Shabbat Celebrations
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1495 FORD STREET · REDLANDS · CALIFORNIA · 92373 · (909) 307-0400 MAY 2017 IYAR - SIVAN 5777 VOLUME XLV - NUMBER 8 SHABBAT CELEBRATIONS Friday - May 5, 2017 Led by Rabbi Jay Sherwood SHABBAT ALIVE DINNER at 6:00 PM EREV SHABBAT SERVICE at 7:00 PM Oneg Shabbat following the service Saturday - May 6, 201710:00am Led by Rabbi Jay Sherwood SHABBAT MORNING SERVICE AT 10:00 AM Parashat Acharei Mot-Kedoshim - - Leviticus 16:1-20:27 - Haftarah - Amos 9:7-15 Kiddush following the Service Friday - May 12, 2017 Led by Rabbi Jay Sherwood TOT SHABBAT at 6:00 PM EREV SHABBAT SERVICE at 7:00 PM Oneg Shabbat following the service Saturday - May 13, 2017 SHABBAT MORNING SERVICE AT 10:00 AM Led by Rabbi Jay Sherwood Parashat Emor - - Leviticus 21:1-24:23 Haftarah - Ezekiel 44:15-31 Kiddush following the Service CHOIR SHABBAT Friday - May 19, 2017 Led by Rabbi Jay Sherwood & Cantor Jennifer Bern-Vogel EREV SHABBAT SERVICE at 7:00 PM Oneg Shabbat following the service Saturday - May 20, 2017 - 10:00am Led by Rabbi Jay Sherwood & Cantor Jennifer Bern-Vogel SHABBAT SCHOOL AND SERVICE Members of Cantor Bern-Vogel’s Trop Class will be chanting Torah Parashat Behar-Bechukotai - - Leviticus 25:1-27:34 Haftarah - Jeremiah 16:19-17:14 Kiddush following the Service Friday - May 26, 2017 EREV SHABBAT SERVICE AT 7:00 PM Led by Rabbi Jay Sherwood Oneg Shabbat following the service Saturday - May 27, 2017 SHABBAT MORNING SERVICE AT 10:00 AM Led by Rabbi Jay Sherwood Parashat Bamidbar - - Numbers 1:1-4:2 Haftarah - Hosea 2:1-22 Kiddush Following the Service MAY, 2017 PAGE 1 SHAVUOT CELEBRATIONS The festival of Shavuot, sometimes known as Pentecost (fiftieth day), or the Feast of Weeks, was originally celebrated as a thanksgiving for the wheat harvest. It falls seven weeks after the spring barley harvest, when an omer (measure of grain) of the new produce was offered. Because early crops – especially barley – ripened around the time of Shavuot, the Bible refers to Shavuot as “Chag HaKatzir”, the feast of the harvest, and Yom HaBikkurim, the day of the first fruits, observed by offerings of the best ripe produce of the fields. Beginning with the second day of passover, seven weeks (or forty-nine days) were carefully counted, and the fiftieth day was celebrated as the beginning of the wheat harvest or festival of the first fruits. In the course of time, as a result of the transformation of the agricultural festivals into historical commemorations, the additional significance of Shavuot as the Festival of the Giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai completely overshadowed its original significance. Though the Bible does not identify Shavuot with the anniversary of the revelation atop Mount Sinai and the giving of the Ten Commandments, the tradition, undisputed in the Talmud, has been that the Torah was given on the sixth day of Sivan. There is no doubt that the receiving of the Torah changed the course of Jewish history and have the Jew his/her most valid reason for living as a Jew... It was the Torah that gave life and substance to the Jew no mater where he/she lived and what he/she did, whether in his/her homeland Israel, or anywhere else in the world. Thus, the Torah for the Jew became a Torat Chayim – a Tree of Life. The modern day observance of Shavuot reflects both the agricultural as well as the historical aspects of the festival. The Ten Commandments are read in the synagogue as part of the Torah reading. Plants and flowers often decorate the synagogue bema. The Book of Ruth is also read for its description of a summer harvest in Israel. Milk dishes are the customary foods on Shavuot, symbolizing the Torah which is likened to milk... In the past hundred years or so, it has been customary to hold confirmation exercises on Shavuot with the young people, usually finishing Grade 10 of their general education, “confirming” their Jewish identity as they have completed formal religious school studies. Adapted from Every Person’s Guide to Shavuot, Ronald H. Isaacs, ©1998 Jason Aronson Inc. EVE OF SHAVUOT Tuesday - May 30, 2017 - 7:00 PM Service of Confirmation CONFIRMANDS Drew Holder son of Debra and Philip Holder Emma Lehmann daughter of Karyn and Stephen Lehmann Adeline Swedlove daughter of Jeanette and David Swedlove Sydney Weissman daughter of Jill and Gregory Weissman Service will be followed by a Dairy Dessert Oneg Chag TIKUN LEIL SHAVUOT - 9:00 PM - 3 classes on “Writing Your Own Torah” taught by Rabbi Jay Sherwood, Rabbi Hillel Cohn, Cantor Jennifer Bern-Vogel SHAVUOT MORNING Wednesday - May 31, 2017 - 10:00 am Service will include Yizkor/Memorial prayers Service will be followed by a Shavuot Brunch including Cheese & Potato