In this Moment, April 22: End of Pesach, Paschal Goat Nabbed in the Nick of Time on Temple Mount; Is Love the Key to Meaning in Life? Jewish Voters' Priorities

In This Moment

Watch our Zoom Seder (above right), and check out more photos and chat box comments

Happy Pesach and Shabbat Shalom! As we head toward the conclusion of the festival, while services will continue to be presented remotely, primarily on Zoom, we are moving ahead with our long awaited transition back to in-person Shabbat morning services - this week (which also happens to be the 8th day of Passover and Yizkor). We'll be in the sanctuary for Friday night (with guest musician Koby Hayon and Rabbi Ginsburg, who will talk about his recent trip to Spain and Portugal, joining Cantor Kaplan and me) and Shabbat morning - so join us, either in person or online. Given the uptick of the infection rate, we are returning to a recommendation that people wear masks at our services if they are up to date on vaccinations; for others, masks are required. A reminder also that our offices are closed for the 7th day on Friday, and there will be no 1 PM minyan that day. Also, make sure to light your Yom Hashoah yellow candle next week. Holocaust Remembrance Day falls next Wed. evening and Thursday.

A few weeks ago, I speculated that the rare confluence of Passover, Easter and Ramadan might lead to a more peaceful holiday season. Unfortunately that's not been the case in Jerusalem, with provocations by extremists on all sides. But in the midst of the activity on the Temple Mount, there was one moment that I found both unnerving and touching, and maybe a little humorous: seeing the Israeli police confiscate a number of goats that fundamentalist Jews wished to sneak onto the Temple Mount for purposes of a Passover sacrifice. Such sacrifices ended when the temple was destroyed in 70 CE. For the past two thousand years, the vast majority of A-list Torah commentators have expressed relief that the sacrificial system is gone for good. Rav Kook, the first chief rabbi of modern Israel, believed that in the Messianic era, human conduct will have improved to such a degree that animal sacrifices will not be necessary to atone for sins. There will only be non-animal sacrifices to express thanks to God. Incidentally, based on the prophecy of Isaiah (11:6-9), Rav Kook and others believe that the Messianic period will be vegetarian - we will live in complete harmony with nature. (Click here to read the introduction to Rav Kook's "Shabbat ha-Aretz (The Sabbath of the Land) and see an excerpt at the bottom of this Shabbat-O-Gram) Thankfully, for everyone's sake, most especially the goat's, the perpetrators were caught, and one little goat lived to graze another day. But the Temple Mount Faithful are breeding these animals for slaughter, so for them the long term prognosis is not good. Really gets my goat! Our services this weekend, are guaranteed to be 100 percent goat-free! Meanwhile, read this truly great poem by Yehuda Amichai.

Is Love the Answer to the Quest for Meaning in Life? Or Nature? Or Nothing? The Song of Songs is read during Pesach and Ecclesiastes on Sukkot. These exquisite biblical books can be read in tandem, presenting opposite sides of the question of the point or pointlessness of life. Such is the perspective of a an essay on TheTorah.com website. Ecclesiastes claims that everything, even love, is evanescent, while the Song argues that love is the answer, for as the poem states, love is as strong as death. Is the Song an answer to Ecclesiastes? Does spring compensate for autumn? The interplay between the two is striking, and seems intentional. Ecclesiastes claims all is vanity, "Hevel Hevelim," whereas the Song counters by calling itself "Shir Ha-Shirim." The parallelism of this couplet is striking, as if they were meant to be juxtaposed, and they are read exactly half a year apart. What is the key to understanding life? Kohelet's emptiness or Shir ha-Shirim's vision of harmony? Vanity or harmony? Accepting inevitable death, or defying it with the power of love? Or is the answer in fact "none of the above," and that nature is the secret to a meaningful life? On this Earth Day, it's a fitting thought. Walt Whitman wrote in his work, "Specimen Days and Collect," After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, love, and so on—have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear—what remains? Nature remains; to bring out from their torpid recesses, the affinities of a man or woman with the open air, the trees, fields, the changes of seasons—the sun by day and the stars of heaven by night. We will begin from these convictions. I've been reading the book, "The Sunny Nihilist: How a meaningless life can make you truly happy ," by Wendy Syfret. Fun reading to squeeze between hospital visits and funerals. Actually, it is surprisingly upbeat, much like Ecclesiastes. She sides with Walt Whitman, saying, "Like many millennials, I've found that accepting the futility of my small life has deepened my commitment to environmentalism. Understanding that the only constant is Earth itself, I find that its protection becomes more important than any singular interest of mine." It comes down to our recognition of the impermanence of our lives - not only our mortality, but the understanding that within a century or two, all memory of our ever having existed will have vanished, though maybe that is now changing, given the digital footprints we can leave behind. So we look for those things that can extend our existences beyond our little lives, in both directions - deep into the past and far into the future. Communing with nature does that, as does protecting the planet. So, to a degree, does love. Love and legacy go hand in hand - the deeper the love, the stronger the impact, the more it extends beyond ourselves and our little lives. Mitzvot are also an extension of that love - for God, for humanity, for life itself. But is that enough to make life "meaningful"? Ecclesiastes says no. Song of Songs says emphatically, yes! We read in chapter 8:6-7 of Shir ha-Shirim:

