Shalom Congregants and Friends.....
 
Weekly Message from your Rabbi...... 
  
Last week's annual Library Shabbat, with guest speaker Dr. Sam Kassow from Trinity University, was a wonderful success. The talks were stimulating, the questions were good, the oneg and kiddush were really special. Again, thanks to the Library Committee, headed by Marsha Kamins and Maura Nemirow, for putting together a wonderful Shabbat!
 
This coming Shabbat will have an equally special program... Naomi Freedman, the Israel Shalicha to the Conservative movement, based in New York City, is coming to Beth Hillel to talk about Israel and Aliyah. Members of all Conservative congregations in the region have been notified of her appearance. Her talk Friday evening will be on "New developments regarding making aliyah," and on Saturday morning, "The Status of the Masorti movement in Israel." Really good topics!
 
Friday night is also Ruach Shabbat - Ethan Nash will be here to lead us in music and in prayer!
 
Next Erev Shabbat our religious school will meet for Shabbat dinner before leading services.. and then, on Saturday morning, at our learning service, I will be teaching about the new Rabbinical Assembly Mahzor that Beth Hillel is considering adopting!
 
And the weekend after that... Thanksgiving!
 
Shabbat Shalom.... come to shul and be with your "synagogue family" here at Beth Hillel!
 
 
Rabbi Gary and Iris Atkins
"No one should leave services unmoved or unchanged..."
 Shabbat Services & Candle Lighting
 
CANDLE LIGHTING 
FRIDAY EVENING, NOV. 13,  4:12pm 
FRIDAY EVENING, NOV. 20, 4:06pm
 
Note: You may see a few minutes difference between different times given in different sources. It all depends how many minutes before actual sunset the source feels candles should be lit. You  may use any source you choose!
 
SHABBAT  SERVICE TIMES:                               
Friday, Nov. 13  8pm
Saturday, Nov. 14 Shaharit 9:30am, Mincha/ Ma'ariv/ Havdalah 4:15pm.... 
 
Come enjoy the beautiful Havdalah ceremony that ends Shabbat! 
A Prayer for Our Servicemen/women  
 INCLUDED IN THE E-SHUL ONE LAST TIME AFTER VETERAN'S DAY ... save and say anytime!!!
 
by Rabbi David Greenspoon
 
Maker of Peace in Your heavens, our country has men and women engaged in wars on multiple fronts, and in service and sacrifice even beyond the fields of battle.  Be with all those who serve, and protect them body and soul.  May their sacrifices for the sake of peace be of enduring effect.  Bring under the wings of Your Presence the souls of all those who die in the service of our country.  Comfort those wounded by battle and by the loss of their comrades.  Send your love and support to those who await their return with longing and hope; extend your grace and solace to those bereaved families who will forever leave an empty chair at their family table to match the empty places in their hearts.  Maker of Peace, extend your heaven'speace to our place here on earth so the experience of war will no longer be a reality for any of your children. May this peace come soon.  Amen.
Special Upcoming Events
 
FALL ADULT EDUCATION
Rabbi Atkins continues teaching on Monday Evening November   16. Subject: Looking at New Prayer Books of the 21st Century....
 
RELIGIOUS SCHOOL SHABBAT 
Our Religious School will have a Shabbat Dinner and then help conduct services Friday evening, November 20.
 
USCJ BIENNIAL CONVENTION
WE ARE FAMILY---that's the slogan of the USCJ Convention in Cherry Hill, NJ December 6-10, only a few weeks away. This Convention will be very exciting due to the many changes in store for the United Synagogue.  Come hear Chancellor Arnold Eisen, Exec. Director Rabbi Stephen Wernick and other notable speakers; make selections from many interesting seminars; be entertained. 
Food Drive..... Social Action News
 
Volunteer Opportunities
The Federation-sponsored Volunteer Directory is now available, with a copy in both the rabbi's office and the library. This is your reference book for areas in which to get involved in the mitzvah of tikkun olam!!
 
Food Donations
We fasted on Yom Kippur... many of us brought donations of food before you Kol Nidre Services. The need continues. Consider a donation to Mazon, as featured in Chai-lites, or to Foodshare here in Bloomfield.
 
Todah rabbah!!
SCRIP purchase..... 
 
You can help the synagogue throughout the year by purchasing supermarket script!
 
This is the time that we ALSO put in an order for GIFT CARDS at many stores and restaurants  --- that you can use for yourselves, for gifts, and also earn money for your shul. Fill in the form you were recently sent and return to the office ASAP -- or stop by the office with your checkbook!
 
 
Todah rabbah!!
Israel News....a column by Elliott Abrams 
From The Weekly Standard (abridged)

 
Can anything else possibly go wrong for the Obama administration's Middle East policy? In the past ten days, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
has twice reversed herself publicly on her attitude toward the Israeli
settlements. Palestinians have refused her direct request to rejoin peace
talks with Israel, and Palestinian Authority president Abbas has said he
will not run for reelection. U.S.-Israel relations are in a state of frozen
mistrust. The New York Times and Washington Post, among others, are calling Obama's policy a complete failure--in news stories as well as editorials. The only thing missing is a plague of locusts.