Blintzes MAY, 2017 PAGE 2 Rabbinic Reflections Cantorial Comments For the second year in a row, we Show your true colors in will recognize the month of May May!! as Mental Health Aware- ness Mental Health Awareness & month at Congregation Emanu El. Mazal Tov, Throughout the month, we will seek to raise our consciousness as Cantillation Class!! we work to end the stigma of Stigma is awful & mental illness. Each Friday night Support is Vital!! we will feature the co-chairs of our Another school year is almost Mental Health Awareness In over. Plans, deadlines and Action Committee (Heidi Nimmo and Nancy Sidhu) goals are coming to fruition and celebrations will sharing thougts and reflections on the importance of be had. But for many who suffer silently with mental health awareness. mental health disorders, this can be an especially Jewish tradition has long recognized the daunting and lonely time. This month is Mental importance of having a healthy body as well as a Health Awareness month and thanks to the tireless healthy mind. Our morning liturgy contains blessings efforts and hard work of Heidi Nimmo and Nancy giving thanks for our bodies, our souls and our minds. Sidhu, awareness within our congregation and We recognize that to be a healthy individual, we must beyond is growing, in the hopes that stigma will maintain the health of all three of these elements that slowly retreat and eventually disappear. But it make us the complete person that we are. When we takes education, patience and working together. “A ignore any one of these three aspects of self, complete mental health crisis is frightening to the person health eludes us. Nevertheless, while discussions of affected and all those who love them. Jewish values physical and spiritual health are hot topics in today’s teach us to be helpful in any health crisis. Our help society, somehow mental health has acquired a stigma and support is more important than ever when that has rendered the topic off limits in polite depression, a suicide attempt, disabling anxiety, or conversation. Judaism teaches the exact opposite. mania affects someone we love.” Please make sure In Exodus 12:30, during the tenth plague – the death of the firstborn of Egypt – the Torah speaks of the to take a lime green ribbon at any service or event great amount of crying that was heard across Egypt, for during May and offer encouragement and every household was affected by this horrible plague. In information if someone asks you about it! much the same way, every household in our land has One of the most rewarding things I do as a been touched by mental illness. Those who suffer sit in cantor is to teach Torah and Haftarah trope their own Mitzrayim, which translates not only as (cantillation). I have worked for nearly 25 years, Egypt, but as “narrow places.” God’s prescription for preparing hundreds of students for their B’nai the Israelites was to get up and leave the narrow places. Mitzvah ceremonies as well as dozens of adults, This only happened, however, when the entire who, for various reasons never became bar or bat community participated. Such is the situation with mitzvah. Many converted to Judaism later in life, mental health awareness – it is only when the entire but many Jewish women who were raised in community joins together that we can take mental traditional homes were never given the chance as health out of the narrow places and remove the stigma young girls… that surrounds it. Every Friday afternoon since last November, An inspiration to act can be found in the rituals roughly twice a month, I’ve been meeting with a of Sukkot. We are commanded to bring together the group of congregants who came together to learn etrog with the branches of three plants to create the and practice Torah cantillation. Each of the lulav. In discussing the lulav, chazal (the the rabbis of participants has a unique background of experience old) state that if any of the species are excluded, the with regard to their musical ability, Hebrew skills lulav is unfit for use. They then explain in Midrash and knowledge of Judaism. But the one thing they Vayikra Rabba 30:12, that this is really a metaphor for all share is a desire to learn and chant Torah! We humanity, teaching that, “No human is expendable. If hope you will honor Michelle Anctil, Susan one is slighted or excluded, the whole of society is Damron, Renee Kress, Ron Lubey, Marv Reiter unfit.” May this lesson inspire us to work toward ending and Mary Lynn Stough with your presence on the stigma of mental illness. th As you walk into Congregation Emanu El this Shabbat morning, May 20 , when they will month, please take a green ribbon from the basket just enhance the Torah service with newly learned and inside the front door.