 I've yet to spy with my little eye any crocuses just yet, but I'm ready for Spring! And I'm ready for a rich, full weekend at KSS...  Pumpkin Coconut Curry Bisque! Join us on March 1st! Please RSVP to rabbi@kehillathshalomsynagogue.org by Thursday, so she knows how much soup to make!  Tefilah/Service at 10am. Forum at 11:15am  March 3, 2019 at 9:30 am. Story-Beads will support our exploration of what we long to reveal to the world. (Although a free option is available, a $20 materials fee will give access to the full selection of beads!) All are welcome!  It has come to my attention that I neglected to put an RSVP date on the Gala Jubilee invitations. This is causing a mild panic among the Gala committee. Let's not make the Gala committee panic. You know you're coming to the celebration of our 50th year, so just purchase your tickets today!
Just click the image above and it'll take you right to the page for all your Gala needs! Yours truly, Deb Web Mistress and forgetful invitation maker   This week: This week’s Torah portion, Ki Tissa, begins with an item that is also in our news: the census. Both communities deem it essential to count the population accurately. Why? Read the answer here...  Join us for Torah Study at 10am followed by an opportunity to sing, sit, and find stillness in our Soulful Shabbat Meditation Service at 11:15am - this Saturday, February 23rd, 2019. Hebrew School is still on break as we finish up Winter break. We'll see all our families again next week! And speaking of next week...       BUY YOUR TICKETS HERE TODAY!
This week’s Torah portion, Ki Tissa, begins with an item that is also in our news: the census. Both communities deem it essential to count the population accurately. Why? TheUS census “counts each resident of the country…to determine how to apportion the House of Representatives among the states.” And the Israelites? The great commentator Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (France, 1040-1105) said: “because they were dear to G!d, G!d counts them all the time.” Just imagine if we all felt that about each other.
Rabbi Lina Zerbarini  Tickets are available for the Gala Jubilee!! Click on the picture below to order today!!  And here's what's coming up this weekend and into next week:
Please Note: There will be no Hebrew School February 17th or 24th - Enjoy Winter Break!
 Cultivate peace, gratitude and resilience with
instruction drawing from Jewish traditions and wisdom. Led by Rabbi Lina Zerbarini Kehillath Shalom Synagogue in Cold Spring Harbor 8 Weeks beginning Thursday, February 14 10:00-11:00 am No experience necessary; appropriate for all physical abilities. Open to SYJCC Members, SYJCC Support Group Participants, and Members of Partners in Caring (PIC) Partner Congregations Space is Limited—Registration Required Sign up for one or more weekly sessions at www.syjcc.org   We kicked off our Gala festivities last weekend and revealed our golden 50th anniversary jubilee logo! In the next few weeks, invitations will go out and you'll be able to order tickets right here on the website. But until then, we've got another great weekend at Kehillath Shalom Synagogue!  This week's Torah Portion, Terumah (offering) is Rabbi Lina's favorite portion. Read a little more about it here. Join in the discussion during Torah Study at 10am, Saturday the 9th. Then stay for with us for Worship Service (starting promptly at 11:15!)  Hebrew School is at 9am on Sunday, February 10th. And while Hebrew School is going on, join Rabbi Lina for the next installment of Jewish Spiritual Parenting. Details below.   And join us on Sunday at 2pm for a free showing of A Bag of Marbles. Watch the trailer here. And even though it's not necessarily about the weekend, did you know that if you order through Smile.Amazon.com that KSS gets a small (but not inconsequential) percentage of the sale? It's one of the many ways the Board has been finding to keep KSS financially strong! So place all your orders through the link below, and help keep our shul financially healthy!  (OK, so my little part was only 20 cents but all those $0.20 add up! See! -Deborah)  This week's Torah Portion, Terumah (offering) is my favorite portion. It begins:
"Tell the Israelite people to bring Me gifts; you shall accept gifts for Me from every person whose heart so moves them." Everyone was to bring whatever their hearts desired to build the Tabernacle, which is a metaphor for the world. Each of us has gifts that are essential to the building of a beautiful world. Our job in life is to identify them and give. Another lovely thing - Terumah was the portion of the Shabbat when I visited Kehillath Shalom Synagogue for the first time. Bashert! Rabbi Lina Zerbarini  MOVIES & MUNCHIES Movies and Munchies will be meeting on Wednesday evening, February 20, at 7:30 pm at the home of Lois Hass, 4 Colgate Lane, Woodbury. We will be discussing Nora's Will (Cinco dias sin Nora) directed and written by Mariana Chenillo. The film was the winner of seven Ariel awards (Mexico's top film honors) including "Best Picture of the Year." Nora's Will is both a drama and a comedy. The Los Angeles Times wrote, "This tale of a man's fight