Friday, October 31, 2008

TOS eWeekly oct 29, 2008

TOS eWeekly Volume 3 Issue 5 October 29th, 2008 URJ Weekly Torah Portion: http://urj.org/torah/ Parashat Noah Genesis 6:9 - 11:32

In one of the oldest myths of the Hebrew Bible, we learn about Noah being called by God. The Torah says that Noah was righteous and perfect, that he walked with God in a generation that was wicked and violent. God spoke to Noah and told him to build an ark. God told Noah that the world would be flooded and only those on the ark would be saved.

Noah worked on the ark for years. When the time of the Flood came, he brought animals of every kind into the ark as God had told him to do. He brought along his three sons, their wives and his own wife. Noah took along enough food for the trip.

It rained for 40 days and 40 nights. Everything on the earth was drowned. The dove helped Noah find dry land again. God promised never to flood the earth again. The rainbow is the symbol of that promise.

Ten generations after Noah, Avram, the son of Terach, was born.

Did Noah do enough to save those around him? According to the rabbis of the Talmud the answer was a resounding no! Noah only saved his immediate family and the animals that God told him to save. Noah did only what was required of him, nothing more.  What about us?  In our daily lives do we go above and beyond, or do we only do the minimum to get by? 

We, at Ohav Shalom, are blessed that so many of our members go above and beyond to help others on a regular basis.  This is what being part of a covenant community is all about.  May we continue to go from strength to strength; reaching out and caring for each other, and therefore be strengthened. 

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Art Donsky
“A Sweet Shabbat”

Join Rabbi Donsky and our Cantorial Intern, Tifani Katof, for lots of “treats” this Friday evening, October 31st at 7:30 PM.  Of course, you are welcome in all your October 31st finery along with your tastiest treats!

FIRST FRIDAY DINNER November 7th

Please be sure to let Alaine Smith know you are coming for dinner. Dinner at 6:00. Service at 7:00.  Or call her at 412.369-0900 ext. 19

MAZEL TOV!

I am a little late at reporting this, but did you know Alan and Clemmy Brodsky, Temple Ohav Shalom’s 13th member family, recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary??!!!!  Clemmy must have been a child bride! Mazel Tov and best wishes from your temple family!

PRESCHOOL HAPPENINGS

The preschool children took their first field trip to Soergel’s Orchard last week.  The children learned all about apples.  They watched apples being sorted, washed and turned into apple cider.  They had great fun as they would their way through a cornstalk maze and played together on a huge haystack.

Morah Stephanie visited and taught the children songs for Sukkot.  They really enjoy singing and dancing with her as she plays the guitar.  Stephanie comes twice a month for music enrichment with the children.

On October, 29th we will have preschool photos taken during school hours.  In the evening, we are holding our annual “Back to School” night.  The children come with their parents as they show them around the classrooms, view the wonderful artwork and visit with friends and teachers.

Much more to come in November!

Shalom
Liz Sender

RECYCLING AT TOS

Kristi Karsh, of Sukkah Bimah decoration and take down fame, also reminds us that the 6th grade (Kitav Vav) is recycling all your ink cartiridges and cell phones. There is a drop off bin in the education wing. They raise money for Tzedakah by doing this.

In addition, bring your newspapers to the temple for recycling. The bin is on the left side of the Temple. And we will get an easier bin to use when this one is full!

LIFELONG LEARNING

Last week, I had the unique opportunity, along with my colleagues in the Pittsburgh Area Jewish Educators (PAJE) group, to tour the Rauh Jewish Archives at the Senator John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center.  The archives preserve the history of the Jews who settled here, established communities like ours in the North Hills, and helped to build Western Pennsylvania.  Check out the Heinz History Center’s website at http://www.pghhistory.org for more information. 
While there, we were introduced to “The Pittsburgh Jewish Newspaper Project”, a website that has compiled articles and images from The Jewish Criterion (1895-1962), The American Jewish Outlook (1934-1962), and The Jewish Chronicle (1962-Present). It can be found at http://pjn.library.cmu.edu. This project serves as both an online reference source and as a digitized historical documentation of the Jewish community of Pittsburgh and its outlying areas. It is possible to enter a family name or date and check out scans of the actual newspaper pages that were published in the past.  I entered my maiden name, in fact, and found articles about my grandparents and the things that they and their friends were doing even before my father was born!  I was also able to look up my birth announcement and find out how much a bowl of Matza Ball Soup was selling for in 1910.  Even for those of you who are not from the Pittsburgh area, I strongly encourage you to check it out.
This great reference tool will be one of the many websites on our recommended list at the new “Alvin Weinberg Children’s Computer Center”.  Don’t forget, on Sunday, November 23rd, we will have an official dedication ceremony for the center which I hope that all of you plan to attend, along with your children, as we open up our new computer center to the school.
Shavua Tov,
Marci

T-shirt Design Contest!!!
Design the new Temple T-shirt!

Entries due:
Sunday, November 9, 2008

Questions? Contact Molly Karsh at

Please submit all entries to Alaine Smith in the office of life long learning

PITTSBURGH HABITAT FOR HUMANITY
Please Join
Shalom Pittsburgh’s Mitzvah Division/ Pittsburgh Habitat for Humanity
to build a home and bring warmth to a needy family during the holiday season.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
9 a.m. – 3 p.m.
1805 Chessland Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15205.
Rain or Shine (We will be working inside the home).
Please arrive at 8:30 am. so we can promptly start at 9 a.m.
Kosher boxed lunch will be provided.
Volunteer project is for individuals ages 16+*
Individuals between 16 and 18 are not permitted to use power tools, go on ladders, or be on the roof, and must be accompanied by an adult (5:1 ratio).
register by November 5, 2008.
Questions? Please contact Stephanie Brenner at 412.992.5212 or .

Community Day School Information Opportunity (with Bagels!)

Parents who are considering enrolling their child in Community Day School are invited to Bagels at the Bettinger’s on Tuesday, November 18th from 10:00-11:30AM. Avi Baran Munro, Headmaster, will be there.  This will take place in the home of Dee & Robert Bettinger, 5108 Karrington Drive, Gibsonia, PA 15044. Please RSVP to Judy Goldman, Admissions Director, @ 412.521.100, x 2113 or

JOIN THE MEN’S CLUB MAILING LIST

Our website at Temple OhavShalom.org has a new mailing list feature that allows us to create opt-in mailing lists to which certain people can send messages. We will use this to make announcements or coordinate events.

To get things started, we are announcing the creation of a mailing list for the Temple Men’s Club. If you are an active member of the temple and would like to receive news about upcoming Men’s Club happenings, please sign up. It is free to be on the mailing list, but you must be registered as a user on the website.

To sign up for the list, go to the Temple website at http://templeohavshalom.org/ and log in. Then, browse to Get Involved, then Adult Organizations. Under Men’s Club there’s a link to join the mailing list. Sign yourself up. You should get a confirming email, which you must respond to immediately in order to be activated.

Messages sent to the Men’s Cub list will include an opt-out link if at any time you want yourself removed from the list.

If at any time you experience difficulty with the signup process, please contact our Webmaster, at

OHAV YOUTH GROUP

Mark your calendars NOW for the Youth events.

Also, we are still looking for volunteers to assist on other Temple Ohav Shalom events.  Upcoming events are the following:

November 8, 2008 Judaic Family Arts Program
December 21, 2008 (after Sunday School) Hanukkah Party (K-5)
January 18, 2009 Family Mitzvah Day
February 21, 2009 Film Night (Family)
February 22, 2009 Teen Rummage Sale (High School)
March 8, 2009 Purim Carnival (K-5)
March 21, 2009 (Being rescheduled) Splash Lagoon (Family)
April 5, 2009 Pittsburgh Zoo (Family)
April 26, 2009 Talent Show (High School)

If you are interested in helping for any of these events, please contact Ken Eisner at or his cell at 412-414-1533

NHCO FOOD BANK DONATIONS
If Temple members would like to continue helping NHCO Food Bank with a bag full of food for Thanksgiving dinner, here is what is requested by November 7:
Grocery store certificate for $10 or more (to purchase a turkey, etc.)
Large box of stuffing mix
Large box of instant mashed potatoes
Can of cranberry sauce
Two cans of vegetables
Pie crust mix
Can of “easy” pumpkin pie mix
Can of evaporated milk
Muffin mix
Turkey gravy mix
Napkins

Thank you very much for remembering these local families in hardship so that they can have a wonderful holiday!

Clemmy “The TOS Bag Lady” Brodsky

GIFT SHOP

The Gift Shop is open during Sunday School and by appointment. Contact Elaine Cohen - 412-364-8484 or Andi Turkheimer 412-367-7864. We have many beautiful items for all aspects of Jewish life. There is no need to go to Squirrel Hill - visit us first!

