Come enjoy a community-wide potluck Shabbat dinner (dairy) with your family and friends! Please follow the link to select the dishes you are bringing and to sign up!
Author: Rabbi Michael Farbman
Tot Shabbat, May 19th at 5:30 followed by TE-wide Potluck Dinner!
Looking for FUN with your little one? Come to the TOT SHABBAT at Temple Emanuel, sing and dance and usher Shabbat in! Perfect for children under 5 and their families and friends.
This fun short celebration will be followed by TE-wide potluck dinner, please follow the link to sign up!
TE Travels: Temple Emanuel goes to Spain – July 30 – Aug 13, 2017
Join Rabbi Farbman as we explore the Jewish (and other) stories of Spain during this exciting Jewish journey. Our expert guide educator, Julian Resnick will bring to life important sites and illuminate their significance while we explore, learn and have so much fun along the way! Registration now open!
TE Men’s Club presents: Caring for the Aging Parent and Caring for the Caregiver. Sunday, April 2 at 3 pm.
This session will address the issues that adult children commonly face when helping to care for an aging parent: memory loss and dementia, trade-offs between safety and independence, planning for difficult medical decisions. The session will also address the need for caregivers to take care of themselves. There will be lots of time for questions and discussion.
The session will be led by Terri Fried, MD. Terri is a Professor at the Yale School of Medicine and co-director of the Yale Pepper Center, an interdisciplinary research program devoted to improving the health and quality of life for older adults. She is an attending physician in geriatrics at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System and has grants from the NIH and the VA to conduct research on advance care planning and on the care of the older adults with multiple medical conditions.
Sunday, April 2nd at 3pm.
Tot Shabbat service, Friday March 24 at 5:30 pm
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!
The Tot Shabbat service on Friday, March 24 at 5:30 pm will be followed by Shabbat dinner (to welcome our Scholar in Residence Dr. Alan Morinis of the Mussar Institute), allowing congregants of all ages to interact and enjoy the meal! We will have some teens to help out during dinner, allowing parents a chance to get to know more adults at TE.
To register for dinner, please follow this link.
Spring is in the air…
Spring is in the air; the month of Adar is here – and it can only mean one thing: Purim is coming! Got your costumes? Ready to party? We got big plans on Sunday morning (March 12), so bring your family and friends! However, Purim is not just for children at TE – the Saturday night (March 11) adult Purim party should be great fun too! And once we are done with Purim, Pesach is just around the corner – with all the excitement of spring cleaning and cooking and, of course, the Seders and family time. Our annual 2nd Night Passover Seder is on April 11th this year – an opportunity to celebrate this special holiday with your extended TE family and friends. Please make sure you sign up in advance!
The TE calendar is filled with exciting opportunities this spring, as in-between the festivals and programs we get to welcome Dr. Alan Morinis to Temple Emanuel as our Scholar in Residence – a true master teacher and an incredible opportunity for all of us to learn more about the Mussar tradition that he teaches so well.
Time flies quickly, and while the High Holy Days are still a long way away (no rush!:), our ritual committee is hard at work, looking for ways to explore Mishkan HaNefesh, the High Holy Day Machzor, published by the Reform movement last year. Two focus group discussions are scheduled in March (Sunday March 5th at 10 am and Tuesday, March 21 at 6:30pm). I strongly encourage you to attend one of them and get involved in this important conversation.
It is fun to plan ahead and look forward to whatever is the next big event or occasion. But as we plan for the future, let’s all find some time to appreciate the wonderful present. See you soon, I hope – at a regular shabbat service, Hebrew school, or committee meeting!
Change, Commitment & Continuity—A Tale in Three Parts. Part 2.
Change: There could be little doubt that we are in a time of change (no matter what your political sentiment) and that change can be unsettling. I find that when things are very far out of my control or are difficult or troubling that by acting on a very small, local level it is possible to affect change and feel better about the world. Temple Emanuel has many ways for you to be involved in improving the world on a local level, and it can start with tzedakah.
Commitment: The Jewish ideals of tzedakah were summarized and taught by Moses Maimonides, a great teacher who lived in Spain during the 12th century CE. Maimonides believed that tzedakah is like a ladder with eight rungs; each successive rung represents a higher form of giving. They are:
- The person who gives reluctantly and with regret.
- The person who gives graciously, but less than one should.
- The person who gives what one should, but only after being asked.
- The person who gives before being asked.
- The person who gives without knowing to whom he or she gives, although the recipient knows the identity of the donor.
- The person who gives without making his or her identity known.
- The person who gives without knowing to whom he or she gives. The recipient does not know from whom he or she receives.
- The person who helps another to become self-supporting by a gift or a loan or by finding employment for the recipient.
Continuity: For Jews, the Talmud instructs that assisting the poor is not an act of grace on the part of the donor, but a duty. We are all obligated to give (even if we receive). So where will you help – with toiletries and diaper bank donations that the Men’s Club is organizing, with Abraham’s Tent that TE is participating in, with money or a job for one of our JCARR families that we are helping to resettle? Please reach out and continue to make the change in the world that you want to see.
Temple Emanuel’s Megilla reading and Adult Purim Karaoke Party – Saturday, March 11 at 7 pm
A fun Megillah Reading and celebration of Purim open to everyone, followed by an exclusive adults-only Purim party (21+ and ticket required) – Wear your Purim costumes!
Register for the party in advance – $18 per person. Tickets at the door will be available for $20 per person, so don’t delay – register today!
2nd Night Passover Seder 5777 at TE – Tuesday, April 11 at 6:30 pm
You and your family are invited to celebrate the 2nd Night Passover Seder with Rabbi Farbman and your extended Temple Emanuel Family! Tuesday APRIL 11 @ 6:30 PM
Members & Non-Members Welcome!
Please register by April 3 – we will not be able to accept any reservations after that date!
Please do not let the cost of the dinner prevent you and your family from attending the Seder – speak to Rabbi Farbman confidentially.
***Come Celebrate Purim Family-style in the Most Backwards Way Possible!***
Come one and all! Celebrate Purim Family-style with Temple Emanuel’s Religious School on Sunday, March 12th from 9:30am-12:00pm. We take our commandment to be silly very seriously and intend to have a day filled with hamantaschen, a spiel, a costume parade and a megillah reading. What will be backwards? Come to TE and find out! This event is free and open to all: young and young at heart! For more information, call our office at 203-397-3000 or email school@templeemanuel-gnh.org