Shalom Congregants and Friends.....
 
Weekly Message from your Rabbi...... 
Last Friday night we heard a wonderful presentation from Dr. Joe Olzacki, the Bloomfield High School Music Director who  pioneered the "Identity Project." He shared some most meaningful and inspiring thoughts on his visit to Rwanda and participation in a UN Conference on preventing genocide. He also explained why he thought that Bloomfield was an especially caring community. I have copies of his letters, written while he was there, for anyone interested in reading them.   I also have copies of the "green shul" article that was referenced at our TuBishevat Seder. Just ask!!
 
 Last Saturday night, February 13, the ENTIRE HARTFORD JEWISH community assembled together for a community-wide Havdalah celebration. It was a standing-room-only evening!! I taught the prayer for healing, "El na r'fa na la." 
 
Let me remind you all that a "painless" way to support the synagogue is through the purchase of supermarket scrip. Your purchasing the gift cards for CVS or supermarkets can make a big difference for the synagogue budget! Also, Iris and I helped to sponsor the oneg when we celebrated our anniversary a few days ago. If you have a simcha in your life, this is a nice mitzvah to do!
 
Purim is coming up, the weeking after this one! I hope even adults will enjoy the Purim spirit and get out a costume! Not sure what I will do... but I will have mishloach manot for congregants in/by my office starting Sunday. It's one of the special mitzvot of the holiday. When Purim comes, sooner or later it will be spring! I will try to do a careful job until then of keeping the thermostats down in the chapel, classroom, and offices when not in use!
 
We are a caring community! I feel the saying of a "mee shebayerach" prayer for healing is one of the most important things a synagogie can do. We post the names in the office for those who would like to do the mitzvah of a call or visit. We also send out a letter telling those included that a prayer is being said on their behalf. And we respect anyone's wish for privacy if we are so informed.
 
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. Our religious school kids had a special "PJ" Sunday morning - they could wear pajamas to school if they made a special donation for Haiti relief.  Again --- Tikkun Olam in a practical way!
 
 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. 19, 5:09 pm
 FRIDAY EVENING, FEB. 26  5:17 pm 
 FRIDAY EVENING, MARCH 5, 5:26 pm
 
 
UPCOMING SHABBAT  SERVICE TIMES:                               
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......
 
Friday, March 3 - 7:30pm - Israel Emissaries Speaking at Services
Saturday, March 4 Shaharit 9:30am, Mincha/Maariv/Havdalah 5:30pm
 
 Come enjoy the beautiful Havdalah ceremony that ends Shabbat! 
Some  Upcoming  Special Events    
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 12-13 - 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 Committee 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!!!!
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...... 
 I share with you, below, a report written by Rabbi Barry Schlesinger of Kehillat Moreshet Avraham in Jerusalem. It is a thoughtful presentation in which he describes his experience at the Kotel area on Monday morning, Rosh Hodesh Adar. I commend it to you precisely because Rabbi Schlesinger is non-incendiary. Nevertheless, it powerfully conveys the challenge we continue to face to bring about an Israeli society where freedom of religious expression is embraced.
 
David H. Lissy
Executive Director & CEO
Masorti Foundation for Conservative Judaism in Israel
 
Kotel- Western Wall - Monday, Feb. 15, 2010
 By Rabbi Barry Schlesinger
 
The old expression says that it's easier to light a fire than to extinguish one.
I was in the eye of the storm at the Kotel this morning. From my side of the mechitza (dividing wall between the men and women at the Western Wall), I witnessed firsthand how easy it is to foment anger and create a riot, and how difficult it is to stop one.
 
Since it is the first day of the Hebrew month of Adar, the Woman of the Wall and their supporters congregated at the entrance to the Women's Section, far from the actual Wall. The women prayed and sung quietly and modestly.
 
Police guarded the women.
At around 7:15 am, a man in Ultra-Orthodox garb stood up on a chair and yelled from the Men's Section over the dividing wall- demanding that the woman stop praying and remove their tallitot (prayer shawls), which some of them had donned. This gentleman came and went a number of times and then at around 7:25 am, another man came dressed in tallit and t'fillin and started lecturing the women, yelling at them and telling them:
 
1. They  will  not succeed in what they are doing.
2. They will not undermine the tradition of Moses from Sinai and that they should cease and desist all activity at the Wall.
 
