The Shofar March - April 2020 Congregation House of Israel 5 Adar - 6 Iyar, 5780
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The Shofar March - April 2020 Congregation House of Israel 5 Adar - 6 Iyar, 5780 Happy Pesach Congregation Seder Details on Page 3 The Shofar Thank You Published monthly by: Congregation House of Israel PO Box 20802 We would like to thank the following donors (as 300 Quapaw of February 20, 2020) Hot Springs, AR 71903 General Fund In loving memory of Elaine Gartenberg (501) 623-5821 Mr. and Mrs. S. Adler Website: http://hschi.org Vanette Alesksic Susan Glazer and Marc Belgrad Editor: Shelly Kleinman Thelma Bergman Barbara Binswanger Webmaster: Shelly Kleinman Mr. and Mrs. K. Block Mr. and Mrs. B. Cluck Editorial Assistance: Anita Williams Rickie Crown Email to: [email protected] Betty Forshberg Sally Friedman Submissions due the 15th of the prior month. Ann Goldman Distributed free to members, prospective members, Dr. John and Holly Haggard local clergy and other interested parties. Sally Harris Dr. Bob and Betty Lee Hill Dr. Graham and Julie Holt Fran Kassemeier Shelly and Carol Kleinman Betty Kleinman A Donation has been received from the Gartenberg Lisa Kraner children, Terri Needle, Lenny Gartenberg, Carol Betty Murphy Fletcher and their families, In Honor of Congrega- Don and MaryAnn Schnipper tion House of Israel Helen Southard Gwen Stephens Sisterhood Fund Drew Terry In loving memory of Elaine Gartenberg Harriett Weisenthal Mary Klompus Mark and Patti Fleischner In loving memory of Robert Burns, father of Glenda In Honor of Betty Forshberg Receiving the Tikkun Kirsch Olam Award Ross and Ruth Sedler Barbara Morgan Hal and Sue Koppel Shelly and Carol Kleinman A Donation has been received from the Gartenberg Steven and Clarissa Kirsch children, Terri Needle, Lenny Gartenberg, Carol Fletcher and their families, In Honor of Congrega- In Honor of Betty Forshberg Receiving the Tikkun tion House of Israel Sisterhood Olam Award Shelly and Carol Kleinman In loving memory of Caroline Suhl, Mother of Michael Sharon and Michael Waxler In loving memory of Milan Mendel, step-father of Lenny Lenny Mendel In loving memory of Harriette Korngut Fred Korngutt Page 2 The Shofar Reb Shelly’s Desk CHI Passover Portraits vs Photographs Seder Wednesday, April 8, 2020 There is a story of a teenage boy who was Our Seder will begin at 5:30 p.m. in Burgauer suffering from typical Hall. teenage angst, and went to the Rebbe for Congregation members and their guests advice. He was having (included in the same check) will be $30.00 a difficult time and per person. High School and younger kept slipping back into children OF MEMBERS are free. situations that he knew were not right for him. Non-members of the Congregation will be He asked the Rebbe: “How come God didn’t just $40.00 per person for adults. Children of create us as angels? If He had, we would be perfect, non-members aged 5 through high school are and we wouldn’t make such mistakes and create $20.00 per person. such problems.” Your check is your reservation. Please The Rebbe answered that God wants us to be unique include the number of children you are individuals. God doesn’t want us to be perfect; He bringing, even if they are free. Seating is wants us to be unique individuals who grow and assigned, so we need to know the number of learn from our experiences and mistakes. people in your party. He asked the boy if he understood the difference Ceremonial wine will be provided, but feel between a photograph and a portrait. free to bring your own wine to enjoy. “When you want to capture a perfect replica of Reservations are required prior to Friday, something you see, you take a picture. The picture March 27. can be beautiful, and is exactly what you witnessed with your eye. Yet the typical photograph costs Mail your checks payable to CHI Sisterhood pennies to reproduce. to: A portrait, on the other hand, is something that is always filled with inaccuracies. It can never Ruth Sedler be a perfect reproduction of something, the way 152 Blue Heron Drive a photograph can. If anything, the better the Hot Springs AR 71913 portrait, the more creative license that went into it to bring out the meaning and color and beauty that does not always exist in the surface look. Unlike a photograph, the portrait can sell for millions. People pay for the portrait because it is a reflection not only of the subject, but of the artist as well. That person’s creativity is part and parcel of the portrait.” The Rebbe explained that the angels are God’s photographs. We, however, are God’s portraits. The Shofar Page 3 Page PB The Whole Megillah Purim 2020 Sisterhood Our Sisterhood held a busy meeting on February 