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Lincoln Square Synagogue for As Sexuality, the Role Of
IflN mm Lincoln Square Synagogue Volume 27, No. 3 WINTER ISSUE Shevat 5752 - January, 1992 FROM THE RABBI'S DESK.- It has been two years since I last saw leaves summon their last colorful challenge to their impending fall. Although there are many things to wonder at in this city, most ofthem are works ofhuman beings. Only tourists wonder at the human works, and being a New Yorker, I cannot act as a tourist. It was good to have some thing from G-d to wonder at, even though it was only leaves. Wondering is an inspiring sensation. A sense of wonder insures that our rela¬ tionship with G-d is not static. It keeps us in an active relationship, and protects us from davening or fulfilling any other mitzvah merely by rote. A lack of excitement, of curiosity, of surprise, of wonder severs our attachment to what we do. Worse: it arouses G-d's disappointment I wonder most at our propensity to cease wondering. None of us would consciously decide to deprive our prayers and actions of meaning. Yet, most of us are not much bothered by our lack of attachment to our tefilot and mitzvot. We are too comfortable, too certain that we are living properly. That is why I am happy that we hosted the Wednesday Night Lecture with Rabbi Riskin and Dr. Ruth. The lecture and the controversy surrounding it certainly woke us up. We should not need or even use controversy to wake ourselves up. However, those of us who were joined in argument over the lecture were forced to confront some of the serious divisions in the Orthodox community, and many of its other problems. -
From the Rabbi's Desk the Festival of Chanukah Retells the Struggle Between Traditional Judaism and the Forces of Secularism Which Seek to Engulf It
Vol. 3, Xo. 4 December, 1966 Kislev-Tevet, 5727 From The Rabbi's Desk The Festival of Chanukah retells the struggle between traditional Judaism and the forces of secularism which seek to engulf it. The Hellenists maintained that the esthetic values of Greek philosophy were far more noble than the outdated rituals of ancient Judea, that the dicta of Aristotle ought replace the laws of Moses. The one commandment most maligned was that of circumcision. How could civilized people, aware of the perfection of the human body, agree to any operation which would alter a physical organ? In truth, many of the Hellenized Jews underwent plastic surgery to conceal their "shameful" circumcision. Similarly in our own day is the rite of circum¬ cision being questioned and rejected. All too fre¬ quently a father asks me to name his new-born son in the synagogue after a so-called brit-milah was performed by a doctor on the third or fourth day after birth. So has twentieth century America trans¬ formed a religious imperative into a mere biological operation! The rite of circumcision brands our regenerative organ with the unescapable fact of our Jewishness. It declares to the son of Abraham at birth that the obligations and privileges of his Judaism are an intrinsic element of the very origin of his being. It eloquently preaches the power of man to perfect himself and the primacy of God over every aspect of man's physical existence. But most significantly it symbolizes commitment, the kind of commitment which involves the shedding of one's blood (hatafat dam brit) for one's faith and one's God. -
Passover 2021 Guidelines Elebrating Passover This Year Will Once Again Not Be in an Ideal Form
