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

Posted by webmaster on December 22, 2014   |   Comments Off on Or Olam in the Loop – Our Weekly Bulletin on All Things TOO

LoopOur 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! presents

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

 

 

Piggy Bank 2Dues 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.

StorytellingStart 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

 

Hanukkah-O-Gram – Seventh Day: Did You Know?

Posted by Rabbi Thiede on December 22, 2014   |   Comments Off on Hanukkah-O-Gram – Seventh Day: Did You Know?

Day 7 HanukkahRabbis Shammai and Hillel, Shammai famously argued about many points of practice, including the lighting of the hanukkiah.  Shammai maintained that we should start with all eight candles and light one candle less each evening to mark the days of Hanukkah left to come. Hillel insisted that we should light an additional candle to symbolize the days already fulfilled as well as increase our experience of holiness and not diminish it.  Looks like Hillel won that one…

Chag Sameach,

Rabbi Barbara

Hanukkah-O-Gram – Sixth Day: Did You Know?

Posted by Rabbi Thiede on December 21, 2014   |   Comments Off on Hanukkah-O-Gram – Sixth Day: Did You Know?

Day 6 HanukkahSome scholars suggest that the reason for an eight-day holiday was less to do with the story of a miracle than the fact that Hanukkah was modeled on Sukkot, which also featured King Solomon’s dedication of the First Temple, recorded in 1 Kings: 8.  The Maccabees could not observe Sukkot while they were fugitives in the mountains of Judea so they made Hanukkah a kind of recompense for the festival they missed.  And it, too, of course, included the (re)dedication of the Temple.

Chag sameach,

Rabbi Barbara

Hannukah-O-Gram – Fifth Day: Did You Know?

Posted by Rabbi Thiede on December 20, 2014   |   Comments Off on Hannukah-O-Gram – Fifth Day: Did You Know?

Day 5 HanukkahMaimonides, the 12th century philosopher and doctor who wrote The Guide for the Perplexed, (also known as the Rambam) claimed that since the Levis were not included in altar offerings, God promised Moses there would be another dedication: Hanukkah!

Chag sameach,

Rabbi Barbara

Hanukkah-O-Gram – Fourth Day: Did You Know?

Posted by Rabbi Thiede on December 19, 2014   |   Comments Off on Hanukkah-O-Gram – Fourth Day: Did You Know?

Day 4 HanukkahOn Shabbat: Light your Hanukkia, then your Shabbat candles. At the end of Shabbat, first make havdalah and then light the hanukkia.  (Though here the rule of two Jews and three opinions applies because some Jews do exactly the opposite and begin with lighting the hanukkia!) In any case, the Rambam (Maimonides), 12th century Jewish philosopher, advises: If you must choose between spending money on Kiddush wine and lights for hanukkia, the latter wins.

Shabbat Shalom and chag sameach!

Rabbi Barbara

Hanukkah-O-Gram – Third Day: Did You Know?

Posted by Rabbi Thiede on December 18, 2014   |   Comments Off on Hanukkah-O-Gram – Third Day: Did You Know?

Day 3 HanukkahThe rabbis advise making sure that your mezuzah is the right when you enter a home but that your hanukkiah is on the left side.  Why?  A door serves for entry and departure.  One’s hanukkiah is to the right on the way of departure.  May light be shed upon us  as we go “outside” to join the nations.

Chag sameach!

Rabbi Barbara

Hanukkah-O-Gram – Second Day: Did You Know?

Posted by Rabbi Thiede on December 17, 2014   |   Comments Off on Hanukkah-O-Gram – Second Day: Did You Know?

Day 2 HanukkahIt is customary among the Sephardi communities in Yerushalayim (Jerusalem) to arrange joint meals during Hanukkah. Friends who quarreled during the year are reconciled.

Chag Sameach!

Rabbi Barbara

Hanukkah-O-Gram – First Day: Did You Know?

Posted by Rabbi Thiede on December 16, 2014   |   Comments Off on Hanukkah-O-Gram – First Day: Did You Know?

Day 1 HanukkahDid you know? (Day 1!)