UPCOMING EVENTS
Wednesday, Oct. 29th TOS 101 10:00AM & 7:00PM
Wednesday, October 29th Preschool Open House 7:00PM
Sunday, November 2nd NO SUNDAY SCHOOL
Tuesday, November 4th NO SCHOOL
Friday, November 7th 6:15PM First Friday Dinner
Saturday, November 8th 9:00AM Special Needs Shabbat
Saturday, November 8th Special Needs Shabbat Celebration 9:00AM-9:45AM
Thursday, November 13th 7:30PM Temple Youth Committee
Sunday, November 16th !:00-4:00PM Mah-Jongg
Sunday, November 23rd Dedication of Children’s Computer Lab

2009
Thursday, January 15th 7:30PM Temple Youth Committee
Saturday, January 24th Special Needs Shabbat Celebration 9:00AM-9:45AM
Thursday, March 5th 7:30PM Temple Youth Committee
Saturday, April 25th 9:00AM Special Needs Shabbat

Schedule of Worship Services for October/November
Parashat Noach
Friday, October 31 ---2 Heshvan, 5769
7:30pm Kabbalat Shabbat
Rabbi Donsky & Tifani Katof, Cantorial Intern

Parashat Noach
Saturday, November 1 --- 3 Heshvan, 5769
10:00am Shabbat Morning Service
Bat Mitzvah of Lena Ogiwara
Rabbi Donsky & Tifani Katof, Cantorial Intern

Parashat Lech-Lecha
Friday, November 7 --- 9 Heshvan, 5769
6:00pm Dinner for All
7:00pm 1st Friday Family Shabbat
Rabbi Donsky & Bethany Hodes
Saturday, November 8 --- 10 Heshvan, 5769
10:00am Shabbat Morning Service
Rabbi Donsky & Pre-B’nai Mitzvah Students

Parashat Vayera
Friday, November 14 --- 16 Heshvan, 5769
6:15pm Tot Shabbat
Rabbi Donsky & Tifani Katof, Cantorial Intern
7:30pm Kabbalat Shabbat
Rabbi Donsky & Tifani Katof, Cantorial Intern
Saturday, November 15 --- 17 Heshvan, 5769
10:00am Shabbat Morning Service
Bar Mitzvah of Kyle Silberstein
Rabbi Donsky & Tifani Katof, Cantorial Intern

Parashat Chayei Sarah
Friday, November 21---23 Heshvan, 5769
7:30pm Kabbalat Shabbat
Shara Taylor
Saturday, November 22 --- 24 Heshvan, 5769
10:00am Shabbat Morning Service

Parashat Toldot
Friday, November 28 ---1 Kislev, 5769
7:30pm Kabbalat Shabbat

Saturday, November 29 --- 2 Kislev, 5769
10:00am Shabbat Morning Service
Bill Lowenberger

Happy November Anniversary

1 Adam and Frederique Ennis
2 Todd and Susan Hertzberg
Doug and Deb Taylor
3 Mike and Tara Ginsburg
Alan and Pam Peisakoff
4 Ed and Marcie Fassler
5 Domenic and Daryl Jean Marks
6 Richard and Leslie Snow
Brad and Amy Trust
7 Martin and Judy Smith
15 Scott and Marcella Pollock
22 Gilbert and Audrey Baker
29 Luke and Corri Parrinello

Happy November Birthday

3 Richard Matthew Adelson
Amanda Boehmke
Jason Piechowicz
6 Michael Auron
Jared Cohen
7 Natalie Stahl
9 Julia Solomon
10 Ryan McCurry
Max Fleischer
16 Benjamin Pasternak
17 Chloe Geller
Daniel Lebovitz
18 Benjamin Pizov
19 Jllian Siegal
20 Tyler Skirble
Sara Weiss
23 Samuel Adelson
Shane Mitnick
26 Casey Ferrara
28 Ethan Maenza
Abigail Savitz
Lane Trust
29 Phil Krassenstein
30 Andres Hoberman
Alison Karsh
Caleb Karsh

May Their Memories
Be For A Blessing

November 2 / Heshvan 4
Allan Rose
Brother of Elaine Rose

November 3 / Heshvan 5
Abe Claitman
Father of Ann Rosenthal

Roland Harrison
Father of Lee Harrison

November 5 / Heshvan 7
Nathan Kaufman
Father of Herb Kaufman
November 6 / Heshvan 8
Anita Parrinello
Mother of Luke Parrinello

November 8 / Heshvan 10
John Sample
Father of John R. Sample

November 9 / Heshvan 11
Leonard Friedman
Father of Ellen Sapinkopf

November 13 / Heshvan 15
Paul Begler
Father of Arnold Begler

Mendel Strul
Father of Maurice Strul

November 15 / Heshvan 17
Claryne Leatrice Karsh
Mother of Ken Karsh
Mother of Ralph Karsh

November 17 / Heshvan 19
M.J.Wizig
Father of Janet Barankin

November 20 / Heshvan 22
Marilyn Elefant
Mother of Karen Borden

November 21 / Heshvan 23
Irvin Moschinsky
Brother of Gerri Greenberg

November 24 / Heshvan 26
Elaine Shangold
Mother of Steven Shangold

November 25 / Heshvan 27
Harold Sapinkopf
Father of Robert Sapinkopf

November 26 / Heshvan 28
Bernard Sanders
Father of Mark Heims Sanders

November 27 / Heshvan 29
Edwin Buturla
Father of Barbara Adelson

Ruth Buturla
Mother of Barbara Adelson

November 28 / Kislev 1
Rose Kaufman
Mother of Herb Kaufman

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Join the Men’s Club Mailing List

JOIN THE MEN’S CLUB MAILING LIST

Our website has a new mailing list feature that allows us to create opt-in mailing lists to which certain people can send messages. We will use this to make announcements or coordinate events.

To get things started, we are announcing the creation of a mailing list for the Temple Men’s Club. If you are an active member of the temple and would like to receive news about upcoming Men’s Club happenings, please sign up. It is free to be on the mailing list, but you must be registered as a user on the website.

To sign up for the list, log into this site and browse to Adult Organizations. Under Men’s Club there’s a link to join the mailing list. Sign yourself up. You should get a confirming email, which you must respond to immediately in order to be activated.

Messages sent to the Men’s Cub list will include an opt-out link if at any time you want yourself removed from the list.

If at any time you experience difficulty with the signup process, please contact our Webmaster. 

Rabbi Art: Judaism and Science

Judaism and Science: A Modern Faith Partners not Rivals Rosh Hashanah 5769 Rabbi Art Donsky

