• The next Tot Shabbat will be Saturday, March 22 at 9:30 AM. Come to the Kiddush Room with your children 5 and under for a warm, welcoming introduction to Shabbat with songs, blessings, Torah, and stories!
• DorWays will host "Talking to Your Children about God and Death" on Sunday, March 23, from 9:15 to 10:45 sponsored by Beth-El Sisterhood, at the Religious School.  Speakers will be Rabbi Rosin and Susan Brown, noted Parent Educator.  This timely program is open to all Beth El families, as well as the extended Richmond Jewish community.  Light refreshments will be served.
• The Beth-El Shabbaton will be held from Friday night March 28 through Saturday evening March 29. Please call the office for information and reservations.
• Celebrate the 72nd Anniversary of Beth-El’s Sisterhood, at “Some Enchanted Evening,” this year’s annual Donor on Saturday, April 5 at 7:30 pm at the Social Hall on Grove Avenue. Bring family and friends for dinner and music, featuring selections “South Pacific,” songs by Johnny Mercer, Cole Porter, Duke Ellington and George Gershwin, and music for piano duet. The performers are noted Richmond vocalist Ms. Anne Guthmiller and Dr. Neil Wilson, with pianists Dr. Joanne Kong and Dr. Paul Hanson. Please contact Sonny Zinder at 741-5833 with any questions or to make your reservation!   Event proceeds support the operating budget of our religious school.
• Sisterhood gives a 20% discount off the book price for invitations, napkins, favors, etc.   Call Frances Goldman at 282-2444 to make an appointment to see the books, or come by the Gift Shop when it's open.  Yarmulkes may still be ordered through Frances, just call.
• Various other events and projects are ongoing and upcoming; I ask you to read the Bulletin, watch the listserv, and keep an ear open during announcements!
  

This week’s maftir concerns the mysterious matter of the Red Heifer. This paradoxical ritual “purifies the defiled” while at the same time “defiling the pure.” King Solomon was said to be stumped by this; Yohanan ben Zakkai claimed that God meant this law to be incomprehensible: “It is a statute I have laid down, a decree that I have decreed, and you are not authorized to violate my decree.”
Some have argued that this ritual served to atone for Israel’s collective sin [the mother cow atoning for the sin of her son, the Golden Calf], while others argue that this reflects Isaiah’s prophecy: “Though your sins be as red as scarlet, they shall turn as white as snow.”
It is said by the mystics that pure red heifers are so rare that only nine were identified from the time of the Torah until the destruction of the Second Temple; obviously the next one will be found and prepared by the Messiah.
Whether you take the mystical approach or the philosophic, the ritual of the Red Heifer is one which must be a matter of faith rather than logic. Let us also have pure faith that, despite the events which are starting even as I write this, everything will be all right in the end.
Let us take extra time to pray for peace, whether at minyan, at Shabbat services, or in the privacy of our homes. Let the fighting be brief, the losses be few, and the outcome worth the cost. May he who brings peace to the world bring peace to us, to Israel, and to all the world. And let us all say Amen.

Shabbat: An island of peace during a time of trouble.

Spend a very special Shabbat with Temple Beth-El...

You are invited to spend a full Shabbat of song, fellowship, worship, and study.
March 28-29, beginning at 6:00 PM.

Contact the office at 355-3564 for details and to make reservations for Friday evening.

School Announcements for this week:

• March 23:  Rabbi Eric Rosin and Susan Brown on the topic of Talking to your child about God, Death and other Difficult Issues.  9:15-10:45 room 131.
• March 28-29:  Temple Beth-El Shabbaton.  Join your Beth-El family a wonderful Shabbat of community, friendship and Shabbat joy.  Activities for all ages.
• March 30:  5th grade family program:  A and B shifts attend 9:00-11:00.  Room 131
• April 6:  A variety of school activities.  
• Grades K-2:  Matza Factory 10:00-11:30 at KBI.
• Grades 3-6:  Model seders at the school 10:30-12:30.  Parental help is needed in food preparation and setup.
• Grades 7-8:  Dramatic presentation.  Beth Ahabah students attend also.  "Living Voices" at the Temple on Grove Ave.  9:45-11:30.
• Grades 9-10:  Book Burial.  Meet at the administrative building on Grove Ave. 9:45 a.m.  Pickup at Forest Lawn cemetery at 11:45.
• Call Judy Rubin if transportation assistance is needed or if you can provide carpools for those requiring it.

• The next Tot Shabbat will be Saturday, March 22 at 9:30 AM. Come to the Kiddush Room with your children 5 and under for a warm, welcoming introduction to Shabbat with songs, blessings, Torah, and stories!
• DorWays will host "Talking to Your Children about God and Death" on Sunday, March 23, from 9:15 to 10:45 sponsored by Beth-El Sisterhood, at the Religious School.  Speakers will be Rabbi Rosin and Susan Brown, noted Parent Educator.  This timely program is open to all Beth El families, as well as the extended Richmond Jewish community.  Light refreshments will be served.
• The Beth-El Shabbaton will be held from Friday night March 28 through Saturday evening March 29. Please call the office for information and reservations.
• Celebrate the 72nd Anniversary of Beth-El’s Sisterhood, at “Some Enchanted Evening,” this year’s annual Donor on Saturday, April 5 at 7:30 pm at the Social Hall on Grove Avenue. Bring family and friends for dinner and music, featuring selections “South Pacific,” songs by Johnny Mercer, Cole Porter, Duke Ellington and George Gershwin, and music for piano duet. The performers are noted Richmond vocalist Ms. Anne Guthmiller and Dr. Neil Wilson, with pianists Dr. Joanne Kong and Dr. Paul Hanson. Please contact Sonny Zinder at 741-5833 with any questions or to make your reservation!   Event proceeds support the operating budget of our religious school.
• Sisterhood gives a 20% discount off the book price for invitations, napkins, favors, etc.   Call Frances Goldman at 282-2444 to make an appointment to see the books, or come by the Gift Shop when it's open.  Yarmulkes may still be ordered through Frances, just call.
• Various other events and projects are ongoing and upcoming; I ask you to read the Bulletin, watch the listserv, and keep an ear open during announcements!
  

This week’s maftir concerns the mysterious matter of the Red Heifer. This paradoxical ritual “purifies the defiled” while at the same time “defiling the pure.” King Solomon was said to be stumped by this; Yohanan ben Zakkai claimed that God meant this law to be incomprehensible: “It is a statute I have laid down, a decree that I have decreed, and you are not authorized to violate my decree.”
Some have argued that this ritual served to atone for Israel’s collective sin [the mother cow atoning for the sin of her son, the Golden Calf], while others argue that this reflects Isaiah’s prophecy: “Though your sins be as red as scarlet, they shall turn as white as snow.”
It is said by the mystics that pure red heifers are so rare that only nine were identified from the time of the Torah until the destruction of the Second Temple; obviously the next one will be found and prepared by the Messiah.
Whether you take the mystical approach or the philosophic, the ritual of the Red Heifer is one which must be a matter of faith rather than logic. Let us also have pure faith that, despite the events which are starting even as I write this, everything will be all right in the end.
Let us take extra time to pray for peace, whether at minyan, at Shabbat services, or in the privacy of our homes. Let the fighting be brief, the losses be few, and the outcome worth the cost. May he who brings peace to the world bring peace to us, to Israel, and to all the world. And let us all say Amen.

• Monday is Ta’anit Esther, a minor fast day; fasting for those who choose is during daylight only.
• Monday night Cook’s Night Out comes to Beth-El [if only Vashti had thought of that!] for our annual Purim dinner in the Social Hall; reading of the Megillah will follow services at 7:30 PM. Remember throughout Purim the special additions to the Amidah.
• Tuesday morning Minyan will include a Torah service, followed by the reading of the Megillah; there is no Hallel or tachanun.
• Wednesday is Shushan Purim; remember to omit Tachanun at daily services.
  

