In This Moment: Top Ten Reasons Jews Love Pizza; Mazal tov to Cantor Kaplan; The Deep Structure of Jewish Prayer

 

In This Moment The Shabbat-O-Gram is sponsored this week by Carlie and Jordan Socaransky, in honor of Lolly's becoming Bat Mitzvah this Shabbat Great article in the Stamford Jewish Voice celebrating Cantor Kaplan’s completion of the program which grants her the official title of cantor. Mazal tov! Shabbat Shalom Mazal tov to Lolly Socaransky and family, as Lolly becomes Bat Mitzvah on Shabbat morning. The service will be in our sanctuary and broadcast over livestream. Friday night's will as well (we begin at 6). Also, the archived video of Alan Kalter's funeral can be found on our website's TBE-Live portal. And join us and Alan's family at 1 today when we will share stories and reflections in a Zoom shiva at the conclusion of our regularly scheduled daily afternoon service. Join Zoom meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82243639528 Meeting ID: 822 4363 9528 Passcode: 583431 Over 40 people attended our first conversation about "The New Jewish Canon" this week. You can watch that first session by clicking here. The class discussed some of the most significant trends that have shaped the past half century, both in Jewish life and more generally speaking. We talked about the impact of social media, feminism, LGBTQ rights, political polarization, distrust of government and many other issues. One overriding question was whether we've become a less - or more - violent society. Another was whether these past four decades have been a time of stabilizing (or as the authors put it, "settling") of Jewish life after the tumult of the mid 20th century, or have we been living through times are themselves revolutionary. The next session will take place on Tuesday the 19th (this Tuesday is Cantor Kaplan's meditation class), and we'll discuss, among other questions, where power truly resides in Jewish communities and the Jewish world, and how that has shifted. Click here to see the syllabus and reading links. Click here to register. Click here to order the book (or order from Amazon). Chai Chi: The Deep Structure of Tefila One of the first scholars in residence that I invited here, back in the early '90s, was the great Jewish humorist (who literally wrote the book on Jewish Humor), Rabbi Moshe Waldoks. On the Shabbat morning of his visit, he took us on a guided tour of the Sabbath service, guided by the wisdom of eastern religions. Find a quiet place to sit, and listen to the lecture, "Chai Chi: The Deep Structure of Tefila." It will help you to understand the approach to prayer that we have long embraced and advocated here at TBE. Click below to hear the lecture and here to follow our siddur's Shabbat morning service (page numbers are different). Below that you will find a visual aid that takes a very similar approach, a flow-chart created by Marcia Prager for the innovative Pnai Or Siddur. Top Ten Reasons Jews Love Pizza With the long-awaited opening of Sally's Apizza in Stamford - and this Stamford Advocate front page story featuring TBE's own Jeremy Young, who reviews pizza for the Stamford High newspaper (and only cheese pizza, I must happily add), it's time to get down to the matter at hand. Why is pizza the quintessential Jewish food? True, there are no holidays that call on us to eat pizza, it didn't exist in the Bible and, really there is nothing Jewish about pizza - but we can't let mere facts stop us. So, with David Letterman's show so much on our minds this week, I give you the Top Ten Reasons Jews Love Pizza. Please send me your own! 1) It unites the major Jewish festivals: Passover (flat bread), Shavuot (dairy) and Sukkot (veggie toppings.) But no fruit, please. Especially pineapple (yechh). 2) Throw in Hanukkah, which also is a time to eat cheese and oil. And even Judah Maccabee likes Greek pizza! 3) Speaking of Passover, Piz-za and Mat-za have the same last name. Both are from the Tza family. 4) And it's made with Matza-rella. 5) Here are the most Jewish pizzas across the US, like Pizza With House Smoked Salmon" from Spago. 6) In Hebrew the words "Pi" and "Tza" can be translated as "out of the mouth." So as we put the pizza in the mouth, it reminds us to focus on the words that come out of it. 7) I grew up on Macabee (with one "c") kosher pizza bagels. Loved 'em. 8) A famous Talmudic rabbi was named Rav Pepe (actually Papa), who made beer! (really!). And the first female rabbi ordained at an American seminary was Rabbi Sally (Priesand). New Haven pre-ordained. 9) Restaurants in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv elevate pizza to the next level with toppings like tangy goat cheese and roasted eggplant. Israel is also where vegans can go to find plenty of pizza options, from the soy cheese option at Domino's to the veggie-licious creations at Tel Aviv's Gusto. But my all time favorite Israeli pizza is still good old Big Apple Pizza in Jerusalem. And the final reason... 10) Pizza is the most popular food in the world. And since we Jews wrote the best selling book in the world, what better way to enjoy an evening at home than by checking out this week's biblical portion while slurping down a hot slice of pizza and then chugging some Rav Papa Beer. And speaking of this week's portion, can you imagine how it must have been when Noah called Sally's from the Ark and ordered 50 million large cheese pies to go? Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Joshua Hammerman