Bulletin THE BETH TFILOH
Celebrating the Joy of Judaism, Embracing all Jews. PESACH 5780/2020
To Our Beloved Congregants, We know that this is a time filled with anxiety and uncertainty. These are times when traditionally people look to their religious institutions for guidance and direction. Please know that although we cannot see each other in person, we are still here for you – we are always here for you. This month, instead of the usual Beth Tfiloh Congregation bulletin, we are providing you with some thoughts about Pesach to help you prepare for what is sure to be an unusual holiday this year. Additionally, we want to keep our community connected virtually throughout these extraordinary circumstances. Here are some resources for our BT community: n
n
OVID-19 Updates: View all coronavirus-related shul C updates at bethtfiloh.com/hotline eth Tfiloh Email Updates: BT Touchpoints is a daily B (Monday-Friday) email to keep in touch with our community…without touching! Get updates about online
classes and virtual services, plus ideas, articles, and things we’re reading and thinking about — from coronavirus to Pesach preparations. If you do not currently get Beth Tfiloh emails, sign up now to stay connected at bethtfiloh.com/emailme. n
ind Pesach Resources Online. Download more resources F to enhance your Seder and sell your chametz online at bethtfiloh.com/pesach.
As we sit down to our much smaller Seders this year, please remember that we are thinking about you. We miss you. We wish you all a very peaceful and meaningful Pesach. Sincerely, Rabbi Mitchell Wohlberg Rabbi Chai Posner Hazzan Avi Albrecht Rabbi Dr. Eli Yoggev Rabbi Chaim Wecker
PESACH… IT AIN’T WHAT IT USED TO BE! By Rabbi Mitchell Wohlberg I can’t wait for Pesach … next year! For all of us, this year’s Pesach just “ain’t what it used to be!” The Seder – the central Jewish family event of the year – is going to be missing some members of the family. Attendance will be limited and so will the social interaction that makes the family Seder a memorable event. But some good can come of this. Maybe the challenge of this year will make us appreciate the Seder even more next year! Maybe those who are missed this year will be cherished even more next year. The Pesach Seder provides us with memories. I still remember the first Seder when I was old enough that my brothers allowed me the honor of hiding the Afikomen. I was so excited at how smart I was in having chosen a safe hiding place … a hiding place I knew my father would never discover. My brothers were nervous, fearing that I, being so young, had not chosen a safe place. While my father was busy searching, my brothers insisted that I tell them where I had hidden it. I refused. And then came their threat of death! So I
spilled the beans. And when I told them, they were horrified! “Daddy’s going to kill you when he finds out. You dope!” My father didn’t find it and then, terrified, I took him to the Afikomen’s hiding place, with my brothers following in hot pursuit. We walked down to the cellar and over to a locked closet where my mother put away all her chametz. I opened the door and there, in the breadbox, was the cherished Afikomen. Knowing my father’s temper and knowing his strict adherence to Jewish law, my brothers and my mother waited breathlessly for his reaction. But incredibly, the anticipated rage never came. Rather, a benign smile came across my father’s face. And then the poignant words: “Well, this year we won’t be able to use this matzah for the Afikomen. But that’s alright. There was another year when I did not have matzah for the Afikomen.” And he related to us how, when he was a child, his father passed away at the age of 34, when my father was only 4 years old. The family was left with no source of income. His mother – my grandmother – of blessed memory, was unable to take care of her children and go to work at the same time. So what happened, unfortunately, was a rather common practice in our Eastern European days. My father, his brothers and sister, were placed in different homes to be taken care of. continued on p.4
