Columbus-Jewish? & Einstein on Ebay:Creationism vs. Darwinism

Dear Haverim:


*Tomorrow night, Friday, October 12, please note the later,
8 pm., service start time. My Sermon Topic:

WAS COLUMBUS JEWISH?
In honor of the recently concluded, Columbus Day Holiday, except some kosher Italian-themed desserts at the dessert oneg following services.

*Saturday, October 13, there is a Hebrew School Shabbaton for students (K-Kehilla) and families in the Chapel. There is a PJ Library Shabbat Program (0-5 years old) and families in the Lower Level. My Sermon Topic in the Sanctuary is:

Genesis: Creationists vs. Darwinists & Einstein’s Ebay Letter.

*Notes: Shiva minyanim, Sat. & Sunday nights, 7:30 pm, for Lorraine Miller at the Zayback residence, 12 Perth Drive, Wilmington. No Hebrew School this Sunday, so please attend 9 am. CBS Services to ensure a minyan for congregants saying Kaddish.

Stay informed! Be inspired! Attend Shabbat services at Beth Shalom!

Shabbat shalom!

Rabbi Michael

Ushpizim, Holy Day Services, Funerals, etc.

Dear Haverim:

Moadim l’simcha! Happy Holidays!

*Tonight, 6:30 p.m., Friday, October 5, abridged (aka short) Shabbat services, followed by family-friendly Shabbat-Holiday “Sameach in the Sukkah” Dinner (with pre-arranged reservations).

* Tomorrow, Saturday morning, 9:30 a.m. For little ones:

Fun Time with Ariella in the Rabbi’s Study. Rabbi’s daughter, Ariella, creates interactive Jewish playtime & Shabbat stories in her new initiative to supplement next-week’s PJ Library Event. Stop by.

Sermon Topic: Ushpizim: Who Would YOU Invite into your Sukkah?

Please bring thumb-nail sketches of some of your lesser-known Jewish heroes and take turns being the teacher, along with Rabbi Michael, who will bring in three of his own favorites.

Note: For each night of Sukkah, you are supposed to recite the following formula:

I am honored to welcome into my Sukkah the following honored guests: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, and Sarah, Rebecca, Leah, Rachel, Miriam, Deborah, and Ruth.

(the addition of the famous women is a unique Conservative Movement contribution).

Then, for each night, each biblical “couple” take turns getting their own special greeting. Here is the greeting for this Friday night:

Welcome Aaron, welcome Deborah. You shaped Israel’s history one with words of peace, one with a call to battle. May we have the wisdom always to strive for peace, but never lack the courage to oppose injustice.

*Tomorrow night, Saturday, 7 p.m. Sukkah Home Hospitality. Come usher Shabbat out with a Havdalah, wine, cheese and dessert Celebration at the Beals home, 611 Berwick Road, Edenridge, North Wilmington, co-hosted by Elissa and Rabbi Michael, and Cantor Elisa and Loren (in abstentia). Rabbi Michael will have his guitar on hand to lead you through lots of sing-a-longs. This is a family friendly event.

*Sunday, 9 a.m., Hosahana Raba & Hebrew School Interactive Sukkot Program. Tentative funerals: 1 pm, George Dubin, Jewish Community Cemetery, grave side. 2 pm, Mildred Glass (mother of Mitch Glass), CBS and interment at Har Zion Cemetery. Email to follow to confirm. (Note: tonight light yahrtzeit candle before Yom Tov candles).

*Monday, 9 a.m., Shemini Atzeret (including Yizkor). Office closed.

*Monday, 7 p.m., Simchat Torah family friendly program. Bring a musical instrument and play in our simcha band!

*Tuesday, 9 a.m., Simchat Torah including honoring Kallat Torah Jill Downard and Hatan Bereshit Jay Rappaport, capped off with festive lunch. Office closed. (Note: Shiva for Mildred Glass, 7:30 pm, Glass residence, 902 N. Broom St., Wilmington 19806)

(Next week: 8 p.m. Late Friday night Service: Was Columbus Jewish? And a Salute to Italian Jewry. Saturday morning, PJ Library Shabbat).