This man went on for about six minutes, and then about 50 more Ultra-Orthodox men gathered at the corner area of the Men's Section that borders the area in the Women's Section where the WOW were praying. The men started yelling:
Gevalt
Amalek
Nazis
Go back to America
You caused the Holocaust
You are worse than Goyim
The main speaker was handed a megaphone to continue his vicious diatribe against all those who came to daven and or show support to the WOW.
 
The peace at the Kotel was indeed disturbed, but not by the WOW. The peace was disturbed by the rowdy men who gathered at the Kotel to yell, scream and insult anyone and everyone who engage in Jewish prayer in a manner contrary to their own belief and religious expression.
 
We should hold Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz responsible for letting the men conduct an unlawful demonstration within the Kotel grounds. He should be held to task for not exhibiting the leadership needed to quell the spirit of hate and disdain. This mini-riot at the Kotel happened during his watch (and on Rosh Hodesh), and he is responsible.
 
It is important to emphasize that it's unfortunate that the police had to be there to maintain order, while they should have been out on the streets fighting crime. The police were patient and did their job well. What could have been a lovely morning of prayer and celebration of the new Month of Adar, turned into a major desecration of God's name and enmity between Jews.
 
A number of men at the Kotel are totally responsible for ruining the prayers and atmosphere at the Kotel, and Rabbi Rabinowitz should know that as a civil servant in his capacity of Rabbi of the Holy Places, he failed at making sure that unlawful, rowdy and hateful behavior will not be tolerated in the area of the Wall designated for prayer.
Weekly Torah  Commentary...  
written by Rabbi Michael Gold of Tamarac, Florida 
 
     One of my favorite themes in Jewish tradition grows out of this portion.  God commands the Israelites to build a tabernacle, with a holy ark to keep the tablets of the Ten Commandments.   Above the ark were two cherubim, winged humans figures facing each other.  Usually they are pictured as two children or two angels.  And God spoke to the people Israel from between the faces of the cherubim.
       I have often written that the best way to feel God's presence is when two people encounter one another face-to-face.  (That is what drives me crazy about seeing people, particularly young people, together at a table and texting others on their cell phones.)   The Jewish existentialist philosopher Martin Buber built his entire philosophy on the importance of encounters between two human beings who are totally present with one another.  He called such an encounter an "I - Thou" relationship.  And he wrote, "Each Thou is a glimpse through to the Eternal Thou."  When two people are face-to-face in a moment of total encounter, one can sense the presence of God.
       This idea can be extended into the realm of sexual encounters.  According to the Talmud, the cherubim were not simply statues of winged children.  "Rav Katina said, When the Israelites would ascend to the Holy Temple on festivals, the Priests would roll up the curtain for them and display the cherubim, a man and a woman intertwined.  The Priests would then tell them, behold beloved feelings for you on the part of the Omnipresent are like the beloved feelings of a male for a female."  (Yoma 54a)   The Talmud describes the encounter as male encountering female face-to-face in a sexual embrace.
       Seeing the cherubim in an erotic light puts a whole new understanding on the presence of God.  God is not simply present when two people encounter one another across a table, but when a husband and a wife encounter one another in the bedroom.  (My second book was called Does God Belong in the Bedroom?   The answer is yes.)   I often speak of the difference between animals and human beings.  One further difference is that most animals have sex face to back.  Humans, at least most of the time, have sex face-to-face.
       The Kabbalists really took off on this idea.  They saw the face-to-face encounter of a man with a woman as a reenaction of the cosmic encounter between God and the people Israel.  Kabbalistic scholar Moshe Idel has written, "... face-to-face intercourse is praised by the Zohar thereafter becomes, especially in Lurianic Kabbalah, a cosmogonic principle which defines the mode of existence that insures permanence."  (Kabbalah and Eros, page 58)  (Definition - cosmogonic means a story about the creation of the universe.  Face-to-face erotic love is built into the very structure of the universe.)
       What does all this have to do with life today?  We live in an age of anonymous, recreational sex.   Two people hop into bed together, handle their physical needs, and then the next morning ask one another, "What is your name?"  We live in an age of separation and estrangement, when people do not even know who their neighbors are.  We live in an age of otherness, when we fail to recognize the humanity of our fellow human beings.  And as mentioned earlier, we live in an age when we can sit at the family dinner table, each person with their own cell phone, ipod, or blackberry.  Face-to-face encounters are sadly lacking in our society.
       The Torah teaches that God and Moses met face-to-face.  So we ought to learn to encounter each other face-to-face; there we will find the presence of God.