“Our Voice” April/May 2017 Nisan-Iyar-Sivan 5777 Tikkun Leil Shavuot Service May 30 at 8:30 PM Family Dinner and program May 31 @ 5:30 PM Rabbi Round-Up By Rabbi Jeffrey Abraham BUILDING COMMUNITY Building. When we think of the word building, numerous in total. When I reflect on the time we spent in Israel thoughts and images come to mind. We may be building together, I think about how much we have been able to something physical in our homes, building relationships, or build today as a Jewish people. Each day in Israel outdid perhaps building something more spiritual from within. the next: the sights, the smells, the sounds, the people—it was all indescribable. We had a chance to spend an Our holidays during the next few months will be spent incredible day in our partnership region, meeting people celebrating the beginning stages of the building of our who are teachers, teenagers, authors, and workers on a people. We start with Passover, where we commemorate dairy farm, and we were enthralled by a fantastic singing our Exodus from Egyptian bondage and the miracles God group led by Avi Dayan, who is coming to San Antonio on performed in order to allow us to be free. Then, only May 1st for Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Israel Independence Day. (I seven weeks later, we celebrate the holiday of Shavuot hope you will all join me on the Jewish Community Campus where we celebrate the receiving of the Ten for what promises to be a sensational program that Commandments. These seven weeks of counting the Omer evening.) We spent a meaningful Shabbat in Jerusalem, (where we count from the second day of Passover until heard from captivating speakers, and helped give back at Shavuot, 50 total) are a time for us to reflect on what it Pantry Packers Food Bank, packing food for those in need took to truly build a nation and become a people together. in Israel. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, the former Chief Rabbi of Great However, when I reflect back on our trip to Israel, I cannot Britain, says that the transition from Bereishit to Shemot, help but think about just how astonishing it is that Israel Genesis to Exodus, is about the change from family to exists as a state at all today. Regardless of the politics nation. When the Israelites entered Egypt, they were a and other debates and issues in today’s Israel, the fact single, extended family. By the time they left they had that a group of visionaries and pioneers were able to become a sizeable people, divided into twelve tribes plus rebuild our homeland into the place it is today is exactly an amorphous collection of fellow travelers known as the what God was asking us to do during this time of year as erev rav, the “mixed multitude.” we approach Passover and ascend to Shavuot. What united them was a fate. They were the people whom As we celebrate the holidays of our freedom and then the Egyptians distrusted and enslaved. The Israelites had a taking on God’s laws, we are reminded of just how lucky common enemy. Beyond that they had a distant memory of we are to be free in our world today and again have a the Patriarchs and their God. They shared a past. What homeland to call our own. We all can and should be was to prove difficult, almost impossible, was to get them passionate about Israel in many ways, and my hope is that to share responsibility for the future. we can continue to build upon our passions for Israel here They were always counting on others to do for them – at Agudas today and far into the future. Pharaoh, Moses or God. They never took their fate into their own hands. However, after the receiving the Ten Commandments and the subsequent laws, the Israelites Rabbi Jeffrey Abraham had to take responsibility for each other. They worked together to build the Mishkan, the Tabernacle in the For Pictures of Israel Trip, turn to page 15. desert, and they learned how to govern their own society. As most of you know, we just returned last month from an invigorating community trip to Israel with 41 participants . Kol Shira: The Voice of Song By Hazzan Jeremy Lipton CELEBRATE OUR JEWISH LIVES! With the transformation of Kolenu from a monthly newsletter to a quarterly publication, it has created an opportunity for all of us to look ahead and view our upcoming holiday celebrations through a more global lens. Beginning with our joyful celebration this month of Pesach—z’man cheiruteinu, “the time of our freedom,” we can project through the entire seven week period that will take us all the way to Shavuot—z’man matan torateiun, “the time of the giving of the Torah.” The Book of Exodus teaches us a valuable lesson that is reinforced within these next two months of our calendar: freedom is not the ultimate goal, but only the beginning of our journey, which compels us to learn about ourselves as a part of Am Y’Israel, collectively and as individuals, within the community. As we read in the Torah each and every year, Moses’s leading of the Children of Israel out of Egypt is only the beginning of our story; the path to the Land of Israel, though fraught with obstacles, unknowingly provides us with the tools to become who we are going to be, instead of who we think we are when we leave Egypt, a story played out in the next three books of the Torah! Traditionally, we mark this transitional time of year by counting the omer (a unit of grain) every evening during the weeks between Pesach and Shavuot. This is a transformational time, one balanced between our reveling in new found freedom and our receiving the light of the Torah at Mount Sinai. During this period we also commemorate a series of more recent historical events—Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Memorial Day), Yom Hazikaron (Israel Remembrance Day) and Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israeli Independence Day). These days reaffirm our commitment and passion toward our shared destiny, just as the people Israel become the nation Israel through Torah. As members of the greater San Antonio Jewish community, we will remember these days with city-wide commemorative events that will take place this year both at Temple Beth El and at the JCC Campus. I am extremely honored to represent our congregation by chanting the unique El malei rachamim (God Full of Compassion), a special version of the memorial prayer offered during this emotionally packed, two-week period that reminds us of the cost of freedom, and of our continual longing for it. We will conclude these days by celebrating along with the members of our Confirmation Class and their families as they participate in a special Friday Night with Friends Musical Kabbalat Shabbat Service on Friday, May 19th at 6:15 p.m. That night will mark a significant moment for our 10th-grade students, as we acknowledge their many years of formal study in our own Inda Posner Religious School. That same Shabbat weekend, on Saturday morning May 20th at 9:00 a.m. we will also witness the members of this year’s Adult Bar/Bat Mitzvah class, as they mark an extremely emotional milestone in their Jewish lives by being called to the Torah as B’nei Mitzvah. Come and celebrate with your Agudas Achim family as we celebrate these special simchas in our members’ lives! B’Shalom, Hazzan Jeremy Lipton Shabbat Services Saturday, April 1 Parshat Vayikra Friday, May 5 9:00am Shabbat Service 6:15pm Friday Night With Friends 11:00am Bim Bam Shabbat & Mini Minyan Musical Kabbalat Shabbat Kiddush Luncheon 7:15pm IPRS Dining & Davening Friday, April 7 Saturday, May 6 Parshat Acharei Mot- 6:15pm Friday Night With Friends Kedoshim Musical Kabbalat Shabbat 9:00am Shabbat Service 3rd Grade Shabbat 6th Grade Shabbat Pre-Pesach Pot Luck 11:00am Bim Bam Shabbat & Mini Minyan Kiddush Luncheon Saturday, April 8 Parshat Tzav Shabbat Hagadol Friday, May 12 9:00am Shabbat Service 6:15pm Friday Night With Friends 11:00am Bim Bam Shabbat & Mini Minyan Musical Kabbalat Shabbat Kiddush Luncheon Saturday, May 13 Parshat Emor Friday, April 14 9:00am Shabbat Service and Hannah & Christopher 6:15pm Friday Night With Friends Marshall become B’nei Mitzvah Musical Kabbalat Shabbat 11:00am Bim Bam Shabbat & Mini Minyan Oneg Shabbat Kiddush Luncheon Saturday, April 15 Parshat Chol Hamoed Pesach Friday, May 19 9:00am Shabbat Service 6:15pm IPRS Confirmation 11:00am Bim Bam Shabbat & Mini Minyan Family Dinner Kiddush Luncheon Oneg Shabbat Friday, April 21 Saturday, May 20 Parshat Behar-Bechukotai 6:15pm Friday Night With Friends 9:00am Shabbat Service and Adult B’nei Mitvah Musical Kabbalat Shabbat 11:00am Bim Bam Shabbat & Mini Minyan Oneg Shabbat Kiddush Luncheon Saturday, April 22 Parshat Shemini Friday, May 26 9:00am Shabbat Service and Emily Zaltsman 6:15pm Friday Night With Friends becomes Bat Mitzvah Musical Kabbalat Shabbat/Simcha Shabbat 11:00am Bim Bam Shabbat & Mini Minyan Oneg Shabbat Kiddush Luncheon Saturday, May 27 Parshat Bemidbar Friday, April 28 9:00am Shabbat Service and Lillian Magid 6:15pm Friday Night With Friends becomes Bat Mitzvah Musical Kabbalat Shabbat 11:00am Bim Bam Shabbat & Mini Minyan Simcha Shabbat Kiddush Luncheon Oneg Shabbat 7:15pm Kabbalat Shabbat en Espanol & dinner Saturday, April 29 Parshat Tazria-Metzora 9:00am Shabbat Service and Santiago Viramontes becomes Bar Mitzvah 11:00am Bim Bam Shabbat & Mini Minyan Kiddush Luncheon Welcome to the new Kolenu! We are going quarterly starting with the June/July/August issue.