Rabbi Michael

Bibi @ the UN, and Haazinu:What You Can @ 120

Dear Friends,

Tonight, services start at 6:30 pm. Sermon Topic: Bibi Netanyahu's UN Address: A Drama Told Through Cartoons

Tomorrow, Shabbat Morning, services start at 9:30 am. Sermon topic: Haazinu: Moses' Swan Song and What You Can Achieve at 120

Monday: Sukkot services 9 a.m.

Tuesday: Sukkot services 9 a.m.

All hol ha mo'ed morning services at CBS and AKSE respectively this week..

Shabbat shalom and chag sameach!

Rabbi Michael

LIVE THIS SUNDAY@9:05 am:WDEL 1150 AM THE RABBI SPEAKS!

Rabbi Michael Beals                                                                                The Rabbi Speaks -September 2012

SUKKOT

 

                Tonight, at sunset, begins the seven day Biblical Pilgrimage Holy Day of Sukkot.  You may know it by its English name, The Feast of Tabernacles.  In Biblical days it was known as “heh hag,” THE Festival.  Now that’s not EXACTLY accurate.  In the days of the Temple in Jerusalem, there were actually THREE pilgrimage festivals or hagim: Pesach or Passover, the early spring harvest, Shavuot, Christians know it as Pentecost, marking the barley harvest in the late spring/early summer, and finally, in the fall, the harvest festival of Sukkot.

            But of the three, God commands the children of Israel on Sukkot to be “ach sameach,” TOTALLY joyous!!  If one were to look at the agricultural underpinnings of these three festivals, only Sukkot, in the fall, has a feeling of complete relief associated with it.  For Passover and Shavuot, there was always a chance that something could go wrong with the crop.  But Sukkot is on the other side of the harvest.  By the time you get to Sukkot in the agricultural calendar, you’ve made it.  There is a collective sigh of relief.    So important is the agricultural underpinning of this holiday and its connection to the Land of Israel, that long ago the rabbis instituted an occasional leap year in the Jewish lunar calendar, to ensure that each of these three agricultural-based holidays would always fall in the correct season, even though there is always some variance between the Hebrew date of the holiday and where it falls on the solar-based Julian calendar which governs our Western society. 

This lack of coordination between the Jewish lunar and secular solar calendars makes it very challenging for parents to explain to public school teachers and administrators, which days our Jewish kids need off. From a non-Jewish point-of-view, every year the Jews are changing the dates of their holidays.  But in the Hebrew lunar calendar, these dates, from Biblical times onward, are always the same: the 1^st and 2^nd days of the Hebrew month Tishrei for Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, the 10^th day of Tishrei for Yom Kippur, our Day of Atonement, the 15^th day of Tishrei for the beginning of Sukkot, the 22^nd day of Tishrei for Shemini Atzeret – the 8^th Day of Assembly, and the 23^rd day of Tishrei for Simchat Torah, the rejoicing of the Torah.

Sukkot is mentioned, either as a place name or as a holiday in every single book of the Torah, except Genesis.  The most complete description of this holy day occurs in the 23^rd chapter of Leviticus, beginning on verse 39.  God says:

“Mark, on the 15^th day of the 7^th month, when you have gathered in the yield of your land, you shall observe the festival of the Lord to last seven days: a complete rest on the first day, and a complete rest on the eighth day.  On the first day you shall take the product of hadar trees, branches of palms trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days.  You shall observe it as a festival of the Lord for seven days in the year; you shall observe it in the seven month as a law for all time, throughout the ages.  You shall live in booths seven days; all citizens in Israel shall live in booths, in order that future generations may know that I made the Israelite people live in booths when I brought them out of the land of Egypt;  I the Lord your God.”

