Available - Congregation Shaareth Israel

Temple Times
March 2015
Congregation Shaareth Israel
Lubbock, TX
Congregation Shaareth Israel is a vibrant center of Jewish life, which recognizes our rich
heritage as a Jewish Community, and strives to maintain and enrich Jewish life on the South
Plains through meaningful educational, spiritual, social, cultural and worship experiences.
Rabbinic Reflections:
Friday March 6th A Super
Hero Purim!
It almost seems
like Purim’s riotous energy
invites us
to shake out all of winter’s confinements locked up in
our body.
Lex Luthor, Superman, Wonder
Woman, Batman, Robin, Joker,
Green Goblin, Cat Woman, Green
Lantern Come to Lubbock!
Better able
to truly embrace Nisan.
Please come in costume!
6:15 pm Service
6:45 pm Dinner followed by Purim
Shpiel!
Bring your side-dish! and….get
ready to celebrate!
So that on that 14th day
on the full moon,
more of ourselves will be there.
*Please RSVP! Folks who ‘arrive’ without
calling us leave us in a situation where we
may not have enough food for everyone
To enter our story,
To travel through the mythic cycle of Pesach.
RSVP to Fela Shturman
shturman@sbcglobal.net
So we’ll be better able
to descend into slavery,
feel it in our bones.
by Wednesday March 4th
Dinner: $5.00 per adult, $2.00 per child
“Get it out of your system,” as my mother would say.
Let it loose.
So on the other side, we can be lighter.
And then,
re-experience
the heady gift.
A Yom HaShoah Invitation
If you’d like to see moving paintings
of a French artist, survivor of the Shoah,
interpreting pieces from Torah, Writings, and verses
of the Psalms.
I’d be happy to share a very special collection.
If we’ve 10 people who RSVP, (5 of whom are
members) I’ll create a power-point of these works.
RSVP by March 15th
(See article with more information in bulletin)
Of being free.
But seder doesn’t end there.
It continues.
Taking us on another imaginary journey.
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Community
March Yahrtzeits
Zichronam Livracha
May their Memories
be for blessings
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Ida Wertheimer Sanger
10 Adar Bertha Feldman Moss
Nathan Shine
Ethel Balkan
Sandra Diane Skibell
Stella Shine Laing
Daniel Inselberg
15 Adar Morris Eisenbaum
15 Adar Shifra Freytag
15 Adar Elizabeth J. Winer
16 Adar Josef Schloss
17 Adar Rebeca Zychlinski
Jake Luskey
Gloria Wolfenson
20 Adar Molly Nussbaum
Helen Shapiro
June Meyerson Rothstein
Bill Green
William E. Calfin
Jean Koppel
24 Adar Bertha Gusikoff Kramer
Abraham Yitzhak Perlman
Max Stettner
Anna Bess Calfin
Bernard Skibell
Larry Alan Marks
Sol Kronick
Leon G. Schwartz
Alvin Goldstucker
Alexander Carson
Joe Kronick
Stefan Strauss
Bella Schloss
Margit Schloss
Phyllis Specter
Annie Luger
Rabbi Alexander S. Kline
Frank Phillip Eskin
Donations
Shabbat Services,
Thank you to all our donors for
your continued support.
GENERAL FUND
Our members are invited to
reserve a date to
Host an Oneg Shabbat!
• Venita Gross
• Don Paul Appling
Please contact
Charles Skibell to reserve
your Oneg. Call them to set
up arrangements.
BUILDING FUND
• Lisa and Joey Beason in
memory of Scott Beason, Sr.
and Scott Beason, Jr.
FRANCES
FUND
Sherril and
GLASSMAN
MEMORIAL
• Dorothy Chansky and Terry
Bennett in memory of Edna
Agranovitch Chansky
6th Shabbat/Purim Dinner 6:45
Parsha: Ki Tisa 6:15 pm
(Exo. 30:11-Exo. 34:45)
13th Parsha: Vayakhel-Pekudei
7:30 pm
(Exo. 35:1-Exo. 40:38)
20th Parsha: Vayikra 7:30 pm
(Lev. 1:1-Lev. 5:26)
27th Parsha: Tzav 7:30 pm
(Lev. 6:1-Lev. 8:36)
April 3rd: Services Cancelled to
allow you to enjoy the 1st Seder
at home with your families!
If you’d like to sponsor an
oneg:
Contact:
Contact Info for Members:
Synagogue: 794-7517
Rabbi Hollander:
email her at
Vicki.Hollander@gmail.com please
visit at www.vickihollander.com
-March
Sherril and Charles Skibell
-April
Monty Strauss and Jane Winer
Urgent Matters:
please contact Neil Kurtzman
at neil.kurtzman@gmail.com,
or Rabbi Hollander.
Bulletin Submissions
News, reports, information, etc.
can be submitted to the bulletin
editor.