2
8:30 am 7:00 am 6:00 pm 6:15 pm 6:20 pm
8:30 am 7:00 am 6:05 pm 6:20 pm 6:25 pm
8:30 am 7:00 am 6:10 pm 6:25 pm 6:30 pm
8:30 am 7:00 am 6:15 pm 6:30 pm 6:35 pm
8:30 am 7:00 am 6:20 pm 6:35 pm 6:40 pm
Sun Shacharit M-F Shacharit S-Th Mincha S-Th PM Class S-Th Maariv
Sun Shacharit M-T Shacharit S.M,T Mincha S,M,T PM Class S,M,T Maariv
Sun Shacharit MT,F Shacharit S-M Mincha S-M PM Class S-M Maariv
Sun Shacharit M-F Shacharit S-Th Mincha S-Th PM Class S-Th Maariv
Sun Shacharit M-F Shacharit S-Th Mincha S-Th PM Class S-Th Maariv
Weekday Services
17 Omer
18 Omer
27
26 2 IYAR
11 Omer
10 Omer
25 NISAN
3 IYAR
26 NISAN
20
19 NISAN
19
13
12 NISAN
Chol HaMoed 4 Omer
18 NISAN
12
6
TUESDAY
7:30 pm 7:50 pm
7:26 pm
20 NISAN
13 NISAN
27 NISAN
4 IYAR
YOM HAZIKARON 19 Omer
28
YOM HASHOAH 12 Omer
21
Chol HaMoed 5 Omer
Mincha Maariv
14
7
8:45 am 7:30 pm 7:50 pm
8:27 pm
21 NISAN
5 IYAR
28 NISAN
22 NISAN
30
14 Omer
23
6 IYAR
29 NISAN
8th Day of Pesach 7 Omer
Shacharit 8:45 am/9:15 am Yizkor 10:00 am Mincha 7:30 pm Maariv 8:30 pm Yom Tov ends 8:29 pm
16
YOM HAATZMA'UT 20 Omer 21 Omer
29
13 Omer
22
7th Day of Pesach 6 Omer
Shacharit Mincha Maariv
15
1st SEDER
Shacharit Mincha Maariv
10
Mincha Kabbalat Shabbat
3
9:00 am 6:30 pm 6:45 pm
7:22 pm
16 NISAN
6:45 pm
7:15 pm 6:15 pm
9 NISAN
FRIDAY
6:45 pm
7:36 pm 6:30 pm
30 NISAN
6:45 pm
7:29 pm 6:30 pm
23 NISAN
10 NISAN
17 NISAN
recited each weekday morning 10 minutes prior to Shacharit prayers.
16 Omer
1 IYAR
24 NISAN
Rosh Chodesh
25
9 Omer
18
2 Omer
Shabbat Chol HaMoed
11
Shabbat HaGadol
4
SATURDAY
Please note: T’hillim are
15 Omer
Rosh Chodesh
Mincha Kabbalat Shabbat
24
8 Omer
Mincha Kabbalat Shabbat
17
1st Day of Pesach 2nd SEDER 2nd Day of Pesach 1 Omer
9 am/9:15 am 7:20 pm 7:40 pm
Shacharit Mincha Maariv
15 NISAN
8 NISAN
Shacharit/Siyum 7:00 am Eat Chametz by 10:35 am Burn Chametz by 11:52 am Mincha 7:20 pm Maariv 7:40 pm
9
2
8:21 pm
14 NISAN
7 NISAN
THURSDAY
7:20 pm
8
1
WEDNESDAY
NISAN-IYAR 5780
Although we may not be in shul this month, please try to daven at the times listed for weekday, Shabbat and holiday services, so we can all still daven together.
MONDAY
Chol HaMoed 3 Omer
11 NISAN
5
SUNDAY
APRIL 2020
Shacharit Mincha Maariv Shabbat Ends
9:00 am 7:15 pm 8:35 pm 8:37 pm
9:00 am 7:10 pm 8:30 pm 8:30 pm
9:00 am 7:15 pm 8:20 pm 8:23 pm
9:00 am 6:55 pm 8:15 pm 8:16 pm
TAZRIA-METZORAH
Shacharit Mincha Maariv Shabbat Ends
SHEMINI
Shacharit Mincha Maariv Shabbat Ends
PESACH
Shacharit Mincha Maariv Shabbat Ends
TZAV/HAGADOL
Shabbat Services
BETH TFILOH BULLETIN PESACH 5780/2020
PESACH 5780/2020
BETH TFILOH BULLETIN
THERE IS A FAST AROUND THE CORNER ... OR IS THERE? By Rabbi Dr. Eli Yoggev There is a fast day just around the corner, on Wednesday, April 8th. Many don’t know about this because it is only for a select group of people. And a lot of the time, it actually doesn’t take place! It’s the Fast of the Firstborn—Ta’anit Bechorot, which takes place every year on the 14th of Nissan, the day leading into Pesach. The select group is composed of firstborn Jewish men. And the reason it doesn’t happen is because of us BT rabbis. I kid you not! Let me explain. Upon sharing in a seudat mitzvah on the 14th of Nissan, a meal that celebrates a mitzvah, the firstborn exempts himself from the fast. The mitzvah that exempts our community firstborn is one of the BT rabbis completing a tractate of Talmud alongside a festive meal.
