Shalom Congregants and Friends.....
 
Weekly Message from your Rabbi...... 
 Last Sunday morning Beth Hillel participated with hundreds of other Conservative synagogues in World Wide Wrap 'X' -- a Brotherhood project teaching the mitzvah of tefillin. Look for photos soon on the website and the next Chai-lites! Services were followed by a delicious breakfast and a guest speaker, Rachel Isaacs, who is both a rabbinical student at JTS and a dedicated staffer for American Jewish World Services. She shared her expriences on a mission to Senegal as well as how tefillin and social justice were conneted!
 
You hopefully read the interview in the Jewish Ledger with Dr. Joe Olzacki, the Bloomfield High School Music Director who  pioneered the "Identity Project." He shared ome thoughts on his visit to Rwanda and participation in a UN Conference on preventing genocide. He will be speaking here at Beth Hillel this Friday evening at 7:30pm.  That's a date to put for sure on your calendars! 
 
Shabbat morning I will be doing a learning service on the topic of prayer as the Religious School has another Junior Congregation and Tot Shabbat. It is also the first of the special Shabbatot that occur as we approach Purim and Passover! Here's my last chance to remind you: Saturday night, February 13, the ENTIRE HARTFORD JEWISH community will get together for a community-wide Havdalah celebration. I and many of the other rabbis will share songs and stories in a delightful evening program. MAKE YOUR PLANS TO ATTEND NOW!!!!
 
There are always interesting Jewish handouts to be found outside the chapel and sanctuary on literature racks. I see one of the roles of the synagogue today as being a centralized source of information in a time of information overload!
 
You will read in this bulletin about ongoing Social Action/ Tikkun Olam activities -- along with an invitation to participate!! One meaningful way to participate is to become a part of our Social Action Committee! For further information or to volunteer, call the office or Rabbi Atkins.
 
 Shabbat Shalom....looking forward to your coming to shul and being with your "synagogue family" here at Beth Hillel Synagogue!
 
 Rabbi Gary and Iris Atkins
"No one should leave services unmoved or unchanged..."
 Shabbat Services & Candle Lighting
 CANDLE LIGHTING   
 FRIDAY EVENING, FEB. 12, 5:00 pm
 FRIDAY EVENING, FEB. 19, 5:09 pm
 
UPCOMING SHABBAT  SERVICE TIMES:                               
Friday, Feb. 12 - 7:30pm - "Dr. O" speaking
Saturday, Feb.13 - 9:30am Shaharit/ Jr Cong, Tot Shabbat, Learning Service
 5:00pm....   Mincha  COMMUNITY HAVDELI  7pm 
 
Friday, Feb. 19 - 7:30pm - Ruach Shabbat with Fern Cohen/ Simcha Shabbat
Saturday, Feb 20 - Shaharit 9:30am, Mincha/ Ma'ariv/ Havdalah 5:15pm....  
 
 Friday, Feb. 26 - 7:30PM - Erev Purim Services 7:30pm
Saturday, Feb. 27 - Shaharit 9:30am / Mincha 5:15pm
6:00 Megillah Reading / Havdalah  (7:15)
7:30 pm Karoake Party and Dinner start......
 
 Come enjoy the beautiful Havdalah ceremony that ends Shabbat! 
Some  Upcoming  Special Events    
  DR. JOSEPH OLZACKI, speaking at FRIDAY EVENING SERVICES, 7:30pm, FEB. 12
 
COMMUNITY WIDE HAVDALAH/ SOCIAL EVENING.... FEB. 13, 7pm
AT CONGREGATION BETH ISRAEL
 
FRIDAY, FEB. 19  SIMCHA SHABBAT - RUACH SHABBAT with FERN COHEN
 
PURIM WEEKEND - FRIDAY FEB. 26,
MEGILLAH READING AND KAROAKE SATURDAY EVENING FEB. 27
PURIM CONTINUES SUNDAY MORNING - RELIGIOUS SCHOOL PURIM CARNIVAL WITH  CONGREGATION BETH AHM
  
NEXT SHMOOZE AND LUNCH, THURSDAY MARCH 4, 11AM    MOVIE TBA...
 
MARCH 5 - ISRAEL EMISSARIES SHABBAT, COME MEET THE HARTFORD "YOUNG EMISSARIES," 
OR SHAHAR and  SARAI BARZEL, at SHABBAT SERVICES.
SERVICES CONDUCTED BY OUR RELIGIOUS SCHOOL STUDENTS
 
 MARCH 12 - CANTOR WEEKEND WITH HAZZAN ARIEL ROTHSCHILD
 
SHMOOZE AND LUNCH, THURSDAY MARCH 18, 11AM
RABBI GARY -- "PREPARING FOR PASSOVER - NEW WINE IN OLD BOTTLES" 
 
MARCH 19 - CONGREGATIONAL SHABBAT DINNER
 
MARCH 26 - SHABBAT HAGADOL - ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS SHABBAT -
RABBI ANDREA COHEN-KEINER GUEST SPEAKER
 
MONDAY EVENING, MARCH 29, PASSOVER BEGINS
TUESDAY EVENING, MARCH 30, CONGREGATIONAL SECOND SEDER
 
SATURDAY EVENING, APRIL 24, SYNAGOGUE ANNUAL FUNDRAISER
Social Actions Projects     
February continues to be "Tikkun Olam" month at Beth Hillel Synagogue.
Every time you are at synagogue, consider bringing a donation of food for the kosher or general food bank, or appropriate-to-wear clothes and coats to help the needy. 
 