• The next Family Shabbat will take place on March 14 at 6:30 p.m.  A warm, inclusive, participatory, casual service geared to families with young children [but everyone is welcome!]
• The Men’s Club Purim Carnival will take place on March 16 at the Religious School from 10:00-12:30. New games and this year a Moon Walk!
• Join us for a special Seminary Shabbat on March 14-15. This special program brings promising students from JTS to congregations around the country. This year we are very excited to welcome  Debbie Bletstein, a talented and accomplished musician who is a first-year cantorial student at the Seminary. We look forward to a very exciting Shabbat!
• The Films at Temple Beth-El will present “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” featuring Donny Osmond, Joan Collins, and Richard Attenborough at 7 PM Sunday, March 16th in the Roseneath Theater. I have previewed this film and rated it “fun enough for Purim!” Admission is $3 for adults and $1.50 for students.
• Cook’s Night Out Moves to Grove Ave for a Topsy-Turvy Purim! Join Beth-El and Cook’s Night Out for a special dinner at Temple on Monday, March 17, as Parent Council moves downtown to celebrate Purim with the congregation.  Come to dinner in costume at 6:00 pm for $5/adult, $1/children and then stay for the full Megillah.
• Celebrate the 72nd Anniversary of Beth-El’s Sisterhood, at “Some Enchanted Evening,” this year’s annual Donor on Saturday, April 5 at 7:30 pm at the Social Hall on Grove Avenue. Bring family and friends for dinner and music, featuring selections “South Pacific,” songs by Johnny Mercer, Cole Porter, Duke Ellington and George Gershwin, and music for piano duet. The performers are noted Richmond vocalist Ms. Anne Guthmiller and Dr. Neil Wilson, with pianists Dr. Joanne Kong and Dr. Paul Hanson. Please contact Sonny Zinder at 741-5833 with any questions or to make your reservation!   Event proceeds support the operating budget of our religious school.
• The next Tot Shabbat will be Saturday, March 22 at 9:30 AM. Come to the Kiddush Room with your children 5 and under for a warm, welcoming introduction to Shabbat with songs, blessings, Torah, and stories!
• DorWays will host "Talking to Your Children about God and Death" on Sunday, March 23, from 9:15 to 10:45 sponsored by Beth-El Sisterhood, at the Religious School.  Speakers will be Rabbi Rosin and Susan Brown, noted Parent Educator.  This timely program is open to all Beth El families, as well as the extended Richmond Jewish community.  Light refreshments will be served.
• Sisterhood gives a 20% discount off the book price for invitations, napkins, favors, etc.   Call Frances Goldman at 282-2444 to make an appointment to see the books, or come by the Gift Shop when it's open.  Yarmulkes may still be ordered through Frances, just call.
• Various other events and projects are ongoing and upcoming; I ask you to read the Bulletin, watch the listserv, and keep an ear open during announcements!
  

Chevre,
Following is an article from The New York Times Sunday Magazine. I think you
will find it very interesting.

Regards,
Rabbi Gary S. Creditor

Bring Back the Sabbath

March 2, 2003
By JUDITH SHULEVITZ






Sandor Ferenczi, a disciple of Freud's, once identified a
disorder he called Sunday neurosis. Every Sunday (or, in
the case of a Jewish patient, every Saturday), the Sunday
neurotic developed a headache or a stomachache or an attack
of depression. After ruling out purely physiological
causes, including the rich food served at Sunday dinners,
Ferenczi figured out what was bothering his patients. They
were suffering from the Sabbath.

On that weekly holiday observed by all ''present-day
civilized humanity'' (Ferenczi was writing in 1919, when
Sunday was still sacred, even in Budapest, his very
cosmopolitan hometown), not only did drudgery give way to
festivity, family gatherings and occasionally worship, but
the machinery of self-censorship shut down, too, stilling
the eternal inner murmur of self-reproach. The Sunday
neurotic, rather than enjoying his respite, became
distraught; he feared that impulses repressed only with
great effort might be unleashed. He induced pain or mental
anguish to pre-empt the feeling of being out of control.

About a decade ago I developed a full-blown weekend
disorder of my own. Perhaps because I am Jewish, it came on
Friday nights. My mood would darken until, by Saturday
afternoon, I'd be unresponsive and morose. My normal
routine, which involved brunch with friends and swapping
tales of misadventure in the relentless quest for romance
and professional success, made me feel impossibly restless.
I started spending Saturdays by myself. After a while I got
lonely and did something that, as a teenager profoundly put
off by her religious education, I could never have imagined
wanting to do. I began dropping in on a nearby synagogue.

It was a small building in Brooklyn, self-consciously built
nearly a century ago to look European; it had once served
as a set in an inadvertently hilarious movie in which
Melanie Griffith plays a police officer who goes undercover
in a Hasidic community. I sat in the back of this
Disneyfied sanctuary and discovered that I had no interest
in praying, which I hardly remembered how to do. What I
wanted to do was listen to the hymns, which offered the
uncanny comfort of songs heard in childhood.

It was only much later, after I joined the synagogue and
changed my life in a million other unforeseen ways, that I
developed a theory about my condition. If Ferenczi's
patients had suffered from the Sabbath, I was suffering
from the lack thereof. In the Darwinian world of the New
York 20-something, everything -- even socializing, reading
or exercising -- felt like work or the pursuit of work by
other means. Had I been able to consult Ferenczi, I believe
he would have told me that I was experiencing the painful
inklings of sanity. For in the 84 years since Ferenczi
identified his syndrome, which bears a striking resemblance
to what is now called workaholism, it has become the norm,
and the Sabbath, the one day in seven dedicated to rest by
divine command, has become the holiday Americans are most
likely never to take.

It can be startling to realize just how integral the
Sabbath once was to American time. When we tell our
children stories about the first pilgrims landing on our
shores, we talk rather vaguely about their quest for
religious freedom. We leave out that this freedom was
needed in large part so that the Puritans could obey the
Fourth Commandment -- ''Remember the Sabbath day, to keep
it holy'' -- with a zealotry that had deeply alienated
their countrymen back home. We all have heard of the
Puritan ''blue laws,'' named, supposedly, for the color of
paper they were printed on. They required attendance at
church but punished anyone who got there with unseemly
haste or on too showy a horse. They forbade unnecessary
visiting, except in emergencies, and smoking and sports.
Unlike Orthodox Jews, who though strict about the Sabbath
are nonetheless encouraged to drink and have marital sex on
Friday night, the ascetic Puritans frowned on any kind of
drinking or sex on Sunday. In at least one documented
instance, the ''lewd and unseemly behavior'' of kissing
your wife on your doorstep upon returning home from a
journey of three years was punished by a spell in the
stocks. From sunset Saturday to sunset Sunday, the most
pious Sabbatarians (usually clergymen) wouldn't shave, have
their rooms swept or beds made or allow food to be prepared
or dishes washed. They ate only what had been cooked in
advance and devoted all time not spent in church to reading
Scripture.

Even after Puritanism lost its hold on American culture,
the American Sunday was observed with unusual strictness.
In 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville observed with some surprise
that few Americans were ''permitted to go on a hunt, to
dance or even to play an instrument on Sunday.'' As
recently as 125 years ago, you would have been hard pressed
to find a museum or library open on Sunday. Eighty years
ago, football was considered too vulgar to be played on
Sunday. Oldsters remember standing in line at the bank on
Fridays to get cash for the weekend; youngsters assume they
can withdraw at will. Anyone older than 30 can remember
living with the expectation that most stores would be
closed on Sunday; the expectation now is that they will be
open, and we're miffed when they aren't.

''The Lonely Days Were Sundays'' is the title of a book
about growing up Jewish in the churchgoing South. The
lonely Sunday has been replaced by the overscheduled Sunday
-- soccer Sunday, Little League Sunday, yoga-class Sunday,
catch-up-around-the-house Sunday. Americans still go to
church, of course, but only in between chores, sporting
events and shopping expeditions. (You can now find A.T.M.
machines inside megachurches; congregants don't have to
waste a minute between services and the mall.)

The eclipse of the Sabbath is just one small part of the
larger erosion of social time, with its former generally
agreed-upon rhythms of labor and repose. ''After hours''
has become a strictly personal concept, since the 24-hour
convenience store, gas station, pharmacy, supermarket,
movie theater, diner, factory and bar all allow us to work,
shop, dine and be entertained at any time of day or night.
We greet each shift of an activity from weekday to evening
or weekend as proof of American cultural superiority; we
knock over the barriers between us and the perpetual motion
machine that is the marketplace with the glee you might
expect of insomniacs who had been chained for too long to
their beds.

The lingering traces of Sabbatarianism seem comically
vestigial, like the fetal tail: the New York blue law that
won't let you buy beer till after noon on Sunday; Broadway
stages that go dark on Sunday nights; work rules requiring
us to show up at our offices Monday through Friday, even
though many of us do our best work at night or on weekends
(and, as you know if you've seen the movie ''Office
Space,'' putting in face time at the office is often a
cover for doing less).

Customs exist because they answer a need; when they
disappear, that need must be met in some other way. There
is ample evidence that our relationship to work is out of
whack. Economists, psychologists and sociologists have
charted our ballooning work hours; the increase in time
devoted to competitive shopping; the commercialization of
leisure that turns fun into work and requires
military-scale budgeting and logistics and emotionally
draining interactions with service personnel. Personally, I
think the alarm about these matters is often overblown.
Most people, with the possible exception of parents of
13-year-olds, have the wherewithal to avoid the mall if
they want to, and anyone who seeks to relax in a theme park
or on a packaged tour deserves what he gets. So I won't
weary you with cautionary tales about what our
work-addicted culture can do to you, psychologically and
physiologically, because, for one thing, it's completely
within your power to hold it at bay, and for another, you
don't want to anyway. Ours is a society that pegs status to
overachievement; we can't help admiring workaholics. Let me
argue, instead, on behalf of an institution that has kept
workaholism in reasonable check for thousands of years.

Most people mistakenly believe that all you have to do to
stop working is not work. The inventors of the Sabbath
understood that it was a much more complicated undertaking.
You cannot downshift casually and easily, the way you might
slip into bed at the end of a long day. As the Cat in the
Hat says, ''It is fun to have fun but you have to know
how.'' This is why the Puritan and Jewish Sabbaths were so
exactingly intentional, requiring extensive advance
preparation -- at the very least a scrubbed house, a full
larder and a bath. The rules did not exist to torture the
faithful. They were meant to communicate the insight that
interrupting the ceaseless round of striving requires a
surprisingly strenuous act of will, one that has to be
bolstered by habit as well as by social sanction.

Take the Puritan Sunday. It would be excruciating to us,
and yet the restrictions were not pointless. They made of
the day something rare and otherworldly, a realization of
the Puritan vision of a city on the hill. ''Sweet to the
Pilgrims and to their descendants was the hush of their
calm Saturday night and their still, tranquil Sabbath,''
wrote the 19th-century historian Alice Morse Earle, who
shared with more famous authors, like Harriet Beecher Stowe
and Nathaniel Hawthorne, a qualified nostalgia for the
preindustrial Sabbath. ''No work, no play, no idle
strolling was known; no sign of human life or motion was
seen except the necessary care of the patient cattle and
other dumb beasts, the orderly and quiet going to and from
the meeting, and at the nooning, a visit to the churchyard
to stand by the side of the silent dead.'' Anyone who has
experienced the eerie serenity of the ultra-Orthodox
sections of Jerusalem or Brooklyn on Saturdays would be in
a position to conjure a Puritan Sunday.

Americans, of course, no longer cherish obedience as a
virtue. We have become individualists, even libertarians.
We will no longer put up with being told how to dispose of
our free time. But our unwillingness to suffer constraint
shouldn't blind us to the possibility that Sabbath
discipline may have real benefits. For one thing, it
reflects a paradoxical insight: only a Sabbath that you
have to work for will appear worth keeping, just as, in
psychoanalysis, a patient will value only those sessions
for which he pays. Anything gotten for nothing will be
treated as such. After all, as in therapy, the good that
comes from the Sabbath is mostly intangible. We don't
produce anything when we don't work.

So counterintuitive is the idea of organized
nonproductivity, given the force and universality of the
human urge to make things, that you can't believe anyone
ever managed to lift his head from his workbench or plow
long enough to think of it. To the first-century Stoic
philosopher Seneca, the Sabbath was absurd, a way for
Rome's backward Jewish subjects to waste ''almost a seventh
of their life in inactivity.'' But when (or if), perhaps a
millennium earlier, the Jews took over an old Mesopotamian
day of taboo and transformed it into one of holy rest, they
brought into the world not just the Sabbath but something
just as precious, and surprisingly closely linked. They
invented the idea of social equality.

The Israelite Sabbath institutionalized an astonishing,
hitherto undreamed-of notion: that every single creature
has the right to rest, not just the rich and the
privileged. Covered under the Fourth Commandment are women,
slaves, strangers and, improbably, animals. The verse in
Deuteronomy that elaborates on this aspect of the Sabbath
repeats, twice, that slaves were not to work, as if to
drive home what must have been very hard to understand in
the ancient world. The Jews were meant to perceive the
Sabbath not only as a way to honor God but also as the
central vehicle of their liberation theology, a weekly
reminder of their escape from their servitude in Egypt.

In other words, we have the Sabbath to thank for labor
legislation and for our belief that it is wrong for
employers to drive their employees until they drop from
exhaustion. So what do we do, today, with this remarkable
heritage, which in the last century expanded to a generous
two days, rather than just one? Much more than our
ancestors could ever have imagined, and much, much less. We
relax on the run and, in rare bursts of free time, we
recreate. We choose from a dizzying array of leisure
options and pursue them with an exemplary degree of
professionalism and perfectionism. We rush our children
from activity to activity, their days a blur of tight
connections.

And yet there are important ways in which even our
impressive recreational creativity fails to reproduce the
benefits of the Sabbath. Few elective activities will ever
rise to a status higher than work in our minds, and
therefore cannot be relied upon to counterbalance our
neurotic drive to achieve. Most of us will jettison plans
to go skiing if a deadline looms near. We will assign a
high priority to a non-work-related hobby only if we have
committed to it in some public manner, as we do when we
join a volleyball team or a choir. (Oddly, one of the few
times a parent can truly relax is when lingering on the
sidelines of a child's baseball or soccer game; there is
nothing like being forced to be somewhere and do very
little for an hour and a half to declench the muscles of
the mind.)

And not even our group leisure activities can do for us
what Sabbath rituals could once be counted on to do.
Religious rituals do not exist simply to promote
togetherness. They're theater. They are designed to convey
to us a certain story about who we are without our even
quite noticing that they are doing so. (One defining
feature of religious rituals, in fact, is that we often
perform them for years before we come to understand what
they mean; this is why ministers and rabbis are famously
unsympathetic when congregants complain that worship
services or holiday rites feel meaningless.) The story told
by the Sabbath is that of creation: we rest because God
rested on the seventh day. What leads from God to humankind
is the notion of imitatio Dei: the imitation of God. In
other words, we rest in order to honor the divine in us, to
remind ourselves that there is more to us than just what we
do during the week.