On November 1, 1755, it was All Saints’ Day in Lisbon, Portugal – then one of the most beautiful cities in Europe.  That day, as the churches were packed with devout worshipers at mass, a devastating earthquake struck the city. A modern writer describes it like this: “Just before ten in the morning, the city was hit by a sudden sideways lurch now estimated in magnitude 9.0 and shaken furiously for seven full minutes.
Bill Bryson, author of , “A Short History of Nearly Everything,” presents a primary source, “The convulsive force was so great that the water rushed out of the city’s harbor and returned in a wave fifty feet high, adding to the destruction. When at last the motion ceased, survivors waited just three minutes of calm before a second shock came, only slightly less severe than the first. A third and final shock followed two hours later. At the end of it all, sixty thousand people were dead, and virtually every building for miles reduced to rubble”. 
The Lisbon earthquake, followed by five days of horrific fires, was the most catastrophic natural disaster of the 18th century – it has been called the first disaster of the modern age. Scenes of mass carnage set off seismic shifts in the mind and heart, as well. Ideals were shattered along with the great cathedrals. When churches collapse and bury thousands of pious people at prayer, it is hard to cling to the notion of a beneficent God who governs the universe with justice.
But the day after the earthquake some priests had already mounted their pulpits to explain that the disaster was God’s dire punishment of the people of Portugal for their many sins, including their love for music, dancing, theater and bull fights.
Human beings, then as now, are compelled to make sense of the universe. We look for patterns, we search for meaning, and we dread the very idea of randomness. A God who created the universe with a grand design, a Supreme Being who cares about each one of us, a Being who rewards and punishes us in accordance with our deeds – such a God makes the world intelligible.
The Lisbon earthquake, with all its horrors, was a turning point for the philosophers of the Enlightenment. It made them ask deep questions about the idea of religious faith.
Science and reason have made war on religion since the time of Copernicus, gathering force in every generation, slashing away at the foundations of faith and undermining its claims on the human mind. Recently, a spate of books has appeared with the view that science’s victory over religion as cause for celebration.
Many of today’s attacks on religious faith are waged with a sense of malicious contempt. Read Christopher Hitchens’ “God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything”—or Richard Dawkins’ “The God Delusion.” argue, with varying degrees of eloquence, that religion, all religion, preaches lies and stupidities and stands in the way of human progress; that those who practice religion are at best fools and at worst dangerous fanatics who threaten the survival of the human race. Dawkins, an important evolutionary biologist, has curiously suggested that we refer to atheists as “brights,” which leaves believers, I guess, as “dulls”.
Can religion and science coexist today in the mind of a modern Jew? It’s a question I’ve been asking myself intensely for a long time. I am fascinated by science; I have built my life on Judaism and the Jewish People; I have profound respect for the intellect; I do not want to be a fool or a dull. I want to know what I can honestly believe. This is an ultimate issue for me – I know that it is for you, as well.
Our questions matter especially tonight, as we enter these holy days: this intense season of prayer and repentance before the One whom we Jews call the Judge of all the earth. What, exactly, are we doing here? Why are we doing it? Is this coming together in prayer no more than an antiquated ritual, a primitive act of groveling to an imaginary king in the sky? Is it, as Freud might argue, a collective exercise in fantasy, an expression of our longing for a perfect father?
Do we mean the words we read aloud from the prayer book? Can we believe, really believe, in the religious value of what we are doing here tonight? Or should we chalk it up to a purely humanistic experience: a chance to sit quietly and think about whatever we like, a chance to get together with friends and enjoy beautiful music and a sense of community?
I want to say that I can endorse some of what Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins have to say. Some religious teachings are foolish or destructive, or both. Some religious people, threatened by the teachings of science, close their eyes to facts and try to impose their ideologies on others by force. Some religious practitioners commit atrocious acts; some are inspired to do so by their religion. Religious wars have killed millions and they continue to ravage our world.
Does religion, then, do more evil than good?  I see no evidence whatever that religion creates the human propensity for aggression or evil, though certainly, religion is used by unscrupulous leaders to incite bigotry and hate. So also are all human institutions – governments, medicine, science, the education system, the legal system – subject to manipulation in destructive ways. All are created and administered by people, and people are flawed. Religion claims, in fact, that it is because people are fallible and flawed that we need the discipline of faith and tradition in the first place.
If there were no religions around, I have no doubt that people would come up with other ways to hurt and oppress one another. That’s certainly been the case in countries where religion has been rigidly suppressed. Communist China and Stalinist Russia were not known for benevolent treatment of their citizens. The worst genocides of the 20th century took place under secular, atheist regimes.
It’s true that religious people cooperated with such genocides. Devout Christians served in the Gestapo and supported Fascism; religious leaders helped carry out the slaughter of Tutsis in Rwanda.
But secular men and women of science also put their gifts at the service of genocide. Supremely well-educated academics lined up enthusiastically in support of heinous ideologies. They demonstrated with all the tools of their craft that some racial groups were subhuman that mentally-challenged people were “useless eaters,” that enemies of the state did not deserve to live. They designed gas chambers and carried out medical experiments in concentration camps; they persecuted political prisoners in psychiatric hospitals in the Soviet Union.
Does religious faith make people better? Some believers heroically defied the Nazis, fought in other eras for the abolition of slavery and apartheid, work hard throughout the world to alleviate poverty and hunger. Secular atheist heroes have also done all of these things. What are we to make of this? Religion can inspire noble and courageous acts, but there is no hard evidence that religion leads inevitably to improvements in human behavior. It is so called religious people, after all, who blow up abortion clinics, carry out suicide bombings, and terror attacks.
It is also clear, unfortunately, that reason and science alone do not lead us to the good. The most powerful microscope or telescope can’t provide evidence that mentally or physically challenged people should not be gassed. Logic alone will not make you a moral person. It offers no transcendent values and ethics.
It was for this reason, perhaps, that Albert Einstein uttered his famous words: “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” The words suggest that the two can and should co-exist in the mind of a modern Jew, or any person who desires the best for humankind.
Francis Collins, the distinguished scientist who heads up the Human Genome Project. In his book called “The Language of God,” Collins says that unlocking the genetic structure of life and contemplating the process of evolution only enhanced his religious consciousness.
For Einstein and Collins, the advancement of the scientific frontier does not erode belief; rather, the more we learn about the universe, the more amazing and awesome it becomes.
Religion focuses on meaning and value – questions about how we should live and the purpose of our existence. In a famous phrase, scientist, Stephen J. Gould described religion and science as “non-overlapping magisteria”; they are, he said, two separate domains of intellectual authority and neither should interfere with the other.
This is an attractive idea to those of us who want to live in both worlds, to embrace the findings of science while anchoring ourselves in the world of faith and tradition. But we should realize that a religion that wants to co-exist harmoniously with science can not be a simpleminded faith.
First, no religion that reads the Bible literally is compatible with reason and science. No religion that sees in the Bible factual statements about the birth of the cosmos and the origin of life is compatible with science.
Fortunately, that’s not a problem for Judaism. Liberal Jews have never seen the Bible as the literal word of God.  Even traditional Judaism has never favored a narrow, simple, fundamentalist reading of the text.  Our earliest commentaries favor multiple interpretations, allegory, symbolism and metaphor.
In the 12th century, before the advent of telescopes, microscopes and the scientific method, the physician Maimonides wrote that the search for truth draws us closer to God. Exploring the laws of nature, he taught, increases our reverence and awe; so the religious person need not fear the gift of intellect. Maimonides added that if the verifiable discoveries of science are ever shown to contradict the Torah, then the Torah must be re-interpreted and understood differently.
No religion that claims that God protects good people from harm, and punishes evil through the mechanism of earthquakes, fires, floods or disease is compatible with the findings of science. Fortunately, I, as a committed Jew, am not required to believe any such thing. Already in the Talmud we find a statement that the world operates according to the regular laws of nature, without regard to our good or evil acts [Avodah Zarah 54b].
What, then, am I asked to believe, as a committed and faithful modern Jew? Do any of these beliefs contradict the findings of science or reason? And can I, with sincerity and integrity, say the prayers given to us to read on these High Holy Days?
Remember, first, that we shouldn’t read prayers for information about the world around us the way we’d pick up a textbook or the New York Times. We read prayers as we read literature or poetry, attentive to sound and rhythm and powerful symbols. No Jew, no matter how pious or observant, claims that God composed our prayers. They are profoundly human words, a record of Jewish hopes, dreams and fears—crystallized in heartfelt words.
Some prayers go back 2000 years to the time of the ancient Temple in Jerusalem. Some were composed by the sages of Talmudic times. Some come from the medieval period of Crusaders, Inquisition and martyrdom. Some were composed in our own time. Many passages in the prayer book are not prayers in the literal sense at all. They are passages from the Bible and other study texts, intended to teach Jewish values, addressed not to God but to us.
Prayers speak in the idiom and metaphors of their own time. So some address God as mighty king or shepherd or judge of all the earth. Maimonides and others teach us never to take these metaphors literally or to mistake them for factual statements about God. They are human attempts to comprehend the nature of being and our place in the world.
Here’s what I think the poets who composed our Jewish prayers were really saying:
They said that they experienced life as a whole, with all its struggles and joys and incomprehensible pain, as a precious gift and a blessing. For reasons we don’t comprehend we are called into being, given consciousness and breath. They were not blasé about the incredible fact that we are here at all. They affirmed the sanctity of life, teaching that preserving and protecting life is our sacred obligation.
They found the universe amazing, wondrous, stunning and elegant in its order. Entranced by the natural rhythms of times and seasons, the passage of the heavenly bodies in their orbits, they sought to create the same beautiful, stable, comforting rhythms in their own lives through customs and ceremonies to mark the passages of life.
They saw themselves as part of a distinct people, called to particular tasks and responsibilities in the world; a people with a unique purpose and destiny. They responded to that call with gratitude – an emotion all the more poignant because they were fully aware of the price they paid every day for continuing to be Jews. They regarded with love their Torah, their teaching, grateful for its guidance and wisdom, inspired by its continual challenge to be more and better and higher than they were.
They felt at this autumn season an especially keen sense of the fragility of life, how quickly it passes, how suddenly it leaves us. They believed that we should use our fleeting time to do more than satisfy our own appetites. They taught that we are summoned to lift up our lives to a great purpose, to work to repair what is broken and wounded, to live with righteousness and holiness.
They believed that in the end, goodness would prevail. They believed, like the Reverend Martin Luther King, that “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” Even in the darkest times, they defiantly declared their commitment to hope.
Can you affirm these things? Can you say these prayers? Can you sing them in the ancient language of our people, feeling in the joining of our voices, a sense that we are part of something greater than ourselves? That, after all, is the central purpose of our Judaism, isn’t it: to expand our awareness and lift us out of the closed circle of self-concern.
My modern Judaism does not give me absolute certainty, and it does not always give me peace. It gives me, more than anything else, a sense of challenge and hope in what people can do, guided and instructed by the highest truths we know by God
My Judaism says that in a world where the very earthquakes under our feet and solid structures fall into the sea, we can be steadfast and constant in our care for one another. It says that the whole world is a narrow bridge, and the most important thing is not to be afraid.

eWeekly: Oct 22, 2008

Volume 3 Issue 4 October 22nd, 2008 URJ Weekly Torah Portion: Genesis 1:1 – 6-8

BLOOD DRIVE- Sunday October 26th 8:30AM-1:30PM

This Sunday, when you drop off your kids, give blood!  And if you don’t have kids, come on and donate anyway! If you register on the website, you will be given priority over walk ins.  Register at http://www.centralbloodbank.org and enter Sponsor Code G0020019. We need more volunteers! Or call Peggy Jopling at 724.935.4902

LIFELONG LEARNING

Shalom Friends,

I am overjoyed to announce that Temple Ohav Shalom’s Lifelong Learning Department soon will have its own Computer Lab!  Many, many thanks to the Alvin and Shirley Weinberg Foundation, Lisa and Mitchell Antin and their sons Benjamin and Jason, we have the money to purchase four computers, a printer and all the software we need to create this special learning space for our children.  The main function of this center will be for students in our school with special needs and for those who would like to enrich the learning they are already receiving in their classrooms. 

Thank you to all of the volunteers who helped move books and shelves this past week to make room for what will son be named The Alvin Weinberg Children’s Computer Center by Lisa Antin, in memory of her father.  In the next few weeks, the walls will be painted and bulletin boards will be mounted to host a rotating display of student artwork to enhance the center. 

On Sunday, November 23rd, we will have an official dedication ceremony and very special ribbon cutting by our own 5th grade student Mia Shikora.  I hope that all of you will mark your calendars and plan to attend, along with your children, as we open up our new computer center to the school.

B’Shalom,

Marci Barnes
Director of Lifelong Learning

JOIN THE MEN’S CLUB MAILING LIST

Our website has a new mailing list feature that allows us to create opt-in mailing lists to which certain people can send messages. We will use this to make announcements or coordinate events.

To get things started, we are announcing the creation of a mailing list for the Temple Men’s Club. If you are an active member of the temple and would like to receive news about upcoming Men’s Club happenings, please sign up. It is free to be on the mailing list, but you must be registered as a user on the website.

To sign up for the list, log into this site and browse to Adult Organizations. Under Men’s Club there’s a link to join the mailing list. Sign yourself up. You should get a confirming email, which you must respond to immediately in order to be activated.

Messages sent to the Men’s Cub list will include an opt-out link if at any time you want yourself removed from the list.

If at any time you experience difficulty with the signup process, please contact our Webmaster.

OHAV YOUTH GROUP

Mark your calendars NOW for the Youth events.

Also, we are still looking for volunteers to assist on other Temple Ohav Shalom events.  Upcoming events are the following:

November 8, 2008 Judaic Family Arts Program
December 21, 2008 (after Sunday School) Hanukkah Party (K-5)
January 18, 2009 Family Mitzvah Day
February 21, 2009 Film Night (Family)
February 22, 2009 Teen Rummage Sale (High School)
March 8, 2009 Purim Carnival (K-5)
March 21, 2009 (Being rescheduled) Splash Lagoon (Family)
April 5, 2009 Pittsburgh Zoo (Family)
April 26, 2009 Talent Show (High School)

If you are interested in helping for any of these events, please contact Ken Eisner or his cell at 412-414-1533

NHCO FOOD BANK DONATIONS

From the NHCO Food Bank:

Thankfully your donation came when it did; the amount of food we have had in the pantry for the last couple of months has been low.  The extra 90 bags of food helped to fill the shelves for the 69 families who used our pantry on that particular Tuesday. 