The Social Action Commitrtee of Beth Hillel Synagogue continues working with our counterparts atTemple Beth Hillel  in supporting

 

OPEN HEARTH

Theopenhearth.org

A facility providing shelter for homeless men...... 

There is a need for:

      * Twin Size blankets and sheerts... new or used
       * Towels and Toiletries
        * Books and Board Games

 

 Cash contributions to help purchase the same. Your participation and cooperation is greatly appreciated.  Thank you for making a difference in our community!!!!

 

Beth Hillel Synagogue received a very nice letter of thanks from Shari Cantor, Food Bank Director, thanking us for our ongoing donations. She writes, "We are told in Midrash Psalms 118:17, "When you are asked in the world to come, "What was your work," and you answer, 'I fed the hungry,' you will be told, 'this is the gate of the Lord, enter into it, you who have fed the hungry.'"   Thank you for thinking of the people we serve."

Important Community Event  
 The Jewish Community Relations Council in collaboration with several community agencies and the Greater Hartford Rabbinic Association will be sponsoring a screening of

The Case for Israel: Democracy's Outpost

A feature-length documentary film with Alan Dershowitz

 February 25, 7:00 pm Mandell JCC

Gloria Greenfield, one of the film's producers, will be leading a discussion after the screening

 
 Call ahead to reserve a ticket!!!!!!
Being a Caring Community...... 
 
If you know someone who is hospitalized, ill, or in need of a call from the rabbi ... or a visit from our Hesed committee, please let Rabbi Atkins or the office know.....
 
Many people are travelling this time of year. Rabbi Atkins' favorite mitzvah is "shaliach kesef,".....  giving those travelling the prayer for a safe journey and "mitzvah money." Let him know if you are traveling....
 
If you have not  made a  donation to assist the victims of the Haiti  Earthquake, please do so now!!
 
If you have a coat in good condition,  donate it to the needy via the synagogue drop-off boxes!
 
Every time you  come to synagogue, bring a donation for the food bank boxes (except for Shabbat).
Israel News...... 
 There is an  excellent website devoted to Israel developments in hi-tech. . It is Israel21c.org. I invite you to "check it out" on a regular basis!!
Special Invitation...... 
Moment Magazine is a first-rank magazine on Jewish life and literature.
It is celebrating its 35th anniversary and is offering a free subscrption to anyone who is also 35 in 2010. See Rabbi Atkins for further information!!
Sonny-Gram  program begins at Hebrew Health Care....   
If you go to the home page of Hebrew Health Care, in the lower left corner you will see an invitation to send a "SonnyGram."  The SonnyGram is named after Sonya Rodin, who was a resident at Hebrew Health Care in West Hartford for 3 years. Sonya Rodin was known by all who knew her as Sonny, a name that personified her energy, passion and character. In loving memory of her life and her spirit, the Rodin family has developed the SonnyGram, which will allow anyone to send a greeting to a friend or loved one who is currently a patient or a resident at Hebrew Health Care.

Select a card and personalize it with a message for your loved one. Hebrew Heaklth Care will deliver your SonnyGram to them, and they'll have a reminder of how you're thinking of them.   THANKS, JACK and SONS!!!!!!

For all you football fans..... a Jewish angle!!   from The Jewish Week....   
                                          The Saints' Jewish Angel  by Steve Lipman
As Saints GM, Arnie Fielkow fought to keep the team in New Orleans after Katrina.

The players' and coaches' roster of the Super Bowl champions New Orleans Saints shows no Jewish names responsible for the team's success atop professional football. But the New Orleans City Council bears one name responsible for the fact that the Saints ain't elsewhere. Arnie Fielkow.

In August 2005, after Hurricane Katrina destroyed large parts of the city - inflicting major damage to the Louisiana Superdome, the Saints' 72,968-seat home - owner Tom Benson made no secret of his desire to permanently move the temporarily displaced franchise to more lucrative San Antonio.
 
Fielkow, then the team's executive vice president of administration - in effect, Benson's second-in-command - said no. He fought to have the Saints play their home games for a while in Baton Rouge,  and to make the Saints "a major part of the rebuilding and revitalization" of New Orleans, while Benson favored San Antonio's Alamodome.
So Benson fired Fielkow.