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Corner
Shabbat Service Info:
March 6th Service, CSI’s
PURIM Celebration! Rabbi
Vicki
15th of Adar, Ki Tissa (See front
page for details)
March 13th Service, 7:30 pm,
Lay-led
22nd of Adar, VaYakheil-P’kudei,
Shabbat Parah, Shabbat Mevarchim Chazak, Chazak, Ending the
book of Exodus
March 20th Service, 7:30 pm,
Lay-led
29th of Adar, Rosh Chodesh Nisan
begins with Shabbas
Opening a new book of
Torah-VaYikrah
Todah Rabbah, our heartfelt thanks to:
• Sandra and Neil Kurtzman for hosting-coordinating February’s
onegs!
• Amie Duemer, for cleaning up and putting away all our Chanuka
decorations.
• Fela Shturman and all who helped create the oneg for Second
Baptist Church's visit.
We send our heartfelt condolences to:
• Jordan, Colleen, Daniel, Stephen, and MIchael Berg on the
death of their father and grandfather, Dr. Perry Berg,
and send our deep sorrow to their entire family.
Alav HaShalom, May he know peace. Our hearts are with you.
March 27th Service, 7:30 pm,
Rabbi Vicki
7th of Nisan, Shabbat HaGadol
Andrew and Jennifer’s Aufruf and
wedding blessings!
(See Torah discussions in
Bulletin!)
March 31st-April 3rd: Rabbi Vicki will be on break,
as her daughter and son-in-law are visiting, so will not be
rd
April 3 -No Service-First Seder available!
of Pesach
In case of emergency please call our President, Neil Kurtzman!
14th of Nisan
Remember to Check our
CSI website for the
calendar at csitemple.org:
It’s now being updated
regularly!
Remember: In Case of Bad Weather:
Should we have intense or threatening weather and you are unsure of
whether synagogue will be open: Before you leave home:
Call the synagogue’s answering machine: 806-794-7517: if services,
religious school or meetings are cancelled we’ll put a message on the
answering machine
at least an hour before the event
Check your e-mails before you leave: we’ll send round notice in case of
cancellation
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To ready for Pesach: Two writings:
Pesach Resources: if you need-want
treasures: email me!
Demand it Courageously
by Julia Hartwig
Make some room for yourself, human animal.
Even a dog jostles about on his master’s lap to
improve his position. And when he needs space he
runs forward, without paying attention to commands
or calls.
If you didn’t manage to receive freedom as a gift,
demand it as courageously as bread and meat.
Make some room for yourself, human pride and
dignity.
The Czech writer Hrabal said:
I have as much freedom as I take.
(Writers Almanac, March 24, 2013)
******************
…And this very Haggadah whispers,
“Join us… you’re welcome here… you belong,
among my pages full of smoke and blood,
among the great and ancient tales I tell.”
So I know the sea was not split in vain,
deserts not crossed in vain –
if at the end of the story stand Daddy and the Kid
looking forward and knowing their turn will come.
(from Nathan Alterman, “The Kid of the Haggadah,”
translated by Arthur J. Waskow and Judy Spelman,
found on p. 85 of the CCAR Haggadah edited by
Herbert Bronstein, 1975)
*Organizing lists of things to ready for a home seder
*Seder questions-things to talk about at your seder
*Article: by Dr. Michael Cook, “Maundy (Holy) Thursday-Can we right what’s wrong with Church “Seders”
*”Twas the Night After Seder” poem
* Recipe for Charimsel!
*Article from Moment magazine-Anthony Burgess “The
Return of Moses to Egypt, Passover”- a beautiful telling
*A spiritual hagada, I wrote and useJ my current edition
*And more!
Refuah Shleimah:
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Arnold Loewy
Sheila Garos
Terry Bennett
Robert Skibell
Tova Marks
Jennifer Brock’s father, Michael
Weitman
Gwen Meyer, Jonathan’s mother
Allison Burrell
Robert Cook
Religious School
Corner:
CSI Men’s lunch: Thursday
March 5th
Sunday
March 1st, 8th, and
29th 10:00 am
Wild Burger Grille 11:45 am
March 15th and
22nd No RS, Spring Break
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To imagine
the whole world
being freed.
Turning Torah: Classic tales-classic
questions with new twists for our lives!
A time of story: March 6th Purim!
This cycle
of moving through time and space
backward, present, and forward.
Is oft repeated
in Jewish ritual,
in Jewish prayer.
Each year we go back again to tell the tale of Jews
living in the Diaspora.
The tale of life’s twists and turns, heroes, villains,
surprises, terror, redemption.
We get in costumes.
Hold graegers.
Play, honor the wildness,
the sweeps of life.
The story is age-old.
And still new. Ours.
This year we travel to a world largely created by
Jews
the world, of Super heroes.
And tell our life story yet again
We are Time travelers.
And thus
cultivated rich imaginations.
Evoking ancestral-mythic memories,
imagining the world whole,
and then,
going out ‘to do.’
