The May 2012 Shmoozeletter is posted here. Enjoy! Highlights:
Most of you know that I almost never turn on the tube. But I will this week. Why? Because of Jason Roberts, one of the nicest and most talented musicians I know.
Some of you may remember the amazing way Jason riffed on Adon Olam at his younger brother Benjamin’s bar mitzvah. Catch this: Jason is going on tour with Norah Jones, singer songwriter and winner of a goodly number of Grammy awards.
Jason will be on David Letterman this Wednesday night and on Good Morning America on Thursday morning. That’s why the rabbi is suggesting you turn on your televisions. 🙂
By the by, Benjamin has also given us reason to kvell (anyone surprised?): He was recently nominated for the National Honor Society!
We have so many reasons to be proud, don’t we?
Blessings,
Rabbi Barbara
We’ve had a few questions about our upcoming Kabbalat Shabbat Potluck @ Dorton Park, so in no particular order, here come the answers:
Again, if you’d like to indicate what you’re bringing, it would be appreciated. So far, all we know is that there will be chicken nuggets!
Those of you who attended our congregational Shabbat dinner on February 17th know what a fine experience it was to sit and visit and eat together, to hear fellow members blessing their loved ones, and to participate in a community that is interested in supporting and getting to know one another.
We will be doing something similar during our May 4th Kabbalat Shabbat service which, weather permitting, will be held at Dorton Park, shelter #1. (If it rains, we’ll set up at the church.) We’ll begin the service at the regular time, and Rabbi Barbara will use the time to help teach us about the kind of rituals that are part and parcel of a Friday night home Shabbat. We’ll learn the sequence of opening prayers, we’ll set the table, light the candles, and sing Shalom Aleychem. We’ll bless our partners and children, recite Kiddush, and say the motzi. And then, of course, we’ll eat!
Our dinner will be pot luck, and everyone will need to bring either an entree, side item (vegetable, pasta, etc.), or dessert. There is no official sign-up sheet, so it’s truly going to be luck of the draw! (If you’d like to send a note with what you’re bringing however, it would be appreciated! Email anhodges@yahoo.com.) Challah, wine, and juice will be provided.
After dinner, we’ll sing Shabbat songs and do some fun stuff (like the icebreaker at our last dinner). In essence, we’ll be learning Shabbat home ritual by doing it first in community. . . and we’ll have an amazing time, too!
Kabbalat Shabbat @ Dorton Park shelter #1
May 4th @ 7pm
Bring a dish to share!
I forgot to mention that little fact in my previous post. The exhibit costs us nothing but our time and it is certainly worth that!
Please consider joining us for the Violins of Hope exhibit on April 22. We’ll meet at 2 pm at UNC-Charlotte’s Center City Building (320 E. 9th Street). It offers a great opportunity for fellowship, educational experience and sporting our Temple Or Olam T-shirts…. (and if you don’t have one, feel free to ask Robbin Smith, our treasurer how to acquire one gorgeously Carolina blue Temple T-shirt). 🙂
Rabbi Barbara
Dear All,
I wrote the thesis for my first master’s degree on the Holocaust. I have been teaching courses on the Holocaust and the history of European antisemitism for almost thirty years. I was recently privileged to be a part of the activities around the Violins of Hope exhibit by giving the opening lecture at the UNC-Charlotte exhibit “Spots of Light: To Be a Woman in the Holocaust.”
You all know that remembering, honoring, and acknowledging this history is very important to me. We are lucky to have the chance to remember merely by being together because our own congregation is blessed by the presence of Holocaust survivors Arthur and Ruth Kingberg.
I would very much like you all to invite you all to join with me in visiting the exhibit Violins of Hope at UNC-Charlotte Center City Building Gallery on April 22. The exhibit includes 18 violins that tell stories of the Holocaust – its victims and survivors. We may be making this trip as part of an interfaith experience with members of Davidson College Presbyterian Church.
We will meet at the gallery at 2 pm April 22. Please RSVP to Rabbi.Thiede@or-olam.org by April 18 if you would like to be a part of this amazing trip. Alan Coffman, one of our own, may be working as a docent there that very day!
Chag sameach to all,
Rabbi Barbara
Time: 2 pm
Date: April 22, 2012
Location: UNC-Charlotte Center City Building Gallery, 320 E. 9th Street
Those who were there know we had a gorgeously warm and wonderful seder. We acknowledged our hopes and our dreams, we shredded what needs to be left behind and we shared what we were taking on our journey. We made it through a gorgeous, drifting, waving Sea of Reeds and we entered a sanctuary in the very spirit of fun.
