Shaarey Tphiloh Prayers, by Caryl Herzfeld

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Congregation Shaarey Tphiloh

Welcome to Shabbat Services

Omer: 35

Behar

May 28, 2016 –20 Iyar 5776

Leviticus 25:1-26:2
Haftarah: Jeremiah 32:6-27

Candle lighting 7:54 p.m.

No Services Saturday May 28

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Congregation Shaarey Tphiloh, 76 Noyes St. Portland, ME 04103

President: Dr. Natan Kahn
Administrative Director: Susan C. Lawrence
www.mainesynagogue.org/wp 207-773-0693
maineshul@nullgmail.com cstexec@nullgmail.com
Shaarey Tphiloh Office Hours: T, Th, F 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.

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Parshat Behar

Just Paying Attention Is Holy

The biblical text speaks to us in a time post Sinai. Moses has already shared what he received while standing before God. We are no longer seeing the Sinai experience play out live between God and Moses; we now hear a narrator’s voice reminding us of the epiphanic conversation. For all of the reasons we need to pay attention to caring for the land and for each other, perhaps the text also is trying to tell us that we will need to be reminded to pay attention. Had it been enough to witness the actual conversation, the rest of this text would be simple redundancy.

The Sages well understood that as we press further into modernity, the world’s sociology continues to evolve. The need to remember our responsibility as stewards of the many blessings we experience each day is itself a mitzvah. At Sinai we pledged, naaseh v’nishma, “all that the Eternal has spoken we will faithfully do!” (Exodus 24:7; see also 19:8, 24:3), but we have to remember what we heard.

The fact is, though, that each generation faces new challenges and experiences blessings in new ways. Torah is not a document that was given, but one that gives. If we hear only what our ancestors heard, then we relegate the text to stagnancy. We need to keep hearing it as though it was just given to each of us . . . brand new. Every Yom Kippur we read that the covenant was made not just with those there that day, but also with all others not there . . . for all time (Deuteronomy 29:9-14). As Rav Abraham Isaac Kook taught, “The old must be made new, and the new must be made holy” (Iggerot HaRe’ayah, letter 164, vol. 1, p. 214). When it comes to providing the utmost care for all we are blessed with, we all stood and received the message at Sinai: we just need to remember being there.

Rabbi Marc Kline

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Honoring Jewish Veterans – Graveside Flag Placement

Sunday May 29 2016

12:00 PM – 2:00 PM

Temple Beth El (Conservative)
400 Deering Avenue
Portland, ME

Contact:
Rick Finberg
207-774-2649
rfinberg@nullmaine.rr.com

FLAG PLACEMENT AT THE GRAVES OF JEWISH VETERANS
Sunday, May 29th – Meet at Temple Beth El at 12 noon
Please join the Jewish War Veterans and volunteers as we visit Portland’s Jewish cemeteries to place flags at the grave sites of our veterans.
Please contact Rick Finberg.

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Josh Pernick

Rabbinic Intern from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah

Josh Pernick is currently a rabbinical student at Yeshivat Chovevei Torah in NY. A graduate of Brandeis University, he worked in the field of Jewish education for a number of years before beginning his rabbinic training at YCT, obtaining a Master of Arts in Teaching in Jewish Day School Elementary Education through the DeLeT program at Brandeis University as well as completing a post-graduate fellowship in Jewish education through the Pardes Center for Jewish Educators in Jerusalem.

He spent the past few years teaching Judaic studies at Jewish day schools in Charleston, SC, Watertown, MA and Atlanta GA, and currently teaches in a community education program at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale in NY. Josh also serves on the Judaic Studies teaching staff during the summer at Camp Yavneh in Northwood, NH. The son of a pulpit rabbi, Josh is looking forward to beginning his rabbinic career at Shaarey Tphiloh, learning from all of you who have been part of this community for so many years about all of the unique qualities that make Shaarey Tphiloh such a warm and special place.

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 Women and Kri’at Ha’Torah

This teshuva (responsum) by Rabbi Ysoscher Katz, the Director of the Lindenbaum Center for Halakhic Studies and the Chair of the Department of Talmud, is the English version of his teshuva addressing the issue of Women and Kri’at Ha’Torah.

The mission of the Lindenbaum Center for Halakhic Studies, founded through a generous grant from Belda a”h and Marcel Lindenbaum, is to enrich the community’s halakhic discourse and to teach and disseminate a sophisticated Modern Orthodox halakha that is relevant, honest, and multi-vocal.
To read all of the teshuvot, please visit our website. www.yctorah.org

Check out what our 95 musmakhim are doing around the globe!

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DONATIONS NEEDED FOR JEWISH FAMILY SERVICES ALL YEAR ROUND

Wish List:

• Diapers and wipes
• RICE!!
• Baked Beans
• Pasta Sauce & Pasta
• Kid Friendly Snacks-granola bars, etc.
• Cereal
• Juice Boxes

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Learning Opportunity at Chabad House

On Tuesdays at 7:00 p.m., Dr. Shimon Simons will teach Maimonides’ Hilchot Deot, “laws of character development,” at Chabad House, 11 Pomeroy Street, Portland. The next class meeting is Tuesday, January 19. Texts will be provided. Call Chabad House at 871-8947 for more details or check the December issue of the Jewish Journal.

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GREAT JEWISH BOOKS AT THE YIDDISH BOOK CENTER THIS SUMMER

Every year, the Yiddish Book Center welcomes a group of enthusiastic, engaged high school students for our Great Jewish Books Summer Program. Applications for the 2016 program are due April 1.

Now in its fifth year, Great Jewish Books brings together a diverse group of rising high school juniors and seniors to spend a week reading important works of modern Jewish literature and discussing them in seminar-style classes led by college professors. Outside of class, they meet renowned visiting authors, enjoy group recreational activities in the Amherst area, and get a taste of college life while staying (with staff RAs) in dorms on the Hampshire College campus, adjacent to the Yiddish Book Center.

All students admitted to the program receive scholarships covering the full cost of tuition, room and board, books, and special events.

Because the program has proven so popular in the past, this year we’re offering two sessions of Great Jewish Books: July 24-29 and July 31-August 7.

You can learn more about the program at yiddishbookcenter.org/great-jewish-books or by calling or e-mailing us at 413-256-4900, ext. 143, orgreatjewishbooks@nullyiddishbookcenter.org. I’m also including a flyer about the program that can be downloaded here, which I hope you will post and share with others.

As we look forward to another exciting summer of Great Jewish Books, we appreciate your sharing this information with any prospective applicants you know.

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No electronic devices are permitted. No electronic children’s toys or cell phones or cameras are permitted in the synagogue on the Sabbath.

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Please consider making a gift to one of our many funds. Call the office at 773-0693 for details. Thank you for your support of Shaarey Tphiloh. Contributions are tax-deductible.

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Yahrzeits This Week

21 Iyar Bella Feder, Lewis Levi, Regina Potolsky, Joseph Slosberg,
22 Iyar Kalman Forman, Carl Kopel
23 Iyar Carl Greenberg, Tobie Grunes, Sadie Horwich, Vera Kay Lifshmitz, Zalman Seavey, Helen Seavey, Edith Twombley
24 Iyar David Lipshitz
25 Iyar Rose Dansky, Sarah Golding, Ralph Nemon, Lena Swartz
26 Iyar Dora Brownstone, Abraham Glovsky, Warren Harris
27 Iyar David Needelman, Israel Shulman