Rabbi's Blog

May 30, 2008 

Dear Friends,

I want to let you know a bit about what has been happening and what is coming up at our congregation.

I am still reflecting on our beautiful Lag B’omer picnic and farewell service for Rabbi Miriam that took place this past Friday. The weather was wonderfully cooperative, and a whole crowd of us scattered across our synagogue’s green grass, eating and playing games and roasting marshmallows.  Then we moved in to our sanctuary, and Rabbi Miriam and our Family School students led a beautiful service to welcome Shabbat, and we honored all of our students and teachers and especially Rabbi Miriam.  We finished by eating ice cream sundaes and distributing our fabulous new Woodstock Jewish Congregation t-shirts to our students and teachers.  (The t-shirts are now for sale at the synagogue - $12/kids, $15/adults.) The entire event was yet another confirmation for me that we chose the right name for our community when we called ourselves the Congregation of a Full Heart.

Here are some upcoming activities that I would like you to be aware of:

Mitzvah Project Fair, Sunday, June 1, 1:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Every Bar/Bat Mitzvah student in our program creates a “Mitzvah Project” as part of their year’s requirements.  The Mitzvah Project can be focused on study, on tzedakah, or on service, and each student is encouraged to choose a project that is personally meaningful.  Three of our students will be presenting their Mitzvah Projects this Sunday, and I hope you will be able to participate.

Anna Weissman will be showing and selling painting by her late grandmother Sara Weissman. All proceeds will benefit our WJC Playground Fund. You can preview some of Sara Weissman’s painting at <http://s307.photobucket.com/albums/nn281/billfromthelake/>

Adam Rejto will be holding a silent auction to raise funds for the Center for Discovery, a residential treatment center for the severely disabled. Adam’s Mitzvah Project is in memory of his brother Julian, who was loved and cared for at the Center of Discovery until his recent passing.

Leah Ostrander will be holding a bake sale to raise funds for Nkosi’s Haven, an inspiring South African organization that cares for mothers and children with HIV/AIDS.

Dedicating Our New Ark, Saturday, June 7, 3:00 pm

In addition to our regular Shabbat morning service, we will be having a special Mincha (afternoon) service to celebrate the B’nai Mitzvah of Salem Hoffman and Glenn Mandel, and to dedicate the beautiful new ark donated by the Mandel family in honor of this occasion. Please join us if you can.

Celebrate Shavuot, Sunday June 8, 6:00 pm – 11:00 pm (and on…)

Please join us as we celebrate Shavuot, the Festival of The Receiving of the Torah, and the Festival of First Fruits. We begin at 6:00 pm with our Shavuot potluck Festival Dinner (Please bring a dairy/vegetarian dish to share).

At 7:30 pm, Yitzhak Buxbaum and Carole Forman will present “A Shavuot Tikkun of Tales: Storytelling at Sinai”. In Judaism, storytelling is a sacred activity. In the telling, the story becomes a living reality - not an intellectual event, but one that strives for joy, the "holy shiver" that speaks to the soul. Yitzhak and Carole will tell, and we will all discuss, tales that are really about us. How can we grow spiritually? How can we reach the fulfillment that we dream about?

Yitzhak will also invest our own Ellen Triebwasser with the title of Maggid, or spiritual storyteller. Ellen recently completed Yitzhak’s extended training to become a Maggid.

Following the storytelling Ruth Hirschis going to present us with a framed fragment of a Torah scroll that has been in her family since Kristallnacht,the horrible pogrom of November 9 & 10, 1938 that marked the beginning of the end for Jews under Nazi rule. Ruth’s mother Edith Kahn Hirsch found the scrap of parchment lying on the street after Kristallnacht, and brought it with her to the United States when she managed to leave Germany in 1939.

Those who wish will then spend the night at the synagogue, fulfilling the practice of an all-night vigil in preparation for receiving the Torah. At 5:00 am, we will hold a sunrise service. The morning prayers are known as Shacharit, which means “dawn”, and are meant to be prayed at sunrise. Join us this morning as our prayers coincide and crescendo with the symphony of daybreak.

It is customary to recite yizkor on the final day of Festivals.  Join us on Tuesday, June 10 at 10:00 am for a brief service of remembrance.

On a personal note, this coming Sunday I am off to Israel for the briefest trip I have ever taken – 3 days! I will be attending my nephew Eitan’s wedding. I understand that Eitan and his fianc Shir will be having an average size Israeli wedding, about 600 people. I’ll send out a report when I return.

In the meantime, enjoy the springtime, and I hope to see you soon.

Shalom,

Rabbi Jonathan Kligler