Services

What is a synagogue? What is an “open sanctuary”

We need your voice at tonight’s Kabbalat Shabbat service. Our service will be a creative forum for audience participation, a study session and discussion on Parsha Bo.

In Parsha Bo, Torah describes the release of the Israelites and the mixed multitude which went forth from Egypt.

As part of the theme for this year about the role of the ger in our community, Rabbi Barbara has written a special script for a short skit and provided a handout with texts, definitions, and questions for us to consider in the discussion to follow. We’ll be holding a vibrant and lively conversation about the meaning and purpose of a “sanctuary” for the Israelites and asking ourselves: How we define an “open synagogue”?

Given that our Torah needs to be transported to services, and should not be exposed to humidity and rain, the scroll will not be going out tonight. In addition, Rabbi Barbara will be at home, given that she cannot sing or talk for extended periods just now.

So bring a healthy snack to share, we have challah, wine, and juice, and a community to enjoy it with. We need you to do the talking (and some thinking, too).

See you tonight at 7 at Piedmont Unitarian Universalist Church in Charlotte.

Friday Night Services With Torah Reading from Parsha Bo

The final three plagues descend.  The Israelites are officially named by their oppressor, the pharaoh.  They leave Egypt in haste, a mixed multitude, a people born in the misery of slavery, walking towards freedom, and a future.  Our Torah service this Shabbat will explore that passage through and out of Mitzrayim — literally, “the narrow place.”  Please join us as we journey! Oneg follows services. 

Location: Piedmont Unitarian Universalist Church, 9704 Mallard Creek Road, Charlotte

Time: 7 p.m.

 Service Volunteer Sign-Up

As we said in the SignUpGenius title, “All In!” Any setup/oneg slots left empty through June will be assigned to members. Members are responsible for finding a substitute if conflicts arise.  Save yourself this extra work!  Please sign up for services you know you are attending before SATURDAY, Feb. 23.

You could be here in 2015!  Congregants Enjoying Their Live Auction Win from Last Year’s Dinner, Dancing & Desserts

John and Ginger enjoying their live auction win from the 2014 Dinner Dancing & Desserts gala. Make sure you are there on February 7 to get your bid in.  You can pay for tickets at our website using the Paypal button.  Tickets ($50) include dinner, dancing, desserts, life and silent auction, and an evening of great fun and good company.  All to raise money for Statesville’s Dove House and the Temple Or Olam Religious School —  good causes indeed!

A Special Storytelling Shabbat on January 10!

Our next congregational gathering is SATURDAY, January 10. We will begin at 10 a.m. with a very special service – a storytelling Shabbat led by our Acting Director of Religious Services, Melanie Carty and Jacob Brayton, community actor extraordinaire. Each and every portion of the service will be conveyed through a story. (And there will be a niggun or two to learn, too!)

Oneg brunch will conclude the service, to be followed by Israeli dancing.

Bring a fresh and healthy brunch offering then dance away some of those delicious calories. What could be a better way to start 2015?

Saturday, January 10, at Piedmont.
10:00 am       Lay-led service
11:00 am     Oneg brunch
12:00 pm     Israeli dancing with Penny

January Birthdays: Please also consider a donation in honor or in memory of a loved one!

Donations can be made using our website Paypal button or by sending a check to
Temple Or Olam, Treasurer
PO Box 362
Huntersville, NC 28070-0362

Birthdays for January: Charlotte Miller (1/5)), Leanna Jensen (1/12), Heather Chaitt (1/16).

A Message from the President: 

I just wanted to take a moment to reach out to our TOO congregation on a couple of items. First, I’d like to let everyone know that as we settle in at our new location at PUUC we must take care to follow the communication guidelines we’ve set up. To keep communications clear between our respective congregations we have set up communications as follows: Rabbi to Reverend, President to President and Administrator to Administrator.

So, if you have an idea or project that you think would be a great opportunity to share with our hosts at PUUC please present it to Rabbi, me or Charlotte and we will process it through the appropriate channel.