Talk of God may disturb the secular, so they might prefer
to frame the Sabbath in the more neutral context of
aesthetics. The Sabbath provides two things essential to
anyone who wishes to lift himself out of the banality of
mercantile culture: time to contemplate and distance from
everyday demands. The Sabbath is to the week what the line
break is to poetic language. It is the silence that forces
you to return to what came before to find its meaning.

After joining that synagogue in Brooklyn,

I began to
incorporate into my life the most elemental rudiments of a
traditional Jewish Sabbath: lighting the candles and eating
at home on Friday night; going to religious services on
Saturday morning; sleeping or reading or going to a museum
in the afternoon. Orthodox Jews will scoff when they read
of my subminimal level of observance; my secular friends
think I've become a fanatic. Sticking to these few rituals,
however, is the hardest and least unconscious thing I've
ever done. I fail to keep the Sabbath more than I succeed,
probably because I started trying to do it not as a result
of some redemptive revelation, such as might occur to a
character in a Russian novel, but experimentally, out of
curiosity, and in a social vacuum -- by myself, rather than
in a group or family setting. I didn't know how else to
attain the self-possession that eluded me, the sense of
owing nothing to anybody except perhaps God. The
conventional weekend felt claustrophobic. Silent, solitary
contemplation was not sustainable. The ceremonies performed
by my ancestors for the past two millenniums had at least
the virtue of having been previously tested and found to be
effective.

Do I think everyone else should observe a Sabbath? I
believe it would be good for them, and even better for me,
since the more widespread the ritual, the more likely I am
to observe it. It is much easier to keep the Sabbath, for
instance, when your family does, too, though getting
children to agree to do anything their friends don't do may
prove insurmountable. (The greatest benefit of this may be
that it makes a habit of unstructured family intimacy,
without which parents must resort to so-called quality
time, which tends to leave everyone feeling
self-conscious.)

For hundreds of years it was firmly believed that only a
Sabbath enforced through social legislation would keep
society from sliding into a kind of unwitting slavery,
protecting the vulnerable from the powerful and quashing
the punitive obsessive-compulsive who lurks within us all.
One of the bitterest public policy debates in 19th-century
America, in fact, was over whether offering postal service
and opening public institutions on Sundays would harm our
national character and lead directly to barbarism.

If the Sabbath you choose to observe isn't a religious one,
you should nonetheless be religiously disciplined in your
approach to it, observing it every week, not just when it's
convenient. I confess, though, that I have a hard time
imagining a Sabbath divorced from religion: who would make
the effort to honor the godly part of himself if he didn't
believe in a deity, no matter how ecumenical? It's just as
difficult to envision the Sabbath surviving the current
speeding-up of everything without some generally enforced
slowdown. The great religions lasted as long as they did
because they were able to make their rituals part of
everyone's life.

But social legislation mandating Sunday (or Saturday)
closings is no longer viable. Besides, it seems arrogant to
tell someone what keeping the Sabbath would do for him,
because it's impossible to know how a ritual will affect a
person until he has performed it. ''Holy days, rituals,
liturgies -- all are like musical notations which, in
themselves, cannot convey the nuances and textures of live
performance,'' the historian Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi has
written.

Whenever I dream of living in a society with a greater
respect for its Sabbatarian past -- a fantasy I entertain
only with anxiety, since Sabbatarians have a long history
of going too far -- I think of something two rabbis said.
Rabbi Judah Loew of Prague, best known for his tales of the
golem, pointed out that the story of Creation was written
in such a way that each day, each new creation, is seen as
a step toward a completion that occurred on the Sabbath.
What was Creation's climactic culmination? The act of
stopping. Why should God have considered it so important to
stop? Rabbi Elijah of Vilna put it this way: God stopped to
show us that what we create becomes meaningful to us only
once we stop creating it and start to think about why we
did so. The implication is clear. We could let the world
wind us up and set us to marching, like mechanical dolls
that go and go until they fall over, because they don't
have a mechanism that allows them to pause. But that would
make us less than human. We have to remember to stop
because we have to stop to remember.



Judith Shulevitz writes the Close Reader column for The New
York Times Book Review.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/02/magazine/02SABBATH.html?ex=1047702788&ei=1&en=\
20009bb3b1489516



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From: JTSA Distance Learning Project [mailto:dlp@...]
Sent: Friday, March 07, 2003 12:57 PM
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Subject: News About Learn@JTS

News About Learn@JTS
  is brought to you by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
and Temple Beth El, Richmond, VA.

l e a r n . j t s a . e d u
N E W S   U P D A T E


1.  Double your joy this Purim
2.  Online Courses in Spirituality, Mysticism, and Jewish Texts
3.  "To Do the Right and the Good"- an Online Dialogue

1. Double your Joy this Purim
Visit http://learn.jtsa.edu/purim/ now to find material
that will help make your "Second Adar" celebration even more fun.

2. Online Courses in Spirituality, Mysticism and Jewish Texts
Prepare for Passover and beyond in a friendly, accessible online
environment, in courses beginning later this month:

Redeeming God, with Dr. Shaul Magid
   March 20-April 10, $40
   Bring new insights to your seder table this year! Learn from JTS
   professor Shaul Magid what the mystics have to say about the
   Passover Hagadah.

Finding Spirituality in Prayer, with Dr. Eliezer Diamond
   March 20-April 10,   $40
   Through discussions and guided readings, learn how to find meaning
   in the experience of prayer.

Talking about God:  Created by Dr. Neil Gillman
    March 27-May 29 ($50)
    Learn the language of Jewish Theology.  How do thinkers of various
    streams of Judaism describe God?  How do we go about describing God
    with words?

Revelation- What happened at Sinai:
    March 27- May 21 ($50)
    How does God speak to human beings? What happened at Sinai?
    Why does it matter?

You'll also be able to learn:
* How to read Judaism's most important legal work, the Talmud,
    in "Introduction to Talmud," created by Rabbi Joel Roth
* How to read the Bible with new eyes, in our series
    "Re-introduction to Bible," created by Dr. Ora Prouser

To sign up or request more information, please click on
http://courses.jtsa.edu/adulted


3.  "To Do the Right and the Good"- an Online Dialogue
In April, the JTS book discussion group will be talking about
"To Do the Right and the Good," in which Rabbi Eliott Dorff
examines key issues in the Jewish ethical framework, including
pluralism and justice, and also explores Jewish ethical responses
to contemporary issues like poverty, war, and separation of Church
and state.  In particular, Rabbi Dorff highlights some of the
distinctions between uniquely Jewish responses to these questions
and the way they are often presented in Christian and secular
ethical systems.

To learn more and become part of the discussion, which begins
April 1, please click on
http://learn.jtsa.edu/topics/bomonth


Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Joshua Heller


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Light Shabbat candles Friday, March 7 at 5:51
in the Richmond, VA area.
Shabbat ends at 7:00 on Saturday, March 8.