On Passover, when hope springs eternal and spring inspires hope eternally, we are inclined to go with the optimism of "Song of Songs." Love does conquer all. Even death. But by October, we'll sink back into Ecclesiastes' creature comforts, enjoying the moment, the fruits of our harvest, everything, including love, while it lasts. Because nothing lasts forever. Either way you look at it, as a "Song of Songs" romantic or an Ecclesiastes cynic, the answer is in our Bible and both of those books are authentically Jewish. The most authentically Jewish answer, in fact, is to shuttle between them both, just as surely as we shuttle between the seasons. Illuminated manuscript above from British Library collection: Initial-word panel Shir (song) inhabited by a bear and a unicorn, 'Duke of Sussex's German Pentateuch', Germany, 14th century (Add MS 15282, f. 296v).

Shocking but not Surprising: Jewish Voters' Priorities

Screen grab of anti-Israel display recorded this week near her Harvard dorm by a grandchild of a TBE member. What issues are Jewish voters prioritizing? The answer given by this recent survey done by the nonpartisan Jewish Electorate Institute is, everything but Israel, which is a remarkable transformation, though a trend that has been accelerating for a long time.

Four percent??? Compare these numbers to prior surveys over the past half century and the difference could not be more dramatic. I first saw this poll being discussed on Israeli television this week (see the screen shot to the left, with Israel and Iran, in enlarged orange and white letters, taking up the last two spots). There was no shortage of hand-wringing on the program, with a the bulk of the blame going to anti-Israel activities on the left. That's much easier to do, I suppose, than to look in the mirror - but the numbers speak for themselves, and they should be alarming, no matter who is at fault. No question that the other issues in this survey are all important. Below you will find these numbers broken down by religious denomination. They show the differences between Reform and Conservative to be nominal, but the gap between the progressive movements and Orthodox to be massive on many issues, including Israel and anti-Semitism. Not especially surprising, but still shocking. But note that even among Orthodox, Israel was preferred as a top-two issue by fewer than one in five (!). Here's the dirty little secret. Given the choices presented here, Israel would not have been one of the two issues I would have chosen. Maybe the problem is not Israel or us, it's that we are facing so many acute crises all at once, and at the moment, Israel appears to face less immediate dangers (or does it?). How often in our history have we confronted, at the same time, a global pandemic, an evil dictator intent on global conquest, and a serious internal threat to democracy, all as the planet simmers? But I am left wondering whether, if other legitimate crises were added to the list - mental health, for instance, or human rights...if there were fifty issues on the list, would Israel still finish at or near the bottom? Where would Israel appear on your list?

Recommended Reading

An Israeli tradition returns - the Ein Gev music festival. After a Covid hiatus, enjoy this 77 year old Passover week excursion down memory lane with some of Israel's finest musicians, singing on the shores of the Kineret. The festival venue is modeled after the music shed in Tanglewood. The 1950 postage stamp above celebrates this festival just two years after Israel's creation. Listen to the first day's concert here. And the second day here. Ein Gev brings back fond memories for our TBE family. Below is a photo of some of the kids from our 2005 Israel group, watching the sunset from the shores of the Sea of Galilee, at Ein Gev, just across the water from Tiberius.

"Leading on Climate: Religious Communities United on Climate Justice." Webinar from 4/11/2022 in partnership with the Archdiocese of Hartford and the Jewish Federation of Greater Hartford. An interfaith panel discussed climate justice as a moral issue that intersects with many other areas of social life, including health, education, and racial equity. Information about the event. I had the honor of being a panelist at this event.