passover 2021 guidelines elebrating Passover this year will once again not be in an ideal form. Hopefully, the challenges presented by COVID-19 will open doors to creativity and the learning of new skills. In addition to Cour civic legal requirements, as always, it is crucial that we take seriously our obligation as Jews to safeguard our lives and the lives of others. This year, Pesach is immediately preceded by Shabbat. As a result, some practices are modified, especially when and what we eat on Shabbat. Selling Chametz / Ma’ot Chittin Adath Israel is once again pleased to assist our members in the selling of their chametz. As the synagogue office is closed, please do not mail or fax chametz selling forms. Rather, all chametz sales should be completed online HERE. It is a mitzvah prior to Passover to provide tzedakah so that those in need can appropriately celebrate the holiday. This year, there is already a great need within our community. Please support Toronto’s vulnerable Jews by donating HERE. New Clothing Many have the custom of purchasing new clothing prior to Passover. This practice should be suspended. Siyyum Bechorot The virtual Siyyum Bechorot will take place on Thursday, March 25. Services begin at 7:30 a.m., with the Siyyum starting 8:15am. We are honoured that Dr. Jack Lipinsky will once again lead the teaching. Click HERE to log in. Searching for Chametz The search for Chametz should take place on Thursday night, preceded by the opening blessing. If you plan to consume chametz during Shabbat, then do not recite the kol chamirah closing declaration. -
CCAR Journal the Reform Jewish Quarterly
CCAR Journal The Reform Jewish Quarterly Halachah and Reform Judaism Contents FROM THE EDITOR At the Gates — ohrgJc: The Redemption of Halachah . 1 A. Brian Stoller, Guest Editor ARTICLES HALACHIC THEORY What Do We Mean When We Say, “We Are Not Halachic”? . 9 Leon A. Morris Halachah in Reform Theology from Leo Baeck to Eugene B . Borowitz: Authority, Autonomy, and Covenantal Commandments . 17 Rachel Sabath Beit-Halachmi The CCAR Responsa Committee: A History . 40 Joan S. Friedman Reform Halachah and the Claim of Authority: From Theory to Practice and Back Again . 54 Mark Washofsky Is a Reform Shulchan Aruch Possible? . 74 Alona Lisitsa An Evolving Israeli Reform Judaism: The Roles of Halachah and Civil Religion as Seen in the Writings of the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism . 92 David Ellenson and Michael Rosen Aggadic Judaism . 113 Edwin Goldberg Spring 2020 i CONTENTS Talmudic Aggadah: Illustrations, Warnings, and Counterarguments to Halachah . 120 Amy Scheinerman Halachah for Hedgehogs: Legal Interpretivism and Reform Philosophy of Halachah . 140 Benjamin C. M. Gurin The Halachic Canon as Literature: Reading for Jewish Ideas and Values . 155 Alyssa M. Gray APPLIED HALACHAH Communal Halachic Decision-Making . 174 Erica Asch Growing More Than Vegetables: A Case Study in the Use of CCAR Responsa in Planting the Tri-Faith Community Garden . 186 Deana Sussman Berezin Yoga as a Jewish Worship Practice: Chukat Hagoyim or Spiritual Innovation? . 200 Liz P. G. Hirsch and Yael Rapport Nursing in Shul: A Halachically Informed Perspective . 208 Michal Loving Can We Say Mourner’s Kaddish in Cases of Miscarriage, Stillbirth, and Nefel? . 215 Jeremy R. -
2021/5781 High Holy Days WORSHIP INFORMATON ~
2021/5781 High Holy Days WORSHIP INFORMATON ~ Rosh HaShanah ~ S’lichot Service jointly w/ Ohavi Saturday September 12 8:00pm Zedek ~ Erev Rosh HaShanah Service Friday September 18 6:30pm ~ Morning Children’s Service Saturday September 19 9:00am ~ Morning Rosh HaShanah Service Saturday September 19 10:00am ~ Tashlich (location TBA) Saturday September 19 4:00pm ~ Insomniac Lounge: alternative Rosh Hashanah Service Saturday September 19 10:00pm Between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur ~ Shofar Drive-thru Sunday September 20 11:00am ~ JCVT Vermont Shabbat Shuva Friday September 25 TBD Service ~ Insomniac Lounge: Shabbat Shuva Friday September 25 10:00pm meditation service ~ Shabbat Shuva Morning Service Saturday September 26 9:30am ~ Shabbat Shuva Torah Study Saturday September 26 10:30am Yom Kippur ~ Kol Nidre/Erev Yom Kippur Sunday September 27 6:30pm ~ Morning Children’s Service Monday September 28 9:00am ~ Morning Yom Kippur Service Monday September 28 10:00am ~ Yizkor Service Monday September 28 2:00pm ~ Making Prayer Real: Engaging Yom Kippur Monday September 28 3:00 pm ~ Minchah Service Monday September 28 4:30pm ~ Neilah Monday September 28 6:00pm ~ Break Fast Monday September 28 7:00pm Join us on ZOOM This year's High Holy Day services will be a different experience to what we are used to. Our services will be led by our rabbi, David Edleson, and our cantor Mark Leopold. Due to the pandemic and the significantly heightened risks of singing in closed spaces, we will not be celebrating in the Sanctuary but will continue our worship on ZOOM as we have been every Shabbat. -
