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Box 659 • Greenport, NY, 11944 CONGREGATION 1-631-477-0232 • www.tiferethisraelgreenport.org [email protected] TIFERETH ISRAEL IN This issueAffiliated With The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism A National Historic Site E-Volume 2 2 Number 9 September 2020/Elul 5780-Tishrei-5781 • CALENDAR OF EVENTS • Shabbat and Holiday Services Fridays: Erev Shabbat, 7:30 p.m., online only, via Zoom Saturdays: Shabbat, 9:30 a.m., online only, via Zoom HIGH HOLIDAYS SCHEDULE: SEE PAGE 4 Learning at our Shul Mondays, Sept. 7 and 14: Hebrew class, 4 p.m., via Zoom Shul Events Thursday, Sept. 3, 2020 Virtual Journal launch party, 5 p.m. Mondays, Sept. 7 and 14; Thursdays, Sept. 3, 10, 17: Lunch and Learn, noon, via Zoom Sunday, Sept. 13: Board of Directors meeting, 9 a.m., via Zoom Wednesday, Sept. 16: Book Circle, at noon, via Zoom Lighting Shabbat Candles in September Sept. 4: 7:04 Sept. 11: 6:52 Sept. 18: 6:41 Sept. 25: 6:29 Dates to Remember • Beginning August 6, at noon, on Zoom, and for the next seven Thursdays before Rosh Hashanah, Rabbi Gadi will offer Lunch and Learn sessions as preambles to the High Holy Days. • Beginning on Thursday, Oct. 15, at noon, on Zoom, Rabbi Gadi will offer a series of Lunch and Learn sessions on Jewish history, one of the most requested topics for discussion on the recent survey conducted by the shul’s Long-Range Planning Committee. (Submission deadline for the October 2020 issue of The Shofar: September 20 From The Rabbi… “The Seven Covenants” The period of seven weeks, from Tisha B’Av to Rosh Hashanah, is the time allotted to us to rebuild and start anew. This year is different. Even the rock bottom of Tisha B’Av is still wobbling and not stable enough on which to build. Perhaps this is the meaning of the opening of Psalm 24: “The earth is the Lord’s and all that it holds, the world and its inhabitants. For He founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.” Like many rabbis, I decided to dedicate these seven weeks to preparing for the High Holidays and to talking about them to my students and congregants. So what message is appropriate for this year? Rosh Hashanah is naturally associated with the beginning – the first covenant, with Abraham. This gave birth to the idea of dedicating each of the seven weekly Lunch and Learn sessions to one of the three patriarchs or four matriarchs — Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah. Perhaps we can find a message there. What guided each of them and propelled them to perpetuate their relationship with God and to build the Jewish people? So far we’ve discussed Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac. One of the clues about their journey is that they lived their lives with a sense of mission. They, and therefore we, believe in a destination — going from one point to another. Even if that point is allusive, we continue forward. Furthermore, our forbearers teach us that, as each of them, each of us has a unique covenant, a unique conversation with God. It is up to each of us to trod our own mysterious path. As we begin the month of Elul, the month of repentance — Teshuvah — “I return to My beloved, and My beloved returns to me.” As we read in Isaiah 54, the Haftarah for the fourth week of consolation leading to Rosh Hashanah: “For the mountains may move and the hills be shaken, but my loyalty shall never move from you, nor My covenant of friendship be shaken — said the Lord, who takes you back in love.” Basically, the covenant with God is a marriage that may experience a period of separation but will never result in the breaking of the matrimony. In the next four weeks, we will continue to explore the paths of the matriarchs and patriarchs, to study the contribution each offers to the Jewish continuum and, moreover, how each shows us how to view our own individual contributions. Once a year, we see an ingathering of all types of Jews — the Abrahams, the Sarahs, the Isaacs, the Rebeccas, the Jacobs, the Leahs, and the Rachels. We welcome them all. This year, we will celebrate the holidays mainly online. With the help of God and Zoom, we will overcome the inherent obstacles, and enjoy the benefits of expanding our space. And although we will meet differently, we will still meet to affirm our covenants — all of them. Looking forward to seeing all of you with us in the new year — 5781. Shana Tova. —Rabbi Gadi Capela You are invited to join Rabbi Gadi each Thursday at noon for Lunch and Learn to talk about the seven covenants. Remaining in the series are Rebecca, Jacob, Leah and Rachel. 