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• Hebrew Literacy II begins on March 2; contact the Religious School for more details.
• The Judaic Juniors Swim Party will be held from 7:30 to 9:30 PM at the School on March 8. All children in Richmond in grades 3-5 are welcome.
• The next Family Shabbat will take place on March 14 at 6:30 p.m.  A warm, inclusive, participatory, casual service geared to families with young children [but everyone is welcome!]
• The Men’s Club Purim Carnival will take place on March 16 at the Religious School from 10:00-12:30. New games and this year a Moon Walk!
• Join us for a special Seminary Shabbat on March 14-15. This special program brings promising students from JTS to congregations around the country. This year we are very excited to welcome  Debbie Bletstein, a talented and accomplished musician who is a first-year cantorial student at the Seminary. We look forward to a very exciting Shabbat!
• The Films at Temple Beth-El will present “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” featuring Donny Osmond, Joan Collins, and Richard Attenborough at 7 PM Sunday, March 16th in the Roseneath Theater. I have previewed this film and rated it “fun enough for Purim!” Admission is $3 for adults and $1.50 for students.
• Cook’s Night Out Moves to Grove Ave for a Topsy-Turvy Purim! Join Beth-El and Cook’s Night Out for a special dinner at Temple on Monday, March 17, as Parent Council moves downtown to celebrate Purim with the congregation.  Come to dinner in costume at 6:00 pm for $5/adult, $1/children and then stay for the full Megillah.
• Celebrate the 72nd Anniversary of Beth-El’s Sisterhood, at “Some Enchanted Evening,” this year’s annual Donor on Saturday, April 5 at 7:30 pm at the Social Hall on Grove Avenue. Bring family and friends for dinner and music, featuring selections “South Pacific,” songs by Johnny Mercer, Cole Porter, Duke Ellington and George Gershwin, and music for piano duet. The performers are noted Richmond vocalist Ms. Anne Guthmiller and Dr. Neil Wilson, with pianists Dr. Joanne Kong and Dr. Paul Hanson. Please contact Sonny Zinder at 741-5833 with any questions or to make your reservation!   Event proceeds support the operating budget of our religious school.
• DorWays will host "Talking to Your Children about God and Death" on Sunday, March 23, from 9:15 to 10:45 sponsored by Beth-El Sisterhood, at the Religious School.  Speakers will be Rabbi Rosin and Susan Brown, noted Parent Educator.  This timely program is open to all Beth El families, as well as the extended Richmond Jewish community.  Light refreshments will be served.
• Sisterhood gives a 20% discount off the book price for invitations, napkins, favors, etc.   Call Frances Goldman at 282-2444 to make an appointment to see the books, or come by the Gift Shop when it's open.  Yarmulkes may still be ordered through Frances, just call.
• Various other events and projects are ongoing and upcoming; I ask you to read the Bulletin, watch the listserv, and keep an ear open during announcements!
  

This week’s parsha could have been called “C-P-A” instead of Pekudey. We begin with Moses giving an accounting of all the metals [a precious commodity] which went into the artifacts of the sanctuary. It is noted that 29 talents and 730 shekels of gold, 100 talents and 1775 shekels of silver, and 70 talents and 2400 shekels of copper were used, and that they were voluntarily given by the public in response to a fundraising campaign. Why is this detail necessary.

Moses was described by God as “trusted throughout My household,” yet he gave a detailed accounting of the funds raised and their usage. Not only that, he called upon his nephew Ithamar to perform the audit so that no one could raise any questions about bias or conflict of interest. Thus the statement in the Mishnah, “No office for communal financial matters is to be instituted with less than two officers.” We are given here an example of the importance of personal responsibility, especially with the use of other people’s money.

As we read more stories about CEO’s who bend the rules and twist the accounting procedures to maximize their pay and benefits, as we move towards the deadline for filing tax returns, and as the synagogue prepares to present its budget for the coming year, we should remember that Judaism is nothing if not a set of insistent reminders that we humans are accountable for our actions. According to Talmud, the first question that will be put to us in the world-to-come is “Did you conduct your business affairs in a trustworthy manner?”

Or to put it another way, remember that Moses’ brother was named Aaron, not Enron.

THE UNITED SYNAGOGUE OF CONSERVATIVE JUDAISM

COMPACT OF CONSERVATIVE JEWISH COMMITMENT
Adar II 5763

Jews enlightening Jews.  Jews mentoring other Jews.  Jews spiritually enhancing their own lives.  COMPACT's mission is to aid in Jewish self-growth, which affirms the covenant of the Torah's commandments, a brit mitzvah, within each Jew.

IT'S ADAR, BE HAPPY!

DVAR TORAH

Purim: To Drink or Not to Drink?

The Jewish people throughout history have always opposed drunkenness.  That is the message of the stories of Noah and Lot (Genesis 9 and 19) as well as of the Book of Proverbs (23:30-35).  According to our sages, Nadav and Avihu were killed because they were drunk (Leviticus Rabbah 20:9 and parallels).  Drunkenness leads to forbidden sexual relations (Ketubot 65a and Numbers Rabbah 10:3) and "there is nothing that causes a person greater lamentation than wine." (Sanhedrin 70b)

As a result, it is difficult to fathom the primary Talmudic source related to drinking on Purim (Megillah 7b): "Rava said: a person must get drunk on Purim until he cannot distinguish between 'cursed be Haman' and 'blessed be Mordechai'.  Rabbah prayed for him and revived him.  The following year, Rabbah said to him: 'Come, let us celebrate the Purim feast together!'  R. Zeira replied: 'Miracles don't happen every day!' "

Rava's statement begs an explanation.  R. David Abudraham explained that the sages required drinking on Purim since all of the miracles in the days of Ahashverosh occurred at drinking parties (Sefer Abudraham, pp. 209-210).  On the other hand, Rava was a vintner (Berakhot 56a and Bava Metzia 73a) and clearly liked to drink wine (Pesahim 107b).  As for the strange story, Rabbi H.Z. Reines suggests that the entire episode is a Purim joke (Hadoar 5737, p. 266).

Whatever the simple meaning is, it is clear that the poskim (halakhic authorities) throughout the generations felt very uncomfortable with Rava's demand to get drunk on Purim, and therefore each posek tried to circumvent the requirement.  Here is a sampling of their rulings:

§         R. Ephraim (North Africa, 11th cent.) claimed that the story comes to cancel out Rava's statement and therefore one should not get drunk on Purim.

§         R. Alexander Zusslin Hacohen (Germany, 14th cent.) explained that "cursed be Haman" equals "blessed be Mordechai" in gematria – they both add up to 502! – and it requires less wine to become intoxicated.

§         R. Yosef Haviva (Spain, 15th cent.) wrote that one should say funny things so that the beholders will think that one cannot distinguish between "cursed be Haman" and "blessed be Mordechai".

§         Maimonides (Egypt, 12th cent.) rules that "he drinks wine until he gets drunk and falls asleep…" and this ruling was adopted by Rabbi Moshe Isserles in the Shulhan Arkh (Poland, 16th cent.).

§         R. Natanel Weil (Germany, 18th cent.) explained: " 'until' – up to and not including, because otherwise he would reach the drunkenness of Lot".

§         R. Aaron of Lunel (Provence, 14th cent.) commented "that he should drink more than his normal custom in order to rejoice greatly and to make the poor rejoice and he shall comfort them…and that is true joy.'"  This is the most original interpretation: that the purpose of drinking on Purim is to help us fulfill the mitzvah of mattanot la'evyonim (alms to the poor) and not simply to get drunk.

§         Finally, R. Manahem Hameiri (Provence, 14th cent.) said: "In any case, we are not commanded to get drunk… for we were not commanded to engage in debauchery and foolishness but to have heartfelt joy which will lead us to the love of God and to gratitude for the miracle which he performed for us."

In recent years, we have witnessed a marked increase in the use of wine, alcohol and drugs by Israeli youth due to the dual influence of Western and Russian cultures.  This increase had led, in turn, to an increase in traffic accidents and injuries.  These are the ways of Noah, Lot and Ahashverosh, not of the Jewish people throughout history.  The poskim understood this significant difference.  That is why they ruled: "heartfelt joy" – yes, "debauchery and foolishness" – no.  May we remember this crucial difference both on Purim and throughout the year.

Prof. David Golinkin is the President and Rector of the Schechter Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem – www.schechter.edu <http://www.schechter.edu/> .

