the Volume 32, 31, Number Number 7 7 March 2013 2012 TEMPLE BETH ABRAHAM AdarAdar/Nisan / Nisan 5773 5772 R i Sale of Chametz Form on page 17 Pu M directory TEMPLE BETH ABRAHAM Services Schedule is proud to support the Conservative Movement by Services/ Time Location affiliating with The United Synagogue of Conservative Monday & Thursday Judaism. Morning Minyan Chapel 8:00 a.m. Friday Evening (Kabbalat Shabbat) Chapel 6:15 p.m. Advertising Policy: Anyone may sponsor an issue of The Omer and receive a dedication for their business or loved one. Contact us for details. We do Shabbat Morning Sanctuary 9:30 a.m. not accept outside or paid advertising. The Omer is published on paper that is 30% post-consumer fibers. Candle Lighting (Friday) The Omer (USPS 020299) is published monthly except July and August March 1 5:45 p.m. by Congregation Beth Abraham, 336 Euclid Avenue, Oakland, CA 94610. March 8 5:52 p.m. Periodicals Postage Paid at Oakland, CA. March 15 6:59 p.m. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The Omer, c/o Temple Beth March 22 7:05 p.m. Abraham, 336 Euclid Avenue, Oakland, CA 94610-3232. © 2013. Temple Beth Abraham. The Omer is published by Temple Beth Abraham, a non-profit, located at Torah Portions (Saturday) 336 Euclid Avenue, Oakland, CA 94610; telephone 510-832-0936. It is March 2 Ki Tisa published monthly except for the months of July and August for a total of March 9 Vayakhel-Pekudei ten issues per annum. It is sent as a requester publication and there is no March 16 Vayikrah paid distribution. March 23 Tzav To view The Omer in color, visit www.tbaoakland.org. March 30 Passover GENERAL INFORMATION COMMITTEES & ORGANIZATIONS All phone numbers use (510) prefix unless otherwise noted. If you would like to contact the committee chairs, please contact the synagogue office for phone numbers Mailing Address 336 Euclid Ave. and e-mail addresses. Oakland, CA 94610 Hours M-Th: 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Adult Education Steve Glaser & Aaron Paul Fr: 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. Chesed Warren Gould Office Phone 832-0936 Development Steve Grossman & Flo Raskin Office Fax 832-4930 E-Mail [email protected] Dues Evaluation Susan Shub Gan Avraham 763-7528 Endowment Fund Herman Pencovic Bet Sefer 663-1683 Finance Susan Shub STAFF Gan Avraham Parents Laura Kaplan & Rachel Teichman Rabbi (x 213) Mark Bloom Gan Avraham School Committee Rebecca Posamentier Cantor (x 218) Richard Kaplan House Stephen Shub Gabai David Galant & Jay Goldman Executive Director (x 214) Rayna Arnold Israel Affairs J.B. Leibovitch Office Coordinator (x 210) Virginia Tiger Membership Mark Fickes Bet Sefer Director (x 217) Susan Simon Men’s Club Jeff Ilfeld Gan Avraham Director (x 219) Barbara Kanter Omer Lori Rosenthal Bookkeeper (x 215) Kevin Blattel Personnel Laura Wildmann Custodian (x 211) Joe Lewis Public Relations Lisa Fernandez Kindergym/Toddler Program Dawn Margolin 547-7726 Volunteers (x 229) Herman & Agnes Pencovic Ritual Eric Friedman Schools Rachel Teichman OFFICERS Social Action Marc Bruner President Bryan Schwartz 814-1936 Torah Fund Anne Levine Vice President Mark Fickes 652-8545 Web Site Liz Willner Vice President Rachel Teichman 858-922-0145 Vice President Steve Grossman 834-3937 Women of TBA Jeanne Korn Vice President Laura Wildmann 601-9571 Youth Phil Hankin Secretary Flo Raskin 653-7947 Treasurer Susan Shub 852-2500 i what’s happening TBA Presents Movie Night Come See The Award Winning Film: Sha’a b’Matana (An Hour’s Gift) A RACE to NOWHERE Thursday, March 7, from 7-9 p.m. in the Chapel March 2 at 7 p.m. Sha’a b’Matana (An Hour’s Gift) is a new series For more information contact Susan Shub of monthly speakers, members of our TBA community, ([email protected]) or visit the film’s who have volunteered to share their professional website: www.racetonowhere.com. expertise with you in an intimate, informal setting. We hope you’ll come out, get some expert advice, and enjoy a relaxed evening with other TBA members. For this month and future events please see page 7. Kindergym Women on the Move Sunday PlayDays: 3/3 and 4/7 10:30 a.m.