Brandi S. Rukovena
Food Pantry Coordinator
North Hills Community Outreach

Gently worn, clean coats are needed for the next two Winter Coat Shops, on October 25 and November 15.

If Temple members would like to continue helping NHCO Food Bank with a bag full of food for Thanksgiving dinner, here is what is requested by November 7:
Grocery store certificate for $10 or more (to purchase a turkey, etc.)
Large box of stuffing mix
Large box of instant mashed potatoes
Can of cranberry sauce
Two cans of vegetables
Pie crust mix
Can of “easy” pumpkin pie mix
Can of evaporated milk
Muffin mix
Turkey gravy mix
Napkins

Thank you very much for remembering these local families in hardship so that they can have a wonderful holiday!

Clemmy “The TOS Bag Lady” Brodsky

GIFT SHOP

The Gift Shop is open during Sunday School and by appointment. Contact Elaine Cohen - 412-364-8484 or Andi Turkheimer 412-367-7864. We have many beautiful items for all aspects of Jewish life. There is no need to go to Squirrel Hill - visit us first!

UPCOMING EVENTS
Wednesday, Oct. 22th TOS 101 10:00AM & 7:00PM
Sunday, Oct. 26th Blood Drive 8:30-1:30PM
Sunday, Oct. 26th 1:00-4:00PM Mah Jongg
Monday, October 27th TOS Board Meeting 7:00PM Social Hall
Wednesday, Oct. 29th TOS 101 10:00AM & 7:00PM
Wednesday, October 29th Preschool Open House 7:00PM
Sunday, November 2nd NO SUNDAY SCHOOL
Tuesday, November 4th NO SCHOOL
Friday, November 7th 6:15PM First Friday Dinner
Saturday, November 8th 9:00AM Special Needs Shabbat
Saturday, November 8th Special Needs Shabbat Celebration 9:00AM-9:45AM
Thursday, November 13th 7:30PM Temple Youth Committee
Sunday, November 16th !:00-4:00PM Mah-Jongg

2009
Thursday, January 15th 7:30PM Temple Youth Committee
Saturday, January 24th Special Needs Shabbat Celebration 9:00AM-9:45AM
Thursday, March 5th 7:30PM Temple Youth Committee
Saturday, April 25th 9:00AM Special Needs Shabbat

Schedule of Worship Services for October

Parashat Bereshit
Friday, October 24---25 Tishrei, 5769
7:30pm Kabbalat Shabbat
Rabbi Donsky & Marshal Auron
Saturday, October 25 --- 26 Tishrei, 5769
10:00am Shabbat Morning Service
Bar Mitzvah of Chad Feldman
Rabbi Donsky & Bill Lowenberger

Parashat Noach
Friday, October 31 ---2 Heshvan, 5769
7:30pm Kabbalat Shabbat
Rabbi Donsky & Tifani Katof, Cantorial Intern

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

eWeekly: Oct 15, 2008

TOS eWeekly Volume 3 Issue 3 October 15th, 2008

Why do we build a Sukkah?

...in order that your generations may know that I made the Children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.

Leviticus 23:43

1. Rashbam (12th century France): God wants us to remember that the Children of Israel lived in fragile tents for forty years in the desert, and were given all they ever needed to eat. When they came to live in the land of Israel, they were able to grow all the good things they would need, such as grains, wine, and oil. God does not want us to think that all these good things are from our own power or strength. All these good things are a gift from God. When we build the Sukkah, we remember where all our blessings of food came from. We should learn to be humble when we live in the Sukkah.

2. Sefer HaChinuch (composed in 13th century Spain): I think it is not so much to make us feel humble, as it is to make us just plain grateful for all our blessings.

3. Isaac Arama (15th century Spain): When we are in the Sukkah, we can look up and see the sky, and all the heavenly bodies God put there. This is to remind us that God created the world, God is perfect, and there is nothing to be afraid of if we live by God’s rules.

4. Malbim (19th century German, Russia and Romania): The Sukkah is to remind us of how fragile and precious our lives are. We should not think that if we fill our houses with riches, we are really great people. Our lives in this world are only temporary, and our riches don’t mean very much unless we are rich in other ways.

Don’t have a Sukkah of your own?  Come celebrate in the temple’s Sukkah.  Call the temple office and reserve the Sukkah for lunch or dinner!

Hag sameakh and Shabbat shalom,

Rabbi Art Donsky

TOT SHABBAT THIS FRIDAY!
If you haven’t signed up for the entire year, please let Alaine know you are coming so we have enough pizza!  Service at 6:15PM, dinner is at 6:45PM.  Click on the link to contact Alaine: or call her at 412.439.0900 ext.19!

SIMCHAT TORAH /SHEMINI ATZERET SERVICE
With Tifani Katof Monday, 7:00PM. New Student Consecration with Yizkor Parents-can you bring a dessert to share for the ONEG?  Let Alaine Smith know in the school office or by phone.
Tuesday the Temple office closed but school is open Tuesday night-- We will have Shemini Atzeret/Simhat Torah services at 5:30pm next Tuesday during school.

BLOOD DRIVE- Sunday October 26th 8:30AM-1:30PM
There will be a fall blood drive on October 26th. You can call Peggy Jopling at 724-935-4902 or register at http://www.centralbloodbank.org and enter Sponsor Code G0020019 We only allow our president to give one pint (he teaches Sunday school right after donating) so we need volunteers. Only 7 signed up so far!

OHAV YOUTH GROUP
Mark your calendars NOW for the Youth events.

Also, we are still looking for volunteers to assist on other Temple Ohav Shalom events.  Upcoming events are the following:

November 8, 2008 Judaic Family Arts Program
December 21, 2008 (after Sunday School) Hanukkah Party (K-5)
January 18, 2009 Family Mitzvah Day
February 21, 2009 Film Night (Family)
February 22, 2009 Teen Rummage Sale (High School)
March 8, 2009 Purim Carnival (K-5)
March 21, 2009 Splash Lagoon (Family)
April 5, 2009 Pittsburgh Zoo (Family)
April 26, 2009 Talent Show (High School)

If you are interested in helping for any of these events, please email or call him at at 412-414-1533

Come to Temple Ohav Shalom’s Rock Shabbat!
Afterwards, there will be a Teen Oneg in the Sukkah!
Friday, October 17th. Services begin at 7:30PM

WOOS TAILGATE! 
Do you love watching FOOTBALL?  Or do you just love the FOOD?

Either way, come join us for the Women of Ohav Shalom Paid Up Members Luncheon TAILGATING PARTY!
(No more tea and crumpets)
Join sisterhood in cheering on the Steelers on Sunday, October 19th at 1P.
Hosted by Elaine Bergstrom
1513 King David Dr.
Pittsburgh, Pa 15237

Games, trivia, and lots of game day fun!

Please RSVP by October 17th to , 724-935-1080.

NHCO FOOD BANK DONATIONS
If you forgot to fill their NHCO bags or forgot to bring them to the Temple, please bring them as soon as possible and I will take them to the Food Bank of NHCO. We have 400 families coming monthly to both the Allison Park and the North Boroughs Satellite! Also, gently worn, clean coats are needed for the next two Winter Coat Shops, on October 25 and November 15.

If Temple members would like to continue helping NHCO Food Bank with a bagfull of food for Thanksgiving dinner, here is what is requested by November 7:
Grocery store certificate for $10 or more (to purchase a turkey, etc.)
Large box of stuffing mix
Large box of instant mashed potatoes
Can of cranberry sauce
Two cans of vegetables
Pie crust mix
Can of “easy” pumpkin pie mix
Can of evaporated milk
Muffin mix
Turkey gravy mix
Napkins

Thank you very much for remembering these local families in hardship so that they can have a wonderful holiday!

Clemmy “The TOS Bag Lady” Brodsky

GIFT SHOP
The Gift Shop is open during Sunday School and by appointment. Contact Elaine Cohen - 412-364-8484 or Andi Turkheimer 412-367-7864. We have many beautiful items for all aspects of Jewish life. There is no need to go to Squirrel Hill - visit us first!

UPCOMING EVENTS
Wednesday, Oct. 15th TOS 101 10:00AM & 7:00PM
Friday, October 17th 7:30PM Rock Shabbat!
Saturday, October 18th 6:30Pm Youth Hay Ride-O’Reily’s Farm
Monday, October 20th Simhat Torah & New Student Consecration 7:00PM
Tuesday, October 21st Temple Office Closed—School Open Simhat Torah/Shemi Atzeret 5:30PM for students
Wednesday, Oct. 22th TOS 101 10:00AM & 7:00PM
Sunday, Oct. 26th Blood Drive 8:30-1:30PM
Sunday, Oct. 26th 1:00-4:00PM Mah Jongg
Monday, October 27th TOS Board Meeting 7:00PM Social Hall
Wednesday, Oct. 29th TOS 101 10:00AM & 7:00PM
Wednesday, October 29th Preschool Open House 7:00PM
Saturday, November 8th 9:00AM Special Needs Shabbat
Saturday, November 8th Special Needs Shabbat Celebration 9:00AM-9:45AM
Thursday, November 13th 7:30PM Temple Youth Committee
Sunday, November 16th !:00-4:00PM Mah-Jongg

2009
Thursday, January 15th 7:30PM Temple Youth Committee
Saturday, January 24th Special Needs Shabbat Celebration 9:00AM-9:45AM
Thursday, March 5th 7:30PM Temple Youth Committee
Saturday, April 25th 9:00AM Special Needs Shabbat

Schedule of Worship Services for October

Parashat Hol Hamoed Sukkot
Friday, October 17 --- 18 Tishrei, 5769
6:15pm Tot Shabbat
Rabbi Donsky & Tifani Katof, Cantorial Intern
7:30pm Kabbalat Shabbat
Rabbi Donsky & Tifani Katof, Cantorial Intern
Saturday, October 18 --- 19 Tishrei, 5769
10:00am Shabbat Morning Service
Bar Mitzvah of Aaron Karsh
Rabbi Donsky & Tifani Katof, Cantorial Intern

Parashat Bereshit
Friday, October 24---25 Tishrei, 5769
7:30pm Kabbalat Shabbat
Rabbi Donsky & Marshal Auron
Saturday, October 25 --- 26 Tishrei, 5769
10:00am Shabbat Morning Service
Bar Mitzvah of Chad Feldman
Rabbi Donsky & Bill Lowenberger

Parashat Noach
Friday, October 31 ---2 Heshvan, 5769
7:30pm Kabbalat Shabbat
Rabbi Donsky & Tifani Katof, Cantorial Intern

Upcoming Events

Women of Ohav Shalom Tailgate Party!
October 19th 1:00PM at Elaine Bergstrom’s house. Please RSVP to .