Tzedakah As the Defining Social Marker of Jewish Identity
Tzedakah as the Defining Social Marker of Jewish Identity A. The Test of a True Jew: Check the Pocketbook B. Maimonides: Appealing to Jewish Genes – The Perfect “Pitch” “[God] has told you, human being, what is good and what Adonai requires of you: Nothing but to do justice (mishpat), to love kindness (hesed), and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8) הִ גִיד לְָך ָאדָ ם מַ ה-ּטוֹב ּומָ ה-יְהוָה ּדוֹרֵ ׁש מִמְ ָך כִ י אִ ם- עֲׂשוֹתמִׁשְ טפָ וְַאהֲבַת חֶסֶ ד וְהַצְ נֵעַ לֶכֶת עִ ם- אֱֹלהֶ יָך. Noam Zion, Hartman Institute, [email protected] – excerpted form from Jewish Giving in Comparative Perspectives: History and Story, Law and Theology, Anthropology and Psychology. Book One: From Each According to One’s Ability: Duties to Poor People from the Bible to the Welfare State and Tikkun Olam Previous Books: A DIFFERENT NIGHT: The Family Participation Haggadah By Noam Zion and David Dishon LEADER'S GUIDE to "A DIFFERENT NIGHT" By Noam Zion and David Dishon A DIFFERENT LIGHT: Hanukkah Seder and Anthology including Profiles in Contemporary Jewish Courage By Noam Zion A Day Apart: Shabbat at Home By Noam Zion and Shawn Fields-Meyer A Night to Remember: Haggadah of Contemporary Voices Mishael and Noam Zion www.haggadahsrus.com 1 Our teachers have said: "If all troubles were assembled on one side and poverty on the other, poverty would outweigh them all." - Midrash Shemot Rabbah 31:14 "The sea of a mighty population, held in galling fetters, heaves uneasily in the tenements.... The gap between the classes in which it surges, unseen, unsuspected by the thoughtless, is widening day by day. -
Message from Rabbi Cohen in This Issue
S I VA N - E L U L 5 7 7 4 • S U M M E R E D I T I O N • J U N E - A U G U S T 2 0 1 4 C O N G R E CG A T I OhN BaE T iH -I S lR iA EgL • BhE R KtE s L E Y MESSAGE FROM RABBI COHEN Sadly, this summer all of our rejoicings are deeply disturbed learning and personal growth. The list I compiled spans several by heartbreaking events in Israel. The biblical poet somberly genres and themes, with a little something for everyone. I highly cries, If I forget thee, oh Jerusalem! Certainly, this summer, wher - encourage us to order these books through our local Judaica ever we may be, at work or on break, our hearts and minds book store, Afikomen. must be intently focused on Jerusalem, on Zion, as an entire For those interested in literary readings of biblical texts, I rec - nation mourns three of its boys. As the days of mourning turn ommend R. Nathaniel Helfgot’s Mikra & Meaning . R. Helgot, into weeks, let us hold on to the urgency of this hour and the my former Tanach rebbe at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah , is a master - profound lessons of unity that emerged out of this horrific ful teacher and writer. His work contains several articles about tragedy. At CBI, we will use the summer days as an opportu - the book of Numbers (particularly relevant to our current Torah nity to delve more deeply into the Torah, and as we do so, I portions) alongside other major biblical texts and reflective works hope that we will keep our nation’s boys, z”l, as a primary focus on biblical scholarship and Modern Orthodoxy. -
The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism: Celebrating 50 Years in Pursuit of Social Justice!
