Author: Rabbi Michael Farbman

There is a wonderful Chasidic story about a boy who did not know how to pray – so the rabbi advised him to recite the letters of the Hebrew alef bet. When someone protested that this would not help, the rabbi suggested that as long as the boy said the letters and put his heart and his soul in it, then God will surely put the letters in the right order… Our tradition constantly reminds us that we have to try and have both the kavannah, the intention to pray, and the keva, the formal liturgy. We struggle to bring both together, realizing that it is not always possible – and yet we try… In today’s world we also struggle with having the right balance of Hebrew and English, of music and readings, of stories and intellectual lessons. Sometimes the balance comes naturally to us, yet so often we have to make an effort to get it right.

Over the last two years I have heard many stories about various services with Rabbi Jerry at Temple Emanuel – especially from those who grew up in the congregation and attended the family services. As is often the case, there were plenty of adults who made sure they came on Friday of the family service – to hear the story, to see the wonder in the eyes of the children, to experience the joy of Shabbat in a slightly different way. As our school welcomes new young children, as we begin to have babies and young children around once again, the ritual committee has asked me to re-institute the Inter-generational Family Services at Temple Emanuel. This innovative service will be child-centered, and not just child-welcoming (as all TE services are, of course). It will be a little shorter, introduce the ‘visual tefilah’ that we have been using at our Hebrew school with much success, and will contain a story in place of a sermon – but it will also retain the full service structure and allow the mourners to say kaddish at the end. It will begin at 6.30pm, to allow more families with young children to come. To make it easier to remember when this special Shabbat service occurs, it will take place on the first Friday of every month, beginning on January 6, 2012 at 6.30 pm. (This will be the new ‘early service’, the second week of the month will return to the regular 8pm time as of January). If you have young children or grandchildren – this service is for you! I look forward to seeing you and your descendants at least once a month J. If you don’t have little children – please don’t feel that you have to stay away – the young children NEED to see adults praying, and the adults NEED to see the children learn their way around the synagogue.

As you may have noticed, our wonderful new prayerbook, MIshkan Tefilah, has arrived! We have used it for Sukkot and Simchat Torah services, as well as for Shabbat between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur – and now we are ready to start using it on a regular basis. As you may remember from my previous columns, the Mishkan Tefilah is not a replacement for TE ‘blue’ prayerbook, but is a wonderful addition that will enhance our prayer experience alongside our current siddur. After a thoughtful discussion at the recent Ritual Committee meeting, a following schedule has been agreed: on the first and the third Shabbat of the month we will use Mishkan Tefilah, on the second and fourth Shabbat we will use the ‘blue’ TE prayerbook. We will also continue to use the loose-leaf prayerbook for the musical Shabbat services! I suggest that to avoid confusion we will keep the Mishkan Tefilah (MT) prayerbooks on the shelf outside the sanctuary and bring them in for the assigned services, while the ‘blue’ books will remain in the usual place inside the chairs. If you are not too sure what book to use – just ask your neighbor! J Just remember – the book is only there to help us along the journey of prayer, so no matter what book you are holding on any given Shabbat, it is your voices and your prayers that matter the most!

I would like to wish you all a happy and joyous Chanukah and I look forward to celebrating it with you on December 23^rd with our phenomenal Musical Shabbat Chanukah!

If favorite books are like old friends, prayerbooks are like trusted and beloved family members. We turn to them in joy as well as in sorrow, in wonder and in confusion. While holding the prayerbook in our hands, we talk to God, it helps us find the right words when our own words fail us… It bears witness to the passage of time and to the major events in our lives.

Temple Emanuel has its own prayerbook, Seder Tefilot Emanuel. This wonderful and warm book has inspired generations of TE members – and continues to do so! It began as a loose-leaf collection of prayers in the early TE years, then became a ‘Yellow Prayerbook’ and eventually took shape that we know and love some 20 years ago. It has survived two reprints and has served our community as a truly magnificent tool. In the current edition of the ‘blue prayerbook’ as it is affectionately known, there is an introduction from Rabbi Brieger: “As this second printing appears, I suggest to our members that the time is here to begin thinking about what needs to be addressed for a revised second edition of this prayerbook”. These words were written back in April 1998, almost 13 years ago. Rabbi Brieger’s health and transition have prevented us from pursuing this charge. In the meantime, the Reform Movement has produced a new prayerbook – Mishkan Tefilah, a wonderful liturgical collection that reflects very well both the history of our movement and the traditional structure of Jewish liturgy. It addresses many limitations of its predecessor, the Gates of Prayer, that our own ‘blue prayerbook’ sought to address some 20 years ago.

