From the Rabbi

Or Olam in the Loop – Our Weekly Bulletin on All Things TOO

LoopJust $173 to Go and Three Days Left to Meet TOO’s $1,000 Goal at Relay For Life on April 26th

Please help us meet our goals by making a donation to our community effort at the following link.  Our team name is “Erev Rav.”  Help our volunteers raise money to fight cancer — we  would all like to see that disease eradicated in our lifetimes.

https://secure.acsevents.org/site/UserLogin;jsessionid=8F4031C5DF81693C34A4F6A5325E714F.app365a?NEXTURL=http%3A%2F%2Fmain.acsevents.org%2Fsite%2FTRC%3Ffr_id%3D61011

 

Antisemitism in our Time and the Yom Hashoah Candles

On April 10, a wall of an Odessa Jewish cemetery was defaced with the terrifying statement “Death to the Jews.” On Sunday April 13, antisemitism led to the killing of three innocent human beings visiting Jewish institutions.

Antisemitism is alive.

Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, begins on Sunday at sundown.  Please remember the Yom Hashoah candles mailed or delivered to you and please, honor the memories of the six million by lighting the candle.

The congregation pays to supply these to our members each year but we hope that you will consider making a donation to TOO via our Paypal button or a check sent to the address below to help us defray the costs of supplying these candles.  Please let us know if that donation is in memory or honor of a particular person.  And thank you for helping us finance this project for next year.

We remember.

To make a donation to help defray costs of the yellow Yom Hashoah candle, please use our Paypal button or send a check to:

Treasurer:
Temple Or Olam, Treasurer
PO Box 362
Huntersville, NC 28070-0362

Seven Times Seven: Counting the Omer (and Our Blessings)

Tonight, many Jews begin counting the Omer, the 49 days between Pesach and Shavuot.  Once upon a time, the counting had everything to do with harvesting.  Counting the Omer has come to be a spiritual practice, one that helps us be mindful not only of the transitions of spring to summer, of slavery and bondage in Egypt to revelation at Sinai, but from personal spaces of constriction to places of renewal and peace.

Nowadays, you can find sites that will send you reminders, reflections  and meditations of all kinds for each day (some are listed below).

But here’s a thought:  Remember how we began the year?  With an exploration of the sevens of vows, of abundance, of commitments.  Counting the Omer asks us to count seven times seven…!

Consider taking time each night – alone or with company – and count what you can count on.  A smile from a spouse or family member each day?  The knowledge that you yourself hold something or someone precious?  Maybe you can name a blessing you have received (or one you have given) that day.

Consider counting your seven times seven this year

If you want to learn about counting the Omer, check these handy sites out:

http://www.myjewishlearning.com/holidays/Jewish_Holidays/Passover/In_the_Community/The_Omer/Meaning.shtml

http://www.jewfaq.org/holidayb.htm

There are plenty of sties that will gladly send you email reminders.  One such site can be found here:

http://www.meaningfullife.com/torah/holidays/8b/Your_Guide_to_Personal_Freedom_-_Week_1.php

Feel free to explore on the Internet for others!

 

Food for Thought (for Passover….)

Miriam DancingThe most important part of Passover is something you can do alone or together as a family.  It will not require physical work but spiritual work.  Just take some time to think through some of the implications of the story we tell on Passover.

For example: Consider the four promises of redemption we associate with the four cups of wine at our seder:

  1. I will bring you out; you shall escape the suffering of narrow places.
  2. I will save you from enslavement.
  3. I will deliver you.
  4. I will take you to me; you will be mine.

Then, consider yourself as the agent:

  1. What does it mean to suffer the narrow spaces?  When do we feel constricted?  Is the narrow space within us? When are we sensitive and aware of others’ suffering?  What do we need to be made aware?
  2. Are their limits to saving another?  Are we aware of our own dependencies? If so, why?
  3. What is “deliverance”?   What kind of deliverance could each of us offer?
  4. Can we really take the Other to be ours, or ourselves?

Some food for thought for Passover. Chag sameach!

Four Mitzvot of Purim – Help Feed the Hungry

If you are coming to our Purim Party tomorrow, please remember to bring some canned goods we can donate to the hungry; this has been an Or Olam tradition for many years.  And just as a reminder, here are the four mitzvot of Purim!

  • Megillah Reading – Book of Esther – Traditionally he Megillah is read twice on Purim, once at night and once during the day.
  • Matanot La’evyonim – Gifts to the Poor – Giving to the poor is a mitzvahd at any time, of course. However, the mitzvah to do so on Purim is in addition to the general mitzvah of tzedakah (charity).
  • Mishloach Manot/Shalach Manos – Sending Edible Gifts – (No, Hanukkah isn’t the traditional gift-giving season; Purim is! Send or deliver at least one Mishloach Manot gift containing at least two different types of ready-to-eat food items.
  • Mishteh – Feast – Eat!  The bare minimum requires that washing (netillat yadayim), eating some bread and reciting the Birkat Hamazon , the Grace after Meals.

May happiness and joy increase!!