I felt compelled to quote the Biblical passage in its full form because NO other Jewish holiday as so many mitzvot, that is commandments, associated with it.  After coming off of the extreme NON physical, highly spiritual holy day of Yom Kippur, where we fast and remove ourselves from the material world, Sukkot, through its mitzvot, land us slam-bam right in the thick of the material world.  Because of the gratitude nature of this harvest festival, I often think that our Biblically inspired Pilgram founders were actually trying to recreate Sukkot and because they got things going kind of late in the game, ended up with their Sukkot Festival in November. We call it Thanksgiving --  a lovely excuse to eat turkey, gather with friends and family, and most important of all, watch the Macy’s Parade.

Let us returning to the Biblical description of Sukkot.  First, we are supposed to gather four species. “The product from the hadar tree” has been interpreted as the plump, yellow, refreshingly citrusy-smelling, citron-like etrog.

“The branches of palm trees” speak for themselves.  In Hebrew we call it the lulav, which is also the name we give to the three sets of branches bound together.  

“The boughs of the leafy trees” are interpreted as myrtle branches, or in Hebrew, hadas. The largest women’s and Zionist organization in the world is called Hadassah, from the root word, Hadas, named for Queen Esther, whose Hebrew name was Hadassah.  Hadassah is celebrating its 100^th anniversary this year.  The organization is most proud of the medical center in Jerusalem which bears its name, which prides itself on bringing the very finest in medical expertise to the Middle East, serving Palestinians of the West Bank with the same care, love and attention as their Jewish neighbors in Israel.

And finally, the willows of the brook is self explanatory, called aravah in Hebrew.

These four species share in common their need to grow with lots of water to thrive.  By parading around the pulpit in synagogue seven times, with lulav and etrog in hand, and by shaking of them in all six directions, the four cardinal points plus up and down, we are making the theological statement that God is truly everywhere. We are simultaneously beseeching the omnipresent God, to provide enough rain to sustain the land of Israel through the long winter ahead, making next year’s harvest possible.

If you go to religious neighborhoods of New York’s Lower East Side and Brooklyn, today you will see on the streets the faithful and devout taking great pains to visit outside vendors and choose the very best lulavs and etrogs possible.  It is certainly worth seeing these vendors at least once, although it is much more convenient to have your local Delaware synagogue just order a lulav and etrog set for you.

The second part of the commandment involves the building and living in Sukkot for seven days.  Like with so many other Jewish holidays, there is both a historical and spiritual nature to Sukkot, and the dwelling in booths or tabernacles.  First, the Biblical text itself states that we were to dwell in booths to remind us that God caused the Israelites to dwell in booths on their 40-year journey through the wildness, from Egypt to the Holy Land.  That’s the historical underpinning to Sukkah habitation.

On top of that, we have our children help us decorate the Sukkah, where we sit in a temporary, shaky dwelling, appreciating all that God has given us, including the permanence and safety of our sturdy homes which we temporarily abandon.  Excluding rain, traditional Jews spend all their waking and sleeping hours in their backyard Sukkah (Sukkot in Hebrew), while those less daring still take their meals in their Sukkot, and invite friends, family and neighbors over for hospitality.  During the evening, with some imagination, we invite special guests called Ushpizim, including the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, David and Solomon to visit during each of the seven days of Sukkot.  Modern and feminist Jews came up with an equal number of impressive women from Judaism’s past, including the four matriarchs: Sarah, Rebeccah, Rachel, Leah, Mose’s wife Tsiporah, the Judge Deborah, and Queen Esther – we have NO shortage of impressive Jewish women in our history, which is why Jewish women occupy such a place of respect in our tradition.

 

The Sukkah is created according to certain rules: the roof must be composed of organic material and be thick enough by day to allow for shade, yet thin enough at night to allow the stars and moon to be seen through its branches. It must have a minimum of two and a half sides.  I like to decorate my Sukkah with blinking colored lights so when you enter it is like dining inside a Christmas tree.  We also like to string all our High Holy Days as decorations.  The kids have a blast. You are welcome to come and visit our Sukkah at Congregation Beth Shalom during these next seven days.  I’ll keep a look out for you.