Ohav Youth Group Hayride
Our next big event is hayride, bonfire and Havdalah scheduled for Saturday, October 18th 6:30 P.M. at Reilly’s Summer Seat Farm.  During Sunday School, in many of the classes we asked the kids whether they would be interested in attending. The response was an overwhelming yes.  The cost is $5 per child and $10 for adults.  There are only 70 spots.  Therefore, please sign up immediately or you may be “left out in the cold”, literally.  If you have questions, please contact .

UPCOMING EVENTS
Friday, October 17th 7:30PM Rock Shabbat!
Saturday, October 18th 6:30Pm Youth Hay Ride-O’Reily’s Farm
Wednesday, Oct. 22th TOS 101 10:00AM & 7:00PM
Sunday, Oct. 26th Blood Drive 8:30-1:30PM
Sunday, Oct. 26th 1:00-4:00PM Mah Jongg
Monday, October 27th TOS Board Meeting 7:00PM Social Hall
Wednesday, Oct. 29th TOS 101 10:00AM & 7:00PM
Wednesday, October 29th Preschool Open House 7:00PM
Saturday, November 8th 9:00AM Special Needs Shabbat
Saturday, November 8th Special Needs Shabbat Celebration 9:00AM-9:45AM
Thursday, November 13th 7:30PM Temple Youth Committee

2009
Thursday, January 15th 7:30PM Temple Youth Committee
Saturday, January 24th Special Needs Shabbat Celebration 9:00AM-9:45AM
Thursday, March 5th 7:30PM Temple Youth Committee
Saturday, April 25th 9:00AM Special Needs Shabbat


Schedule of Worship Services for October

Parashat Ha’Azinu
Friday, October 10 --- 11 Tishrei, 5769
7:30pm Kabbalat Shabbat
Rabbi Donsky & Sandy Berkowitz
Saturday, October 11 --- 12 Tishrei, 5769
10:00am Shabbat Morning Service
Rabbi Donsky

Parashat Hol Hamoed Sukkot
Friday, October 17 --- 18 Tishrei, 5769
6:15pm Tot Shabbat
Rabbi Donsky & Tifani Katof, Cantorial Intern
7:30pm Kabbalat Shabbat
Rabbi Donsky & Tifani Katof, Cantorial Intern
Saturday, October 18 --- 19 Tishrei, 5769
10:00am Shabbat Morning Service
Bar Mitzvah of Aaron Karsh
Rabbi Donsky & Tifani Katof, Cantorial Intern

Parashat Bereshit
Friday, October 24---25 Tishrei, 5769
7:30pm Kabbalat Shabbat
Rabbi Donsky & Marshal Auron
Saturday, October 25 --- 26 Tishrei, 5769
10:00am Shabbat Morning Service
Bar Mitzvah of Chad Feldman
Rabbi Donsky & Bill Lowenberger

Parashat Noach
Friday, October 31 ---2 Heshvan, 5769
7:30pm Kabbalat Shabbat
Rabbi Donsky & Tifani Katof, Cantorial Intern

Rabbi Art: Moses’ Valedictory Song

Haazinu, Deuteronomy 32:1–52 The Last Lecture: Moses’s Valedictory Song, by Sue Levi Elwell

What would you say to the people you care about if you knew you were about to die? How would you choose and position your words to reflect your deepest commitments? How would you capture and then keep the attention of your listeners and, without self-pity, give them the tools to carry on after you are gone? Every year, when we Jews are focused on questions of life and death during the High Holy Day season, we read Moses’s last lecture, Moses’s final song. Few of us have the opportunity—and the skill—to articulate a valedictory speech, a legacy of direction to those we love. Moses’s words as presented in Parashat Haazinu and preserved for so many centuries pose more questions than answers. These words serve to provoke more than to calm, to challenge rather than to comfort. Moses’s words are in the form of a poem, Shirat Haazinu, also called the Song of Moses. In the Torah scroll, and in some printed versions, these forty-three verses are written in two columns, the only poem that appears in this format in the Torah. Each set of two lines is composed with related meaning and called"bicola." This ancient form was chosen by the editors of the Torah to underscore the importance of Moses’s last words, even as the poem tells of a"relationship gone awry” (Andrea L. Weiss, in The Torah: A Women’s Commentary, ed. Tamara Cohn Eskenazi and Andrea L. Weiss [New York: URJ Press, 2008], p. 1,251). The poem begins with great strength as Moses addresses not only the people, but also the heavens and the earth:"Give ear, O heavens, let me speak; / Let the earth hear the words I utter!” (Deuteronomy 32:1). He continues by invoking the natural water sources above and below and comparing his words to their power:"May my discourse come down as the rain, / My speech distill as the dew, / Like showers on young growth, / Like droplets on the grass” (Deuteronomy 32:2). As Moses stands at the edge of the land he will not enter, he pours out his heart to his people. The words that tumble from his mouth are full of love, but as so often happens when we desperately hope that our listeners will take our words to heart, Moses turns to rebuke, warning, and threat. While God is"upright," the Israelites are"Unworthy children— / That crooked, perverse generation” (Deuteronomy 32:4–5). Employing a rich range of metaphors, Moses speaks of God as father, as companion, as eagle, as nursing mother. In spite of this nurturing, the Israelites"grew fat and gross and coarse— / They forsook the God who made them / And spurned the Rock of their support” (Deuteronomy 32:15). Only when God realizes the potential drawbacks of destroying the people does God decide to preserve them—and honor the covenant. Moses recalls God’s words:"I might have reduced them to naught, / Made their memory cease among humankind, / But for fear of the taunts of the foe, / Their enemies who might misjudge / And say, ‘Our own hand has prevailed’” (Deuteronomy 32:26–27). Instead of offering us a nechemta, a message of comfort and healing, the final images of the poem are of an angry, vengeful God:"O nations, acclaim God’s people! / For He’ll avenge the blood of His servants / Wreak vengeance on His foes, / And cleanse His people’s land” (Deuteronomy 32:43). Who is Moses as he delivers these words? Does Moses feel caught between his loves: his love of God and his love for the Jewish people, described here as hopelessly entangled in conflict? Is the weather-beaten, still powerful patriarch expressing his own pain and terror as he reflects on this strained relationship, a relationship that represents his lifework, his raison d’etre? As Moses concludes, his tone markedly changes:"He said to them [all Israel]: Take to heart all the words with which I have warned you this day. Enjoin them upon your children, that they may observe faithfully all the terms of this Teaching. For this is not a trifling thing for you: it is your very life; through it you shall long endure on the land that you are to possess upon crossing the Jordan” (Deuteronomy 32:46–47). Moses has been speaking to the Israelites for over forty years as God’s mouthpiece, attempting to serve both his God and his people. Here, at the last moment, he wants desperately to give direction and guidance to the people he is about to leave. With words of love that reflect his life’s passion, he reminds them that true service to the Holy One demands all our energy—indeed, our entire beings. He points the people to read these words as one part of a much larger corpus:"take to heart all the words,” those spoken today and those spoken on our long journey from slavery to freedom, on the shared and arduous trek toward the land of promise. These teachings are"your very life.” The parashah concludes with one of the most poignant exchanges in the Torah. God tells Moses,"Ascend these heights . . . to Mount Nebo . . . and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving the Israelites as their holding. You shall die on the mountain that you are about to ascend, and shall be gathered to your kin. . . . You may view the land from a distance, but you shall not enter it—the land that I am giving to the Israelite people” (Deuteronomy 32:49–52). Perhaps this excerpt from the poem “I Wasn’t One of the Six Million: And What Is My Life Span? Open Closed Open,” by the Israeli poet Yehuda Amichai, best describes our patriarch at this moment: . . .

I still have the fire and the smoke
within me, pillars of fire and pillars of smoke that guide me
by night and by day. I still have inside me the mad search
for emergency exits, for soft places, for the nakedness
of the land, for the escape into weakness and hope,
I still have within me the lust to search for living water
with quiet talk to the rock or with frenzied blows.
Afterwards, silence: no questions, no answers.

Sunday, October 05, 2008

Rabbi Art: Moving Beyond Race

Moving Beyond Race: Say No to bigotry!
Rosh Hashanah 5769
Rabbi Art Donsky

This morning and tomorrow morning we encounter two very striking
and powerful stories in the Torah, from Sefer Bereshit, Genesis, chapters 21
and 22.  These stories examine the intensity of family relationships, among
Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Hagar and Ishmael, our blended first family.  Yet,
these stories I believe also speak to us about the complexities and pain, the
disappointments and prejudices experienced by the larger human family,
then in antiquity, and sadly still, today.  How honestly we are willing
explore these core narratives of our people and humanity in general, I
believe, can be critical for us as Jews and as Americans in the coming years. 
Let’s look at the text:

And Sarah saw the son whom Hagar, the Egyptian had borne to
Abraham playing.  She said to Abraham, “Cast out that slave-woman and
her son, for the son of that slave shall not share in the inheritance with my
son Isaac.