 
The policy is indeed a complete failure. In ten months the administration
has managed to offend and demoralize Israelis and Palestinians, lose the
support of Arab governments, and reduce previously excellent relations
with the government of Israel to levels unmatched since the James Baker
days. Meanwhile, George Mitchell's trips to the region are increasingly
reminiscent of the Colin Powell visits in 2002 and 2003--producing little
but embarrassment. The Israeli "100 percent settlement freeze" and the Arab outreach to Israel, early goals of the Obama team, are now forgotten, as is an early resumption of serious Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
 
These disasters are mostly the product of an ignorant and belligerent attitude toward Israel and especially its prime minister. The ignorance was most evident in the administration's view that a total construction freeze could be imposed not only in every settlement but in Jerusalem itself. But the U.S. policy was worse: We demanded a freeze that would apply to construction by Jews, but not by Arabs; could any Israeli leader be expected to support such a position? One does not need to be a member of the Knesset to understand that such a freeze was impossible for Benjamin Netanyahu and his coalition as it would have been for any Israeli prime minister--but apparently this fact was beyond the understanding of Mitchell, Rahm Emanuel, and all the other
"experts" on the Obama team.


The belligerence toward Netanyahu has been evident all along, but is best shown by the refusal to tell Israel's prime minister whether or not the president will see him this coming week when Netanyahu (like the president) addresses the United Jewish Communities annual general assembly in Washington. The Israelis gave the White House weeks of notice that Netanyahu had agreed to speak, would be in town, and hoped to see Obama. The White House reaction has been to keep him twisting in the wind, with news stories several days before his arrival saying the president had not decided yet whether to see Netanyahu. Think of it: Our closest ally in the region, critical issues at stake (from Iran's nuclear program and the recent Israeli seizure of an Iranian arms shipment meant for Hezbollah to Abbas's announcement), yet the Israelis get
no answer. Obama and his "experts" may think they are reminding Netanyahu who is boss, but they are in fact reminding all of us why Israelis no longer trust Obama--and making closer cooperation between the two governments that much harder.

 
The problems Netanyahu has with Obama pale in comparison with those of the Palestinians, and Abbas's announcement reflects their frustrations. The best example: Obama and Clinton lured Abbas out on the  settlements-freeze limb and then sawed it off. When they said a total freeze including Jerusalem was necessary, he of course happily agreed. But when they abandoned that doomed policy and instead began talking of "restraint," he could not climb down. Abbas has threatened to leave many times before, and it's worth -noting that he did not resign. He said he would not seek reelection next year, in elections scheduled for January 24 but highly unlikely to take place then--if ever. So he will be around for months more, in fact indefinitely if elections keep getting postponed. His statement must be regarded, then, not as a Shermanesque personal denial but as a protest against an American policy that has weakened him and left him high and dry. Israelis and Palestinians when I visited in October had two main questions: Who is making this Middle East policy, and do they not realize by now that it is a disaster? At least in this, one can say the administration has produced Israeli-Palestinian unity. They are also united in watching warily as the president seems unable to make a decision about Afghanistan. For the Palestinians, this suggests
he'll never really take on the Israelis for them, as they thought he might
back in January. For the Israelis, it means he'll never take on Iran, and
that they may in the end face the Iranian nuclear threat on their own. They all wonder whether to blame Mitchell or Clinton or Dennis Ross or National Security Adviser Jim Jones or the State Department's Near East bureau, and each individual Israeli and Palestinian has a favorite target. But the answers to their questions seem obvious: It is the president's policy, and no, he does not seem to be aware that it has already failed. While he has backed off from the early targets, he has not changed his attitude toward -Israel's government, nor altered his basic approach: to push for negotiations over "core issues" as soon as possible. And this is the fundamental problem with Obama's policy: Like too many of his predecessors he believes that a solution is at hand if only he can force the parties to the table. There, presumably under American tutelage, they will reach American-style compromises (pragmatic, sensible, realistic) and resolve the dispute, with Nobel Peace Prizes for all. The only question is where the table is: Camp David, Taba, Annapolis, Oslo, perhaps this time Chicago.
 
This approach undermines the one real hope in the region, which is the practical advances being made in the West Bank. There, the economy is improving, law and order are maintained, the Palestinian Authority is fighting Hamas, Israeli-Palestinian security cooperation is growing, and mobility for the population is increasing. In recent months Israel removed more checkpoints and expanded the hours of the Allenby Bridge to Jordan. It isn't paradise, but it isn't Gaza either, and life is better each year. It could be far better if the Obama administration would abandon its doomed efforts to force an Israeli construction freeze in Jerusalem and an Arab embrace of Israel, and instead ask them all to think of real-world ways to keep improving life in the West Bank. There are many ways this could be done, from further steps to remove Israeli barriers to movement, to reliable and generous Arab financial support. The way forward does not lie through fancy international conferences, and one idea still mentioned as an Obama option--proposing a final status plan--would be disastrous and unsuccessful.
 