This Sunday morning is our annual World Wide Wrap, where our B'nai mitzvah students learn about the mitzvot of Tallit and Tefillin, followed by a scrumptious breakfast sponsored by our men's club. Click on the left for our fact-filled tefillin sourcebook. And click here for a full-color explanation of how tefillin are made. Missed the Seder because you caught Covid? You weren’t alone. – (The Forward) - Too bad Scott Berlin and Ilana Meier didn't know about our Zoom Seder. They watched "Rugrats Passover" instead! How Do We Celebrate Passover Amid Anti-Semitism? - The Atlantic (Abigail Pogrebin) - I’m struggling this year to reconcile the lessons I’ve taken from the holiday: to help the world, but also to remember how often the world has turned on us. Maybe the seder needs to be a call not only for empathy but also for vigilance. And yet if I reorient my prayers, will the directive I’ve always most valued—to care and to act—be applied chiefly to my family, so that we forget the stranger. 10 things you don’t know about ‘Fauda’ but should - Season 4 is coming soon! How Pious Coders Made Way for the Jewish Calendars (Forward) Omer counting chart (pdf). What are the Sefirot (divine emanations)? (MJL) The Omer: Meaning for Today. COUNTING THE OMER 101: A DEEP DIVE INTO 49 DAYS OF JEWISH WISDOM

Dayenu: Finding Meaning in the Small Things (read at last week's Zoom Seder), written by Rabbi Michael Strassfeld

Shabbat Shalom and Hag Samayach V'Kasher Rabbi Joshua Hammerman

Temple Beth El 350 Roxbury Road Stamford, Connecticut 06902 203-322-6901 | www.tbe.org    A Conservative, Inclusive, Spiritual Community

Shabbat-O-Gram for April 18

Shabbat Shalom and Happy Pesach

Mazal tov to Danny Granowitz and Jennifer Stern, whose ufruf we will be celebrating at services this Shabbat morning. Mazal tov also to Phil and Loralee Granowitz, who will be sponsoring a special Kiddush lunch in honor of Danny and Jen.

I'm pleased to share the wonderful news that our congregation is being honored by the Shelter for the Homeless at its annual dinner on May 14.  We, along with Joan and Fred Weisman, will be award recipients in recognition of the volunteer support we have provided to the homeless of our area on Christmas Eve.  Joan and Fred started this program three decades ago and TBE has been the only synagogue to be full partner in this effort right fro the start.  If you would like to attend the Rays of Hope Gala honoring TBE and Weismans click here.

Please note that for Monday and Tuesday, the final two days of the holiday, the office will be closed and services will take place at 9:30 AM.  Morning minyan will be at 9 on Sunday and return to 7:30 AM after the holiday is over.  Please join us!

A New Song (Again)

On the Intermediate Shabbat of Passover it is customary to recite the Song of Songs, (Shir ha-Shirim), arguably the most passionate and erotic love poetry found in the Bible (OK, it's the ONLY erotic love poetry found in the Bible).  I will be discussing some elements of it at services this Shabbat.  It should be noted that, as graphic as the poem is, it is not remotely porno/graphic.  What's described in such detail are not the mechanics of sex, but rather the longing for deepened relationships. (see more about this here).

The electricity of that poem, the passion, the immediacy, the spontaneity - that is precisely the electricity that is essential for Jewish prayer - and what it lacked in synagogue life for a long time. For a variety of reasons (including fear of dealing with the difficult theological questions of the Holocaust or the pediatric focus of the baby boom), synagogues of the prior generation became museums to ossified forms of Jewish prayer rather than incubators of a revitalized Jewish spirituality. 

For more than a decade, Beth El has been on a journey toward prayer that is joyous, authentic and invigorating.  It is the kind of prayer that allows each of us to suspend our theological uncertainties, to jettison our inhibitions and open ourselves up to one another; to ourselves and to a God we may not fully comprehend.  In doing so, we have become pace setters, much like the congregations described in this important feature story in this month's Hadassah Magazine.

We have been fortunate to have some wonderful cantors over the years and we have learned something new from each of them.  Our four years with Cantor Mordecai have propelled us to a place we wouldn't have dared imagine just a few years before.  Our services have become a model for others to emulate.  Joined this year by Beth Styles, along with David Daniel Klipper and guest musicians, and supported by a grant from a most generous donor, we've reached new musical heights on Friday nights and have begun to explore new ways that our musical vision can spread a message of joy, inclusiveness and love throughout the community and beyond.