What strong and awe-filled words from the ancient matriarch Sarah!
Distress is written all over Abraham’s face.  He had a close relationship with
Hagar and his son, her son, Ishmael. God reassures Abraham that Ishmael,
this son with Hagar will become a “nation, blessed and numerous, too, for he
is your seed.”

We have to ask what’s going on?  What precipitated this situation? 
What is the Torah and our ancestors, who, at first, orally communicated
these stories and then hundreds of years later, penned them onto parchment,
what are we being taught? 

First, just why did Sarah dislike Hagar so much and treat her so
harshly and want her “cast out”?  Remember Hagar had already run away
once because of being mistreated by Sarah and was told to return and to
submit what the Torah calls, “intolerable treatment.”

Many reasons have been offered by our tradition. Sarah, in her own
words, tells Abraham that she felt “lowered in her esteem” before the
handmaid who gave birth to her husband’s son when, she Sarah, couldn’t
give Abraham an heir. Sarah’s “self-esteem” was lowered? 

Curiously, the famed commentator, Rashi, and early rabbis in the
midrash offer the suggestion that Sarah caught Ishmael “taunting” her little
son, Isaac. They give no offer motives.

So what can we make of it all?  Let’s examine the Torah text closely. 
Who was Hagar?  She was an Egyptian slave girl given to Abraham to birth
a child, a male heir, when Sarah wasn’t able to do so. In that world not being
able to bring forth a male heir was devastating; grounds for divorce. I can
imagine there was much jealousy and envy on Sarah’s part?  Hagar was not
a Hebrew slave, rather an Egyptian slave, along with Canaanites, the lowest
of the lows in the eyes of the Hebrews and later Israelites. 

And let’s consider what Hagar’s name meant: stranger! She was the
ultimate Stranger from a different cultural, a different language, a different
skin-color – Egyptians were of African ancestry back then, not Arab
ancestry like today. 

All the Torah’s laws about not mistreating the stranger come much later, and
perhaps for good reason especially if we view several other examples in the
Genesis and Numbers.

Consider the tale of Noah and his sons.  His youngest, Ham, is cursed by his
father. Ham, whose name means, Dark-skinned, is the direct ancestor of
Canaan, the parent of the Canaanites, who along with Egyptians are
considered the lowest of the lows of human beings.

Skip ahead to Sefer Bemidbar, the Book of Numbers, Miriam speaks out to
Aaron against Moses. Why? Because we are told Moses takes a Cushite
woman, an Ethiopian woman as a wife. What happens? You may remember,
Miriam is punished by having her skin turn white and flaky and is put
outside the camp.  And Moses must beg God to heal her.

Finally, the prophets of ancient Israel, Amos and Malachi, for example,
remind the people that God teaches, “To Me, O Israelites, you are like the
Ethiopians,” and “Have we not one Father? Did not God create us? Why do
we break faith with one another?”

I am not suggesting that our ancestors of Biblical times were raging racists
of the worst kind, ready to wear KKK garb. Not at all, instead what I am
suggesting is that the very human writers of Torah and the Bible understood
that their societies had very real ingrained prejudices against strangers that
existed and that they had a duty to struggle against such bigotry.  Expose the
problem, in this case hatred and prejudice, don’t sweep them under the
proverbial rug, that’s how the Bible deal with difficult concerns.

Within the same scroll of the Torah that refuses to hide from us, the tragic
and painful episodes of Sarah and Hagar, Noah and Ham, Miriam, Aaron
and Moses, the same Torah gives us the Holiness Code of Sefer Vayikra, the
Book of Leviticus, chapter 19 and elsewhere, 36 times, in fact, the demand
not to do anything to hurt, harm, or mistreat the stranger!  These teachings of
Leviticus didn’t cover over, white-wash or ignore the societies prejudices.
Our ancestors confront this baseless prejudice and hatred head on, over and
over. The stranger, the widow, the poor, and the orphan all need protection.

The rabbis of the Mishneh and Talmud, over 1500 years ago amplify the
sacred obligations offered in Leviticus not to mistreat or hurt stranger.  “we
learn that all people are descendants from a single person so that no person
can say, “my ancestor is greater than yours.” God created humanity “from
the four corners of the earth - yellow clay, and white sand, black loam and
red soil. Therefore, the earth can declare to no part of humanity that it does
not belong here, that this soil is not their rightful home.”

And the rabbis add, ““Just a single person was created, for the sake of peace
– so that no one could say to another, “My parent was greater than yours.”
Moreover, only a single person was created, in order to emphasize the
greatness of God. For whenever a mortal stamps many coins using one die,
all the coins are alike; but when God stamps all human beings with the die of
the first person created, each one of them is, nevertheless, unique.”

Okay, if prejudice and mistrust were the norm in biblical and rabbinic times,
what about today?  How do we treat “the stranger”? Do we heed the mitzvot
of the Torah? Do we love the stranger? Do we protect the stranger? 

We know that America does not have the best record with regard to
strangers. In fact, throughout this country’s history the record is awful, we
must be honest, especially at this season of the year. 

Slavery.  Internment camps during wartime. Closing of our borders to those
fleeing persecution. Mistreat of immigrants. 

Sadly, Biblical times have very little on us.  And its not any better if you
look around the world.  But what about us, those of us sitting here today, we
must ask.

Consider the following situations:

You are walking one night in the city and you turn a corner and in front you,
you see six large black men walking toward you; what is going through your
mind?  What are you feeling? 

Or:

You are waiting to board an overseas flight, and boarding has been delayed
and then you see a Muslim couple wearing traditional garb called out by
name to come up to the check-in counter; what is your reaction?  What are
you feeling?

Or:

You are trying out a new Chinese restaurant, you seat yourself, waiting for
someone to bring you a menu and some bring you tea and those crunchy,
fried noodles.  You notice that all the employees are speaking loudly and in
animated fashion, and staring directly at you; you wonder what you have
done?

Or:

Your landscaping company has hired some new employees they are all
Mexicans, and they a boombox with them playing music loudly. In the past
you always would go out to speak landscape workers and bring them
something to drink and eat, sometimes you let them into your house to use
the phone and bathroom; what are you going to do now?  What are thinking
and feeling?

Now let’s reconsider these four scenarios with some additional
information:

In the first instance as the large men get closer and closer to you and
your pulse is racing, you notice that they are carrying Bibles with big crosses
on the cover coming from a church Bible study– now how do you feel?  Or
what if as they get closer you recognize them as some of your favorite
players on the Pittsburgh Steelers?

Now to the second scenario:  because you are nervous about seeing a
Muslim couple in traditional clothing getting on your flight, in the first
place, you decide to approach the check-in counter too, with the pretense of
checking your seat location, while really hoping to hear what’s going.  You
discover they are being told that there isn’t a Hallel meal and would they be
okay eating a kosher meal?  What’s going through your mind now?

Scenario number three:  You’re an African-American man sitting in a
Chinese restaurant and it’s not the first time you’ve encounter this problem. 
Again, you approach manager to ask for service and you wonder will this
prejudice ever end!


Finally, you look out your kitchen window into the garden, it’s a very
hot day, you are trying to decide what to do. You are going to fill up some
glasses of water, when the phone rings; it’s a neighbor complaining about
the kind of music blasting. Do you listen to her complaint and whatever else
she might offer the immigrant laborers in your garden? Or do you hang up
and fill up the glasses!

So where do we stand, each one us?  How we would deal with these
situations?  How do we wrestle with our own demons or our own
prejudices?  What is in our hearts and minds when we encounter the
“stranger in our midst?” We, the historic suffering stranger, we the ultimate
outsider, we, the people to whom the Torah commands, “don’t mistreat the
stranger because you know the heart of the stranger,” how do we measure
up? 

Living in North Carolina in the early 1980’s I can remember the day
that Suzanne and I were driving along a two-lane rode and saw a fire blazing
into the sky. At first we slowed to see if someone needed help, then
suddenly we saw before us a horrifying site, it was a giant cross aflame, a
cross-burning with people dressed in white robes and hoods.  Both of us
were speechless (I know that’s hard to believe) I never pressed the gas
peddle so fast and so hard. For me witnessing such an event only confirmed
the values instilled by my family and my Judaism that prejudice and bigotry
have no place in the human heart.


Let me say, that some of us here and throughout America are not
doing too well. Our years of internalized, perhaps now unconscious
prejudice seems to be surfacing as we approach November 4th, the day when
Americans will go to the polls to choose between Senator John McCain and
Senator Barack Obama. 

Post-Gazette columnist, Tony Norman, writing in a recent column on
racism, tells us, “according to an AP/Yahoo News poll, a third of white
Democrats (not to speak of white Republicans) admit that the color of the
presidential candidate will determine who gets their vote on November 4th.”
1/3!  Other surveys uncover similar results.

Norman goes on to say that “this is better news than its looks initially.
We had to wait 100 years after the Civil War ended for Congress and a
Democratic president to agree on landmark voting rights legislation that
upheld the sanctity of the 14th Amendment by enshrining every citizen’s
right to vote.” He goes on to suggest with a tone of surprise that so soon
after Jim Crow that the percentage isn’t higher!  Norman also reminds us
that Republicans share this phenomenon as well.  He concludes his
challenging commentary as follows: “don’t think of the biracial candidate as
a black man; think instead of him as three-fifths a white guy. That will get
you through Election Day with a clear-conscience.”

I am not suggesting that if Obama loses the election to McCain that it
will be only because of racism, not at all.  What I am suggesting is that we
are obligated by our tradition to remove from our hearts and minds any
vestiges of prejudice and bigotry and if this means being on constant guard
against it such feelings and thoughts, then that is our sacred obligation.


This election or any other election should not be about race.  (Or for
that matter ethnicity!  Substitute Arab American for African American? )

No, this election should not be about race, rather is must be about who
will lead us at this difficult time, home and aboard. 


Friends, we in the Jewish community should especially be colorblind
when we enter the voting booth, as we should be in our homes. 