Hanukkah is celebrated on the 25th of Kislev. The twenty-fifth word of the Torah is ohr (light) and the twenty-fifth place of encampment in the wilderness journey was Hasmoneh. The Hasmonean family led the rebellion against the Syrian king, Antiochus, who prohibited Jewish practice.

Click here for instructions for lighting your Hanukkiah.

Chag sameach!

Rabbi Barbara

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

Posted by webmaster on December 15, 2014   |   Comments Off on Or Olam in the Loop – Our Weekly Bulletin on All Things TOO

LoopTime-Sensitive!

Our religious school is providing Hanukkah cheer at the Carillon Assisted Living Center in Harrisburg on Saturday morning before the Hanukkah party. If you would like to join us, please email Keri Huneycutt at kerihuneycutt@yahoo.com by tomorrow. The party is 10-12, Saturday, 12/20, 6200 Roberta Road, Harrisburg, NC 28075.

Time Left

The Serenity House end-of-life facility in Huntersville is looking for a hanukkiah (menorah) to have for the holidays. If you have an extra they can borrow, please contact the house directly or email the volunteer coordinator
laura@carolinacomfortcoalition.org.

Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah!
Hanukkiahs

Our Hanukkah party is Saturday! A SignUpGenius has gone out for attendance, food, assistance, and comedy talents. Please answer promptly. If you cannot attend, please reply in the comment section.

We’ll be partying down with Piedmont Unitarian Universalist Church in Charlotte for an afternoon and evening of revelry. We’ll begin with Israeli dancing and continue with prayers, song, a Chassidic story, a gift exchange with Piedmont UU, a fantastic Hanukkah dinner and a comedy hour to top everything off!
3:30-5:00 Israeli dancing with Penny
5:00-5:30 Short service and storytelling; gift exchange with Piedmont, candle lighting!
5:30-7:00 Great food and lotsa latkes…
7:00-?   Jokes, comedy routines, skits, talent, etc.

Wrap it Up!presents

The next gift-wrapping fundraiser day is Sunday, Dec. 21, 9am to 7pm, at Bass Pro Shop in Concord Mills. There are a few slots left vacant.  A small number of people are filling most of those slots. If you can fill a slot that may be already taken by someone who is there all day, email them and give ‘em a break. There is a SignUpGenius out for this event too.

The Butterfly ProjectButterfly Project

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.

There are 11 slots to be filled to meet the minimum attendance to have the program. 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.

Shabbat-O-Gram – A New Hanukkah Tradition?

Posted by Rabbi Thiede on December 12, 2014   |   Comments Off on Shabbat-O-Gram – A New Hanukkah Tradition?

HanukkiahsHanukkah begins next Tuesday. We’ll light the first candle when it’s dark, anticipating the light that will grow each additional day. We’ll set the hanukkiah in the window, watch the tiny flames reflect across the ledge, out into the dark world, and back towards the cozy warmth of our homes.

We do have prayers we say when we kindle the lights of the hanukkiah, of course. But our modern celebration is mostly around eating food that is extremely tasty (though marginally healthy…), playing the dreidel game with the younger set, and giving presents.

It’s also a perfect time for storytelling, and the one we tell is worthy of a showy Hollywood venue. An autocratic ruler. An unjust persecution. A band of brave resisters who, against all odds, win the day. A tale of oppression transformed, a subject people regaining hope and freedom.

It is a story of courage in the face of cruelty. And miracles, too, of course. God’s eternal light, with only a day’s worth of oil to keep it burning, lasts for eight, until new oil can be found.

Stories can be told in so many ways. Even one word can contain many meanings. Consider the following:

חנה to settle oneself, to rest: Body, making, settling the candles in the Hanukkiah
חֲנֻכָּה dedication, consecration: Heart, forming. Recite the blessings, light the candles.
חנך  to learn, to make experienced: Mind, knowing. What do you see, recall, know, experience in the flickering of the flames?
חֵן  grace: Emanation, being. What is the revelation to be found in the light of the candles?

This year, consider trying out a new Hanukkah tradition. Light candles, settle down with family and friends, and ask: What do each of the words embedded in Hanukkah mean to us?

Consider what they ask us to do: Rest, dedicate ourselves anew, learn, give and receive grace. All beautiful, all worthy of our time and effort.

Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach!

Rabbi Barbara