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March 2021 Bulletin The Bulletin Riverdale Temple y:y} μve lL;hum] /abom] d[' vm,v, jræz]Mimi From the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof, the name of the Eternal One is to be praised. Worship Services (see calendar on p. 2 for details) Vol. 74 March 2021 (5781) No. 7 Fridays March 5 7:00 p.m. Shabbat Evening Service THE RABBI’S COLUMN March 12 7:00 p.m. Shabbat Evening Service Each night, both of my children get to pick a “lights out book,” the last March 19 5:00 p.m. Pre-Passover Tot Shabbat book read to them before they go to sleep. For the past three weeks, Izzy’s 6:30 p.m. Pre-Passover SLC/Ruach book has been the same every night. It is called Under the Sabbath Lamp, Shabbat and it is about a couple who light an oil lamp every Friday night instead of March 26 7:00 p.m. Shabbat Evening Service Shabbat candles. In the book, the lamp was passed down in the husband’s Saturdays family. It was purchased in Europe by his great-great-grandfather 150 March 6 10:30 a.m. Shabbat Morning Service years before. The endpage includes a picture of the author’s Shabbat lamp, March 13 10:30 a.m. Shabbat Morning Service although he purchased his in an antique store. March 20 10:30 a.m. Shabbat Morning Service A few weeks ago, when we did kiddush after services on Friday night, I commented on the kiddush cup I was using. Some years ago, I had found March 27 10:30 a.m. Shabbat Morning Service it in a pile of silver that my mother was planning on donating to Housing All services and events at Riverdale Temple (see Works, a philanthropic thrift shop in Manhattan. I was astonished. “How p. 2) are being offered remotely via Zoom. Please can you donate this? This was probably grandpa’s kiddush cup! It may consult the e-blasts for the latest information on have been in his family for hundreds of years!” Zoom links. To subscribe to our e-blasts, email My mother, who had no idea how she had acquired the cup, pointed out [email protected]. that the little stars on the cup were five-pointed, not six. “It is probably not a kiddush cup at all,” she said. I was unconvinced, and took the cup home, determined to use it as a kiddush cup anyway. Some years later, I happened to turn the cup over, and printed on the SAVE THE DATE! PASSOVER bottom I saw words I had never noticed before. Stamped on the cup was IS COMING! “Made in Israel.” I was probably right that it was a kiddush cup, but I was Join us for Riverdale Temple’s certainly wrong that the cup was hundreds of years old, and wrong that it Virtual Second Night Passover had been passed down in my grandfather’s family. Seder How did my mother end up with that cup? It could not have been a gift Led by Rabbi Thomas Gardner for my father’s bar mitzvah, which happened well before there was a State of Israel. I can’t imagine anyone thinking that anyone in my family needed Sunday evening, March 28 a kiddush cup. It is possible that it was a gift for my or my brother’s bar We welcome our congregants and members of the mitzvah, but I think it most likely that the cup was purchased by my mother’s community. parents on their one and only trip to Israel, sometime in the seventies. The Zoom link will be announced via e-blasts closer At first, I was disappointed that the cup was not a family heirloom. When to the actual date. I thought about it, I changed my mind. I thought of my grandfather in a shop in an Israel that was only 25 or 30 years old, looking over menorahs and candlesticks, and finally picking up this cup. I could see him deciding Save the Date! that this would be his kiddush cup from now on, that this would be his gift April 25, 2021 to himself to remind him of his trip. If you asked him what he hoped would Riverdale Temple become of the cup after he was gone, of course he would have said that he Outdoor Mitzvah Day hoped that one of his grandchildren would use it for kiddush. continued on p. 3 1 Riverdale Temple Bulletin Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday 17th of Adar 5781 18th of Adar 5781 19th of Adar 5781 20th of Adar 5781 21st of Adar 5781 22nd of Adar 5781 Noon Lunch and 