Our biblical ancestors did not live in a colorblind world. They lived in
a tribal society, close-knit, exclusive of outsiders and wary, distrustful, even
hateful of strangers.  I believe that the Torah’s brutal honesty in the
narratives about Sarah and Hagar, Noah and Ham, Miriam, Aaron and
Moses and the prophets thunderous condemnation of the peoples behavior
toward the Other has been passed down so that we can do better, much
better. 

As the preacher proclaimed 45 years:

This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

This is now the season for our community to free the heart, to cleanse it, so
that we may stand before God on Yom Kippur, ready for a new year filled
with joy, with health, with life and with a commitment to a better world,
closer to the ideals of our tradition. 

Rabbi Art: Judaism and Science

Judaism and Science: A Modern Faith Partners not Rivals
Rosh Hashanah 5769
Rabbi Art Donsky's Rosh Hashanah sermon

On November 1, 1755, it was All Saints’ Day in Lisbon, Portugal –
then one of the most beautiful cities in Europe.  That day, as the churches
were packed with devout worshipers at mass, a devastating earthquake
struck the city. A modern writer describes it like this: “Just before ten in the
morning, the city was hit by a sudden sideways lurch now estimated in
magnitude 9.0 and shaken furiously for seven full minutes.
Bill Bryson, author of , “A Short History of Nearly Everything,”
presents a primary source, “The convulsive force was so great that the water
rushed out of the city’s harbor and returned in a wave fifty feet high, adding
to the destruction. When at last the motion ceased, survivors waited just
three minutes of calm before a second shock came, only slightly less severe
than the first. A third and final shock followed two hours later. At the end of
it all, sixty thousand people were dead, and virtually every building for miles
reduced to rubble”. 
The Lisbon earthquake, followed by five days of horrific fires, was the
most catastrophic natural disaster of the 18th century – it has been called the
first disaster of the modern age. Scenes of mass carnage set off seismic shifts
in the mind and heart, as well. Ideals were shattered along with the great
cathedrals. When churches collapse and bury thousands of pious people at
prayer, it is hard to cling to the notion of a beneficient God who governs the
universe with justice.
But the day after the earthquake some priests had already mounted
their pulpits to explain that the disaster was God’s dire punishment of the
people of Portugal for their many sins, including their love for music,
dancing, theater and bull fights. 
Human beings, then as now, are compelled to make sense of the
universe. We look for patterns, we search for meaning, we dread the very
idea of randomness. A God who created the universe with a grand design, a
Supreme Being who cares about each one of us, a Being who rewards and
punishes us in accordance with our deeds – such a God makes the world
intelligible.
The Lisbon earthquake, with all its horrors, was a turning point for the
philosophers of the Enlightenment. It made them ask deep questions about
the idea of religious faith.
Science and reason have made war on religion since the time of
Copernicus, gathering force in every generation, slashing away at the
foundations of faith and undermining its claims on the human mind.
Recently, a spate of books have appeared with the view that science’s
victory over religion as cause for celebration.
Many of today’s attacks on religious faith are waged with a sense of
malicious contempt. Read Christopher Hitchens’ “God is Not Great: How
Religion Poisons Everything”—or Richard Dawkins’ “The God Delusion.”
argue, with varying degrees of eloquence, that religion, all religion,
preaches lies and stupidities and stands in the way of human progress; that
those who practice religion are at best fools and at worst dangerous fanatics
who threaten the survival of the human race. Dawkins, an important
evolutionary biologist, has curiously suggested that we refer to atheists as
“brights,” which leaves believers, I guess, as “dulls”.
Can religion and science coexist today in the mind of a modern Jew?
It’s a question I’ve been asking myself intensely for a long time. I am
fascinated by science; I have built my life on Judaism and the Jewish People;
I have profound respect for the intellect; I do not want to be a fool or a dull. I
want to know what I can honestly believe. This is an ultimate issue for me –
I know that it is for you, as well.
Our questions matter especially tonight, as we enter these holy days:
this intense season of prayer and repentance before the One whom we Jews
call the Judge of all the earth. What, exactly, are we doing here? Why are we
doing it? Is this coming together in prayer no more than an antiquated ritual,
a primitive act of groveling to an imaginary king in the sky? Is it, as Freud
might argue, a collective exercise in fantasy, an expression of our longing
for a perfect father?
Do we mean the words we read aloud from the prayer book? Can we
believe, really believe, in the religious value of what we are doing here
tonight? Or should we chalk it up to a purely humanistic experience: a
chance to sit quietly and think about whatever we like, a chance to get
together with friends and enjoy beautiful music and a sense of community?
I want to say that I can endorse some of what Christopher Hitchens
and Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins have to say. Some religious teachings
are foolish or destructive, or both. Some religious people, threatened by the
teachings of science, close their eyes to facts and try to impose their
ideologies on others by force. Some religious practitioners commit atrocious
acts; some are inspired to do so by their religion. Religious wars have killed
millions and they continue to ravage our world.
Does religion, then, do more evil than good?  I see no evidence
whatever that religion creates the human propensity for aggression or evil,
though certainly, religion is used by unscrupulous leaders to incite bigotry
and hate. So also are all human institutions – governments, medicine,
science, the education system, the legal system – subject to manipulation in
destructive ways. All are created and administered by people, and people are
flawed. Religion claims, in fact, that it is because people are fallible and
flawed that we need the discipline of faith and tradition in the first place.
If there were no religions around, I have no doubt that people would
come up with other ways to hurt and oppress one another. That’s certainly
been the case in countries where religion has been rigidly suppressed.
Communist China and Stalinist Russia were not known for benevolent
treatment of their citizens. The worst genocides of the 20th century took
place under secular, atheist regimes.
It’s true that religious people cooperated with such genocides.
Devout Christians served in the Gestapo and supported Fascism; religious
leaders helped carry out the slaughter of Tutsis in Rwanda .
But secular men and women of science also put their gifts at the
service of genocide. Supremely well-educated academics lined up
enthusiastically in support of heinous ideologies. They demonstrated with all
the tools of their craft that some racial groups were subhuman that mentally-
challenged people were “useless eaters,” that enemies of the state did not
deserve to live. They designed gas chambers and carried out medical
experiments in concentration camps; they persecuted political prisoners in
psychiatric hospitals in the Soviet Union.
Does religious faith make people better? Some believers heroically
defied the Nazis, fought in other eras for the abolition of slavery and
apartheid, work hard throughout the world to alleviate poverty and hunger.
Secular atheist heroes have also done all of these things. What are we to
make of this? Religion can inspire noble and courageous acts, but there is no
hard evidence that religion leads inevitably to improvements in human
behavior. It is so called religious people, after all, who blow up abortion
clinics, carry out suicide bombings, and terror attacks.
It is also clear, unfortunately, that reason and science alone do not
lead us to the good. The most powerful microscope or telescope can’t
provide evidence that mentally or physically challenged people should not
be gassed. Logic alone will not make you a moral person. It offers no
transcendent values and ethics.
It was for this reason, perhaps, that Albert Einstein uttered his
famous words: “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is
blind.” The words suggest that the two can and should co-exist in the mind
of a modern Jew, or any person who desires the best for humankind.
Francis Collins, the distinguished scientist who heads up the Human
Genome Project. In his book called “The Language of God,” Collins says
that unlocking the genetic structure of life and contemplating the process of
evolution only enhanced his religious consciousness. 
For Einstein and Collins, the advancement of the scientific frontier
does not erode belief; rather, the more we learn about the universe, the more
amazing and awesome it becomes.
Religion focuses on meaning and value – questions about how we
should live and the purpose of our existence. In a famous phrase, scientist,
Stephen J. Gould described religion and science as “non-overlapping
magisteria”; they are, he said, two separate domains of intellectual authority
and neither should interfere with the other.
This is an attractive idea to those of us who want to live in both
worlds, to embrace the findings of science while anchoring ourselves in the
world of faith and tradition. But we should realize that a religion that wants
to co-exist harmoniously with science cannot be a simpleminded faith.
First, no religion that reads the Bible literally is compatible with
reason and science. No religion that sees in the Bible factual statements
about the birth of the cosmos and the origin of life is compatible with
science.
Fortunately, that’s not a problem for Judaism. Liberal Jews have
never seen the Bible as the literal word of God.  Even traditional Judaism
has never favored a narrow, simple, fundamentalist reading of the text.  Our
earliest commentaries favor multiple interpretations, allegory, symbolism
and metaphor.
In the 12th century, before the advent of telescopes, microscopes and
the scientific method, the physician Maimonides wrote that the search for
truth draws us closer to God. Exploring the laws of nature, he taught,
increases our reverence and awe; so the religious person need not fear the
gift of intellect. Maimonides added that if the verifiable discoveries of
science are ever shown to contradict the Torah, then the Torah must be re-
interpreted and understood differently.
No religion that claims that God protects good people from harm,
and punishes evil through the mechanism of earthquakes, fires, floods or
disease is compatible with the findings of science. Fortunately, I, as a
committed Jew, am not required to believe any such thing. Already in the
Talmud we find a statement that the world operates according to the regular
laws of nature, without regard to our good or evil acts [Avodah Zarah 54b].
What, then, am I asked to believe, as a committed and faithful
modern Jew? Do any of these beliefs contradict the findings of science or
reason? And can I, with sincerity and integrity, say the prayers given to us to
read on these High Holy Days?
Remember, first, that we shouldn’t read prayers for information
about the world around us the way we’d pick up a textbook or the New York
Times. We read prayers as we read literature or poetry, attentive to sound
and rhythm and powerful symbols. No Jew, no matter how pious or
observant, claims that God composed our prayers. They are profoundly
human words, a record of of Jewish hopes, dreams and fears—crystallized
in heartfelt words.
Some prayers go back 2000 years to the time of the ancient Temple
in Jerusalem. Some were composed by the sages of Talmudic times. Some
come from the medieval period of Crusaders, Inquisition and martyrdom.
Some were composed in our own time. Many passages in the prayer book
are not prayers in the literal sense at all. They are passages from the Bible
and other study texts, intended to teach Jewish values, addressed not to God
but to us. 
Prayers speak in the idiom and metaphors of their own time. So some
address God as mighty king or shepherd or judge of all the earth.
Maimonides and others teach us never to take these metaphors literally or to
mistake them for factual statements about God. They are human attempts to
comprehend the nature of being and our place in the world. 
Here’s what I think the poets who composed our Jewish prayers were
really saying:
They said that they experienced life as a whole, with all its struggles
and joys and incomprehensible pain, as a precious gift and a blessing. For
reasons we don’t comprehend we are called into being, given consciousness
and breath. They were not blasé about the incredible fact that we are here at
all. They affirmed the sanctity of life, teaching that preserving and protecting
life is our sacred obligation.
They found the universe amazing, wondrous, stunning and elegant in
its order. Entranced by the natural rhythms of times and seasons, the passage
of the heavenly bodies in their orbits, they sought to create the same
beautiful, stable, comforting rhythms in their own lives through customs and
ceremonies to mark the passages of life.
They saw themselves as part of a distinct people, called to particular
tasks and responsibilities in the world; a people with a unique purpose and
destiny. They responded to that call with gratitude – an emotion all the more
poignant because they were fully aware of the price they paid every day for
continuing to be Jews. They regarded with love their Torah, their teaching,
grateful for its guidance and wisdom, inspired by its continual challenge to
be more and better and higher than they were.
They felt at this autumn season an especially keen sense of the
fragility of life, how quickly it passes, how suddenly it leaves us. They
believed that we should use our fleeting time to do more than satisfy our
own appetites. They taught that we are summoned to lift up our lives to a
great purpose, to work to repair what is broken and wounded, to live with
righteousness and holiness.
They believed that in the end, goodness would prevail. They believed,
like the Reverend Martin Luther King, that “The arc of the moral universe is
long, but it bends toward justice.” Even in the darkest times, they defiantly
declared their commitment to hope. 
Can you affirm these things? Can you say these prayers? Can you
sing them in the ancient language of our people, feeling in the joining of our
voices, a sense that we are part of something greater than ourselves? That,
after all, is the central purpose of our Judaism, isn’t it: to expand our
awareness and lift us out of the closed circle of self-concern.
My modern Judaism does not give me absolute certainty, and it does
not always give me peace. It gives me, more than anything else, a sense of
challenge and hope in what people can do, guided and instructed by the
highest truths we know by God
My Judaism says that in a world where the very earthquakes under
our feet and solid structures fall into the sea, we can be steadfast and
constant in our care for one another. It says that the whole world is a narrow
bridge, and the most important thing is not to be afraid. 