Second, our congregation values healthy communication.  Please contact me directly with any concerns you might have; my door is always open.  Just email me at president@or-olam.org and I promise to get back to you to arrange a time to talk.  You can also connect with our board members with specific concerns related to their role; their names and contact information are listed below.

• rabbi-thiede@or-olam.org’ [Rabbi Dr. Barbara Thiede]
• templeadmin@or-olam.org’ [Charlotte Miller, Temple Administrator]
• treasurer@or-olam.org’ [Charlotte Miller, Treasurer]
• adult-education@or-olam.org’ [Marilyn Atlas, Director of Adult Education]
• brenda@or-olam.org’ [Brenda Marshall, Board Member, at large]
• caringcommittee@or-olam.org’ [Heather Chait, chair, Caring Committee]
• membership@or-olam.org’ [Michael Filkoff, Membership Director]
• outreach@or-olam.org’ [Alan Coffman, Outreach Director]
• president@or-olam.org’ [Stephen Smith, President]
• religious-services@or-olam.org’ [Melanie Carty, acting Director of Religious Services]
• vicepresident@or-olam.org’ [Charlotte Miller, Vice President]

Happy Secular New Year to all!

Steve Smith, TOO president

Very Special Storytelling Shabbat on January 10 (followed by Israeli dancing)!

First, a correction: Our next congregational gathering is SATURDAY, January 10. We will begin at 10 a.m. with a very special service – a storytelling Shabbat led by our Acting Director of Religious Services, Melanie Carty and Jacob Brayton, community actor extraordinaire. Each and every portion of the service will be conveyed through a story. (And there will be a niggun or two to learn, too!)

Oneg brunch will conclude the service, to be followed by Israeli dancing.

Bring a fresh and healthy brunch offering then dance away some of those delicious calories. What could be a better way to start 2015?

Saturday, January 10, at Piedmont.
10:00 am      Lay-led service
11:00 am       Oneg brunch
12:00 pm      Israeli dancing with Penny

Butterfly Project – Deadline to Join the Trip is January 5!

Our religious school has arranged a special presentation in January at the Jewish Community Center in south Charlotte.   While the younger children attend a separate session, the older children, teens, and adults will take part in a program about tolerance and how not to repeat the prejudicial events of the past. This program allows the students to meet and listen to a Holocaust survivor as he or she tells their story, and to ask appropriate questions. The participants will have an opportunity to learn about a specific Holocaust victim and create a butterfly in that child’s memory. Further, the students will have an opportunity to visit the JCC Butterfly Garden, and then have a group discussion that encourages the building of bridges of communication, understanding and respect for all people.

If you can attend with us on Sunday, January 25, 10-noon, we will be glad to have you. The cost is $5 for teens or adults outside the religious school and carpooling from Advent Lutheran on University Boulevard is available.

Please contact Arlene Filkoff by JANUARY 5 if you want to join us at afilkoff@gmail.com

Thanks for Your Contributions!

December Donations

• Margery and John White in memory of Ellie Joffe and in honor of Rabbi Barbara and Robbin Smith
• Michael and Arlene Filkoff
• Michael Berkowitz
• Ralf and Barbara Thiede
• Doris and Jason Gordon

Wrap Up for Our Religious School

And it came to $1008.57! That’s well over last year’s total from our gift-wrapping fundraising efforts, so please, thank those hardy gift-wrappers when you see them.  They include….

• Preston Berkowitz
• Melanie Carty
• Keri Huneycutt
• Arlene and Michael Filkoff
• Anna and Diego Garcia
• Doris Gordon
• Charlotte Miller
• Marci Mroz
• Steve Smith
• Roslyn Sydney
• Evan VanArsdale

Our latest “wrap-up” at Bass Pro Shops

An intrepid group of hearty TOO souls braved the crowded door of Bass Pro Shops in Concord Mills on Sunday for day two of our wrapping fundraiser. We were constantly busy, wrapping 6 fishing poles, 3 or 4 coolers/live fish keepers, archery sets, lots of blankets, a duck decoy flock, wind chimes, two mountain trail backpacks, and a camping sink among the normal clothes, shoes, mugs, and steering wheels.  All of this was done with great ingenuity as we were out of both small and medium boxes. Grand total for the day of $343.46 to the religious school!