OR LA-YEHUDIM ADAR II 5763

(A Light To Our Fellow Jews In The Month Of Adar II)

 

1.      ACT AS A JEW TO IMPROVE THE WORLD.

BIKKUR HOLIM – VISITING THE SICK

By Rabbi Jill Borodin, Har Zion, Penn Valley, PA

There are two stories in the Talmud on the topic of visiting the sick which have provided me with great insight.  The first story mentions that visiting someone who is sick takes away one sixtieth of their pain and continues by suggesting that those who visit the sick cause the person to live, while those who do not, cause the person to die.  In the second story, the patient, Rabbi Hiyya ben Abba, is able to stand up only through the assistance of his visitor, Rabbi Yochanan.  The explanation given is that "prisoners cannot free themselves from jail."  Clearly there is comfort and relief from some suffering which comes only from outsiders visiting a patient.  We have the ability to help bring about healing, along with God and the medical profession.  We fill a critical role which can not be covered by the doctors and nurses.  The first example of this is Moses' call to God that healing be brought to his sister Miriam in the book of Numbers.  And healing is brought to Miriam.

Every time the Torah is read, we chant misheberach l'holim, a prayer for those who are ill.  We pray that they receive healing and strength of both body and soul.  Jewish tradition teaches us not to distinguish between physical and mental illness.  One who suffers from either or both should be treated with respect, given care, and supported.  Jewish tradition teaches us to honor the dignity of those who need help, and to respect their privacy, no matter the ailment.  We need to overlook social projections and support all who are ill.

IDEAS FOR IMPLEMENTING THE MITZVAH OF BIKKUR HOLIM

1.      The importance of visiting the sick is paramount.  The rabbis suggested that there are times which, from the patient's perspective, are good for visiting, and times which aren't as good.  Call ahead and find out what are convenient times for a visit and go visit.

2.      When visiting someone, do not stand over them.  Instead, take a chair and sit next to them.

3.      Visits can be exhausting for both you and the person you are visiting.  Visit briefly and offer cheerful thoughts and conversations.

4.      A critical and often overlooked role is the role of the caregivers.  Give thought to what you might be able to do to bring support to them as well.  For instance, bring a meal for them, relieve them so that they may have some personal time, and keep them company during a stressful time.

5.      Keep your synagogue clergy informed about illness amongst your family and friends to allow them and the caring community to be in touch.  If possible, please supply Hebrew names to enable the clergy/congregation to keep your loved ones in communal prayers.

6.      Offer a ride to someone who wants to make a visit but is unable to drive.

2.      LIVE THE JEWISH CALENDAR

WHEN IS PURIM OBSERVED?

Purim (14 Adar II )

& Shushan Purim (15 Adar II)

This year we are in a Jewish leap year, therefore we have two months of Adar – Adar Aleph (1) and Adar Bet (2).  This is a year in which an entire month (Adar Aleph) is added.  During leap years, Purim is observed during Adar Bet (2), which is considered to be the regular month of Adar because it is followed by the month of Nissan.  Those of us not in cities that had walls at the time of Joshua will celebrate Purim on Monday night, March 17, and Tuesday, March 18, 2003.  Those privileged enough to be in Jerusalem or in Shushan, because that was the site of the miracle, will celebrate Purim on Tuesday night and Wednesday, March 18,19, 2003.

PURIM KATAN – Little Purim

The 14th and 15th of Adar Aleph in a leap year are traditionally called "Little Purim."  On those days, when we are supposed to celebrate, it is forbidden to mourn or fast and we omit certain prayers.  This year Purim Katan was February 16th.

"TRIPLE PURIM"

Sometimes Purim falls on a Friday, therefore making the next day, Shabbat, Shushan Purim.  However, it is forbidden to read the Megilla on Shabbat and, of course, Shabbat cannot be postponed because of Purim.

So, in Jerusalem, Purim is pushed off a day and the reading of the Megilla and the main festivities are held on Sunday (the 16th of Adar).  However, both that Friday and that Sabbath take on a festive atmosphere.  In this way, the holiday is felt and marked in Jerusalem for three days, and therefore Purim in such a year is called there "Triple Purim" – the Purim lasting three days.

Cantor Earl G. Berris, B'nai Moshe, West Bloomfield, MI

3.      EAT AS A JEW

Make the dough.  Roll it out.  Cut it.  Fill 'em.  Bake 'em.  Share 'em with friends and family.  Enjoy 'em with cold milk.

Of course, hamantaschen.  Happy Purim.

4.      LEARN AS A JEW

WHAT WE DO, WHY WE DO IT

Secrets of Purim

 

1.                 Why do we fast the day before Purim?

2.                 Why did Esther fast?

3.                 Why did she ask Jews to fast for 3 days?

4.                 Why do we fast for only one?

5.                 Why, if Purim is on Sunday, do we fast on Thursday prior and not Friday?

6.                 Why do we donate 3 half shekels before Purim?

7.                 If it is an Adar donation, then why not on Rosh Hodesh Adar?

8.                 Why a half shekel… not a full shekel?

9.                 Why not recite lishmoa mikra Megillah like lishmoa kol shofar?

10.            OR – why not recite al tika'at shofar like al mikra Megillah?

11.            Why does a woman reading Megillah count differently even though she has to "read" Megillah like men?

12.            Why does everyone have to say 4 specified verses before the reader does?

13.            Why do we say Haman's 10 sons' names in the one breath with the words about 500 men?

14.            Why do we blot out the name of Haman when it is publicly read?

15.            When can a minhag overturn/nullify a halakha?

16.            Why do scholars say that in the future all holy days except Purim will be abolished?

17.            Why is the name of God not written in the Megillah?

18.            Why in Ch 6:2 is the name of the man accused of plotting against the King changed from Bigtan to Bigtana?

19.            Why is the name Vizata elongated as it is pronounced?

20.            Why did Haman decide to build a hangman's noose 50 amah high?

21.            Why is Hallel not recited at Purim, but is on Chanukah?

22.            Why, if a brit milah is to be on Purim, do we first do the brit and then read the Megillah?

23.            Why do the sages obligate one to get "drunk" on Purim when other Torah places show it is inappropriate?

24.            Why is she called Esther?

25.            Why is it our custom, twice a year, to eat meat covered by dough, i.e. Purim and erev Yom Kippur?

26.            Why was mishloach manot ordained for Purim giving to friends?

27.            Why is there no bracha on the mitzvah of mishloach manot?

28.            Why do we not observe Purim in Adar I?

SOURCE: Ta'amei HaMinhagim, u'Mekoray Ha Dinim

5.      PERPETUATE JEWISH LIFE

                A LITTLE BIT OF ANTI-SEMITISM

By Rabbi Ronald Androphy

EAST MEADOW (N.Y.) JEWISH CENTER

The holiday of Purim always brings to mind the ever-present danger of anti-Semitism.  Haman, the villain of the Purim story, was just the first in a long line of vicious Jewhaters.  Unfortunately, too many of his spiritual descendants are alive and active today.

Almost all of us would agree that anti-Semitism must be eradicated.  Yet, strange as it may seem, some of our co-religionists claim that "a little bit of anti-Semitism is good for the Jews."  They point out that anti-Semitism tends to keep Jews together, instills a sense of Jewish identification and causes our people to become more observant.

As evidence they cite the increased synagogue attendance, the larger contributions to Jewish causes, and the higher level of Jewish consciousness that has followed outbreaks of anti-Semitism.  They also suggest that were it not for the overt anti-Semitism that was manifested at the Dreyfus trial, Theodore Herzl might never have been moved to found the Zionist movement that gave birth to the State of Israel.  

Does this mean that we should tolerate "just a little bit of anti-Semitism?"

In my opinion, absolutely not!