But the real question is: why do the firstborn fast in the first place? The Torah tells us that the Jewish firstborn in Egypt were spared Hashem’s wrath; only the Egyptian firstborn died. So, as the popular explanation goes, the firstborn today fast to commemorate this miraculous salvation. This is a bit problematic: why fast in order to commemorate a positive experience?! On Purim, we do just the opposite. Hashem saved the Jews, so every year we eat and drink at our mandated festive meal! Another issue is that the firstborn in Egypt were spared on the 15th of Nissan. Why fast beforehand, on the 14th? Enter an alternative explanation. The firstborn fast today to commemorate the
fasting of the firstborn back in Egypt. Already on the 14th of Nissan, the Jewish firstborn knew Hashem would smite the Egyptian firstborn on the 15th. Therefore, they fasted, so Hashem would have mercy on them and not smite them along with the Egyptians. Apparently, it worked! The Jewish firstborn fast today to remember how the Jewish firstborn fasted back in Egypt. While this explanation does allay concerns raised in relation to the previous one, for me, it is still wanting. What do the firstborn today have to do with the firstborn back in Egypt? Most of the time there is no familial relation. Why, then, should today’s firstborn afflict their bodies? Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach’s explanation answers these questions while offering a positive message for us continued on p.4
PESACH 2020 – THE ORIGINAL PESACH QUARANTINE AND GOD By Rabbi Chai Posner Each year at the Seder we read in the Haggadah: “B’chol dor vador chayav adam lir’ot et atzmo k’ilu hu yatza mimitzrayim” — in each and every generation, a person is obligated to see him/her self as if he/she left Egypt. This is why we play out the story of the exodus at the Seder by using foods and symbols to reenact the experience. This year, as we sit at our Seders we will feel this sentiment strongly. The night before we left Mitzrayim we were told to stay in our homes and not to go outside. We ate in a harried state, unsure of exactly what would come next. We had witnessed plagues and sickness. Sound familiar? This year, we don’t have to use our imaginations! The Coronavirus, COVID-19, has certainly turned our world upside down and challenged us in ways we never imagined. Perhaps we can find some solace by traveling back a few thousand years to that very night in Mitzrayim. From our homes to their homes… it was nighttime. They all sat down to their meals, the first Seder. There was chaos
outside as God carried out the plague of the firstborn. But inside their homes they were safe. Their safety assured by the blood they had placed on their doorposts. But why place the blood on the doorpost? Did God really need them to mark their homes? Did God not know which homes the Jews were in? The Midrash asks this very question and offers an answer: R. Yishmael was wont to say: Isn’t everything revealed to Him… What, then, is the intent of “And I shall see the blood?” In reward for the mitzvah that you do, I shall reveal Myself with compassion to you. (Mekhilta d’Rabbi Yishmael 12:13:1) According to the Midrash the purpose of the blood on the doorpost was so that we could be engaged in the performance of mitzvot. This would serve as a merit for us. The Chizkuni, a mid-13th century Torah
commentary, provides a fascinating additional answer to our question. A different interpretation: “The blood will serve as a reminder to God that the Egyptians have spilled your blood.” According to the Chizkuni, the blood the Jewish people placed on the door served as a reminder of the innocent Jewish blood spilled by the Egyptians. Presumably, this too, would serve as merit for the Jewish people being protected and redeemed. There is a deep message for us in difficult times. The world sometimes seems unclear, but God is seeing everything — the good and the bad. The acts of kindness and the acts of cruelty. Things may seem random, but they most certainly are not. There is an order (Seder!) even if and when we don’t see it. This year, when we sit down at our Seder, let us remember that God is watching over us. God redeemed us in the past, and God will redeem us once again, speedily, in our days! Wishing you and yours a very happy, Kosher, and healthy Pesach. 3
BETH TFILOH BULLETIN
BETH TFILOH CONGREGATION
Roz & Marvin H. Weiner Family Campus 3300 Old Court Road / Baltimore, MD 21208
Non-Profit Org U.S. Postage PAID Permit No. 1262 Baltimore, MD
APRIL 2020 A NISAN-IYAR 5780
BETH TFILOH Synagogue Office 410-486-1900 Fax 410-653-0603 Schedule of Services Dial 6, 2 Information Hotline 410-413-2345 mail@btfiloh.org • www.BethTfiloh.com
BETH TFILOH CONGREGATION
Celebrating the Joy of Judaism Embracing all Jews
Rabbi Mitchell Wohlberg, 410-413-2215 Hazzan Avraham Albrecht, 410-413-2212 Rabbi Chai Posner, 410-413-2219 Rabbi Dr. Eli Yoggev, 410-413-2316 Rabbi Chaim Wecker, Ritual Director, 410-413-2218 Dr. Ron Davis, President Louis Schwartz, Board Chair Don Weinapple, VP, Finance, 410-413-2291 Eve Kresin Steinberg, Executive Director, 410-413-2251
BETH TFILOH DAHAN COMMUNITY SCHOOL Switchboard: 410-486-1905
PESACH… IT AIN’T WHAT IT USED TO BE! continued from p. 1
Came Pesach, the family was only able to afford the minimum amount of six Shmurah matzahs – three for each Seder – and those three were completely eaten before the meal began, so that everyone present at the table would have enough to eat the required amount to fulfill the mitzvah of eating matzah on Pesach. Nothing was left for the Afikomen. So, my father said, “I didn’t have matzah for an Afikomen then, I don’t have matzah for an Afikomen now. But then, I was living in the persecution of the shtetl and didn’t know if I would ever have an Afikomen. Here I am, living in the freedom of America and knowing I will definitely have an Afikomen next year!” So the lesson is clear. As Jim Geraghty, the senior political correspondent of the National Review, put it: “Maybe we have to endure this bad time to fully appreciate the good times.” Next year when our regulars are back at the Seder, we will appreciate that they are not “regulars” — they are very special. To the traditional Seder cry of: “Next year in Jerusalem…” we can now add: “Next year with all of our loved ones once again.”