The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism: Celebrating 50 Years in Pursuit of Social Justice! Religious Action Center History & Influence Program Guide 60 minutes (or longer!) Audience: Adaptable for all ages Goals: • Communicate the following messages about the purpose and function of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism: o The Reform Movement has been involved in the pursuit of social justice and engaged in public policy work for many decades o The Religious Action Center, on behalf of the Reform Movement, uses many different approaches to achieve its goal of tikkun olam o The Reform Movement works on a broad range of issues that affect us as Jews, as North Americans, and as global citizens o The Religious Action Center provides a Jewish voice on important public policy issues o The Religious Action Center can support and enhance an individual’s personal social action work • Inspire program participants to become involved in the work of the Religious Action Center Timeline: 0:00-0:05 Set Induction- What is Social Justice? 0:05-0:10 Video Viewing 0:10-0:20 Conversation about what was seen on the PowerPoint 0:20-0:50 Digging Deeper: Going Through the PowerPoint (if you want the program to be longer, you can expand this section of the program) 0:50-0:60 Concluding Activity Materials: • Computer and projector (for displaying PowerPoint presentation) • RAC History Video (available for download here, or to stream on Youtube here) • RAC History PowerPoint Presentation (available for download here) • White board or butcher paper • 4 posters, which read “Strongly Agree,” “Agree,” “Disagree,” and “Strongly Disagree” Program Details: 0:00-0:05 Set Induction: Advocacy, Education, & Direct Service 1) Place four posters in different corners of the room that say, “Strongly Agree,” “Agree,” “Disagree,” and “Strongly Disagree.” As you read the following statements, ask participants to move to the corner of the room that best reflects their relationship to the statement. -
Competition February 24Th
February 16, 1973 Volume XLI Number 12 Adar I 14, 5733 Three Ramaz Seniors FOR YOUR ATTENTION AND ACTION Declared Finalists in National Merit Last week's New York Times carried an extraordinary development in the Competition struggle for freedom for Soviet Jewry. I refer to the unprecedented support for that struggle from the Chairman of the Flouse Ways and Means Committee, We are proud to announce to the Representative Wilbur Mills. Kehilath Jeshurun family that three seniors in the current graduating class Mr. Mills gave his unqualified support to the so-called Vanik Bill, which was of the Ramaz Upper School have just introduced in the House of Representatives by Charles A. Vanik (D-Ohio) as a been notified of their position as counterpart to the well known Jackson Amendment introduced in the last session Finalists in the National Merit Com¬ in the Senate. The Vanik Bill would withhold "Most Favored Nation" status from petition. They are: Ron Cohen, Samuel countries who violate international standards, specifically including the Gamoran, and Laura Shragowitz. Five charging of exorbitant exit fees for citizens who wish to seniors had originally placed as semi- emigrate. The Bill would also finalists. These three remain in the withhold loans, grants and credits from those nations which perpetrate such competition in this august position. violations. The National Merit Competition in¬ The Vanik Bill is the key pressure point for American Jewry through which cludes all seniors throughout the coun¬ we can gain repeal or weakening of the ransom tax which is now being charged try. Each finalist is one out of 14,500 to all educated Soviet Jews who wish to students. -
Guide to Erev Pesach on Shabbat 5781 ~ 2021