against his dead ex-wife's final wishes, set in Mexico's Jewish community, has universal appeal." The struggle in this "poignant and tremendously appealing film" features a man who fights against his dead ex-wife's final wishes and in the process learns more than he anticipates about his family and himself. Watch in your own home (the DVD is available at Nassau and Suffolk libraries) then come together for a great evening of sharing and discussion. RSVP to LoisH4@aol.com, 516-364-0265 or DoloresW324@aol.com, 631-643-2645  Israeli Jewish Renaissance By Rabbi Lina Zerbarini There is something amazing happening in Israel! Over the past 30 years, there has been a sea change in Jewish engagement among “secular” Israelis. Perhaps we might point to the opening of Beit Midrash Elul, 30 years ago this summer, as the moment that started it all. Ruth Calderon and Mordechai Baror, along with some Israeli young people, created a space where Jews from any background could bring themselves to Jewish texts and traditions without feeling pressured to alter their lifestyle. As opposed to studying in an Orthodox yeshiva where adherence to traditional Jewish law is strictly enforced, the idea underlying places like Beit Midrash Elul was that secular Jews could engage with Jewish texts without changing who they were and reclaim and recreate a secular, Israeli, and Jewish identity. Today, 30 years later, there are dozens of secular centers of Jewish learning and more than 300 pluralistic organizations focusing on social and religious liberalization in Israel. This beginning launched what is known as the “Jewish Renaissance in Israel.” This movement has had an impact on every facet of Israeli life: culture, education, and civic life. Even the Kibbutz movement has embraced this direction! Batei Midrash (houses of study) are perhaps the driving force of the renaissance. The learning and immersive experiences transform students’ lives, creating impact well beyond the walls of the institution. With tens of thousands of alumni, experience touches not only the students, but their communities. These students have gone on to build communities and organizations that engage Jewish culture on their own terms. The batei midrash or yeshivot (they call themselves by different names) may have begun with a focus on textual learning, but most now take the text and bring it to other arenas. Beit Midrash Elul has an Artists’ Beit Midrash and you may have seen the viral holiday music videos of the Ein Prat Fountainheads. Mashiv HaRuach exposes Israeli artists, writers and poets to Jewish literature and culture, helping to deepen the quality and caliber of art and literature in Israel and religious writers and poets to modern Israeli culture.  Our February 15 Friday Night Forum speaker is Gili Dvash, senior Israeli emissary from the Jewish Agency for Israel to Long Island. Before she came here, she was community coordinator at BINA: The Jewish Movement for Social Change, which runs three Batei Midrash Yisraeli. BINA is an extraordinary place which has been working in partnership with the Reconstructionist movement. BINA: The Jewish Movement for Social Change is the leading movement at the intersection of Jewish pluralism and social action in Israel today. BINA works to strengthen Israel as a democratic, pluralistic and just society through limud (Jewish study), ma’aseh (social action) and kehillah (community-building), emphasizing Jewish culture and values of tikkun olam (repairing the world). BINA builds new Israeli and global Jewish leadership empowered to make change locally and globally. Today BINA runs cultural, social and educational programs that reach more than 35,000 Israelis and individuals from all over the world each year. Gili’s role was to support over one hundred young Israelis engaged in a year of service (shnat sherut) between high school and their army service. These youth study and work in communities all over the country, integrating learning and action. The renaissance has transformed the cultural arena as well. Today, popular music includes ancient religious poetry set to a middle eastern beat. And it has even influenced Israeli graffiti!
Friday nights in the summer find a large crowd at the Port of Tel Aviv for services to welcome Shabbat with Beit Tefilah Israeli. The renaissance has impacted engagement in the world of civics and activism. As mentioned above, beyond being a secular yeshiva, BINA understands itself to be a Jewish Movement for Social Change. Teva Ivri (Jewish Nature) seeks to turn the environmental and social values rooted in the Jewish tradition into the foundational building blocks of Israeli culture and society. And the movement has even impacted politics. The founder of the first Beit Midrash, Ruth Calderon, was elected to the Knesset in 2013 with the Yesh Atid party, and she used her opening speech to the parliament to teach Talmud. Viewed nearly 250,000 times on YouTube, Calderon’s call for a strengthened Israeli-Jewish identity struck a chord among Israelis across many sectors. Please join us on Friday evening, February 15 at 7:30 to learn more about how Jewish learning is transforming Israeli identity. |
