Friday, May 6, 2016

Shabbat-O-Gram for May 6

Shabbat-O-Gram

This evening our K-2 families will celebrate Shabbat in a very special manner, with dinner and a Shabbat program. Those wishing to see our younger grades in action (especially if you have pre-schoolers) are more than welcome to come join us! Then, at 7:30 our main service brings back two of the musical group Banot as our guest musicians - we also welcome Cantor Fishman back from Israel.  Can't wait to hear all about it!  Shabbat morning is Sisterhood Shabbat - plus we'll celebrate the upcoming wedding of Alison Greenwald and David Ash.  Mazal Tov to all!!

And for you mothers out there, Happy Mother's Day! 


Scenes from a Marriage

   

 
Our annual 7th Grade Wedding took place last Sunday, 
culminating in the traditional fist-bump.

To see lots more wedding photos 
(courtesy of Fred Canpolat Photography)
plus our entire 7th grade life-cycle album, click here.
See how kids made their own tallitot, a huppah, a ketubah, 
and even decorated their wine cups.
One more reason why our Religious School is the best around:
experiential Jewish education at its best!



Scenes from a March

 
TBE's Steph Hausman at Thursday's March of the Living. 

 
A TBE Men's Club Memorial Candle on the tracks leading to Birkenau

Thank you to Mindy Hausman for sending me the photos 
so we all could experience the March with her in real time.

Since the first March of the Living was held in 1988, over 220,000 participants, from 52 countries, have marched down the same 3-kilometer path leading from Auschwitz to Birkenau on Holocaust Remembrance Day as a silent tribute to all victims of the Holocaust.




The Non-Jew in Jewish Law: A Needed Conversation

A couple of weeks ago, the Law Committee of the Conservative movement (CJLS) approved a paper on the "Status of Non-Jews in Jewish Law and Lore" (you can read it here ).  This paper is meant to be a polemic against rabbis in Israel who draw upon theologies and legal positions in the Jewish tradition to discriminate and dehumanize non-Jews. While Rabbi Reuven Hammer acknowledges in the essay that those positions do exist in the Jewish tradition, there is also a stronger tradition that calls for tolerance and respect. He argues that we should view the less tolerant opinions as artifacts of more vulnerable times so that we live according to the highest ideals of Judaism.  Take a look at the responsum.  It begins a conversation that has been needed for a long time.

Israel at 68

Next Friday at 7:30, we will celebrate Israel's 68th with a spectacular cabaret-style Mediterranean Service. if you are coming here after dinner, leave some room for falafel!
 
 

Click here for a stunning slide show from Israel 21c, showing some of the major contributions Israel is making for the world, from revolutionary wheels that allow wheelchairs to go down stairs, to an ice technology that freezes breast tumors, or even a pocket sensor that can identify the chemical makeup of your food. 

Despite all her challenges and flaws, Israel remains what it has always has been, a stunning, miraculous presence on the world stage and in the hearts of the Jewish people.

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Joshua Hammerman

No comments: