Rabbi Rosenthal S Message - B'nai Israel Reform Temple

Transcription

Volume 20, Issue 4Adar II/Nisan 577967 Oakdale-Bohemia Road, Oakdale, NY 11769April 2019(631) 563-1660www.bnai-israel.orgprinted monthlyRabbi Rosenthal’s MessageCan you imagine what Moses or Miriam might say if they attended our Passover seder today?They’d most likely be very confused, as the Passover seder was created as a way to honor andacknowledge an event that they themselves lived, and because the way we celebrate it iscompletely different than the Passover celebration described in the Jewish Bible. Since theholiday’s creation, it has evolved dramatically. Each generation has added a new layer ofunderstanding and kavanah, intention, to what has become a multistep ritual and meal.Consider these general and dramatic changes that have taken place over thousands of years:The first mention of celebrating Passover takes place in the book of Numbers and the first time itis celebrated in Israel comes up later in the book of Joshua. Here we read that the children ofIsrael kept the Passover and ate unleavened bread the next day.Throughout the time that Passover was celebrated in Temple times, it was largely a pilgrimage holiday that involveda ritual sacrifice.After the destruction of the Temple, Passover was transformed from a public festival to one centered at home. In itsearly forms, it involved chanting psalms of praise (Hallel), and eating a feast. The Mishnah of the rabbinic period,recorded in 200 CE, describes a Haggadah and talks about the arrangement of the table, benedictions and psalms.In addition, the habit of reclining in the style of the Greeks was mentioned.Medieval scholars added liturgical poems and sought to dispel anti-Semitic stories that developed around how Jewscelebrated this ritual.Modern participants have added the matzah of hope for Soviet Jews, oranges, and Miriam’s cup, just to name a few.(Continued on page 4)Rabbi Moss’ MessageI recently attended the showing of an incredible movie, The Shanghai Ghetto. The movie is aninterview of five survivors of the ghetto that was put in place by the Japanese after the bombing ofPearl Harbor and the declaration of war by the United States. Who was in this ghetto? Over18,000 Jews who were able to escape from Germany in 1938. I hope this movie can be shown atB’nai Israel for it is really an unbelievable part of our people’s history that is known by so few,ncluding myself.There was one part of the movie that I wanted to share with you and relate it to this month’scelebration of Passover.One of the survivors is describing a story that was told to her family by her uncle who went toFrance rather than Shanghai and sadly in the end died in a concentration camp. He told of the experience he had atthe famous Battle of Verdun during World War I when Germany went to war with France. Her uncle described howhe faced a French infantryman and both raised their rifles. Then each fired and her uncle, shot in his abdomen, wentdown. The Frenchman also fell to the ground and the last words he uttered before his death were, “Shema Yisrael ”Her uncle never forgot that experience of war and as he said many times, “It was not a German soldier killing aFrench soldier, it was a Jew killing a fellow Jew!”There is something so intangible and yet also so powerful about our Jewish people that transcends borders, nations,languages, races and variations in customs and beliefs. Yes, this war story reflects this but so too the holiday ofPassover for on Friday night April 19th when we sit down with family and friends, be it at the Temple or anywhereelse, we will be doing this with millions of Jews and their family members and friends throughout the world.(Continued on page 4)

Streaming ServicesAbout our ServicesWe are now streaming our services weekly. If you are unable to join us in person check us out online. Simply visit www.bnai-israel.org and click on LiveStream from our menu or the YouTube link on our home page. If you are using a mobile device you will need to have the YouTube app installed for it towork.Our Friday night worship is conducted inEnglish and Hebrew. Services are everyFriday evening. Our Shabbat Services arethe 1st, 3rd, and 4th Fridays at 8:00 pm. Wehave a Family Service geared towardschool age children the 2nd Friday of eachmonth at 7:15 pm. The Rabbi will offerBirthday and Anniversary Blessings for themonth at this service. We also have aTot Shabbat Service geared towardpre-school children the 3rd Friday of eachmonth at 7:00 pm. In a month where thereis a 5th Friday we have a Musical ShabbatService at 7:30 pm.Schedule of ServicesFri. 4/5Shabbat Service8:00 pmSat. 4/6Morning Service10:00 amWith the Bat Mitzvah of Talia BakerFri. 4/12Family ServiceFor Grade 37:15 pmFri. 4/19Shabbat Service6:00 pmFri. 4/26Shabbat ServiceYizkor for Passover8:00 pmTorah and Haftarah ReadingsApril 6 – Leviticus ch. 12 vs. 1 through ch. 13 vs. 5Ezekiel ch. 45 vss. 16-25; Isaiah ch. 66 vss. 1 through 13, vs. 23April 13 – Leviticus ch. 14 vs. 1 through ch. 15 vs. 33Malachi ch. 3 vss. 4 through 24April 20 – Exodus ch. 12 vss. 37 through 42; ch. 13 vss. 3 through 10Isaiah ch. 43 vss. 1 through 15 / Song of SongsApril 27 – Leviticus ch. 16 vss. 1 through ch. 17 vs. 16Ezekiel ch. 22 vss. 1 through 14Our Saturday Services are held when thereis a Bar or Bat Mitzvah. These are open tothe community. Please join us.Bulletin InformationAll items to be considered for inclusion inthe bulletin must be sent, preferably in anelectronic format or delivered to theTemple Office by the deadline shownbelow. Accepted electronic formats areMicrosoft Word, or a simple message in anemail. If you are submitting a picture to beconsidered for inclusion, please make surethat it is a .jpg file. If you have anyquestions about these requirements,Please call (631)775-6147 or emailwebmaster@bnai-israel.org.Upcoming Deadlines:May Issueis April 10thShare a SIMCHASponsor an ONEGLet everyone celebrate with you for your Birthday,Anniversary, Graduation, or any simchayou would like to share.Contact : Sharon Millerslmil54m@aol.comJune Issueis May 10SisterhoodJudaicaand Gift ShopThe Sisterhood Judaica & Gift shop is openeach Friday night after services, byappointment, and during SisterhoodEvents and Meetings.Please call the Temple office for more information or to make an appointment.(631) 563-1660

Religious School NewsFamily Worship Service highlighting the3rd Grade is Friday night April 12th at7:15 pm. Please arrive early so that students can be assigned apart in the service.***Please remember to bring food orfood gift cards for outreach***The dates of Religious School Seders will be as follows:April 7th for PreK/K and 2nd Grade; April 13th for Grades 4,5 and 6; April 14th for Grades 1 and 3; and April 15th for7th Grade. Please remember to send in the items for whichyour child volunteered. Our Seders would not be aswonderful as they are without your participation.Passover 5779 / 2019Rabbi MossPassover begins on Friday night April 19 and concludes for Reform Jews on Friday night April 26th at sundown.Reform Judaism follows the Jewish ritual calendar as observed in Israel as stated in the Torah. “Seven days there willbe no unleavened bread in your homes.” (Exodus ch. 12:19).The Temple will be holding its Annual First Night Seder at 7 pm on the 19th. Reservations are still being accepted.There will be a brief Shabbat/Passover Service at 6 pm. All are welcome to attend even if you are not attending theSeder.At the Friday night April 26th Shabbat service, Yizkor, the memorial prayer for the dead, will be recited.Here are some of the rituals and ceremonies the Rabbi Moss would like to suggest that you consider in preparationfor the holiday: Do you have a Seder ritual meal using the Haggadah and going through the main elements of the 14 partsof the Seder or do you simply have a family get together with a meal? Do you have enough of the same Haggadah for all of your guests? Do you have special Passover dishes and utensils? Are these dishes and utensils separated for dairy and for meat? Do you clean your house of all leaven and leavened products, or at least place these items off to the sidein one part of the kitchen separate from the rest of the kitchen? Do you at least refrain from bread and bread products during the Passover week when and if you go out todinner? Do you buy only items that are certified kosher for Passover?A Happy and Meaningful Passover for all!

Rabbi Rosenthal’s Message (continued)Each addition allows us to continue adding meaning and nuance to our practice. And the practice continues.Every seder table around the world has a unique approach to this central holiday that retells our journey to freedom.We constantly find a way to embrace our ancient story while still making it personally meaningful and relevant.Some add a modern twist, while others like to reintroduce a classic interpretation. We are so lucky to have thefreedom to retell our exodus story with personal modern values and perspectives.One of my favorite parts of any holiday is finding ways to embrace the history, culture and traditions, while bringthem into the 21st century. At my house, we’ve eaten our meals reclining on couches, debated the various pictorialpresentations of the four children, told the story as if travelling on an airplane to the promised land, integratedpuppet interviews for telling the exodus story, framed the seder as an opportunity to ask questions throughout, andeven invited Moses and Miriam, played by the hosts, to attend their first modern Passover Seder. Each year, ourseder evolves and seeks to ask harder and deeper questions.I mentioned some approaches that I’ve taken and would very much like to hear your stories. What do you do at yourseder to add new meaning and connection? What are some of your favorite seder memories? What family traditionsdo you have that help add a deeper connection for you?For those of you joining us at the congregational seder, I look forward to learning about the rituals that you havecreated together as a community. I’d love to learn more about how they inspire you to connect with our ancientExodus story.As we continue to join our narratives together, I hope we will always feel moved to share the sacred memories thatshape our important Jewish holiday experiences.Chag Pesach Sameach!Rabbi Moss’ Message (continued)There will be those who follow the entire Seder ritual and then those who do the 30 second version. There will bethose Seders recited all in Hebrew and then some with a mixture of Hebrew and the language of the country andothers in that language only. There will be variations in the ritual enactments, in the foods (i.e. charoset), and in themelodies to the prayers but there will be a thread that runs throughout each and every Seder that binds them alltogether and that is the doing of the Seder. Tradition!!!It is the perpetuation of this amazing religious/cultural experience that truly exemplifies the miracle of the continuedexistence of the Jewish People. Tradition!!! We should have become assimilated in the Egyptian culture 3,000 yearsago but we didn’t and this the miracle of Passover. It is this miracle that allows us and inspires us to celebrate thisholiday every year regardless of where we live, regardless of the conditions in which we are living (i.e. the Holocaust)and to say the words, “L’Shanah HaBaah B’rusalyim, Next Year in Jerusalem,” believing that the future promised byGod is ours.Judy and I wish each and everyone of you and blessed, joyous, and meaningful Passover.Dollar A Week Club NewsAs you read this, spring is in the air. Just as crocuses and daffodils are poking their headsup, we look forward to some of our “hibernating” A Week Club members to re-emerge aswell.Just send your weekly contributions to Religious School with your child’s name and the dateclearly marked on the envelope, or include your contributions with your dues (clearlyindicating that it’s for A Week), so that you’ll see your name listed here next month.The following individuals and/or families have donated at least 20 times:Alice & Mike Lambert, Ethan Mihlstin, Rachel Mihlstin, Roberta Rosen, and Bob & Sue WienerThe following individuals and/or families have donated at least 15 times: Sam JacobsThere are at least ten other members who need to “catch up” to see their names listed here next month.

President’s MessagePaul WeberThank you to Sandy, Alice, and Stephanie from the Ritual Committee for all of your hard workin making Shabbat Across America a huge success! We all enjoyed a delicious meal fromWoodbury Kosher Caterers. Rabbi Rosenthal and Cantor Ilana led us in a beautiful serviceconcluding with some fun songs. Thank you to Tom who made sure that the food was hot andtook care of the cleanup. Everyone enjoyed themselves. We even had some requests formore Shabbat dinners together!I am writing this article before Purim, but I am very confident in saying that Rabbi CookieMonster and Cantor Miss Piggy (kosher, of course) led us in a very happy and spirited Purimservice. I am sure that the Purim spiel and carnival were also a blast!We are now in the month of April. It is time to start preparing ourselves and our homes forPassover. FYI, the April Temple Board Meeting has been moved to Thursday, April 11th, so asnot to interfere with your Passover preparations.The first seder is on Friday, April 19th. Please join us for Shabbat services at 6:00 p.m. followed by a special sederled by both Rabbi Moss and Rabbi Rosenthal. Make sure to sign up to attend this beautiful and meaningful evening.As we participate in the telling of the Passover story of the Exodus from slavery, we are asked to see ourselves asactually, personally, going out of the land of Egypt. We are asked to feel and experience within ourselves thebitterness of slavery as well as the joy of freedom and redemption. We are told to embrace the stranger and to invitethe hungry to come and eat.Whether you join us at our Temple seder, or you are enjoying a family seder at your home or the home of a friend orfamily member, we are all connected as Jews with one another. We are all connected to those who came before us.Passover teaches us that it is our responsibility as Jews to do what we can to correct the injustices, homelessness,hunger, and oppression that exists in our world. Please do what you can to help someone in need.Sandy and I want to wish everyone a blessed and Zissen Pesach.Shalom, PaulPlay Ball - Volunteers NeededJoel SilvermanSpring training is underway and so are plans for a team of B'nai Israel volunteers to earn big commissions workingconcession stands for the Long Island Ducks in Central Islip. In each of the past two seasons our Ducks income hasexceeded 20,000 which is net profit going directly into our General Fund. The key to that success is the number ofvolunteers we can count on to work three, four maybe five hours at a stretch selling fast food, snacks and drinks at asmany concession stands as we can handle during Ducks home games.The contract for the 2019 season has been signed with Centerplate, the Ducks concessionaire, and we are on theschedule to work nine of eleven Saturday night fireworks nights. We lose out on those two games because we willnot work on Shavuot or Selichot, but we hope to add additional mid-week fireworks dates to our schedule, IF WECAN RECRUIT ENOUGH VOLUNTEERS to meet our commitments. (As the most profitable non-profit (oxymoron?)volunteer group working for Centerplate we traditionally meet every commitment with dedicated, hard-working,competent staff!)We typically report for duty at 5:00 PM. Parking at the stadium is free. A break is provided which includes a fast fooddinner or snack from one of our stands and as business winds down during the game those volunteers who prefer toexit early are able to do so. We are always welcome to hang around for the fireworks which follow each of ourgames, usually around 9:00 PM. Training is on-the-job and by game time at 6:30 even novice volunteers are readyto go! Some stamina is essential as all positions require standing and hot weather during mid-summer may be aconsideration as well. Volunteers are welcome at 16 years of age, but younger is OK too with working papers, andseveral Temple teens have stepped up and excelled at what we do. Community service credit is available for themas well. In the past, some volunteers offer to work all or most games, some only a game or two at theirconvenience. ANY AND ALL HELP IS NEEDED AND APPRECIATED!We communicate with our volunteers primarily via email at ducks@bnai-israel.org. Please forward your questions tothat address. And remember, it costs nothing to volunteer and your help is needed to insure significant income forB'nai Israel in the upcoming baseball season. Let us know of your interest and we'll add you to our email list for moreinformation as our season begins in early May.See the schedule for Saturday evening fireworks nights: 5/4, 5/18, 5/25, 6/22, 7/8, 7/20, 8/3, 8/31 and 9/7.Thanks,Joel Silverman

Sisterhood NewsletterThank you Yaffa for teaching us how to make Hamantaschen. A fun time was had by all.On April 9th we will have our Women’s Seder at 6pm in the Social hall. The cost is 18.00 for Sisterhood membersand 20.00 for non-members. If you haven’t RSVP’D yet, do so now. If there is any room left, we can add you in.Rabbi Rosenthal will be joining us for her first taste of our wonderful Seder tradition at B’nai Israel.May will bring us to Rosh Chodesh topic to be announced and Donor Dinner festivities are being worked on now.Karen Sweeting & Patricia EllnerCo-Presidents SisterhoodSAVE THE DATETuesday, April 9thTuesday May 21stWomen’s Seder. Please see below for detailsRosh Chodesh6:00 pm7:30 pmSisterhood of B’nai Israel invites you to participate inThe Women’s Seder ExperienceTuesday, April 9th at 6:00 PMRitual Foods and Dessert will be servedBy Reservation OnlyDonation: 18 for Sisterhood Members 20 for Non-MembersReturn with your check made out to Sisterhood of B’nai Israel, 67 Oakdale-Bohemia Rd., Oakdale, NY 11769Name(s)Total number reservations: Members Non-MembersI request to sit withTelephone number: Email:Total amount enclosed:Reservations were due March 25th . If you RSVP and there is room we will fit you in.

@Brought to you by the Fundraising committeeSaturday, April 27 7-9pmat Pinot’s Palette, 61 W Main Street, Bay Shore, NY 45 per painterDoors open at 6:30 pm, painting starts at 7pmPlease reserve your seat online atwww.pinotspalette.comor call 631-446-4777A direct link is on our Temple website and in weekly emails.The painting we will be making is pictured to the left.Annual NYC Jewish Cultural TourPlease join Rabbis Moss and Rosenthal on B’nai Israel’s Annual NYCCultural and Eating Trip. The date is Sunday April 14th. Yes, it is theSunday prior to Passover which begins on Friday night, but this is awonderful way to begin to focus on what being Jewish means especially inlight of the beautiful customs of our wonderful holiday.We are leaving the Temple at 8 am sharp. The first stop will be YonahSchimmel’s Knishery on Houston Street. We will then go a short distancefor a tour of the famous tenement museum. Our group will be split into 2groups. Each group will experience one of the following tours:SWEATSHOP WORKERS: Pay a visit to the Levine family’sgarment workshop and the Rogarshevsky’s Sabbath table at theturn of the 20th century, when the Lower East Side was the mostdensely populated place in the world. Explore how immigrantsbalanced work, family, and religion at a time of great change.HARD TIMES: Disco

Malachi ch. 3 vss. 4 through 24 April 20 - Exodus ch. 12 vss. 37 through 42; ch. 13 vss. 3 through 10 Isaiah ch. 43 vss. 1 through 15 / Song of Songs April 27 - Leviticus ch. 16 vss. 1 through ch. 17 vs. 16 Ezekiel ch. 22 vss. 1 through 14 Our Friday night worship is conducted in English and Hebrew. Services are every Friday evening.