Dr. Zipora Schorr, Director of Education, 410-413-2305 Larry Seegull, President, Board of Trustees Melissa Lebowitz, PreSchool Director, 410-413-2303 Dr. Susan Holzman, LS Principal, 410-413-2508 Rabbi Yehuda Oratz, MS Principal, 410-413-2407 Dr. Renee Koplon, HS Principal, 410-413-2235 Brian Singer, Hebrew School Coordinator, 410-413-2523 Laurie Kott, Director of Admission, 410-413-2308 Allison Magat, Director of Tuition & Financial Aid, 410-413-2310 Joan Feldman, Director of Strategic Initiatives, 410-413-2312 Mandi Miller, Dir. of Institutional Advancement, 410-413-2399
BETH TFILOH YOUTH CENTER
Cherie Brownstein, Synagogue Program Director 410-413-2220 Marlene Hollander, Asst. Youth Director 410-413-2451
MERCAZ DAHAN CENTER
FOR JEWISH LIFE AND LEARNING
Chana Slavaticki, Director, 410-413-2441 Shelley Kaye and Anne Pfeffer, Co-Chairs
BETH TFILOH CAMPS
410-517-3451
Sam Bloom, Director Craig Friedman, Chair
SYNAGOGUE LIFE COMMITTEE Holly Venick, Director of Synagogue Life, 410-413-2244 Bess Gilden, Chair
THERE IS A FAST AROUND THE CORNER ... OR IS THERE? continued from p. 3
as we head into Pesach. In our days, if not for the sin of the Golden Calf, the firstborn men would have been very busy on the 14th of Nissan bringing all of our sacrifices in the Temple. When the ancient firsborn sinned with the Golden Calf, their sacrificial privileges were transferred to the Kohanim, the priests, who are now the official Temple servants. Today’s firstborn fast on the 14th because they are sad about this reality! They want to do all of these mitzvot but are no longer able to do so. This explanation offers a new twist to our seudat mitzvah custom. When we complete a tractate, it is a moment of immense joy. This overwhelming joy relieves the firstborn’s sadness, in turn precluding them from the need to fast. This points to what Pesach is all about. Pesach is a time of happiness. We have so many mitzvot to look forward to: matzah, marror, the Haggadah, the four cups, and more. Indeed, this past month has been extremely trying for all of us, but there is still room to celebrate. Let’s allow the Seder, filled with its mitzvot, to elevate our spirits and relieve all sadness and despair. On this one night, let’s let go, be happy, and celebrate the true joy of a seudat mitzvah! Chag kasher v’sameach – a happy, kosher and healthy holiday!
BETH TFILOH CEMETERY Morris Segall, Chair
PARENT ASSOCIATION
410-413-2314
Randi Abramson, President
BT MEN
410-413-2238
Larry Abramson, President
SISTERHOOD
410-413-2239
Rena Polun, President Sonia Maltinsky, Gift Shop
BT CARES SOCIAL ACTION COMMITTEE 410-413-2224
Lindsay Gaister, Director
BULLETIN Rina Goloskov, Dir. of Marketing/Communications, 410-413-2369 Erin Smith, Communications Coordinator, 410-413-2322 Paul Miller, Graphic Designer, 410-413-2216 Charlene Schimberg, Communications Assoc., 410-413-2217