The way for the Palestinians to get a state is to go ahead and build it. If and when the institutions are there and functioning, from police and courts to a parliament, negotiations will reflect that fact. But the argument that settling the borders and removing the Israeli troops must come first is a path to failure. For one thing, Israel will not and should not leave until it is clear that the West Bank can be policed by Palestinians and that the region will not be a source of terrorism against Israel, as Gaza and South Lebanon became when Israel left there. No conference and no treaty can provide such a guarantee; only functioning Palestinian police forces that are already fighting and defeating terror can do so.
 
Such a practical approach would bring other benefits. It would enhance the status and power of Palestinian moderates who are working to improve life in the West Bank, rather than enhancing the status and power of old PLO officials who thrive on endless, useless negotiating sessions. It would put a premium on practical Israeli-Palestinian cooperation, rather than elevating precisely the final status questions (like Jerusalem or Palestinian refugees) that most bitterly divide them. It would increase the gap between the West Bank and Gaza, thereby showing Palestinians that Hamas rule brings only despair and poverty. It would press the Arab states to help real live Palestinians in the West Bank, rather than the imaginary Palestinians--all either bold jihadists or desperate widows and orphans--whom they see on Al Jazeera. In fact, except for occasional visits by Jordanians and Egyptians (who have peace treaties with Israel already), top Arab officials haven't a clue what's going on in the West Bank, for they've never been there. Not one head of state or government or foreign minister, not once. If George Mitchell wants to do something useful, he could organize a tour; take a few princes and foreign ministers to Ramallah and Jericho and Jenin, where they would
find that they are neither in Somalia nor some heroic battle scene against
Zionist oppressors......
 
Elliott Abrams is a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the
Council on Foreign Relations.
Weekly Torah  Commentary...  
written by Rabbi Michael Gold of Tamarac, FL. .......
 
       Seventy-one years ago this week anti-Jewish pogroms broke out all over Germany.  Known as Kristallnacht or "the night of the broken glass", Jewish stores were looted as the streets were filled with broken windows, synagogues were burned, and Jews were murdered or arrested.  It began a period of intense violence against the Jews culminating in the slaying of six million.  During this week the Nazis unleashed the forces of hate.
       One would hope that over seventy years later such hatred would cease.  But it seems to be an everlasting force amongst humans.  This week within walking distance of my home, someone covered the walls of a Jewish Community Center childcare facility with swastikas and Nazi slogans.  Signs of hate greeted children dropped off by their parents for day care.  Jew hatred continues.
       But it is not simply Jews.  This week America mourns the tragedy of a mass killing at Fort Hood, TX.  An army psychiatrist, trained in the art of healing, killed thirteen military personnel and wounded countless others.  His motives are unclear.  But on the surface, he appears to be influenced by Islamic extremists who would make Americans, particularly the American military, fair game for murder.  The forces of hate have been unleashed into the world, and it is extremely difficult to stop them.
       After the attacks of 9/11 I spoke about forces of hate.  I said at that time that the only way to overcome them is through forces of love.  This is a vital part of what Jewish tradition at its best tries to do; unleash forces of love into a world where hate is often rampant.  Perhaps that is the reason why Jews have often been the victims of the haters; our message is one of love.
       I shared an example last week at the Anti Defamation League dinner.  I was asked to give the opening invocation and chose to open with a brief d'var Torah.  I shared a beautiful Rabbinic passage.  The Sifra records a dispute between Rabbi Akiba and Ben Azzai.   What is the most important verse in the Torah?  Rabbi Akiba taught, "Love your neighbor as yourself."  (Lev. 19:18)  Ben Azzai taught, "This is the record of Adam's line."  One can understand Rabbi Akiba's opinion; the Golden Rule is at the center of the Torah.  But Ben Azzai goes even further.   When the Torah teaches that we are all descended from Adam, it means that we are all family.  All humans are brothers and sisters in the eyes of God. 
       The thrust of Biblical and Rabbinic tradition is that all human beings share a common ancestry.  Therefore, no human being can hate another human being based on ethnic background, religion, race, sexual orientation, or any other criteria.  All human beings must have equal dignity in our eyes.  The Bible is trying to be a force of love in a world often ruled by the force of hate. 
       This portion is one of the earliest stories on the power of love.  Abraham asks his servant Eliezer to find a wife for his son Isaac.  Eliezer does not look for the most beautiful nor the richest girl.  Rather he searches for acts of kindness.  Which ever young woman who goes to the well, offers him water, and also offers water to his camels, she is a worthy wife for his master's son.  It is a small wonder that after an arranged marriage with Rebecca, that Isaac truly loved her.  Kindness to others, particularly to a stranger, is the most important value.
       There are two types of forces at work in the world today - the forces of hate and the forces of love.  Sadly, religion through the years has often been on the side of the forces of hate.  Religion at its best needs to become a force of love.  Only then can the force of love truly overcome the force of hate.