 13 Tu BiShvat Celebration Tu BiShvat Recipes...............................16-17 January 26 Worship Schedule ......................................2 10:00 a.m. Shabbat Holiday Service with Environmental Theme Yahrzeits ..............................................24-25 Noon: Seder and Potluck Luncheon Young Families at TBE ............................... 10 (See page 3) Youth ........................................................ 11 Purim Carnival March 17, 11:00 a.m. Megillah Reading and Purim Spiel March 20, 7:00 p.m. (See page 5) Temple Beth-El • 67 US Highway 206 • Hillsborough, NJ 08844 • (908) 722-0674 • www.ourbethel.org Click here to return to Page 1 Worship Schedule JANUARY Friday, January 4 7:00 p.m. Family Shabbat Service with guest David Friday, January 18 Saturday, January 26 Solomon from Heller High 8:00 p.m. Shabbat Shirah, Evening Service with the Choir Parashat Yitro, Exodus 18:1–20:23 and Tefillah Band 10:00 a.m. Shabbat Minyan Service and Torah Study Saturday, January 5 Noon Tu BiShvat Seder and Luncheon (see page 3) Parashat Va-eira, Exodus 6:2−9:35 Saturday, January 19 10:00 a.m. Shabbat Minyan Service and Torah Study Parashat B’shalach, Exodus 13:17−17:16 10:00 a.m. Shabbat Shirah, Minyan Service and Torah Friday, January 11 Study 8:00 p.m. Shabbat Evening Service Monday, January 21 Saturday, January 12 Tu BiShvat Parashat Bo, Exodus 10:1−13:16 10:00 a.m. Shabbat Minyan Service and Torah Study Friday, January 25 10:30 a.m. Young Family Shabbat Experience and Bagel 8:00 p.m. Shabbat Evening Service Breakfast FEBRUARY Friday, February 1 Friday, February 22 8:00 p.m. Shabbat Evening Service with the Tefillah Band Saturday, February 9 8:00 p.m. Shabbat Evening Service with the Tefillah Band Parashat T’rumah, Exodus 25:1−27:19 Saturday, February 2 10:00 a.m. Shabbat Minyan Service and Torah Study Saturday, February 23 Parashat Mishpatim, Exodus 21:1−24:18 Parashat Ki Tisa, Exodus 30:11−34:35 10:00 a.m. Shabbat Minyan Service and Torah Study Friday, February 15 10:00 a.m. Shabbat Minyan Service and Torah Study 8:00 p.m. Shabbat Evening Service Friday, February 8 7:00 p.m. Family Shabbat Service with the Choir Saturday, February 16 Parashat T’tzaveh, Exodus 27:20−30:10 10:00 a.m. Shabbat Minyan Service and Torah Study Torah Chanters November - December 2018 Hillary Angeline Larry Epstein Michele Holler Jude Bergman Ava Fox Ed Malberg Gari Bloom Carol Gardner Andrew Manrique Liz Cohen Rabbi Gluck Sam Stark Max Cooper Sarah Gluck Lila Stark Emily Dickholtz Shira Gluck Donna Tischfield Karen Donohue Nora Holler Sam Yarkoni Temple Calendar Webpage http://www.ourbethel.org/luach-beth-el Shofar Submissions Torah Portions and Deadline You can read a Weekly Torah The next issue of the Shofar will be In the subject line, please use the following Commentary by visiting the Union of March-April 2019. PLEASE NOTE: The naming convention: Shofar Month/Shofar/ Reform Judaism’s web page: deadline for submissions is February 15. Committee Name or Professional Staff Name. www.reformjudaism.org/learning/ Submit articles via email to: torah-study [email protected]. Temple Beth-El Shofar 2 CheshvanShvat - - Adar Tevet I 5779 Click here to return to Page 1 Rabbi’s Message, continued from page 1 what we are able to produce. In this spirit, the laws of another form of creative effort. the sabbatical year enter into the realm of social and This January and February, I will be taking the fourth commercial relationships. All debts are cancelled and sabbatical of my 28-year tenure as the rabbi of Temple all indentured servants are released in the seventh year, Beth-El. Two of my previous sabbaticals were spent in making it a time to rebalance the scales of justice that tilt Israel, where I engaged in independent study at the Reform toward inequality. movement’s seminary, HUC-JIR, in Jerusalem. During Over time, the commercial aspects of the sabbatical my third sabbatical, I studied Talmud locally, under the year became impractical and ceased to be observed. But guidance of a retired professor from the Jewish Theological they remain on the books, as it were, and the rabbis teach