There were gags and laughs and even near-miracles. We got bugged, all right, and hail fell too. There was sudden darkness and, fortunately, great light.
I want to thank all who helped make this year’s seder the extraordinary experience it was: To our cooking team, Judah Malin, Bill Spivock, Angela Hodges, Jessica Waldman, and Alan Coffman — our heartfelt thanks! Thanks to Ruth Kingberg and all other menu contributors.
Thanks also go to Yvette Spivock, Angela Hodges, Ginger Jensen, Robbin Smith, Janet Sternbach, Sabrina Sternbach, Mark Sternbach, Steve Smith, Linda Sands and her wonderful family (Dan and Thea) as well as the Jacobsons, Gordons and Greenwalds for all their hard work decorating, setting up and cleaning up.
The tables and gag items were awesome and the Sea of Reeds absolutely unforgettable!
Thanks also to Richard Jacobson and Angela Hodges for the adorable delivery of this year’s shtick on the story and finally, thanks to all who came, sang, participated, discussed, shared, and helped us have our very best seder ever!
Many blessings and much joy to all.
Rabbi Barbara
Items to bring for our community Seder this April 7 . (PLEASE remember that we will begin our march out of narrow spaces promptly at 5:30!)
1. Your most effective sunglasses.
2. One object you would take with you if you had to leave your home in a hurry.
3. Something you wish you could be free of (overwork? stress? a particular fear?) written down on a sheet of paper.
We will start by ritually separating ourselves from those things away that we wish to be free of. Then we’ll march through the narrow spaces (led by Moses, accompanied by the song, “Pharaoh, Pharaoh”). After making our way through the Reed Sea and through to freedom we will engage in a gloriously fun-filled seder punctuated by more laughter than you can imagine — have we got surprises (and great jokes) in store!
Don’t forget your three items and come prepared for the best ever seder at Temple Or Olam.
If you haven’t let us know you are coming, please do so soon so we have enough food well prepared… info@or-olam.org
The April 2012 Shmoozeletter of Temple Or Olam is on line (click here). Highlights:
Let’s set some records straight. Exodus 13:3 simply tells the Israelites that they may not eat chamatz during Pesach (Passover). Chametz is leaven made from five grains known at the time: chitim (wheat), seorim (barley), kusmin (rice wheat), shibolet shual (millet, oats, or two-rowed barley), and shifon (spelt wheat or oat).
Torah tells us that Jews should not be eating chametz. That’s wheat, barley, rye, oats and spelt if they have been sitting in water for more than 18 minutes. Water exposure for longer than 18 minutes will result in leavening. Some grains are processed using water. If you want to eat oatmeal for breakfast, look for the designation “kosher for Pesach” or “kasher l’pesach” and you should be fine.
But what about kasha or quinoa or rice? What about corn, peas, lentils, and beans?
These items are classed as kitniyot which all Jews can have in the house during the hag (festival) but which Ashkenazi Jews do not eat.
Why? European rabbis may have ruled against eating kitniyot because they are often made into edible items that look like chametz (e.g. cornbread). Another explanation: These items were stored in the same sacks as five grains and rabbis were afraid the one would be contaminated by chametz from the other. And finally, the rabbis worried that if farmers alternated kityinot crops with forbidden chametz grains the two could get mixed together.
But in recent decades, rabbis have questioned Ashkenazi practice in this regard. In 1988, Rabbi David Golinkin noted that the many additional prohibitions observed by Ashkenazim were not that old in the grand scheme of Jewish history. Before the 13th century the Jews of Europe appear to have had no compunction whatsoever about eating kityinot during Pesach. Sephardi and Mizrachi Jews never joined their Ashkenazi brethren in expanding the list of prohibited foods.
Rabbi Golinken noted that the prohibitions detracted from the joy of the holiday by limiting the number of permitted foods. He added that prohibitions against eating kityinot caused exorbitant price rises, that they emphasized the insignificant at the expense of paying attention to the significant (chametz), and that they caused unnecessary divisions between Israel’s different ethnic groups.
Does it make sense to prohibit food items that were entirely unknown in Torah times? Can we imagine the Ancient Israelites worrying about whether they could eat soybeans and sweetcorn? These items were unknown to the medieval authorities some Ashkenazi rabbis claim to be following when they proscribe them from our Pesach diet.
It’s really this simple: Why insist on meaningless restrictions when Torah permits us to eat kityinot?
We don’t.
So if you see kasha or soy or rice at Temple Or Olam’s Passover seder, please be aware that our congregation cares about observing the festival as Torah asks us to. Joyfully. Sanely. Appropriately.
What you won’t see is chametz, because that is what Torah prohibits. No more. No less.
Enjoy the seder!