So you can imagine that I was as disappointed as anyone when Cantor Mordecai informed us of his decision to depart.  I am grateful to him for all he brought us, for his artistic brilliance, for the mensch that he is and for the friend that he will remain.  I join with all of you in wishing the cantor and his family well as they move on to the next stage of their journey.

And now, joined by our visionary lay leadership, I am fully focused on the next stage of ours. For this vision of vibrancy that was set in motion long ago will continue to be our calling card.  We have no choice but to continue to advance.  As I wrote way back in 2000,  "There is a Darwinian aspect to this that we must understand. That which brings life to our worship will survive, and that which doesn't will not. The psalms themselves are imploring us, 'Shiru L'Adonai, Shir Hadash," "Sing unto Adonai a new song.'"

Our cantorial search committee has been working hard for the past few months andnext Friday night will be presenting a prime candidate, Magda Fishman, to the congregation.  I encourage you to attend.  While I will withhold my personal observations for now, know that any candidate that the committee presents to the congregation must be someone that we feel can take us to the next level, musically and spiritually and must be a "mensch," who can build relationships and really cares about people of all ages; in short, someone who can help us all to sing a new song.

The committee has made it clear from the outset that we will not settle.  And fortunately, our community is one that can attract superb candidates, people who are looking to further our efforts at revitalizing synagogue life.  With our resources, our growing city, our vibrant and caring congregation and our reputation for experimentation and musicality (including the liberal usage of instruments), we are the ideal match for someone like Magda - and indeed we were brought together by professionals in the field who know us, know her and see the potential of an excellent match.  By attending next week, and by responding afterward, you can help us determine our new course as we begin the next stage in our spiritual journey. 

Meanwhile, I invite you to do your own research on the candidate by reading this profile, checking her cantorial website, listening to her music (more here, some classic Israeli songs here, YouTube videos here) and don't miss this Huff Post column.  Please feel free to let me and our committee members know what you are feeling, as we begin this next stage of our spiritual journey together.

The Bullet Meant for Me

What I'm about to confess is something that many Jews have felt this week but few would overtly acknowledge:  When news came down about the victims of Frazier Glenn Miller's rampage in Kansas, I, like many others, wondered about the identity of the dead. As I heard Mindy Corporon, the mother and daughter of two of the victims, speak so movingly of arriving at the scene, it became clear to me from her reaction that the victims were probably not Jewish.  Jews tend to imagine God and respond to sudden tragedy quite differently, though this is by no means a hard and fast rule.

So I breathed a sigh of relief.

It's not something I'm proud of, but it's a natural reaction.  Please don't misunderstand: I am inspired by how the religious communities of Overland Park came together over this horror.  They taught us all a lesson in how to embrace diversity.  And I grieve for the three victims, just as I grieved for all the victims of last year's Boston bombings, the innocents in Syria butchered by Assad, the children of Newtown and the victims of random gun violence on the streets of Chicago. 

The victims in Kansas City were random too.  The killer came for the Jews but he victimized everyone.  Jews are the proverbial canary in the hater's coal mine.  As we've seen this week in Donetsk, Ukraine,  wherever bigotry simmers, it manifests itself most vividly in anti-Semitism.  In an atmosphere where hatred is tolerated and tools of murder distributed freely, ultimately no one is safe.

So why did I breathe that sigh that I'm not very proud of?

Part of it stemmed from the sense that Miller will face his fate knowing that he failed, in the sense that a warped deviant like him would imagine failure (insomuch as I can try to understand what a warped deviant thinks).  He didn't just fail like most terrorists fail, like the Tsernaev brothers failed in their attempt to bring a nation to its knees.  No, he failed because when he came ready for a massacre, his one shot at eternal infamy, he didn't kill a single Jew!  Someday, when he meets Hitler, Stalin and Torquemada in the bowels of hell, they'll just be shaking their heads and muttering, "Frazier, Frazier, Frazier..."

But more than that, my sigh was an instinctive, flinching response, based on the knowledge that his bullet was meant for me.  Not literally, since I live far from Kansas, but when he took aim for one Jew, he was taking aim at all Jews.  He was aiming for me.  In the same way that the killer who randomly shot 46 year old Boris Mizrahi on Monday on a road near Hebron was also aiming for Jews. 

I can't get beyond the thought that he was aiming for me.  In 2014 America, where t0he ADL reports that anti-Semitism in America has declined precipitously - and the shooting did nothing to disprove that - he was looking down the barrel of a gun and wanting to kill me.