Thursday, October 02, 2008

TOS eWeekly 10/2/2008

TOS eWeekly Volume 3 Issue 1 October 2, 2008 eWeekly – Parashat Vayelekh 31:1 – 31:30

SHANA TOVAH! New Years Greetings

Abe and Gerri Greenberg and Family
Debbie and Joe Jones
Helaine and Maury Locke
Happy New Year from the Shikora’s. “La Shana Tova from Evan, Lisa and Mia Shikora”
Alan and Clemmy Brodsky
Alayne and Bill Lowenberger, Lauren
Phyllis Rosenfeld
Happy New Year / L’Shana Tovah from the Ralph Karsh Family
Richard and Renee Bruckner
Larry and Nancy Garber
Helen F. Krause M.D.
Ken, Andie, Alana and Aaron Karsh
Herb and Mary Kaufman
Bill and Lydi Poller and Family
Rabbi Donsky
Temple Board of Directors

HIGH HOLIDAY SCHEDULE
For a complete schedule of events, make sure to consult our High Holidays Page.

BREAK THE FAST
Join the congregation for Break the Fast immediately following Yom Kippur services on October 9th.  Anyone wishing to sign up should contact Marcie Fassler or at 724-625-7252 as soon as possible. Dinner costs $20/adult and $10 for children under 12.

First Friday Dinner TOMORROW!!! 6:00PM
If you haven’t let us know yet, please call Alaine Smith or to reserve a spot!
A-M bring a side dish for 8
N-Z bring a dessert!
See you there!

BLOOD DRIVE- Sunday October 26th 8:30AM-1:30PM
There will be a fall blood drive on October 26th. You can call Peggy Jopling at 724-935-4902 or register at www.centralbloodbank.org and enter Sponsor Code G0020019 We only allow our president to give one pint (he teaches Sunday school right after donating) so we need volunteers.

OHAV YOUTH GROUP
The youth program has gotten off to a great start!
1.  At the first Sunday School, OHAV youth had a car wash and bagel and coffee sale that raised more than $300.
2.  Last Sunday, there was a community-wide picnic at Schenley Park for reform congregations.  Our Temple had more kids attend than any other temple in the area.
3.  Let’s keep up the momentum.  The next big event is hayride, bonfire and Havdalah scheduled for 6:30 P.M. at Reilly’s Summer Seat Farm.  During Sunday School, in many of the classes we asked the kids whether they would be interested in attending. The response was an overwhelming yes.  The cost is $5 per child and $10 for adults.  There are only 70 spots.  Therefore, please sign up immediately or you may be “left out in the cold”, literally.  If you have questions, please contact Ken Eisner via email.

MORE YOUTH EVENTS
Attention all 9th –12th graders you are especially invited to join Rabbi Art and Tifani Katof, our Cantorial Intern, on the Bima Yom Kippur morning as we honor you with our 6th and final aliyah to the Torah.  No RSVP necessary, just come up to the Bima when we call you!”

Save the date: Friday, October 17th @ 7:30 Rock Shabbat!
More details to follow, but you won’t want to miss this next great Rock Shabbat!!!!”

PRESCHOOL NEWS
Please note:  The pre-school Open House is changed to Wednesday, October 29th at 7:00PM.

LIFELONG LEARNING
Shalom Parents,

L’Shana Tova!  I hope that you enjoyed yourselves this week at services and with your families near and far.  This year, my husband and my son and I had an opportunity to really reflect on what family means to us at the holidays.  We are blessed to have my parents and my brother and sister and their families here in the Pittsburgh area (although we are spread out all around the city and those rivers and bridges really are long!) and we are lucky to feel welcome at two synagogues – Temple Emanuel of the South Hills, where I “grew up” and worked until this summer and, now, here at Temple Ohav Shalom.

We have had lots of choices to make for the holidays this year – where to go to services, which services to attend (and where to park when we get there) and where we should have dinner and lunch and break fast during the holidays.  We have decided this year to add some new family traditions to our list of activities that fill up so quickly.  My 3-year-old son knows that apples and honey are for Rosh Hashanah and so, this year, we made apple pie for our holiday meal at home; and for the first time, we did tashlich at North Park.  More than that, this year, my husband and I have realized that we can expand our definition of “family”.  Again, we are lucky that our family is in town, but we are also so lucky to have been welcomed so warmly into your family at Temple Ohav Shalom.

Building on favorite traditions and starting new ones, for us as Jews, is part of the spiral that is the Jewish year.  Each day at TOS, I learn more about the rich history that is this congregation – where it physically was located and what events and services and practices happened or did not happen in the past – and I am in awe of the energy and love that I see expressed by students and parents and congregants of all ages.  When the year begins again, it is important to have those touch points that are standard for all Jews – the services (whether you choose to attend some or all of them), the apples and honey (in whatever form they come in) – and the family (be it your birth family or your adopted one).  How we decide to celebrate the holidays each year depends on us.  But it is that return to the Jewish New Year that is the common thread for us all.

So whether your “family” is in town, across a bridge, or in another state, thank you for welcoming my family, along with so many others, home for the holidays.

Happy New Year!
Marci

NEW MEMBERS!
Just in time for the New Year we welcome Judy & Martin Smith, & Colin!

HIGH HOLY DAY PARKING
Please remember there is no parking on any of the lawns and only limited parking, on a first come basis, at the Y. The Y lot is in bad shape and is currently unlit at night. We will try and rent lights. There will be bus service from Duncan Plaza. Please contact Elliot at if you need handicapped parking!  You can buy a space in front of the temple or purchase a raffle ticket.

GIFT SHOP
The Gift Shop is open during Sunday School and by appointment. Contact Elaine Cohen - 412-364-8484 or Andi Turkheimer 412-367-7864. We have many beautiful items for all aspects of Jewish life. There is no need to go to Squirrel Hill - visit us first!

HE-BREW COFFEE IS BACK!
Once again you can buy our very own fair trade coffee!  We must sell 20 orders a month to maintain this fundraiser.
Click here for the order form.

HIGH HOLIDAY FOOD DRIVE
Grocery bags donated by Giant Eagle will be on the pews at Rosh Hashonah Services in order for every family to fill a bag (or two) for our Temple’s Annual North Hills Community Outreach Food Drive. The shelves are empty at the Food Bank as school children and others are not organized yet to collect food for the many North Hills families who come for food Tuesdays mornings, afternoons, or evenings each and every month as their needs continue! A list of suggested foods will be attached to each bag. Please return by Thursday, Oct. 9th (Yom Kippur)

Keep in mind they are also in need of freshly cleaned or new winter coats, especially large adult and children’s sizes, and for all ages. These can be put in the temple cloak room or dropped off at North Hills Community Outreach as soon as possible.
-Clemmy Brodsky

FREE 10 Day TRIP TO ISRAEL!!
The Taglit-Birthright Israel: KESHER trip offers an exciting Israel experience including 10 days of touring, hands-on activities, and exploration. Traveling throughout the country, you will have opportunities to connect to the Land of Israel, the people of Israel, and the history of our nation. The program offers a unique opportunity to glimpse into the changing dynamic of our modern State of Israel from a liberal progressive perspective.  To date, more than 180,000 young adults have taken advantage of Taglit-Birthright Israel.

Register now for your free trip!

UPCOMING EVENTS