INSIDE THIS ISSUE Welcome New Members ........................ 2 President’s Message .................................. 3 Cantor’s Notes .......................................... 4 THANK YOU 2020! ................................ 5 The Holidays Continue ............................ 6 Youth/B’nai Mitzvah .................................. 7 Religious School ..................................... 8-9 CBS U/ Adult Education/Programming ... 10-11 Sisterhood .......................................... 12-13 Men’s Club ............................................... 14 Social Action ............................................ 15 Library ....................................................... 16 Send-a-Kid-to-Israel Partnershiip ....... 17 Calendar ............................................. 18-19 Shabbat Mornings ................................... 20 Birthdays and Anniversaries ................ 21 Milestones ................................................ 22 Yahrzeits ................................................... 23 Donations ........................................... 24-25 Ads ....................................................... 26-27 Candle Lighting and Service Times .... 28 Rabbi .................................................... Aaron Melman Senior Cantor ..................................... Steven Stoehr Assistant Rabbi ............................. Warner Ferratier Rabbi Emeritus....................................... Carl Wolkin Interim Executive Director ............Susan Karlinsky Director of Jewish Life and Learning .............................................. Leann Blue Director of Education .......................... Stacy Ybarra Director of Youth and Young Family Engagement……..Eric Golberg President ............................................Tanya Solomon Sisterhood President ................... Robyn Rosengard Men’s Club President .......................... Steven Elisco USY President .................................. Ryan Eisenstadt Shalom Designer/Editor...............Deanne Friedman
SHALOM INFO Shalom is published monthly by Congregation Beth Shalom, 3433 Walters, Northbrook, Illinois 60062-3298 for the exclusive use of its members and staff. All material contained herein is the property of Congregation Beth Shalom.
OCTOBER 2020 • VOLUME 85 ISSUE 55
TISHREI/CHESHVAN 5781| VOLUME 85 ISSUE 55
RABBI MELMAN’S MINUTES With the Jewish holidays in the rearview mirror and with all we have dealt with over the last seven months, it’s important to look forward to any celebration. We look forward to another holiday, truly one of my favorites, Thanksgiving. I remember, quite clearly, traveling to my grandparents, in Rochester, NY, every year for Thanksgiving. I loved the celebration and truly enjoyed the time we had each year. Thanksgiving is the quintessential American yontif. It is the great American holiday and I look forward to it each year. It is a time for friends, family, food and of course, football, and it allows us to think about the things for which we are thankful. The Pilgrim Fathers who, according to American tradition, founded Thanksgiving, were deeply immersed in Judaic culture. They loved the Hebrew Bible, the study of it, and they knew its language well. Jewish people who live in New England should be especially proud of the fact that this purely American holiday, Thanksgiving, began there and has roots which lie in the distant Jewish past. The early settlers called their Plymouth Colony “Little Israel” and this was no accident. They even compared Governor William Bradford to Moses. They felt that they had fled lands of oppression and had found a new home, just as the Israelites had once fled Egyptian slavery, journeyed through the desert and, finally, Rabbi Melman
settled in the Holy Land. The Pilgrims also recalled their emigration from Holland and compared this to the return of the Jews from Babylonia to Israel under the leadership of the Biblical figures, Ezra and Nechemiah. The prayers of the early Puritans revealed the strong influence of our Hebrew Bible. We are told that the prayer composed by Governor-to-be Bradford, after the arrival at Cape Cod, included a great many passages from the book of Deuteronomy, the Psalms and even the Passover Haggadah – “You shall recite as follows before the Lord your God, ‘My father was a wandering Aramean. He went down to Egypt with meager numbers and sojourned there; but there he became a great and very populous nation. The Egyptians dealt harshly with us and oppressed us; they imposed heavy labor upon us... The Lord freed us from Egypt wherefore I now bring the first fruits of the soil which you, O Lord, have given me.’ And: “O give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever.” According to the record, the first marriage ceremony in the new colony, held on May 21, 1621, was conducted in a manner “most consonant to the Scriptures, Ruth IV.” This is a possible reference to the statement of Boaz, who, when he declared his intention to marry Ruth, “I am also acquiring Ruth the Moabite, the wife of Mahlon, as my wife, so as to perpetuate the name of the deceased upon his estate, that the name of the deceased may not disappear from among his kinsmen and from the gate of his home town. (continued on page 2)