There is still room to join us on Wednesday for the last Christmas shopping day. See the SignUpGenius below for an open slot. You are ultimately working for yourself and the good of Temple Or Olam…and beside that, it’s fun!

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0B48ABA928A1F49-wearewrapping

Dues Due?  Don’t Fall Behind!

Dues payments for the July-Dec. period of 2014-15 are now due. If you need to review your pledges, please email treasurer@or-olam.org.

Eight More Days to Make a Tax Deductible Donation in Honor or Memory of a Loved One

Donations can be made using our website Paypal button or by sending a check to
Temple Or Olam, Treasurer
PO Box 362
Huntersville, NC 28070-0362

Yahrzeits for December:  Belle Wetterhahn, Thomas Jetton, Gertrude Resnick, Dorothy Filkoff, John Jensen (Tom Jensen’s father), Rose Solomon, Beno Chait, Martha Marshall, Dr. Irving Joffe, Mortimer Berkey, and Celia Clark.

Start the New Year in a Community Mood… Storytelling Shabbat and Israeli Dancing to Boot!

After all the holidays are over, we’ll start the New Year with a Shabbat gathering on SATURDAY, January 10. A lay-led, storytelling service at 10 am (with plenty of audience participation) will be followed by oneg brunch and then Israeli dancing.

Bring a fresh and healthy brunch offering then dance away some of those delicious calories. What could be a better way to start 2015?

Saturday, January 20, at Piedmont. Tentative schedule (to be confirmed soon!) below:
10:00 am      Lay-led service
11:00 am     Oneg brunch
12:00 pm     Israeli dancing with Penny

Rachel’s Tomb

This weekend’s parsha begins with the fear of death. Jacob is about to meet his brother Esau after decades of separation. He can expect trouble; he left home, in part, because of Esau’s murderous rage.

There is a near fight-to the death, too. The night before the brothers meet, Jacob battles with a mysterious stranger – angel of God? God, Godself? A man he does not know? The spirit of his brother? The battle goes on through the night – ceasing only at daybreak. Jacob is freed and renamed.

But the cascading encounter with death continues as we read on. Death is no longer threatened, but real. We hear that Rebecca’s nurse has died. Just a few verses later, Rachel dies while giving birth to her second son, Benjamin. Finally, near the close of the parsha, Isaac dies.

Torah records these deaths in different tonalities. Deborah’s death is almost an aside; the fact that she is mentioned is important – the mystery behind why she was important enough to merit mention goes unsolved.

Rachel’s death is a scene of anguish: Her own midwife rejoices and tells her: “Do not fear you will have another son!” But as she breathes her last, she names her son according to his birth: Ben-oni, son of my sorrow. Jacob renames the boy immediately: He called him Benjamin, evoking a wholly different idea. Son, “ben” of days “ Son, of long life “yamin (m).”

Finally, we read of Isaac’s death, a death which brings together his once-warring sons. They bury him together. He is “gathered to his kin.”

So often, it is said, Judaism has little to nothing to say about the process of death or what might come after it. Yet, there is much in our tradition that offers thoughtful comfort. We do not subscribe to a vision of hell awaiting the wicked. We do not espouse eternal torment and everlasting punishment. But what do our traditions imagine?

Inheritance of spirit and soul: We would not say, “may her (his) memory be a blessing” otherwise. But we have traditions in which those who have died communicate with those still living. And there are Jewish ideas around a kind of reincarnation.

Our tradition mostly speaks to what is – what we face, what we must do on this earth, in our time. Yet Judaism does have something to say about birthing death with hope.

And that will be the subject of my sermon tonight. Please join us at Piedmont Unitarian Universalist Church, 9704 Mallard Creek Road at 7 p.m. Oneg follows.