102816

26 Tishrei, 5777 This Week at Rochelle Zell This Week in Bible Blood Drive Mazal Tov Rochelle Zell Kippot Save the Date Community News Alumni Trivia Student Dvar Torah

Class Schedule ​Monday, October 31 A Tuesday, November 1 C - short day Wednesday, November 2 BB

October 28, 2016

This Week in Bible Rabbi Belgrad's freshman Chumash class completed its study of the story of Cain and Abel by writing monologues from the point of view of the major characters. The students expounded the thoughts of God, Adam, Cain, and even Abel. Students used the opportunity to explore the possible thoughts, feelings and motivations of the various characters.

Out of many excellent monologues, four students were invited to read theirs to their peers and then to moderate a critique in which they received positive response to successes and constructive criticism to help them improve. Their writing portrayed both anguish and regret, as well as a sincere desire for teshuvah.

Fall Blood Drive

Thursday, November 3 C Friday, November 4 A

Quick Links RZJHS.org Calendars Lunch Menu Edline Give Now

Save The Date November 1-6 Memphis Basketball Shabbaton November 1 Parent Teacher Conferences November 7 FermiLab Field Trip November 8 Pre-ACT November 10 Parent Teacher Conferences November 11 No School - Professional Day November 18 1:15 Dismissal Begins November 23 8:00 a.m. Start, 1:15 Dismissal

Many thanks to all the Rochelle Zellians who came forward and donated blood at the Heartland Blood Drive on Wednesday! Thanks also to Joey Schrayer, Mr. Matt Cohen, and the Va'ad for organizing the blood drive. Keep your eyes open for further social service projects this fall!

Mazal Tov! Rochelle Zell Jewish High School is overjoyed to announce the birth of a baby boy to English Teacher Ms. Vanessa Averbach and Rabbi Ari Averbach. The baby arrived on Shemini Atzeret at a healthy 7 pounds, 6 ounces, to the delight of a happy, healthy mother and cuddly big sister Paige. The newest's Averbach's brit milah and baby naming will be at noon on Monday, October 31 at Congregation Beth Shalom in Northbrook.

November 24-25 No School - Thanksgiving November 26 Alumni Reunion​

College Visits Rochelle Zell is pleased to welcome admission representatives from over forty colleges and Israel programs this autumn!

VIEW FULL SCHEDULE >>

Alumni Trivia From boggles and ghosts and long-leggity beasties and things that go bump in the night, deliver us... or get us tickets! Which of our alumni will you see on stage Aerial Dance Chicago's Ghost Stories show this weekend?

Kippah It Together...

Rochelle Zell Kippot Now Available Handwoven kippot from Jerusalem are available for $20 from the development office. Contact Michelle Friedman at mfriedman@rzjhs.org to get yours today.

Save the Date: Alumni Reunion Saturday, November 26, 7:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m. | Rochelle Zell Jewish High School Featuring our annual Alumni Basketball Game!

Recognizing the 10 Year Reunion of the Class of 2007!

Mingle with old friends and teachers and cheer on the alumni! Don't miss the annual interactive

activities and goofy photo booth! There will be a suggested $10 donation at the door. Each entrance donation will include a Rochelle Zell tote bag. Are you interested in participating in the Alumni Basketball Game? Please click here to sign up. For questions, please contact Michelle Friedman at 847.324.3720.

Sponsored Breakfast Happy birthday to Leora Karroll! Many thanks to her family for sponsoring breakfast this week. To sponsor bagels in honor of your favorite Tiger, please contact Diane Zidman in the front office.

Community News and Events Jewish Studies in Evanston

Upcoming Films Mekonen: The Journey of an African Jew November 13, 3:00 p.m. | Deerfield High School, 1959 Waukegan Rd., Deerfield Mekonen: The Journey of an African Jew follows the backstory and personal journey of Mekonen Abebe, a young African-Israeli Jew, once a young shepherd in Africa and now a

commander in the Israeli Defense Forces.

Mekonen was a 12-year-old shepherd when his father died suddenly, less than a day before his family was about to move to Israel. The film accompanies Mekonen back to Africa on an emotional journey. He explores his roots, makes peace with his past and embraces his future in Israel. Mekonen is an uplifting and inspiring film that will move audiences and show viewers that anything is possible with the right attitude, tools and support. The Ethiopian-Israeli Band, Café Shahor Hazak is flying in from Israel to perform and hip hop concert in conjunction with the film.

Both the film and concert are free, but registration is required! To register, click here.

On the Map November 2 & 5 | ArcLight Cinemas of the Glen, 1850 Tower Rd., Glenview Still on a Cubs rush? On the Map tells the dramatic sports epic of the 1977 game that made Israeli sports history. As the powerhouse Soviet team, late of the Cold War and the Yom Kippur war, was matched up against Maccabi Tel Aviv for the European Championship, all of Israel held its breath and hoped against impossible odds.

The new film takes its name from the unforgettable, triumphant after-game quote by Tal Brody, the captain of that team and an Israeli basketball hero, “We are on the map!” With archival footage, interviews with the players and observers like Bill Walton and former NBA Commissioner David Stern, this powerful documentary gives you a courtside seat to a watershed moment in Israeli history. The film is showing Wednesday, November 2, at 6:00 p.m. with special guest, the “Israeli Michael Jordan,” Tamir Goodman, and Saturday, November 5 at 7:00 p.m. with guests Israeli basketball legend Tal Brody and director Dani Menkin. For more information and to order tickets, click here. Any questions? Please contact Diane Halivni, dianehalivni@gmail.com, 847.254.2024.