Guide to Erev Pesach on Shabbat 5781 ~ 2021 This year, 5781/2021, Pesach begins on Saturday night. With Erev Pesach falling on Shabbat, we will have some more pre-Pesach planning than usual. I hope you will find these guidelines helpful. Please let me know if you have any questions. ~ Rabbi Ken Brodkin Question 1: When do we search for Chametz? This year, we search for Chametz on Thursday night, March 25, after 8:15 pm. Before searching, we recite the Bracha of "Al Biur Chometz". Following the search, we say the paragraph of "Kol Chamira". Both these sections may be found in the Artscroll Siddur (Nusach Sephard) on pg. 700. The blessing marks the beginning of our destruction of Chametz; the "Kol Chamira" paragraph (the first of the two printed in the Siddur) annuls our ownership of any Chametz which has escaped our notice. Question 2: When do we burn our Chometz? So as not to create any confusion, we burn our Chametz on Friday, March 26, at the normal time that we would on a regular Erev Pesach—before 12:10 pm. We do not recite any blessing or “Kol Chamira” at that time. Question 3: When do we recite "Kol Chamira" annulling our ownership of Chametz? We do not recite the second "Kol Chamira" when burning our Chametz on Friday. We recite the first "Kol Chamira" when we search for Chametz on Thursday night. We recite the second “Kol Chamira” on Shabbat morning, before 12:10 pm, on pg. 700. Question 4: When do the first-born sons fast? This year, the fast is observed on Thursday, March 25. -
March/April 2020
A Traditional, Egalitarian and Participatory Conservative Synagogue ADAR/NISSAN/IYAR 5780 NEWSLETTER/VOLUME 32:4 MARCH/APRIL 2020 Scholarly Shabbaton: Navigating Jewishness in Christian Worlds with Professors Jessica Cooperman and Hartley Lachter Friday, March 27 and Saturday, 28 wo sustaining pillars of Or Zarua were still seen as suspicious, foreign faiths have been our weekly Shabbat at odds with American values. When the Scholarly Shabbaton services and varied adult education US War Department began preparations to programs. On Friday evening and send American soldiers and sailors to fight Professors Saturday, March 27-28, those two in World War I, it had no plans to introduce Timportant facets of the unique Or Zarua the country to new ideas about religious Jessica Cooperman & experience will coincide. We will convene pluralism. Over the course of the war, as a community for what promises to be however, the American military adopted new Hartley Lachter a wonderful Scholarly Shabbaton, led by policies and practices intended to elevate Friday, March 27 (married) professors Jessica Cooperman the moral character and civic consciousness 6:00 pm Minhah/Kabbalat Shabbat and Hartley Lachter, that will be filled with of its troops. Thanks to the work of the 7:00 pm Dinner (RSVP) stimulating learning, joyous prayer, and Jewish Welfare Board, these new “soldiers’ 8:15 pm Lecture by Dr. Jessica Cooperman: delicious food. welfare programs” became an unexpected Fighting for Judaism in Coming to us from the beautiful Lehigh gateway for renegotiating portrayals and World War I America Valley, Drs. Cooperman and Lachter will give perceptions of Jews and Judaism within Note that you may attend the lecture several lectures over the course of Shabbat American society. -
Jewish Sources on Poverty
Focus on Poverty Jewish Texts for Reflection & Action Below you will find Jewish texts dealing with poverty to assist you in framing this important work within Jewish tradition. The texts are arranged based on historical context: Biblical, rabbinic, medieval and contemporary. We hope that these texts and questions will create interesting and stimulating discussion and debate. Biblical When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not pick your vineyard bare or gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger; I am Adonai your God. Leviticus 19:9-10 But do not neglect the Levite in your community, for he has no hereditary portion as you have. Every third year you shall bring out the full tithe of that year, but leave it within your settlements. Then the Levite, who has no hereditary portion as you have, and the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow in your settlements shall come and eat their fill, so that the Eternal your God may bless you in all the enterprises you undertake. Deuteronomy 14:27-29 When you have set aside in full the tenth of your yield – in the third year, the year of the tithe – and have given it to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, that they may eat their fill in your settlements, you shall declare before the Eternal your God: “I have cleared out the consecrated portion from the house; and I have given it to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, just as You commanded me; I have neither transgressed nor neglected any of Your commandements.” Deuteronomy 26:12-13 Share your bread with the hungry, and take the wretched poor into your home.