3rd, completing plans for our upcoming Congregation meeting, Friday night Purim celebration and April Passover Seder. Sue Koppel has again graciously agreed to chair this event. Following our April meeting, we will set up in Burgauer hall for the Seder dinner. In keeping with our tradition, we are also sponsoring a food drive during Passover to benefit Jackson House. Requested are nonperishable items such as pasta CHI will be celebrating Purim as a congregation sauce, jelly/jam in small plastic containers (not on Friday night March 6. glass) boxes of cereal, tuna and canned fruit. Please support us in our congregational effort to We will begin at our usual 5:15 p.m. with an address hunger in our community. Food items enhanced oneg, appropriate for the festival. This can be brought to the temple over the next few will be followed by a brief Erev Shabbat service months. which will segue into reading of the Megillah, complete with Megillahs and groggers for all. During our March 2nd meeting, we will welcome the Threshold Singers of Hot Springs who will So plan on joining in the fun. Everyone is perform for us following our business meeting. welcome. No charge or reservation needed. When invited by patients, families or caregivers, this group sings five to seven songs at the bedside of someone in hospice, bringing comfort and peace to the recipients. Our Sisterhood member Gail Greenberg is one of the singers and has arranged this program. We invite our membership to join us! Page 4 The Shofar Page PB Congregation House of Israel DC Visit Board of Directors Sponsored by the Religious Action Center, Tillie and Louis Reagler visited Washington D.C. along with their Rabbi Sheldon “Shelly” Kleinman Confirmation Class at Temple B’nai Israel in Little 501-282-0055 Rock. [email protected] The top photo below shows Tillie and Louis along with David D. Reagler, President Bruce Eugene Westerman, U.S. Representative for the 870-208-4495 4th congressional district of Arkansas. The bottom [email protected] photo shows Tillie and Louis along with their entire confirmation class, including Representative Westerman Ira Kleinman, Vice President (center) and Rabbi Block (far right). 501-520-1323 [email protected] Glenda Kirsch, Secretary 281-458-2655 [email protected] Hal Koppel, Treasurer 501-525-3238 [email protected] Patti Fleischner, Sisterhood 501-321-2441 [email protected] Yossi Baron 501-655-1280 [email protected] Sherrill Nicolosi 501-984-1517 [email protected] Jerry Rephan 501-321-1551 [email protected] Nate Bernstein 618-528-6042 [email protected] Jerry Tanenbaum, ARZA-World Union 501-262-9770 [email protected] Dennis Williams, Immediate Past Presi- dent 870-230-3529 [email protected] The Shofar Page 5 Page PB Shekhinah, proceeded side by side, and passersby used to ask: “What is the nature of those two chests?” They ARZA - World Union received the reply: “One is of the dead and the other of the Shekhinah.” “But is it, then, the way of the dead to proceed with the Shekhinah?” They were told, “This one “And Moses took with him the bones of Joseph, who [Joseph] fulfilled all that was written in the other.” (BT had exacted an oath from the children of Israel, Sotah 13a-13b) saying, “God will be sure to take notice of you: then you shall carry up my bones from here with you.” According to Dr. Simcha Paull Raphael in his book (Exodus: 13:19) Living and Dying in Ancient and Modern Times, for the Israelites on their forty-year long desert Shalom journey, Joseph’s bones are not an after-thought, a residue from ancient days transported with a sense of Leaving Egypt can easily be described as the single habituated duty, and nothing more. Instead, just like most formative moment in the history of our people. the Ark of the Covenant and the Ten Commandments It is the event that gets its contained therein, own holiday, it is mentioned the ritual carrying of every Friday night in the Joseph’s bones are in Kiddush right after we a sense essential to the remember the creation spiritual foundation of of the world, and we are the nation. reminded of it throughout the rest of the Torah with In complying with great frequency, making it Joseph’s deathbed impossible to forget. request to “bring my bones up from here with Despite the haste in which you” , for the wandering we left (remember not Israelites, the Sinai having time for our bread journey becomes both a to rise), Moses made sure he pilgrimage to freedom, fulfilled the promise to bring with him the bones of as well as a national funeral procession honoring the our ancestor and forefather Joseph, as Joseph made dead, that, at one and the same time, carries forth the his brothers promise him they would do so probably legacy of the ancestors.