Hatred of any kind is patently wrong, and flies in the face of our sense of morality and ethics.  Besides, what would prevent "just a little bit" of anti-Semitism from exploding into a cata-clysmic outbreak against the Jews that would result in loss of life?  Moreover, for every Jew who has been brought closer to Judaism as a result of anti-Semitism, there is probably another Jew who has assimilated to escape it.  It is clear to me that the harm wrought by anti-Semitism far outweighs any presumed benefits.

Yes, it is true that anti-Semitism sometimes brings some Jews closer to their Jewish heritage.  Yes, we are delighted whenever a Jew becomes more observant and more closely identified with his people.  But isn't it a sad, if not pathetic, even damning commentary on our people that all too many Jews apparently need a good hard kick in the form of anti-Semitism to make them good Jews?

The fact that we rely upon anti-Semitism to motivate Jews to become better Jews, demonstrates that we rabbis, teachers, Jewish leaders and parents have to make Judaism more meaningful and attractive in its own right.

One of the tasks before us is this: We must make Jewish tradition a self-motivating force within our people by emphasizing the beauty, relevance and deep pools of meaning and value which are inherent in our Jewish heritage.

We must rise above the level of the Jews of Haman's time who needed anti-Semitism to make them "more Jewish."  We must face the challenge of being committed Jews without anti-Semitism.

6.      BUILDING A BRIDGE TO ISRAEL

ILAN RAMON: A JEWISH LEGACY

In 1981, IAF Col. Ilan Ramon flew one of the F-16 jets that blew up the Iraqi nuclear reactor in Osirak.  In so doing, he saved the country and perhaps the entire world from the specter of a nuclear holocaust.

For 16 days, as Israel's first astronaut, Ilan Ramon again saved us.  This time he was not armed with a payload of bombs on a fighter craft.  This time Ramon set off for outer space on the Columbia space shuttle, armed with a picture of the Earth as seen from the moon drawn by a Jewish boy in Theresienstadt concentration camp, a Torah scroll from Bergen Belsen, a microfiche copy of the Bible, the national flag, and the dreams and hopes of the State of Israel and the Jewish people.  Ramon saved us this time not by clearing our skies of the threat of nuclear attack, but by reminding us of who we are and of what we can accomplish if we only have faith in ourselves.

Ramon made clear at every opportunity that he went to outer space not simply as a citizen of the State of Israel, but as a Jew.  As the representative of the Jewish people, he recited Kiddush on Friday night.  As a Jew he said Shema Yisrael as the space shuttle orbited over Jerusalem.  As a Jew he insisted on eating only kosher food in outer space.  And as a Jew he told the Prime Minister from his celestial perch, "I think it is very, very important to preserve our historical tradition, and I mean historical and religious traditions."

In so doing he showed that there is no limit to what a person can accomplish as a Jew.  He said to all Jews, here in Israel and throughout the world, even as anti-Semitism again threatens us, even as Jews in Israel are being murdered just for being Jews, our enemies will never define us or tell us there are limits to what we can do.

But Ilan Ramon was not simply a Jew.  He was an Israeli Jew.  And, as a scientist and fighter pilot, his was the face of Israeli exceptionalism.  Ramon excelled in all he did.  He was first in his class in high school.  He was first in his class in flight school.  He was first in his class in astronaut training.  In a break from the Air Force in the 1980's, after completing his studies in electrical engineering and computer science at Tel-Aviv University, Ramon joined the team at Israel Aircraft Industries that developed the Lavi environmental research on desertification.

Today, when mediocrity seems to be the unifying characteristic of so many of the personalities that make up our national landscape, Ramon reminded us of what we can and should aspire to.  Speaking of Ramon a few months before the shuttle launch, his fellow astronauts praised his professionalism above all.

As Israel has been consumed for more than two years with the daily reality of terrorism and pain, Ramon reminded us that there are other sides to our lives in Israel.  Our mastery of science has placed our tiny state at the cutting edge of space research.  Like our friends, the Americans, we will not be limited by gravity in our quest for answers to the riddles of the universe.

(From the Jerusalem Post)

IT'S NOT TIME TO GO … YET

 

PURIM  -- AMAZING DISCOVERY!

Yaacov and Leah were married on Purim.  How do I know?  Pay close attention and you will see the truth of this amazing discovery!

 The Yalkut Shimoni  lists the birthdays of all 12 of Yaacov's sons.  Reuven, the oldest, was born on the 14th of Kislev.  Count back nine months and you arrive at the 14th day of Adar – Purim!

 But – you say – pregnancies are not necessarily exactly nine months long.  Wait!

Rashi says that Leah became pregnant on the night of her marriage.  And in the blessing Yaacov bestowed upon his sons just before he died, he tells Reuven that his first-born was raysheet oni.  Rashi says that means it was the first time Yaacov had ever ejaculated in his life.  The combination of this fact and the fact that Leah became pregnant on the night of her wedding more readily lends credence to accepting a nine-month pregnancy – right to the day.

 But – you say – that is still not enough evidence of Purim being the date of the wedding.  Wait!  There is more!

The Gemorrah Megillah says that because of the modesty – tzniut -- of Rachel, King Saul, Shaul HaMelech, was descended from her.  And because of Shaul's tzniut, Esther and Mordechai were descended from him.  Rashi explains that this tzniut of Rachel was that she gave her sister Leah the secret simonim – signs – that would identify her as the bride that night.  Yaacov suspected Lavan of possibly switching brides at the last minute, so he exchanged these signs with Rachel so that they would not be duped by her father.  But Rachel could not face seeing her older sister embarrassed in public.  It was not Leah's fault that their father, Lavan, was a dishonest man.  So she gave her the signs and in so doing, gave up her husband to Leah rather than shame her sister in front of everyone.  Rachel had no way of knowing at that time she would also marry Yaacov one week later.

 For this act of tzniut, she was rewarded with descendants like King Saul and, thereafter, Esther and Mordechai – the heroes of the miracle of Purim.

 On the very night of the 14th of Adar, when she was to marry Yaacov, she was rewarded with descendants that were to become the central figures in the story of Purim.

 And if you read the part of the Torah that describes the wedding, you will be amazed to see the word that is chosen to describe this celebration – mishteh -- the very word that epitomized the Purim meal, commemorating the miracle that took place on this holiday!

 And if you read the Haggadah of Pesach carefully, Lavan is described as follows:

Lavan beekesh la-akor et ha-kol.  This is referring to Lavan chasing Yaacov years later as he was returning to Canaan with his family.  Lavan was intent on wiping out Yaacov and his entire family – exactly as Haman had intended to eradicate every Jew in the 127 provinces of King Achash-verosh.  Lavan and Haman are one and the same!

So next time you celebrate Purim by raising a cup of wine and drinking, remember that this festive occasion also marks the wedding anniversary of Yaacov and Leah.  And Rachel's unselfish act of kindness that very night resulted in the miracle through her descendants – Esther and Mordechai!

Remember this the next time you are tempted to say or do something that would embarrass someone in front of others.

Shared by Oswald Czolgosz

oswaldcz@...

Have A Really Happy Purim

Now that you know how it works, why don't you try the one and only

JEWISH MENSA TEST

"JUST HOW KNOWLEDGEABLE AND INTELLIGENT A JEW ARE YOU?"