4:00–5:30 pm Simcha 4:00 pm Jewish Ethics 7:00 pm Shabbat Parashat Ki Tisa Learn with Rabbi Learning Center (via with Rabbi Gardner Evening Service (via 10:30 am Shabbat Gardner: The Zoom) (via Zoom) Zoom) Morning Service (via Psalms (via Zoom) Zoom) 1 2 3 4 5 6 23rd of Adar 5781 24th of Adar 5781 25th of Adar 5781 26th of Adar 5781 27th of Adar 5781 28th of Adar 5781 29th of Adar 5781 9:30–11:00 am Simcha Noon Lunch and 4:00–5:30 pm Simcha 7:30 pm WRJ Book 4:00 pm Jewish Ethics 7:00 pm Shabbat Parashat Vayakhel- Learning Center In- Learn with Rabbi Learning Center (via Club (via Zoom) with Rabbi Gardner Evening Service (via Pekudei person classes Gardner: The Zoom) (via Zoom) Zoom) 10:30 am Shabbat 9:30–10:45 am Zoom Psalms (via Zoom) 7:30 pm Executive Morning Service (via classes Committee Meeting Zoom) (via Zoom) 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 March 1st of Nisan 5781 2nd of Nisan 5781 3rd of Nisan 5781 4th of Nisan 5781 5th of Nisan 5781 6th of Nisan 5781 7h of Nisan 5781 9:30–11:00 am Simcha Noon Lunch and 4:00–5:30 pm Simcha 4:00 pm Jewish Ethics 5:00 pm Pre-Passover Parashat Vayikra Learning Center In- Learn with Rabbi Learning Center (via with Rabbi Gardner Tot Shabbat (hybrid) 10:30 am Shabbat person classes Gardner: The Zoom) (via Zoom) 6:30 pm Pre-Passover Morning Service (via 9:30–10:45 am Zoom Psalms (via Zoom) 7:30 pm Board of SLC/Ruach Shabbat Zoom) classes Trustees Meeting (via (hybrid) 1:00 pm Chavurah after Zoom) services (via Zoom) 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 8th of Nisan 5781 9th of Nisan 5781 10th of Nisan 5781 11th of Nisan 5781 12th of Nisan 5781 13th of Nisan 5781 14th of Nisan 5781 9:30–11:00 am Simcha Noon Lunch and 4:00–5:30 pm Simcha 4:00 pm Jewish Ethics Purim Erev Pesach Learning Center In- Learn with Rabbi Learning Center (via with Rabbi Gardner 7:00 pm Shabbat Parashat Tzav person classes Gardner: The Zoom) (via Zoom) Evening Service (via 10:30 am Shabbat 9:30–10:45 am Zoom Psalms (via Zoom) Zoom) Morning Service (via classes Zoom) 4:00 pm An Afternoon of Passover Songs with the Sharett-Singer Family (via Zoom) 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 15th of Nisan 5781 16th of Nisan 5781 17th of Nisan 5781 18th of Nisan 5781 Pesach I Pesach II Pesach III Pesach IV 9:30–11:00 am Simcha No Noon Lunch and 4:00–5:30 pm Simcha Learning Center In- Learn with Rabbi Learning Center (via person classes Gardner Zoom) 9:30–10:45 am Zoom classes ca. 6:30 pm Virtual Second Night Passover Seder (via Zoom) 28 29 30 31 Hybrid: in person and on Zoom I have four kiddush cups. One was a gift from the brotherhood would have wanted me to own the cup, but what he really would of Congregation Rodeph Sholom when I was a bar mitzvah, one I have wanted was for me to use the cup. And so I do. I hope that one bought in Israel, one I inherited from my brother, and the other is of my children will some day use the cup, and perhaps even some the one that I think my grandfather bought in Israel. The one I got future grandchildren. In my imagination, I picture a grandchild from my brother I will give to his daughter when she gets married. showing the cup to a small child and saying, “Do you see this cup? One of the others I will give to Runia when she gets married, and It has been in our family for generations. It is a family heirloom.” one to Izzy when he does (Gd willing they all do, and I am here to And so it will be. see it). The last I will take with me, perhaps, to the nursing home. I wish everyone a wonderful Passover! When you sit down at What makes a family heirloom? You don’t need 150 years. You your seder, whether you are with others or online, look at your only need a single generation. seder plate, your kiddush cup, your candlesticks. May you use No doubt the author of Under the Sabbath Lamp wishes that his them for many years, in good health! And when you can no longer lamp had been in his family for generations. He can still pass it use them, may they be passed down to people you love, along with down to his children, and it will be a family heirloom. your Judaism.
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