The mere fact that the victims were not Jewish points to how integrated American society has become, much to the chagrin of the haters, who are more marginalized than ever as barriers of bigotry continue to crumble.

But as a Jew, I can not escape that visceral feeling that there are people out there, perhaps a billion or two in this world, who want me dead simply because I am a Jew. I'm not sure it's a feeling a Presbyterian can understand.

As a native Bostonian, I cried extra tears for the victims of the Marathon bombings. When the bombings occurred, as the horrible news trickled in on Twitter, I had that terrible, helpless feeling I've had all too often regarding Israel.  I made a pilgrimage to the makeshift memorial on Boylston St.

But I know that the Tsernaevs did not take aim at Martin Richard because he was a Bostonian.   They didn't bother to ask Lu Lingzi if she was American or Chinese. 

On Sunday, Miller allegedly performed his own rudimentary form of selection, asking potential victims "Are you Jewish?" much as the Nazis did, or the terrorists at Entebbe.  So even Bostonians can't understand what it feels like to know that the bullet was intended for me.

It's time for us all to understand what this feels like, and as a Jew, it's my precious obligation to teach the lesson.  And the only way to do that is to understand that, in a broader sense, the Tsernaevs were taking aim at me too.  Not as a Jew, not even as an American, but as a person bent on making our world more loving, as one bent on overcoming the fears that divide us.  As someone wishing to combat fear with faith, and extremism with outreach, Tsernaev, like Miller, was taking aim at me.

Until we can see these affronts as personal attacks, and until we can rally around the victims, all victims, as if they were blood relatives, we will be content to allow these atrocities to pass from memory.   We need to stop future Millers from acquiring the means to lash out with such destructive zeal.  Because the next victim might well be... anyone of us.

My sigh of relief was understandable but premature.  Hate rears its ugly head everywhere; we Jews know that coal mine all too well.  I have that uneasy feeling that it may get worse as people seek Others to attack, anyone who is different.  I fear that we're not in Kansas anymore.

To share this article or view it as a featured op-ed on the Times of Israel site, click here

Shabbat Shalom and Hag Sameach,

Rabbi Joshua Hammerman

Shabbat-O-Gram March 29

  

Click here for an explanation of this Kabbalistic Omer Counting Calendar 

 Source: Velveteen Rabbi blog.  

Shabbat Shalom and Happy Last Half of Passover:

  

Passover Services

Join us for services on Friday night at 7:30 and again on Shabbat morning. we will be in the lobby for both services (in those comfy blue chairs).  On the intermediate Shabbat of the festival, it's customary to read from the Song of Songs, that exquisite bit of biblical erotica.  Here's a background article about the Song and why we read it this week.  

Pesach concludes on Monday and Tuesday mornings with festival services at 9:30 AM(Yizkor's on Tuesday).  Because some of our regulars are away for the holiday, please make a special effort to attend on either or both of these mornings!  It is so appreciated!  There is no 7:30 minyan on those two days.

Special Mitzvah for a Congregant

I'm delighted at the response I received recently when I asked for some help in finding odd jobs for a young congregant struggling to meet rent expenses.  I have one more request, this time on behalf of a congregant in his 60s who recently was required to vacate his apartment through no fault of his own.  Because he is living alone and on a fixed income, housing options are limited.  If anyone in the congregation has a mother-in-law suite, vacant carriage house or something similar that could be rented for below market value, that would be ideal.  I know this person very well and can vouch for his trustworthiness.

A few years ago, during the worst of the economic collapse, I used this space to help match congregants with job opportunities and we also ran a number of seminars.  We serve congregants in need of everything from rides to friendly visitors to baby sitters to shiva meals to hurricane relief.  That's what a congregation does for one another and for its community.  That's what happened once again this week as TBE congregants led a Seder at Atria.  See the photo below and, in the spirit of the holiday, click here for our 2013 Passover album, including our Interfaith Seder and Religious School activity day.  

     

See also Aaron Patashnik's Bar Mitzvah d'var Torah from last Shabbat, and the booklet of source materials from our Interfaith Seder, including quotes from Martin Luther King, Gandhi, Lau Tzu, the Quran, the New Testament and of course, many Jewish sources.  And click here for the study packet on whether it's OK to eat legumes on Passover ("Give Peas a Chance"). It's the most thorough explanation of the issues that you will find. You can read why some of the great rabbis ages gone by thought that avoiding lentils on Passover was "idiotic."  And yet the custom has persisted for 700 years.  And now, the main reason to keep it is that it has been around for 700 years! For some, with a plate full of rice, Passover would simply not be Passover anymore.  