Yom Kippur White and Your Books of Seven

Dear congregants and guests,

Let’s start with the Books of Seven we handed out at Rosh Hashanah.  Inside you will find some interesting texts for your reading pleasure.  You will also find a mitzvah chart.  Before Yom Kippur, you might want to read through the mitzvot listed there and ask yourselves which you want to study, explore, or add to your practice in the New Year.  Consider having a discussion with family members or friends.  Decide whether you want to make a New Year’s vow to, for example, engage in bikkur cholim, visiting the ill or bal tash-hit, living with environmental consciousness.

And, as we enter the Day of At-One-Ment, feel free to…

  • wear white during Yom Kippur. We dress in the clarity white brings to our spirits as we do the good work of clearing away the dross our souls have collected this past year.
  • bring and wear your tallitot.  Though prayer shawls are only mandated for morning services, Kol Nidre is an exception to that rule.  We wear our prayer shawls for this service to emphasize Yom Kippur’s special holiness.

I look forward to a deeply meaningful Day of Awe with you  all.

Rabbi Barbara

S’lichot – A Service For Forgiveness

An angel has walked through the room
you, near the unopened book,
acquit
me once more.
Paul Celan

S’lichot is a service about acknowledging the things we have lacked during this past year. Patience, perhaps, or  compassion.  Selichot gives us the opportunity to ask others for forgiveness and understanding.  It provides a pathway for reconnecting, for refreshing our commitments and vows. 

Join us for a musical, meditative, adult service this Sunday at 2 p.m.  Let us be malachim for one another — messengers of shalom.

Location: McGill Baptist Church, 5300 Poplar Tent Road, Concord; Time: 2 p.m. 

 

 

Kabbalat Shabbat — A Mixed Multitude

It is one of my favorite verses in Torah: Exodus 12:38.  Many people went along, went up, together with the all the livestock…

The verse says it all — about us, too.  We are a community consisting of a variegated, vibrant, mixed (little) multitude.  When we arrive at Sinai, we stand together because we belong together.

Please join us for Kabbalat Shabbat services tonight.  We have a special treat in store: guest Cantor Michal Rubin will help lead services (hers is a voice you must hear!).  We look forward to seeing you!

Congregational dinner begins at 6 p.m. and services around 7:30.  Please bring two food items and lots of joy to share.  🙂

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Barbara

A Thanks Giving Weekend

Dear Temple Or Olam Congregants and Friends,

What a weekend we have in store!  We’ll begin with tonight’s Kabbalat Shabbat service, where we’ll read from the Weldon Torah for the last time at a regular Shabbat service.  Teens and adults will be chanting tonight.  They will be using a special glass yad gifted to us by Phyllis Herschenfeld, a yad made in Venice, location of Europe’s first Jewish ghetto.

Sunday at 2 p.m. we will be welcoming guests from a number of faith traditions to our program at McGill Baptist Church with nationally known scribe and artist Neil Yerman.

In Deuteronomy 31:19 we read: “So now, write this song for yourselves.” The rabbis concluded from this verse that every Jew is commanded to write a Sefer Torah (Torah Scroll).  At 4 p.m. congregational members will be part of our siyyum, a dedication ceremony for our new Torah.  Part of our celebration will be giving the opportunity to all our congregants to write in our new scroll with Neil — an opportunity not to be missed.

And there’s more cause for thanks: A donor is matching our donations, dollar for dollar to up to $6,000 at Causes.com (see link below) and we are now well past the halfway mark for our goal at the site, which is to raise the moneys needed to purchase the scroll.  As you all know, we have additionally raised money on our own website towards our overall goal.  If you haven’t contributed yet, we ask you to consider doing so at the Causes website in order for us to receive those matching dollars from our generous friend in California! Here’s the link:

http://www.causes.com/actions/1690785

Shabbat Shalom to all — I look forward to a very special thanks-giving weekend with everyone!

Rabbi Barbara

Spreading the word about our Torah is easy – Please, help us do just that!

Here’s the link we have been waiting for:

http://www.or-olam.org/?page_id=17380

It takes a village… or a town… or people all over of good and generous hearts.  We have already raised over $7,000 toward the purchase of our new Torah.

Over $1,000 of the money we’ve raised has come from outside our congregation, from people who believe in our community and want to see it sustained and healthy.

Our new Torah page and home page, so beautifully created by our webmaster Angela Hodges, now features paypal buttons and a short, six-minute video explaining our need.

Please, help us spread the word and email this link to anyone you think might be willing to help.  Post it on your facebook accounts.  Let your friends know that any donation of any amount is gratefully appreciated and tax deductible, too!

Many blessings and many thanks for your help,

Rabbi Barbara

As We Enter the Day of At-One-Ment

Dear congregants and guests,

As we enter the Day of At-One-Ment, feel free to…

• wear white during Yom Kippur. We dress in the clarity white brings to our spirits as we do the good work of clearing away the dross our souls have collected this past year.

• bring and wear your tallitot. Though prayer shawls are mandated for morning services only, Kol Nidre is a single exception to that rule. We wear our prayer shawls for this service to emphasize Yom Kippur’s special holiness.

• bring something to write with! There may be journaling opportunities during services.

I look forward to a deeply meaningful Day of Awe with you all.

Rabbi Barbara