"It still hurts," says the Wisconsin native and "lifelong [Green Bay] Packers fan" who worked for the Saints six years. "I miss it every day."  Fielkow, a lawyer who had worked in Chicago and spent most of his career in sports administration, bounced back quickly. Trading on his reputation as a loyal adopted son, he won an at-large seat on the City Council in 2006. An effective legislator, he was considered a front-runner in the recent election to succeed incumbent Mayor Ray Nagin until deciding to stay in the council, where he currently serves as council president. 
 
On Sunday, unable to get to Miami for the Super Bowl, he watched the underdog Saints beat the Indianapolis Colts 310in On Tuesday, he planned to watch the team's victory parade - from a politicians' reviewing stand. Throughout the week, he basked in the success of the Saints, which became a post-Katrina symbol of the city's revival. When the team made overtures to San Antonio, fans rallied around the Saints, and the National Football League ensured that a popular franchise didn't move.

Fielkow, 53, tells The Jewish Week in a telephone interview, that in recent weeks people have come up to him to offer congratulations for his role in keeping the team in town, in position to win the NFL championship.
 
The San Antonio Express-News called him the team's "most vocal proponent of keeping the team in Louisiana." 
"A voice of reason," wrote a columnist on the New Orleans Times-Picayune. 

"God bless fired Saints executive Arnold Fielkow ... for standing up for our region," a Times-Picayune reader wrote. 
A privately sponsored billboard that appeared last month in Metairie, a New Orleans suburb, stated "Go Saints!" Underneath were the words "Thank you Arnie Fielkow, we haven't forgotten." "I''m glad some people remember," he says.

 
Fielkow is an active member of several civic and Jewish organizations - board member of the Jewish federation, Jewish community center and Touro College. "It's an important part of my life."

His life today is as successful as the Saints', Fielkow says. "I'm well. Everything has worked out."          
Weekly Torah  Commentary...  
written by Rabbi Michael Gold of Tamarac, Florida 
 
 After reading last week the broad commitments of the Ten Commandments, the Torah turns this week to the nitty-gritty details.  How does Israel establish a just society?  How does it deal with laws ranging from robbery to damages, from marital relations to festivals?  The first law in this portion regards a Hebrew slave (or more likely, an indentured servant.)  Six years he works and on the seventh year he goes free.
       It is certainly a giant step forward from previous practices, where a Hebrew slave worked forever.  But why only a Hebrew slave; why not let a non-Hebrew slave free after six years?  And for that matter, why does the Torah allow slavery at all?  Why not simply outlaw any human being forced to work for another against their will, without a reasonable wage?
       Perhaps the Torah should have forbidden slavery.  For that matter, perhaps the Torah should have outlawed capital punishment, war, animal sacrifice, and the second-class status of women.  If the Torah is a document of eternal laws, perhaps it should have communicated an ethical ideal from the very beginning.
       The deep teaching is that ethical laws are not given in their complete form once and for all.  Ethical laws evolve as human beings evolve.  Among the Greeks, Aristotle spoke of justice.  But for Aristotle this meant giving everybody their due according to their status in life.  The wealthy and powerful were given more than the working poor, who received more than slaves or women.  Justice was part of the ancient Greek outlook, but it was a limited vision of justice.  As history developed, the circle of ethical concern expanded accordingly.  Ethics evolved.
       It is embarrassing that when the United States Constitution was enacted, slaves were counted as three-fifths of human beings.  But at time it was a step forward.  Giving equal moral status to people of color took a civil war and over two hundred years of history.  And we are not there yet.  Less than one hundred years ago women were finally granted the right to vote in the United States.  In religious circles we are still debating the propriety of full female participation in religious life.
       Today the circle of ethical concern continues to expand.   Only in the past few years is there serious discussion about the rights and participations of gays and lesbians in our civil and religious life.   The debate remains intense about the rights and privileges of immigrants in this country.  There is a deep Jewish concern for the humanity of the "other," but this has been a slow evolution.  For the ancient Israelites, freeing a Hebrew slave in the seventh year was a huge ethical step forward.  In our time, allowing a gay man or lesbian woman into the military, or ordaining them as a rabbi, is a huge ethical step forward.  It was as unthinkable thirty years ago as a bat mitzvah was unthinkable in my grandfather's time.  Ethics evolve.
       Synagogues and churches throughout America have designated this weekend as Evolution Shabbat, to deal with issues of religion and Darwin's theory.  I have spoken directly on the Darwin's theory in recent weeks.  But I believe the theory is not only true when talking about life on earth.  I believe evolution is true in the realm of ideas.  Richard Dawkins, the renowned biologist and atheist (with whom I often disagree), coined the term "memes."   Memes are to the world of ideas what genes are to the world of biology.  Some memes, like some genes, quickly disappear.  Other memes flourish and spread throughout humanity.  Ethical caring for the other is a meme which is spreading.  There is an expanding circle of ethical care.  Ethics, like life itself, is in the midst of an ongoing process of evolution.