- noon Sunday, March 10 KINDERGYM SUNDAY PLAYDAYS WTBA hikes happen the second Sunday of every with Dawn for UNDER 3s month. We meet at 9:45 and depart promptly at (per family: $9 members; $10 other); 10:00. Hikes end by 11:30. Come join us with your baby and toddler as we climb, slide, We will meet at the Skyline jump on our trampoline, rock on old fashioned horses, enjoy Gate on Skyline just south music, singing, play dough, water and rice play, painting, of Snake and hike in parachute, bubbles and so much more! Redwood Regional Park. Weekday classes too! For details, contact I look forward to playing with your family!! Deena Aerenson at Contact Dawn at: www.tbaoakland.org/kindergym (510) 225-5107 or or by phone at (510) 547-7726. [email protected]. TBA Book Group Monday, March 11 TBA Goes to Camp DISOBEDIENCE MacHANEH AVRAHAM SHabbat By Naomi Alderman A Congregational Retreat •April 12-14 A weekend for all ages as we celebrate Shabbat together. Contact Deena Aerenson for more info Call the TBA Office to Sign Up Now! at [email protected] For details contact Phil & Dina Hankin, Angela Engel, Stacy Margolin, Rabbi Bloom, or Rayna Arnold. It will be a weekend with singing, dancing, arts, education, childcare, youth programing, adult interactions with Sixth Annual East Bay Women’s libations (we are in the wine country after all), and an TORAH STUDY – KOLOT NASHIM opportunity to meet other TBA members. Monday, March 11, 2013 7:00 to 9:30 p.m. SAVE THE DATE: April 28 @ 3pm PJ Library Event at TBA with Octopretzel Kehilla Community Synagogue More info on page 17. 1300 Grand Avenue, Piedmont Contact Lori Rosenthal with questions ([email protected]). See additional WTBA and other Adult Education activities on page 5. 1 from the rabbi Thoughts on the Child Who Does Not Know How To Ask First, I want to express my deepest thanks to the entire congregation for all the love, support, and joy you brought to our lives in helping us celebrate the day our son Micah became Bar Mitzvah. It is a day we will cherish forever. Life moves on to other celebrations, and right now, we are thinking about Passover. I have always been fascinated by the passage in the Haggadah about the Four Sons, especially the fourth son, the “one who does not know how to ask.” I suppose I am so fascinated by this because this son seems so against type for most of the Jewish people I actually know. Very few Jews I know are hesitant about asking any kind of question or expressing their opinion, yet here is one who does not know how to ask. Different Haggadot have interesting interpretations of this passage, which I think are worth sharing. One of the most famous is a quotation from the Chasidic Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev, which appears in several different Haggadot. Lord of the world, I, Levi Yitzhak, am the one who does not know how to ask. In such a case, does not the Haggadah say that with the child who does not know how to ask, “You must start with him.” The father must take the initiative. Lord of the world, are You not my Father? Am I not Your son? I do not even know what questions to ask. You take the initiative and disclose the answers to me. Show me, in connection with whatever happens to me, what is required of me! What are You asking of me? God, I do not ask You why I suffer. I wish to know only that I suffer for Your sake. What an incredible statement of both pain and humility. Elie Wiesel, paraphrasing Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch, has an interesting take on the fourth son, comparing it to the fourth generation of the Jewish people. The four sons symbolize four generations. The first follows the precepts of the father, the second rebels against them, the third submits without understanding them. As for the last, he doesn’t even know that he doesn’t know. The more removed each generation is from Sinai, the less it knows, the more complacent it becomes. Interestingly, it is thanks to the fourth child that we are reading the most important verse of the Seder: “And you shall tell your son on that day…” This is the essence of our tradition. The Hebrew masorah comes from the word limsor, to communicate. A Jew must communicate a tradition. Not to do so is to mutilate it. As a Jew it is my duty to tell my child not only my story, but also the story of my story, which is also my child’s story…. So, even though we may know not know how to ask or understand the deeper meaning, our sacred task is to keep telling the story. Temple Beth Abraham Hertz Israel learned what life would have been like for us, had we have Scholarship Thank You grown up in Israel. By Evan Kharrazi Overall, I had the pleasure to develop incredible friendships, strengthen my knowledge about the history of our people, I was motivated to travel to Israel on Taglit-Birthright with better understand the complexity of the Israeli-Palestinian my fellow peers at Cornell through my involvement with conflict, and celebrate 2 amazing Shabbats in Israel.