2 From The President “Let Go And Let God” Why does that resonate? Let go and let God — what does it even mean? And why does it offer solace and comfort at this time? I first heard that phrase from Rabbi Gadi during a Lunch and Learn about the Covenant of Abraham. As it replays in my head, the phrase becomes more and more relevant as we approach the high holidays. During this time of the great pandemic, when we know and accept that this life is not as it was, we ponder what it will be. Even that is an unknown. Let go and let God. Surely, we know this is not business as usual. And yet we have turned that to our advantage. Our shul functions, our services and programs are delivered in new ways. And that wasn’t even part of a grand plan, just simply serendipity. We put our creative heads together and took a leap of faith. As a result, with unexpected intimacy, more shul members and friends than ever are engaged online with Congregation Tifereth Israel. More people than ever before have access to our new razzle-dazzle 2020 Virtual Journal. As we prepare for a new version and vision of the high holidays, there is a growing and impassioned call for “empathy.” It has become the word of the day. The word of our time. It permeates the air waves, it infiltrates our day-to-day activities, and it guides our shul strategies as we move forward — as we let go and let God. At the same time, we take action and responsibility for our community and our country. At this time of year, we reflect and we repent. We heed the biblical wake-up call of the shofar and symbolically cast our sins upon the water. L’Shanah Tovah. —Judith Weiner • SHUL NEWS AND NOTES • Shul Organizes Telephone Chain To Keep Tabs On Member Safety Hurricane Isaias swept through the North Fork early in August, downing power lines and uprooting trees in its wake. The storm alerted residents to what might be ahead if Isaias is any predictor of weather to come during the 2020 hurricane/winter storm season. Bottom line: we’d better organize and prepare. To that end, the shul has organized a telephone chain, headed by shul president Judith Weiner, who will instruct phone-chain members to call the names on their lists to check on the health and safety of shul members, who could be affected by dangerous weather or other emergencies here on the North Fork. Snowbirds, vacationers and members living out of the immediate area are advised to keep a close watch on their local conditions and take proper precautions. Telephone-chain volunteers include Sara Bloom, Elaine Goldman, Ann Hurwitz, Thelma Novick, Susan Rosenstreich, Irma Strimban, and Judith Weiner. Sara Bloom solicited the callers and organized the lists. Like good insurance, we hope the phone-chain won’t be needed. 3 High Holidays Services Will Be Different This Year, Yet Reverential Planners OK Mostly Zoom Services; Tashlich And Yizkor In-Person Congregation Tifereth Israel is moving forward with a mostly virtual model for High Holidays worship this year. Consideration of congregant safety imposed by the spread of Covid-19 has forced our shul to adopt virtual means for Sabbath and holiday worship. Yet, the upcoming High Holidays when, under ordinary circumstances, communal prayer encourages worshippers to connect with each other as Jews in their devotion to the faith, seemed in jeopardy as the virus continued to affect our local villages. The shul’s Task Force of medical, religious and civic leaders considered the wisdom of virtual vs. in-person services and made its recommendations to the shul’s Ritual Committee, which is charged with determining the procedural details of High Holiday worship, among other aspects of synagogue observance. Following an investigation of Covid-19 responses by other Long Island synagogues, and also Task Force and Ritual Committee discussions, our synagogue will offer most High Holiday services on Zoom, with two exceptions. Zoom is the teleconferencing program that the shul has used successfully for Shabbat services and Passover Seders as well as meetings and fundraising events that have kept our shul operational. The exceptions to Zoom services are an in-person Tarshish service on the second day of Rosh Hashanah, which will be held at the water’s edge, and an in-person Yizkor memorial service that will be held in Andrew Levin Park, the garden adjacent to our shul building. A second Yizkor service will be conducted on Zoom for those reluctant to participate in-person in the park. The planners believe that this model of mostly virtual services with a few in-person opportunities responds to safety concerns considering the usual large attendance at High Holiday services, while catering to the need for some communal connection at the in-person Tashlich services and one of the Yiskor services, usually attended by fewer members and guests.