Please Join Us for:
Ready to try something new? Join our informal monthly Shabbat morning minyan to enjoy the majesty of the full Torah service with the haftarah reading! Come experience Shabbat in a different light.
There will be no Shabbat morning minyan service during the summer, it will return in October.
Celebrate Shabbat with the newly elected TE Board and past TE Presidents and Board members! Come enjoy a community-wide Shabbat dinner with your family and friends! Please follow the link to sign up for dinner!
Come celebrate Shabbat with Rabbi Michael in the beautiful TE sanctuary with songs and stories! Perfect for children under 5 and their families. Members and non-members welcome!
In the seven weeks between Pesach and Shavuot, we count the Omer – – each day counting the days with a ritual prayer. The Omer was an ancient measure of grain. In the days of the Temple in Jerusalem, Jews brought a barley offering to the Temple on the second day of Passover. The Torah commands that after that day of offering the grain, “you shall count off seven weeks.” It is interpreted as a period of growth and introspection in preparation for Shavuot.
These seven weeks are a bridge between Pesach, where we retell the Exodus from Egypt, to Shavuot, when we celebrate the giving of the Torah at Sinai. As described by Rabbi Daniel Syme, Jewish mystics see this period as joining the Jewish people’s physical (Pesach) and spiritual (Shavuot) redemption.
I have an easier time thinking about the physical part – – freedom from slavery, freedom from want, and freedom from persecution, that many of us discussed at our Seder tables. In our modern American lives, our constitution says, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
So we believe our right is to pursue happiness. It is clear how we pursue physical happiness: models of the wonderful life abound, from TV ads, to electronic media. What shoes do our superstars wear? What suits do our president and his cabinet buy? Seaside homes, fast cars, vacations abroad.
I understand less well the spiritual part – – our American vision to pursue happiness is different than perhaps a vision to pursue fulfillment. Does happiness include spiritual growth and fulfillment?
One of the meanings of Shavuot is “oaths.” The day God gave us the Torah, God swore eternal devotion to us, and we in turn pledged everlasting loyalty to God. Unlike our constitution’s guarantee to pursue happiness, the Torah commands us to be holy – – to live by God’s laws, and thereby find spiritual fulfillment. If there is a spirit, and developing that spiritual life to fulfillment is spirituality, I find my spiritual life more ephemeral and challenging. I am working to help understand the meaning of my loyalty to God and God’s devotion to me.
In the period between Pesach and Shavuot, connecting the physical to the spiritual, I wish each of you a fulfilling journey.
Some of us may remember the world BEFORE Israel came into being. Some of us remember when Israel became a fragile reality. Many, if not most of today’s Jews live in a world where Israel has always been there. What a powerful statement it is: for nearly two thousand years, for the first time Israel is not just a dream, but also a reality for the majority of Jews living today!
Sure, Israel continues to live in a complex reality and a tough neighborhood, and much as we would like it to be otherwise, its existence continues to be threatened by those seeking to destroy the Jewish state. While it has managed to make peace with most of its immediate neighbors, Iran continues to wage proxy war against Israel from afar. It is also true that Israel continues to struggle with internal complexities: secular vs. religious identity; multiple and varied communities, including Israeli Arabs and other minorities and how they fit into the picture of the Jewish State; pluralism of Jewish religious expression; growing income inequality; social justice, gender equality – these are just the tip of the iceberg, questions that most modern democratic societies need to tackle, as does Israel. And of course, the unresolved complexity of the Palestinian narrative, as well as Israel’s continued presence in the areas of the West Bank that everyone, including the majority of Israelis, would like to see as a peaceful and independent neighbor someday.
Talking about Israel is not easy. It evokes passion in all of us, and we have a variety of different opinions, formed by our personal history and our individual politics. I feel like this year we have made a huge leap forward at Temple Emanuel – with the help of iEngage curriculum we began to learn not just the facts, but also how to engage those facts in an honest way that acknowledges the complexity, while allowing all of us to have and share our personal opinions without insisting that only we know the ultimate truth. Our Scholar in Residence has allowed us to continue the conversations, and I know this is just a beginning. And of course, we look forward to this year’s TE trip to Israel, which will take our learning and our engagement with all of its complexity to a completely new level.
This year we also celebrated Israel at 70 with a wonderful Shabbat service, Israeli dinner, and Israeli dancing – what a wonderful way to round up the special year! Something tells me this will become an annual tradition 🙂
Happy birthday, Israel – chazak chazak, v’nitchazek!
Please join us on Sunday, May 20th at 10:00 am for the Shavuot Morning service. We will celebrate the Festival of Shavuot and the giving and receiving of the Torah with our entire TE community!
Don’t miss this special service, which will also include Yizkor (memorial service). Followed by potluck dairy lunch! Sign up for potluck today!
A special kabbalat Shabbat with TE band, Israeli dancing with Asya Tibi and a special Israeli dinner organized by our very own Rachel Sutin and Iris Back!
Mindfulness & Sound – A Jewish experience program for children! (Parents are also invited to join!)
When: Sunday, April 29th
Where: Temple Emanuel, 150 Derby Ave, Orange, CT 06477
Celebrate Spring with PJ Library and your friends as we listen to our own rhythms and the sounds all around us in new ways. This way of listening (SHMA) embodies the Jewish value of Peleh – Wonder.
Program includes a story, movement and singing.
Preschool: 10:00 – 10:30 am (followed by snack)
Grades K-2: 11:00 – 11:30 am (join us for a quick snack at 10:45)
11:30 – 12:00 noon – You are welcome to stay and experience Temple Emanuel Religious School for the rest of the morning!
Questions? Contact Stacey Battat of PJ Library pjlibrary@jewishnewhaven.org 203-387-24243, ext. 317
or Olga Markus, Temple Emanuel Religious School Director school@tegnh.org 203-397-3000, ext.3
Join the official Temple Emanuel Team for the CT Food Bank Walk Against Hunger on April 29 at 1pm at Lighthouse Point Park, New Haven. You can join the team, walk, or donate to support our efforts here.
Help us reach our Walk Against Hunger fundraising goal of $1000! What an exciting opportunity for us to work together to provide nutritious food to people in need.
Join the Temple Emanuel Team at Lighthouse Point Park to rally in support of the Connecticut Food Bank and its network of local food assistance programs to make a difference in the lives of neighbors in our community facing hunger.
Please consider walking with me or supporting my team. With your help we will be able to make a difference in our local community and in the fight to alleviate hunger. I hope you will encourage your family, friends and coworkers to get involved too!
Why Walk Against Hunger?
More than 400,000 people in Connecticut struggle with hunger. One in six Connecticut children is food insecure. It’s a problem affecting not only our cities, but suburbs and rural communities across the state. This spring, the Walk Against Hunger will bring attention to their challenges and raise funds to put more food on their plates.
More than 650 community based food assistance programs depend on the Connecticut Food Bank as a lifeline to nutritious food. Through this network, the Connecticut Food Bank distributes enough food in the six Connecticut counties they serve to prepare more than 57,000 meals per day.
Walk Against Hunger proceeds expand the capacity of the Connecticut Food Bank to provide nutritious food to people in need. Your support helps the Connecticut Food Bank to supply shelters, soup kitchens and other hunger relief services that provide food to neighbors in your local community and raise community awareness about the problem of hunger and the need to help people right here in Connecticut.
