THIS Mont h h aHodesh AT CHIZUK AMUno CONGREGATION AND SCHOOLS November 2015 | Heshvan–Kislev 5776
Doing Jewish In this season of thanksgiving, I appreciate the many conversations we have shared RABBI RON SHULMAN over the past weeks and your excellent suggestions about “Doing Jewish.” Back on Yom Kippur, now a distant memory, I told you that going forward the American Jewish community will contain two worldviews. Those of us who engage actively in our own comfort zones of doing Jewish and those of us who engage passively in our own comfort zones of feeling Jewish. I challenged us to reconsider our personal comfort zones. We spend too much time feeling Jewish and not enough time doing Jewish. A phrase in our prayer book that evokes feeling for me reminds us that being Jewish is about learning and teaching, preserving and doing. Doing Jewish is how we find purpose in being Jewish. Here are some of the excellent suggestions you shared and some of the Jewish things you are choosing to do anew. I share this list as inspiration for all of us for doing Jewish and encourage others of us to add our own. Look around your home. Have a family discussion about your favorite Jewish ritual objects or symbols. Share memories of previous experiences using them and explore what you find meaningful in symbols like Shabbat candlesticks and Kiddush ▶ Continued on page 4
The Virtue of Humility and the Pursuit of Wisdom: Mysticism and Ethics in Judaism Sunday, November 1 • 10:30 a.m. Dr. Eitan Fishbane Professor of Jewish Thought, Jewish Theological Seminary of America A scholar of Jewish mysticism and spirituality, Dr. Eitan Fishbane is an award winning writer and speaker. Dr. Fishbane will explore humility as a character trait and wisdom as a personal goal.
Shul Shabbat Share Friday, November 20 Enjoy a Shabbat dinner at home with other members of your Chizuk Amuno community – and let us do the cooking! In the spirit of the very successful Krieger Schechter Shabbat Share program, we are creating a synagogue-wide opportunity to build community and enjoy one another’s company through the simple pleasures of sharing a home-based Shabbat dinner together. As a participant in Shul Shabbat Share, you can choose to be a guest or a host, and we will provide everything for you – including a catered kosher dinner, from challah to dessert, picked up by hosts from Chizuk Amuno earlier that day. We’ll make the matches between host and guest families and share all the information with you in advance of the date. The cost for this program is $15 per person and free for each child under 4. The registration form can be accessed at http:// bit.ly/ShulShabbatShare and will require you to provide the information that will help us make our host/guest matches. Please sign up by Monday, November 9. If you have questions or would like to become more involved in this exciting project, please contact Sandra Dzija, smdzija@gmail. com or 443-904-4485.
School Families Shabbat Extravaganza! Friday, November 13 • 5:30 p.m Optional Shabbat Dinner follows Join us for refreshments and enjoy Shabbat Services led by ALL of our students in ALL of our schools. We join together our Goldsmith Early Childhood Students, our Krieger Schechter Day School students, and our Rosenbloom Religious School students and their families into one large, joyous, exciting congregation for song and prayer, celebration and surprises. Please let us know your plans to attend at http://bit.ly/SchoolShabbat. And if you wish, stay after our service for a family friendly Shabbat dinner. The cost is $18 per adult; $10 per child; no charge for child under 4. RSVP to http://bit.ly/ SchoolShabbat by Friday, November 6, after which the costs will increase to $20 per adult and $12 per child.