Author: Rabbi Michael Farbman

THE TEMPLE EMANUEL SECOND NIGHT PASSOVER SEDER SATURDAY, APRIL 4TH • 6:15PM

IMG_0131 According to the Jewish tradition one of the greatest mitzvot (commandments) of Passover is to celebrate this ancient biblical holiday with a Seder—a special gathering that brings together our history, heritage and modern observances that are meaningful and relevant to us today. Traditionally, it is the first, second, and last nights of Passover when Jews are getting together to read the Haggadah, perform rituals, sing, have fun, and of course EAT!

You and your family are invited to celebrate the Second Night Passover Seder with Rabbi Farbman and your extended Temple Emanuel family on SATURDAY, APRIL 4th at 6:15pm. Members and non members are welcome! To sign up for the Seder (by March 30th) please follow this link – or simply use the form below. Please do not let the cost of the dinner prevent you and your family from attending the Seder—speak to Rabbi Farbman confidentially.

 

Community Lag B’Omer Celebration!

 Lag Baomer firePlease join us for:

singing, dancing, bonfires, food and fun!

Sunday May 3, 2015

4:00-6:00pm

at

The JCC Campground

360 Amity Road, Woodbridge, CT 06525

(With inclement weather, the event will be held in the JCC auditorium)

 

Free Admission and food available for purchase

 

Participating congregations: Temple Beth Sholom, Congregation B’nai Jacob, Congregation Or Shalom, Temple Emanuel, Mishkan Israel, and BEKI

Please RSVP to Holli Shanbrom with the number of guests attending, by April 26, 2015jcc logo

Connecticut Food Bank Walk – Sunday May 17, 1:00 PM East Rock Park

walk against hunger logoImagine for a moment not knowing where your next meal is coming from.  We at TE can help through participating in the Connecticut Food Bank’s Walk Against Hunger. Sunday, May 17 in East Rock Park, with a meet-up at 12:30. Let’s make this the best year ever and walk together to make a difference in the lives of others. All ages can participate, even pets, so please let me know that you will be a part of the TE team this year, walking with the TE team to combat hunger on a glorious day in May.  Please respond to me, Jackie Koral, and I’ll fill you in on all the details and hopefully, fill you in a TE team shirt.

Ground Breaking Ceremony, March 10, 2015

Ground Breaking March 10, 2015 A brief ground breaking ceremony was held on March 10, 2015, to officially mark the start of construction of the new addition. Rabbi Farbman welcomed the assembled congregants and friends with the words of Psalm 118 and spoke about the importance of sanctifying the moments of transition in Judaism, pointing out that we had to step over the threshold of the wonderful TE sanctuary building to break the ground on the new addition. President of TE, Dr. Melissa Perkal offered the words of thanks to the team that made the day possible: to Bruce Spiewak for his overall overseeing of the construction, to David Pokras who designed the extension and provided all the architectural drawings, to Rise Siegel for her tireless work for this project in all imaginable areas, to Pat Panza, our wonderful contractor and to Dr. Alan Kliger for his leadership in raising funds for the project. Alan thanked all of the TE supporters, who have responded so generously to the wonderful matching grant TE received from the Jewish Foundation of Greater New Haven, and especially acknowledged the presence of Phil Pivawer and Bobbi Miller.

After some picture taking, all assembled proceeded with digging the shovels into the ground! Enjoy a few pictures below.DSC_8093 DSC_8096 DSC_8100 DSC_8101 DSC_8102 DSC_8103 DSC_8104 DSC_8105 DSC_8110

Shehecheyanu, or how to celebrate the moments of transition.

One Campus plansJudaism is all about the sacred time. To be sure, space matters too, but time – now that’s really important. Minutes, days, weeks – all of it matters tremendously – just take a look at the Jewish calendar, its’ beautiful, complicated precision. Just look at how carefully we monitor time – on March 6 Shabbat begins at 5:34 pm and ends on March 7 no earlier than 6:19pm… Does it really matter? Why do we obsess over such seemingly trivial details as minutes of an hour? Does it really matter if our Yom Kippur fast lasts full 25 hours, and do we really need to wait for the three stars to appear at the end? I’d like to suggest that we pay so much attention to those precise minutes not because they matter quite so much, but because they allow us to pay attention to an extremely important moment: that of transition. At the beginning of Shabbat, it is the lighting of candles that allows us to usher Shabbat in, creating an invisible divide between the long week we just had and a very special space in time we call Shabbat, the time of rest, of renewal, of family and friends, a Jewish space in our often very non-Jewish week… Havdalah allows us to mark the transition ‘back’ into the world of daily routine. Every time we mark the arrival of a festival with kiddush we mark that transition from the ordinary to the sanctified – and then back again. Both transitions are special, both are sacred! As I write these words, Temple Emanuel embarks on one of the most ambitious projects in over 50 years of our existence, the biggest such effort in over twenty years: to bring the entire TE community under one roof. We called this project OneCampus. The addition to our sanctuary building will contain 4 classrooms, a library/meeting room and some office space. It will enable us to bring to life our vision of TE members of all ages entering through the same doors to engage in learning, celebrating Shabbat and Festivals, working to make this world a better place through the acts of Tikkun Olam and enjoying all the wonderful things TE has to offer -all under one roof! And so I come back to marking the transitions. On Tuesday, March 10 at 11 am we will hold a ground breaking ceremony, allowing us to mark this moment in time, this moment in the history of our congregation, when we will officially begin to construct this new part of our campus. We will do so with the words of shehecheyanu, thanking God for sustaining our community for over 50 years, and allowing us to reach this very special moment. There will be many more opportunities for us to celebrate this wonderful new stage in our synagogue’s life. There are still plenty of opportunities to get involved in this wonderful project and to support it with your talents, and to donate money to help make it happen. But for now, let us just take this moment in, cherish it, and let the words ring in our ears: ‘Baruch Atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech haOlam, shehecheyanu ve’kiymanu ve’higianu la’zman hazeh’. Blessed are You, Adonai our God, Ruler of the Universe, who has sustained us, and kept us alive and allowed us to get to this very special moment.