Last year the ritual committee began a difficult task of discussing how to proceed. The love for our current prayerbook is unquestionable and a thought of replacing it is very hard to bear. Yet we cannot deny that the book in its current form urgently needs a serious update… I was asked to help the committee form its opinion of the new prayerbook and we organized an explanatory service with the few copies of Mishkan Tefilah that we have in our library. It was then decided that we should have similar introductory services conducted for the entire congregation, allowing us all to experience the prayerbook that has become a standard among most reform congregations in America, before trying to make a decision on how to proceed.

Camp Eisner is generously lending us enough copies of Mishkan Tefilah this winter. Over the next few months we will have an opportunity to explore this prayerbook. We will get a chance to flip through the pages, to see what it has to offer and to form our own opinions. A picture may be worth a thousand words, how much more so an experience of a ‘real thing’!

The first explanatory service is planned for February 4th, following a shabbat dinner. There will be more such services planned in March and April. I very much hope that you will be able to attend these services and, together with the Ritual Committee, I look forward to hearing your thoughts, feelings and comments. As we embark on this important, yet challenging journey, may we continue to listen to each other with patience and love, to express ourselves and our thoughts with wisdom and care. May we go from strength to strength.

B’shalom,
Rabbi Farbman.

I could not honestly remember if I had ever experienced Chanukah begin on December 1^st – but even if I did, this still feels very ‘early’! As the Jewish calendar tries to balance the lunar and the solar systems of counting months, our festivals travel slightly back and forth. This Hebrew year, 5771 is a leap year, so starting with Purim the festivals will all of a sudden feel ‘later than usual’ – and so the cycle continues. This year’s calendar has provided us all with an incredible opportunity to celebrate Thanksgiving and Chanukah with less than a week between them! In culinary terms, this means that we’ll be going from Turkeys to Latkes in no time at all J. But it is the theme of ‘giving’ that is so naturally included in the Thanksgiving that I wanted to concentrate on in connection with this year’s Chanukah.

A few years ago a new project was instituted by the American Reform Movement – Ner Shel Tzedakah (“candle of righteousness”) is a project in which families and individuals devote the 6th night of Chanukah to learning about the problem of poverty. We are encouraged to donate the value of the gifts (or the gifts themselves) that would otherwise be exchanged on that night to organizations that assist the poor, locally or globally. A special blessing has been created to be used as we light Ner Shel Tzedakah:

Baruch Ata Adonai, Eloheinu Melech Haolam, Asher Kidshanu B’mitzvotav, V’lamdeinu L’Hadlik Ner Shel Tzedakah.

Blessed are You, Eternal, our God, who makes us holy through the performance of Mitzvot, and inspires us to light the Candle of Righteousness.

“As we light this “Ner Shel Tzedakah” tonight, we pray that its light will shine into the dark corners of our world, bringing relief to those suffering from the indignity and pain that accompany poverty. May our act of giving inspire others to join with us in the fight against the scourge of hunger, homelessness, need and want. Together, let us raise our voices to cry out for justice, and may that clarion call burst through the night’s silence and declare that change must come.”

This year, the 6th night of Chanukah falls on Monday, December 6th, 2010. I encourage you strongly to use that night to have a conversation with your children and with each other about poverty and hunger, and what we can do to help alleviate it in this world. At Temple Emanuel we are dedicating the entire Sunday, December 5^th, to a very special inter-generational Chanukah project, organized by our newly re-formed Education Committee. From 9:30 am to 12 noon we are having a morning of learning and then joining with the Hebrew school on a gift giving project. We are partnering this year with Jewish Family Services, ‘r kids Family Center, Fairhaven Community Health Center and Connecticut Junior Republic and after a morning of study (and a little food!) we will be preparing gift baskets to be distributed to various families in need through these organizations (each with a very strong connection to TE community). We will be collecting donations needed on Friday, December 3^rd during our Musical Shabbat Chanukah celebration, but if this Shofar does not reach you in time to participate in this project, I very much hope you will still dedicate one day’s worth of Chanukah gifts to help those in need. By making donations on the sixth (or any other!) night of Chanukah, you will help our candle of righteousness glow brightly for those in need. Don’t let the light go out!