Seminary. During this sabbatical, I will be working on a us that their role is to inspire us to internalize the spirit new version of our Temple Beth-El siddur, the prayer book of the sabbatical and integrate it into our lives. This we that we have been using since 2010. I also look forward to accomplish by seeing our weekly celebration of Shabbat visiting other synagogues to experience their services and in light of these teachings and by seeking to practice their liturgical traditions. It is rare for a congregational rabbi to vision of justice in our social and commercial relations be able to participate in worship at other synagogues, so I during the other six days of the week. In Israel, observant am looking forward to this. Jews still follow the agricultural aspects of the seventh year I am grateful to the leadership of our congregation and by refraining from consuming the produce raised on the to my senior staff colleagues for making it possible for Land of Israel. Instead, they eat stored grain and produce me to take this time away. I am especially appreciative raised outside the Land of Israel. of Cantor Pincus, who will be assuming responsibility for In modern times, the concept of the sabbatical has the pulpit, with the support of extremely capable and been extended to teachers and rabbis as a time to focus devoted lay leaders. (Cantor Pincus will also be responsible on scholarship. In academic settings, a sabbatical can for pastoral care, so if a pastoral emergency arises, please encompass a semester or an entire academic year, offering contact her directly.) Were it not for her great talent and professors an opportunity to engage in new areas of devotion to our congregation, this sabbatical time would scholarship or writing, freed from their regular teaching not be possible. schedule and administrative duties. I look forward to my sabbatical and to returning in March For contemporary rabbis, the length of time allotted for refreshed and renewed, having made significant progress a sabbatical is largely circumstantial, often making possible on a new siddur that will enrich the ritual life of our a shorter period of time dedicated to a focused project congregation. or course of study. Some rabbis travel to Israel, as I have L’shalom, done in the past. Others will spend time at a seminary or other academy of learning. Some devote time to writing or Rabbi Arnold S. Gluck Come Celebrate Shabbat and Tu BiShvat Saturday, January 26 Tu BiShvat is the New Year of the Trees: a time to express gratitude for the bounty of the earth and celebrate connection to the land of Israel. It is also an opportunity for spiritual renewal. Our celebration starts with a Shabbat morning service at 10:00 a.m., with worship directed toward care and appreciation for the environment. This will be followed by a Tu BiShvat seder at noon, led by Cantor Pincus and Sarah Gluck. Due its enthusiastic reception last year, the practice of mindfulness will serve to ground our seder observance. As always, we will drink the traditional four cups of wine (grape juice) and eat different kinds of fruits and nuts that grow in the land of Israel and are grouped by Kabbalistic constructs. A pot-luck luncheon will follow, and a rousing, fun song session concludes the day. Register at: www.tinyurl.com/TBETuBiShvat2019 Temple Beth-El Shofar 3 Shvat - Adar I 5779 Click here to return to Page 1 A Note From Our Cantor Toward the end of the 19th century, some Jewish inspired a new interest in the music musicians who had been trained in the classical, European of Ashkenazi Jews throughout Europe tradition discovered artistic possibilities in the folk-song and America, laid the foundations for of their people. They were of eastern European origin, had the Jewish music and Klezmer revival been educated in a Jewish atmosphere, and had grown in the United States, and was a key up with Jewish folk-song. In parallel with the nationalist influence in the development of Israeli folk movements arising at the time, there was a newly and classical music. revived Jewish national movement.
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