1 – 5 B in the T

 2 – 6 S in the M

 3 – 10 C on 2 T

 4 – 2 M B in 1 B of S

 5 – 1 P of P with an O of H

6 – 2 A in a D

 7 – 2 J, 3 O

 8 – 3 S T on S H, R H

9 – 13 M in a J L Y

 10 – 13 A of G

 11 – 120 M of K

 12 - 1 R + 1 C = 3 H S on S

 13 – W 4 M in 6 D on S

 14 – 2 D per P, at L 1 C

 15 – A L 25 P C D or Y P R

                                                   ANSWERS AND SCORING KEY ON REVERSE

FOR THOSE WHO NEED THEM

HERE ARE THE ANSWERS

 

1 – 5 Books in the Torah

2 – 6 Seders in the Mishnah

3 – 10 Commandments on 2 Tablets

4 – 2 Matzoh Balls in 1 Bowl of Soup

5 – 1 Piece of Pita with an Order of Hummus

6 – 2 Amud in a Daf

7 – 2 Jews, 3 Opinions

8 – 3 Sifrei Torah on Shabbat Hanukkah, Rosh Hodesh

9 – 13 Months in a Jewish Leap Year

10 – 13 Attributes of God

11 – 120 Members of Knesset

12 – 1 Rabbi + 1 Cantor = 3 Hour Shaharit on Shabbat

13 – Wave 4 Minim in 6 Directions on Sukkot

14 – 2 Desserts per Person, at Least 1 Chocolate

15 – At Least 25 Per Cent Discount or You're Paying Retail

 

           have a really happy purim

The MENSA test was created by

Lois Goldrich

Director of the USCJ Department of Public Affairs –

And her family

        PURIM & PESACH: LESSONS/REFLECTIONS/DIFFERENCES

Purim is the public reading of the megillah.

Pesach is the private reading of the Haggadah.

Purim takes place in shul, with the congregation.

Pesach takes place at home, with the family.

On Purim, the community makes merry.

On Pesach, the mood is much more somber.

The Purim story is built on a declaration.

The Pesach story is built on a conversation.

The mitzvah of Purim is likroa megillah, to read the megillah.

The mitzvah of Pesach is v’hegadeta l’vincha, to tell our children.

Purim is about fun, which is a secular experience.

Pesach is about joy, which is a religious experience.

On Purim, we drink wine to forget.

On Pesach, we drink wine to remember.

The Purim seudah is an experience of the senses.

The Pesach Seder is an experience of holiness.

On Purim, we eat lots of junk food.

On Pesach, we eat matzah, a sacred food.

On Purim, we wear costumes to make us feel different on the outside.

On Pesach, we imagine what it would have been like to be slaves, to make us feel different on the inside.

Purim is the holiday that forces us to deal with the vulnerability that comes with living as a Jew in the secular world.

Pesach is the holiday that provides us with the sustenance we need to live as a Jew in the Jewish world.  

Purim is the story that happens to them.

Pesach is the story that happens to us.



And I think that’s probably the most important difference between Purim and Pesach. Because not only is Purim a public story, it’s also a complete story. We read Megillat Esther, and there’s nothing we can add to that story.

Pesach, however, is a private story. And it’s not a complete story. When we read the Haggadah and tell the Pesach story, we’re supposed to add as much as we can. “V’chol hamarbeh l’saper b’yitziat Mitzrayim, harei zeh meshubach,” the more we add to the story, the more praiseworthy we become.

And that’s really the message for today.

 (PURIM & PESACH has been excerpted from a mother's Dvar Torah to her daughter becoming a Bat Mitzvah.  Written by Sharyn Perlman)



NOW, TIME TO GO

This is the 13th COMPACT: ADAR II 5763.  Enrich your life as a Jew.  Transformation is a step by step process of learning and questioning, of doing and inquiring, of participating and asking.

 Rabbi Jerome M. Epstein welcomes your comments about COMPACT.  You can e-mail him at epstein@....

 COMPACT is prepared by Rabbi Moshe Edelman, edelman@....

  P.S.  Recently some of you said about COMPACT…

 

From RABBI RICHARD WHITE, Beth Israel, Salisbury, MD: "We, as a synagogue, are joining the USCJ COMPACT aimed at getting us to commit to starting on the path of a life marked by Jewish observance…"

 From CELIA D: "I'm enjoying (COMPACT) and getting a lot out of it."

 From MERI in Delaware: "I got all of the Hebrew months (of COMPACT).  Thanks."

 From KEN B. in Wisconsin: "May I publish portions of the COMPACT in our shul's bulletin" (As long as you acknowledge COMPACT, yes!)

 From DEBBIE D. in Texas: "May I say that (Adar I) was the best COMPACT yet, filled with the practical as well as the spiritual.  I forwarded Rabbi Green's A Simple Serious Judaism to my personal e-mail list … spiritually moving… practical… easy to do."

 From RICHARD S. in New York: "This past issue of COMPACT was outstanding.  There are at least 3 ideas our synagogue will use as programming this year.   Thank you for the time and effort on behalf of our synagogues and klal yisrael."

 From JOEL R. in Nebraska: "It is one piece of e-mail that allows me to think how my family should live.  Keep it at its high level of quality."

 From MAUREEN L. in California: "I use it to study and discuss Jewish lessons with my boyfriend on Shabbat after shul.  We even used ideas for our Seudat Tu B'Shevat.  We hope to use it in the future as we prepare to begin our life together in a Jewish household."

 Thank you to all of you.

 Rabbi Moshe Edelman

Weekly Announcements from the Religious School—March 7, 2003

1. Buy grocery cash cards for either Ukrop’s or Kroger from the Religious School.  Spend them like cash when you make your weekly purchases or buy them for gifts.  This is an important new fundraiser for Temple Beth-El.  Orders are currently being taken.  Call the religious school 740-0820 or Ellen Bernstein at 270-3413 (h) or 266-4065 (w) or Robin Magat at 364-0348 to receive a new order form.
2. Temple Beth-El Religious School’s DorWays and Sisterhood will be presenting the following courses:
   

• Hebrew Literacy II course beginning March 2.  Allie Vered will return as instructor by popular demand.  Other dates for the course are:  March 9, 23, 30 and April 6.  Register by phoning the Religious School office, 740-0820 or email Judy Rubin at yehuditberva@....  Participants should know the rudiments of Hebrew reading.  This course will increase fluency and familiarize the participants with prayers from the Shabbat morning service.
• Talking to Your Children about God and other difficult issues led by Rabbi Eric Rosin and Susan Brown. Date:  March 23 9:15-10:45 a.m.
  

1. Junior Congregation, March 8, 10:30-12:00 for all students in grades 3-5.  Grade 4 is featured.
2. Judaic Juniors Purim Party, March 8 for all Jewish students in Richmond in grades 3-5.  Time:  7:30-9:30 p.m. at the religious school.  Come in costume, win prizes, DJ:  Manny Green.
3. The next Family Shabbat will take place on March 14 at 6:30 p.m.  A warm, inclusive, participatory, casual service geared to families with young children.
4. The Men’s Club Purim Carnival will take place on March 16 at the Religious School from 10:00-12:30. New games and this year a Moon Walk!
5. No Classes for A shift on March 17 so all can attend the Megillah Reading.  Prizes for everyone in costume and special prizes for those wearing the most unusual costumes.
6. March 23: Confirmation Class meets at the Temple for rehearsals.
7. Camp Ramah in New England, Summer 2003:  Two, Four, eight-week sessions and scholarships available for grades 2-10
   

Camp Ramah is the camp where children form life long friendships, within a Conservative Jewish environment.  Jewish values are used to create a caring community.  Programs include sports, dance, drama, song, outdoor adventure, aquatics, web design, newspaper and more.  Our enriching cultural and educational experiences emphasize connections with Hebrew language and with Israel.  Please contact: Billy Mencow, Director, at 781-449-7090, ext 226 or at billym@...

Temple Beth-El Auction Gala.

Your Auction Committee urges you to look in your attics, and in your jewelry boxes, and consider what you can donate to help support your synagogue! Merchandise, time shares, antiques, jewelry and art- if it's valuable, we can use it!

Please leave word in the Temple Office (355-3564) if you have a donation or you may contact Judy Crocker (796-1106) for pickup of donated items.

Remember, Save The Date, November 15, 2003! You don't want to miss this event!