Wishing you a chag sameach! A joyous Festival of Tabernacles.  

Would We Kill if They Blasphemed Moses? & Mary M on Papyrus

Dear Haverim,

As we say shalom to summer and hello to the New Year 5773, Shabbat Shuva is a perfect time to return to synagogue for regular Shabbat attendance. In a never-ending effort to keep things interesting for you, I present two sermon topics for your consideration:

*Tonight, Friday, September 21, 6:30 p.m. (happy hour at 6 p.m.). Sermon Topic:

Would We Kill if They Blasphemed Moses?: What ARE Our Sacred Cows?

*Shabbat, Saturday, September 22, 9:30 a.m. Sermon topic:

Come Gather the Women That They May Learn: Mary Magdalene on Papyrus (Deut 31:12)

Stay informed. Be curious. Attend Shabbat Services at Congregation Beth Shalom!

Gemar hatima tova – May you be inscribed in the Book of Life for a healthy and happy New Year.

Rabbi Michael

P.S. See you back in shul on Tuesday night for Kol Nidrei and Wednesday ALL DAY for Yom Kippur. Note: Yom Kippur break scholar: Danielle Rice, CBS Member & Director of the Delaware Art Museum. Neilah: BYOS - Bring Your Own Shofar.

Kaddish for Amb. Stevens & Choose Life: Lose Weight!

Dear Haverim,


Whether you took a Shabbat hiatus or not during the summer, it’s time to come home to Congregation Beth Shalom, and why not experience the intimacy of a Shabbat service before we all come together for High Holy Days, beginning this Sunday evening?

· This Friday, September 14, 8:00 p.m., join us for a Second Friday of the Month Late Service, where we reintroduce all the melodies you grew up with at Beth Shalom (and perhaps a few new ones too). Our Sermon Topic Theme will be:

A Time for Memories,

 and we are indebted to Marv Cytron for his leadership. A CBS Hebrew School-sponsored good ol’ fashion ice cream social will follow. As a united American family we will say Mourner’s Kaddish for Ambassador Chris Stevens, and the other members of the Consulate Staff in Ben Gazi, Libya who lost their lives in the service of our country on September 11th.

· This Saturday, September 15, services begin at 9:30 a.m. My sermon topic will be:

Nitzavim: CHOOSE LIFE! (Lose Weight)

· This Sunday, September 16, no Hebrew School (so please help make a minyan at 9 a.m.). Erev Rosh Hashana services beginning after dinner, at 8 p.m.

Be moved. Be improved. Attend Shabbat services at Beth Shalom.

Shabbat Shalom! L’shana tova!

Rabbi Michael

Free Shabbat Dinner + Peanut's View of Reward & Punishment

Dear Chaverim:


*Friday night, 5:30 p.m. FREE BBQ Shabbos dinner followed by Shabbat Under the Stars, 6:30 p.m., JCC Picnic Grounds, 101 Garden of Eden Way, Talleyville. (No services at 1801 Baynard). Guitar music, sedra scenes. Please bring unaffiliated friends who are shul shopping.

*Saturday morning, 9:30 a.m., at CBS. Amanda and Benjamin Ebner b'nei mitzvah and guest darshanim: "Our Israeli B'nei Mitzvah" plus a little from Rabbi Michael, on

Ki Tavo: A Peanut's View on Reward & Punishment.

*Saturday evening, 8:30 p.m., Selichot: Gateway to High Holy Days. Havdalah, Nasherei, Charlie-Rose'esque Panel Discussion with President Karin Karel, Cantor Elisa and Rabbi Michael hosted by former newscaster Michael Sigman. Topic: Our Vision for CBS. Selichot services to follow.

*Sunday morning, 9 a.m., Open House including start of Hebrew School, Kugelmania, 1:30 p.m. - first-ever joint AKSE-CBS Pre-High Holy Day Cemetery Visit and Program, Jewish Community Cemetery on Foulk Rd.

Be moved. Have fun. Bring in the High Holy Days at CBS.

Shabbat shalom!

Rabbi Michael