But old traditions sometimes change, as they discussed this week at the Supreme Court...

DOMA and Beyond

In light of yesterday's gripping Supreme Court arguments, I share once again the column I wrote when New York State legalized gay marriage; I make the case for gay marriage as the right Jewish moral choice, even for those who might have issues with homosexuality.  While the article focuses on equal protection within the state, the argument can extend to federal protections as well, as they were doing yesterday at the Supreme Court.

"All Who Are Hungry, Come and Eat" Homelessness in Stamford

Last week I had the chance to meet Jason Shaplan, CEO of Inspirica, which used to be known as St. Lukes Lifeworks.  This non-denominational agency has been doing fabulous work and I saw it in action at their remodeled Franklin St. headquarters. Homelessness is up by 57% in suburban and rural areas over the past three years.  In 2011, more than 16,000 people used Connecticut's homeless shelters, including 2,700 children.  The good news is that Inspirica is doing something about it, helping to break the cycle of poverty, joblessness and homelessness in significant ways.  I plan to bring Jason here in the near future, but in the meantime, go on their website to see how you can volunteer, and let me know how you might wish to organize a group from TBE to volunteer together. 

And speaking of volunteering, thank you to all who contributed 200 bags to the JFS Passover food drive.

Obama's Visit and Anne Frank's Chestnut Tree

It's been a week since President Obama's return from Israel, but it will not soon be forgotten - both the images and the words.   Images like the welcome at the airport, his being serenaded by children singing "Tomorrow" in Hebrew, English and Arabic, the address to Israeli students in Jerusalem, and last but most certainly not least, the speech at Yad Vashem.

Those words spoken there will have a very long shelf life.  If you have not heard or read the President's speech at Yad Vashem, take a few moments to read it.  Here are a few excerpts:

For here we learn that we are never powerless.  In our lives we always have choices.  To succumb to our worst instincts or to summon the better angels of our nature.  To be indifferent to suffering to wherever it may be, whoever it may be visited upon, or to display the empathy that is at the core of our humanity.  We have the choice to acquiesce to evil or make real our solemn vow -- "never again."  We have the choice to ignore what happens to others, or to act on behalf of others and to continually examine in ourselves whatever dark places there may be that might lead to such actions or inactions.  This is our obligation -- not simply to bear witness, but to act....

...Here we pray that we all can be better; that we can all grow, like the sapling near the Children's Memorial -- a sapling from a chestnut tree that Anne Frank could see from her window.  The last time she described it in her diary, she wrote: "Our chestnut tree is in full bloom.  It's covered with leaves and is even more beautiful than last year."  That's a reminder of who we can be.  But we have to work for it.  We have to work for it here in Israel.  We have to work for it in America.  We have to work for it around the world -- to tend the light and the brightness as opposed to our worst instincts.

So may God bless the memory of the millions.  May their souls be bound up in the bond of eternal life.  And may each spring bring a full bloom even more beautiful than the last. 

The story of Anne Frank's chestnut tree is inspiring.  The tree outside her old house in Amsterdam  died recently, but its saplings were harvested and are being planted at sites all over the world, among them 11 sites in the US.  The venues are deeply symbolic; one sapling that will be planted just outside Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., where African American students braved angry mobs in the fall of 1957 to integrate the school.  Boston Common is another site, where American aspirations for liberty first bore fruit.

The closest site to us is at the Liberty Park 9/11 Memorial.  But we at TBE have our own living memorial.  The Holocaust memorial garden planted just outside our sanctuary windows by a group of 7^th graders a half dozen years ago is once again beginning to bloom.  The kids in the photo below are now freshmen in college, but this garden is a reminder of their lasting contribution to the memory of the Holocaust and of their dedication to their synagogue. (Can you recognize who they are? See more photos here). It should be in full flower just in time for the community Yom HaShoah program here next weekend.

  

   

Minyan Mastery

What does the word "daven" mean?  Why do we need ten for a minyan?  With our current emphasis on building up our morning minyan,  here is a link to our "Minyan Mastery" feature, with all the minyan material that's fit to print.

Shabbat Shalom!  A Sweet Pesach!

Rabbi Joshua Hammerman

Check out our Purim photo album, our Temple Rock  album and our fall-winter album too.