Beyond the Shtetl: A Thousand Years of Distinctive Jewish Life in Eastern Europe – TE Scholar in Residence weekend March 20-22.

Friday March 20, 2015

6:00 pm Shabbat dinner (Register here).

*Services 7:30 pm (please note the earlier time!)

Presentation during services     Building a Museum: The Saga of Polish JewryMuseum_of_the_History_of_Polish_Jews_in_Warsaw_011

While many Jews see Poland as a place of tragedy, it was also the center of Ashkenazi Jewish life for 800 years. The newly opened Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw tells a rich story of cultural vitality and resilience. Why is the Museum important and how will it change the way Poles and Jews see their own history and their relations with each other?

Saturday,   March 21, 2015

11:30 Dairy LuncheonRingelblum-archive

12:30   Presentation: Cultural resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto: the Ringelblum  Archive

During World War II Jews resisted not only with guns, but also with pen and paper. Even in the face of death they left “time capsules” full of documents that they buried under the rubble of ghettos and death camps. The Ringelblum archive in the Warsaw Ghetto consists of thousands of buried documents. But of the sixty people who worked on this national mission, only three survived. This will be their story.

 Sunday, March 22, 2015

10:00   Bagels and coffee

10:30   Presentation:  Vilna: the Jerusalem of LithuaniaVilnius synagogue

Vilna, the “Jerusalem of Lithuania” was a very special city. No other Jewish community in Eastern Europe inspired so many poems and stories. Vilna was the home of the great Vilna Gaon, but it also was the birthplace of the Jewish Socialist Bund, as well as the world capital of an imaginary country called “Yiddishland.” Religion and worldliness, Hebrew and Yiddish, tradition and modernity, all came together in this lovely, Jewish city.

 

About our Scholar in Residence

Dr. KassowDr. Samuel Kassow, Charles H. Northam Professor of History at Trinity College, holds a Ph.D. from Princeton University and has lectured and taught in Mexico, Lithuania, Russia, Poland and Israel. He has been a Visiting Professor at Princeton, Harvard, the University of Toronto and the Hebrew University. Since 2008 he has been serving as a consultant to the Museum of the History of Polish Jews which recently opened in Warsaw, Poland.
Professor Kassow is the author of several books including: The Distinctive Life of East European Jewry (2004), Who will Write our History: Emanuel Ringelblum and the Secret Ghetto Archive (2007), which received the Orbis Prize, was a finalist for a National Jewish Book Award and has been translated into seven languages. A child of Holocaust survivors, Professor Kassow was born in a Displaced Persons camp in Germany.

Loving-Kindness

BessingerChesed

“Do justice, love loving-kindness, walk humbly with God”, Micah 6:8

This month’s trait of “loving kindness” describes TE so well that it probably doesn’t need to be improved, but only commented upon. Jewish tradition elevates deeds of loving-kindness to the highest possible rank among the soul traits. While only some problems have solutions, all problems are alleviated by the loving responses of those around us. These recent weeks have shown an out-pouring of chesed from the TE community as we have participated together in many Shivas, fed the hungry at Abraham’s Tent, made scarves for kids in need, and supported each other during the recent flood in the Sanctuary building. Chesed goes beyond merely being nice. It involves acts that sustain one another. In the Jewish view, it isn’t enough to hold warm thoughts in our heart or to wish each other well. We are meant to offer real sustenance to one another. At TE we can do that in innumerable ways: money (have you pledged to One Campus yet?), time (can you help run the Second night sedar dinner?), empathy, service (can you participate in the “Kenyan Make a Kit” for girls on March 1), an open ear (do you want to be on next year’s Board of Directors?), manual assistance (could you provide a ride to Friday services for someone who needs it?), a letter written (can you do some volunteer work in the office?), a call made, or even give blood (have you signed up for the TE Blood Drive on March 12th). For any of these opportunities please get in touch with me or the event leader.

This month remember to seek an opportunity each day to:

  • Show a smile to at least five people that you pass by.
  • Lend an ear to someone that you know could use some company.
  • Make it a point to ask someone how his/her day is going — whether you know that person or not.