A time of conversation: March 27th
Rabbi Tarfon taught: “It is not your responsibility to
finish the work (of perfecting the world), but neither
are you free to desist from it.
Mishnah, Pirkei Avot (2:16)
On this shabbas preceding Pesach-Shabbat
HaGadol, The Great Sabbath
Our parasha, Tzav, housed in the Book of
Leviticus, is filled with directions for the
priests.
To a sweet Purim and a rich readying for Pesach!!
warmly,
Rabbi Vicki
It tells of the numerous types of offerings…
one to let go completely of that which creates
struggle, one to release guilt, one to offer thanks,
one to reach for peace.
This is followed with the details of the priests
readying for their dedication
to enter priestly service.
Aufruf at CSI!! Come Celebrate!
Mesamach Chatan V’Kallah-How lucky
we are to observe the mitzvah of
enabling a bride and groom to rejoice!
Tucked in the very beginning of the parasha
are a few terse lines, Leviticus 6: 3-4:
The priest shall dress in linen raiment, with linen
breeches next to his body;
and he shall take up the ashes to which the fire has
reduced the burnt offering on the altar and place
them beside the altar.
He shall then take off his vestments and put on other
vestments, and
carry the ashes outside the camp to a pure place.
As Andrew Friedman and Jennifer Mirll
celebrate their forthcoming wedding!
The Aufruf will be on March 27th,
Friday eve at our 7:30 pm service.
Andrew will receive an Aliyah to Torah
And Andrew and Jennifer will receive a
special blessing for their wedding!
We shall talk about :
Why a ritual for ‘taking out the trash?’
What does this teach us?
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Yom HaShoah invitation:
One Artist speaks through Biblical paintings
Voice of Soul
In my student pulpit in St. Catherine’s Ontario back in 1978-79, lived a woman born in Paris, whose family
was a patron of the arts.
One of their patrons was a Jewish artist, named Benn.
(Ben Zion Rabinovitsh).
When I stayed with her family she showed me colored slides of his work.
Their color, forms were very moving.
I asked if I might have copies of them for teaching. And she contacted his family in Paris and received permission. I was around 25 years old at that time.
Eva remembered as a child, going to his gallery in Paris. He was well known in Paris art circles for his painting of flowers.
But then she would walk into a room, apart, that was only special admittance, where he kept his biblical paintings.
His hope was that one day they would have a special museum for these works.
Some are housed now in the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC.
In cleaning my files, I came upon these slides again.
And I went online to read more of his story.
The paintings are of Biblical verses, verses from the Psalms, and one from Isaiah.
I didn’t realize until this year, that he painted these after his survival of the Shoah.
And seeing them again, knowing his context, brings even more power and poignancy to the verses he chose,
his colors used, his work.
Stunning and very moving.
How verses from Tanack spoke to him, and through his art and history,
continue to speak to us.
I am one of the few to have entrusted some works of his collection.
If there are ten people, 5 of whom are members of the congregation,
who would gather on Yom HaShoah,
I will create a power-point of his paintings.
It would be an honor to share them with you. It’s a very special opportunity.
Please RSVP to me by March 15th so I’ll have time to work on changing these slides into a power-point
showing.
This will be followed by a brief evening service to mark Yom HaShoah.
I’d prefer to mark Yom HaShoah, on Wednesday eve, April 15th when it will be observed by Jews all
around the world.
If however, Sunday eve April 12th more people would be available we will mark this then.
Please RSVP which date you’d be available.
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Congregation Shaareth Israel
PO Box 93594
Lubbock, TX 79493
(806) 794-7517
www.csitemple.org
Vicki Hollander - Rabbi
Sherman Stein, Nonresident Rabbi Emeritus
Neil Kurtzman, President
Charles Skibell, Vice President
Monty Strauss, Secretary
June Wagner, Treasurer
Lisa Beason, Sisterhood President
Jonathan Meyer, Bulletin Editor
March 2015 Calendar at-a-glance
Sun
Mon
1
Tue
2
Wed
3
RS 10:00 am
Minyan, Rabbi
Vicki, 11:30
decorating!
12:00 Purim
Shpiel
Rehearsal!
8
4
Fri
9
10
11
17
18
12
19
24
25
26
29
Save the date:
14
20
27
21
Rosh Chodesh
Nisan
28
Shabbat HaGadol
services 7:30 pm,
Rabbi Vicki
No RS Spring
break
RS 10:00 am
13
Shabbat services
7:30 pm Lay-led.
April Bulletin due
23
7
Shabbat services
7:30 pm Lay-led
No RS Spring
break
22
6
CSI’s Purim
celebration 6:15
service 6:45 dinner
and Sphiel!
Board meeting
7:30 pm
16
Sat
5
RSVP Purim
Dinner to Fela!
Purim begins!
CSI Men’s lunch
11:45 am Wild
Burger Grille
RS 10:00 am
15
Thu
30
31
Apr 1
Apr 2
Apr 3
No Services-First
Night Seder!
Apr 4
1st day of Pesach