Artist's Beit Midrash November 2, 5:00-7:00 p.m. | Arthur Feldman Gallery, 465 Roger Williams Ave, Highland Park

Our own art teacher, Ms. Marla Snyder, is among those whose work is on display in the show Landscape as Metaphor, curated by Judith Joseph. The Artists Beit Midrash was cotaught by Jane Shapiro, co-founder and teacher at Orot Center For New Jewish Learning and artist Judith Joseph, artist, and was sponsored by North Shore Synagogue Beth El of Highland Park. The exhibit continues through the end of December.

Mechon Hadar Young Leadership Fellowship June 25, 2017 - August 5, 2017 Sophomores, juniors, and seniors: be a part of Mechon Hadar's exciting and transformative six week immersive summer of Jewish living and learning. At Hadar you will be in a cohort of mature, driven and enthusiastic high school students interested in exploring Jewish learning and living together. you will gain the skills needed to analyze traditional Jewish texts and question what it means to live a meaningful Jewish life in college and beyond. You will also have the chance to explore New York City, with visits to cutting edge organizations, universities, and cultural events, you will forge new personal and professional connections. Mechon Hadar has trained Mr. Joseph Eskin, who is there now as a full-time fellow, as well as Ms. Rebecca Nadis and summer alum Rabbi Judy Greenberg. For more details and to apply, visit the website, or contact Rebecca Weintraub with any questions about the program and application process.

Alumni Trivia Chicagoland Jewish actress, singer, and dancer Madeleine Klein (CJHS '11) is now on stage as a professional dancer! Madeleine began her training in the pre-professional program at Gus Giordano Dance School. She majored in dance at Oberlin College, where she trained in ballet, contact improv, and modern dance.Currently, she studies in the Work-Study Program at Visceral Dance Center. This is her first season with Aerial Dance Chicago. Click here to get tickets to Maddie's show--it looks like it's going to be great!

A Taste of Torah: An AP Physics View of Creation What happened at t = 0? What happened before t = 0? Even with modern physics, humanity cannot describe with certainty anything earlier than t = 10-38 seconds after the Big Bang. To

find out what happened at t = 0 is in itself nearly incomprehensible by the human mind, let alone its ability to reason and model reality through mathematics. Considering that predicting what happened at the exact instant of the Big Bang is nearly—if not—impossible, then determining what happened before the Big Bang is certainly inaccessible when viewed through a scientific lens. We must either make a “leap of reason” and accept String Theory, which lacks any hard scientific evidence, or seek another explanation; faith. Humanity’s attempt to understand where we came from and why our Universe came into being must follow the model of Soloveitchik’s Adam 2: admit defeat in our attempt to understand the ultimate cosmological Why and “retreat” into a state where we can feel G-d’s presence in the very fabric of the Universe, marveling at the macroscopic order which is conceivable by the human mind. However, the “chaotic randomness” is only comprehensible by the Or Ein Sof, the mystical name of G-d, the infinite.

I surrender. I surrender not because it is the easy path—in fact it is the harder path since it requires us to violate human nature—the desire to master and have control like Soloveitchik’s Adam 1 or Camus’ Jean-Paul Baptiste. I choose to surrender because the Name of Existence is what defines my faith and Theology; it is my personal belief about how G-d manifests Himself in the Universe: with the larger picture similar to the Kabbalistic Or Ein Sof and the smaller picture similar to Lightman’s Mr. G. "In the beginning there was logistic chaos and nothingness. And G-d spake [Maxwell's equations]—then there was light. G-d saw that the light was good, and G-d “separated” light (energy) from “darkness” (matter) via E=mc2. Gd manifests his presence in the everyday world through his creation of the laws of physics; similar to the G-d portrayed by Alan Lightman in Mr. G. The similarities between the way the Big Bang plays out and the way creation is described in Genesis are striking (discarding the time creation, which I save for another drash). In fact, through the application of Louis Jacobs’ concept of interpretative belief, we can interpret the rest of the Biblical creation narrative as telling the story of the scientific account of creation in terms and stories/parables that Bronze Age people would be able to understand. Thus, we can correspond each action in creation with the creation of a new law of physics by the Name of Existence. Even the creation and evolution of flora and fauna in the Tanakh may well be chronologically correct, if free translation augments our Biblical vocabulary with images of "creepy crawlies" and other water-based invertebrates; [even birds ('of, literally "flying things,") may join tanninim ha'gdolim ("giant reptilian monsters") as an apt description of dinosaurs--at least according to skeletal structure and conspicuous nubs for feathers identified by modern paleontology.]

The Bible turns off many modern believers when they read that G-d separated the two

“waters”; they immediately discount this as impossible and discount their faith. Instead of reading the text literally, I interpret this to mean that G-d separated the two field forces, gravity and electromagnetism, which encompass the entire universe (even though their strength may be too weak to detect, it is still present) Interpretive belief is a powerful mechanism; it is used not only as a “lifeboat” for faith, rather in my opinion it is to used as a method to bring a Bronze Age document and what it is trying to convey into the modern era: the idea that we should live moral lives not because there is a man in a white toga ready to hurl a lightning bolt at us if we fail, rather, the creation narrative motivates us to respond in awe to the undiluted view of the marvelous majesty of the Universe. It motivates us to surrender to the truths conveyed by Torah, to make a leap of faith and continue our tradition to reinterpret in light of scientific thought.

David Weisskopf ('17)

1095 Lake Cook Road • Deerfield, IL 60015 • tigers@rzjhs.org • 847.470.6700