The Star September 2021 • Volume 44, Number 2 Contents Lulav & Etrog Flyer ....................................12 Annual Food Drive Flyer ............................11 New ELC Director ........................................4 Calendar ..............................................14, 15 People of Chelm Want to Know, Answers ...6 COVID-19 Related Funeral Expenses People of Chelm Want to Know, QuesEons 4 Assistance ...................................................8 Rabbi’s Page ................................................5 DonaEon Acknowledgements ..................7-9 Schedule of Services ...................................3 Family Night Under the Stars Flyer .............2 Sukkot and Simchat Torah Flyer ................13 Has the Pandemic Go\en You Down? ........6 The ELC is Hiring ..........................................5 How to Reach Us .........................................4 Time Off for the High Holidays: Jewish Burial Customs with Your Rights & ObligaEons ............................3 Hal Miller-Jacobs .........................................6 Yousef Bashir Flyer ....................................10 Congrega(on Beth Elohim Michael Rothbaum, Rabbi 133 Prospect Street Sarra Spierer, Cantor Acton, MA 01720 Beth R. Goldstein, RJE, Director of EducaEon Wendy Damsky, Director, Early Learning Center Shoshana Zuckerman, Administrator Lewis Mintz, Rabbi Emeritus Congregation Beth Elohim THE STAR September 2021 FAMILY NIGHT UNDER THE STARS Join the CBE Community for dinner and Havdalah in the Sukkah followed by Finding Nemo on the big screen outside! Saturday, September 25th Dinner begins at 6:30 Movie begins around 7:15pm This event is free and open to all, but registration is required. To register go to: www.bethelohim.org/event/sukkot-dinner Copyright © 2021 by Congregation Beth Elohim. previous month, slightly earlier in case of holidays. All Rights Reserved. Material for inclusion in The Star may be submitted: via email: [email protected] (receipt acknowledged); The Star is generally published monthly by Congregation Beth Elohim and is as camera ready or handwritten copy; or mailed at Acton, MA. To request a subscription call Congregation Beth Elohim at by FAX: call Congregation Beth Elohim or the editor. 978-263-3061 or write to 133 Prospect Street, Acton, MA 01720. Receipt of material can be verified by calling the editor after the deadline. The deadline posted in the previous month’s issue, is generally the 15th of the Editor: Bob Becker 978-263-8097. - 2 - September 2021 THE STAR Congregation Beth Elohim Schedule of Services September 1, 2 4:00 PM Mincha Service (Wednesday, Thursday) Friday, September 3 6:30 PM Shabbat Service Saturday, September 4 9:30 AM Shacharit Service Saturday, September 4 10:45 AM Torah Study Monday, September 6 7:30 PM Erev Rosh Hashana Service Tuesday, September 7 9:00 AM Rosh Hashanah Service Tuesday, September 7 3:00 PM Tashlich Wednesday, September 8 9:00 AM Rosh Hashanah Service Thursday, September 9 4:00 PM Mincha Service Friday, September 10 6:30 PM Shabbat Power Hour Service Saturday, September 11 9:30 AM Shacharit Service Saturday, September 11 10:45 AM Torah Study Sunday, September 12 8:30 AM Shacharit Service Tuesday, September 14 4:00 PM Mincha Service Wednesday, September 15 7:00 PM Yom Kippur Kol Nidre Service Thursday, September 16 9:00 AM Yom Kippur Morning Service Thursday, September 16 3:30 PM Guest Speaker, Mincha/Martyrology, & Discussion Thursday, September 16 5:45 PM Yizkor and Ne'ilah Service Friday, September 17 6:30 PM Shabbat Power Hour Service Saturday, September 18 9:30 AM Shacharit Service Saturday, September 18 10:45 AM Torah Study Monday, September 20 5:30 PM Erev Sukkot Service and Pot Luck Tuesday, September 21 9:30 AM Sukkot Service September 21, 22, 23 4:00 PM Mincha Service (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) Friday, September 24 6:30 PM Sukkot Shabbat Service Saturday, September 25 9:30 AM Shacharit Service Saturday, September 25 10:45 AM Torah Study Monday, September 27 5:30 PM Simchat Torah Celebration Tuesday, September 28 9:30 AM Shemini Atzeret Service w/Yizkor September 28, 29, 30 4:00 PM Mincha Service (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) Time Off for the High Holidays: However, students and employees seeking accommodations have obligations, too. For instance, Your Rights & Obliga(ons ADL advises older students and parents or guardians Members of the Jewish community face the of younger children to inform teachers or professors possibility of conflicts between their observance of about holiday absences as early as possible. Students Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur and school or work and parents should also ask for any important duties. This is important whether you are connecting information or material that will be provided during in person or via online platforms. the days or classes missed. As a long-time religious freedom advocate in the To inform and empower us, visit https://tinyurl.com/ U.S., ADL believes that Jews should not have to n8yushc for ADL’s School & Workplace choose between observing the High Holidays and Accommodations for the Jewish High Holidays: Know their school or work obligations. Your Rights and Obligations page. - 3 - Congregation Beth Elohim THE STAR September 2021 Reviving the column devoted to •Did you conduct your affairs honestly? questions about Jewish history called •Did you work at having children? The People of Chelm Want to Know… 2. Here are four quotes, each from a different Biblical This column was revived in The Star two years ago prophet. Can you match the quote with one of these after a decade of dormancy. Each month there are prophets – Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, or Micah? Amos now two fairly difficult questions, and you should be is the original prophet, the archetype of the fire-and- congratulated for trying to wrestle with them. If you brimstone preacher. He lived in northern kingdom of do not know an answer, you will find it elsewhere in Israel in the middle of eighth century BCE. Isaiah this issue of The Star. Please share your new came to prominence a little later in the southern knowledge with your neighbors, fellow congregants, kingdom of Judah. He is the most quoted and most and especially the people of Chelm. In Jewish lyrical of all the prophets. Unlike Isaiah, his city-bred folklore, the people of Chelm were famed for coming contemporary, Micah lived in the country and was up with bizarre and usually incorrect answers to even especially concerned with the sufferings of the the simplest questions. common people and peasants, who were often exploited by the rich. Jeremiah lived about a century 1. The High Holidays are a special time for after Isaiah, during the time when Jerusalem was reassessment and reflection. It is a time for besieged and destroyed by the Babylonians in questioning and judging our behavior and the 589-586 BCE. direction of our lives. The scholars who assembled And what does Adonai require of you, the Babylonian Talmud gave these issues much But to do justice, love mercy, thought. In one tractate, they even provided the four And walk humbly with your God. questions that each of us is to be asked when we go before the heavenly court for judgment. Please Let justice well up as waters, arrange these questions below in their original order And righteousness as a mighty stream. in the Talmud, an order which provides some idea of Watch, I shall bring them back the relative importance the sages assigned to each. From the land of the north; The four questions are: And gather them in from the ends of the earth. •Did you set aside regular time for Torah study? Holy, holy, holy is the Adonai of Hosts. •Did you look forward to the world’s The whole earth is full of God’s glory. redemption? Yiddish & Contemporary Israeli Music: New ELC Director WERS, 88.9 FM, broadcasts Chagigah, My name is Wendy Damsky and I have the Sunday mornings 8:00–11:00. privilege of being the new director of the Early How to Reach Us Learning Center at CBE. Having been involved with Jewish Education for over thirty years as a Telephone preschool teacher, director, Hebrew school teacher, The congregation office telephone number is JCC class facilitator, family education chair, and 978-263-3061. Dial these extensions for: Jewish mom it is so wonderful to be part of such a Rabbi Rothbaum 12 welcoming and collaborative staff. Cantor Spierer 15 Beth Goldstein 14 The ELC is a diverse community which gives us the Wendy Damsky & ELC 13 opportunity to share Jewish values with families Shoshana Zuckerman 11 from all around the world. We focus on our Lori Lafayette 17 similarities and the fact that Jewish values are indeed human values which we want to foster in Web Site all of the children we teach. Our congregation web site, www.bethelohim.org, includes the online edition of The Star as well as a Wishing everyone a happy and healthy new year, variety of other information including a bookstore l'shana tova. link (Amazon.com) and a donation form. - 4 - September 2021 THE STAR Congregation Beth Elohim Rabbi’s Page they weren’t yet allowed by law to vote, the women who worked the switchboard connected a country, Rabbi Mike literally linking it together. In a year when erev Rosh 978-263-3061 / [email protected] HaShanah falls on Labor Day, we are reminded of the The month of September debt we owe to women workers, and laborers of all carries a weight in our genders. consciousness. It marks students’ dreaded “back- In addition, as we approach Rosh HaShanah, it’s to-school season.” Labor fitting for us to recall that Emma was successful, in Day weekend, in large part, because of her soothing demeanor. The last September, is the months have been ones of anxiety and uncertainty. We unofficial end of summer. take the time to recall moments when we’ve been And for us, of course, it’s short with people, letting our own angst affect how we the month when our new treat the people we love the most.