Shalom Congregants and Friends.....
 
Rabbi's Ramblings...... 
     
I am back from a wonderful vacation in Israel -- and so is the E-Shul. It was great to see family and enjoy the tastes and scenery of Eretz Israel. I'll be happy to share a narrative and photos from our trip with whoever asks! Now, back at Beth Hillel..... here we are, dealing with the heat of summer, especially this past week -- so be cool and attend our air-conditioned services this Shabbat!
 
The tag sale has started - Kudos to Myrna and her dedicated crew who have given so many hours to this fundraiser!
 
This Shabbat Maura Nemirow will give the first of our series of summer book reviews on Friday evening. She will be talking about "The River Midnight." Saturday morning I'll be sharing thoughts about current life and politics in Israel.
 
Sunday evening and  Monday are Rosh Hodesh Av. We start the "9 days" which are a period of semi-mourning before the Fast Day of Tisha B'av. The area Conservative synagogues will get together as in other years and hold  services together. Monday evening, July 19, they will be at 8pm at Emanuel. Tuesday afternoon, July 20, Beth Hillel will host them at 1pm.
 
There's a lot of "catching up" to do, but it's good to be home. See you often as we start preparing for the High Holy Days, just two months ahead of us!
 
Shabbat Shalom -- look forward to 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...
 This Week  Shabbat Services & Candle Lighting
 CANDLE LIGHTING   
 
 Friday, July  9..... 8:07pm
 
SHABBAT  SERVICE TIMES:                               
Friday, July 9 - 8:00pm
Saturday, July 10 - Shaharit 9:30am, Mincha/ Maariv/Havdalah 8:00pm  
 
Come enjoy the beautiful Havdalah ceremony that ends Shabbat...
Congregational Announcements 
Synagogue Bulletin Board
There is a new bulletin board by the door to the rabbi's office. Take a look when you're in the building to read notices of community events and contemporary news articles!
And there are also good handouts on the racks by both the chapel and sanctuary.....
 
 Traveling in the weeks ahead?????
Ask Rabbi Atkins for "shaliach kesef" - messenger money - along with a prayer for a safe journey, it will "guarantee" you a safe trip.
It's one of my favorite  mitzvot!!
 
 Library Reminders
Lots of good new books in the Library - and interesting periodicals like Consumer Reports, The Jewish Week, and The Forward!.......  
 
 Music and videos, too!   Our subscription to the Jerusalem Post newspaper has resumed!
 
Beautify The Synagogue Grounds 
Call Tobie Neuwirth at 242-7084 to volunteer ......
 
The Tag Sale Is Here!!!...... 
This important fundraiser starts on July 9.  Try to volunteer a few hours of your time to assist in earning money for the synagogue!!! 
 
 
 Graduation congratulations 
If you had a graduate or simcha in your family, let the rabbi and the office know! We like to kvell at happy occasions - so share the good news!!! LAST CALL!!!
 Upcoming  Special Events   - For more info see  Chai-lites!!    
 
July 14, 7pm - Board of Directors Meeting
 
July 19 - Tisha B'av evening services, 8pm at Emanuel (no evening minyan at BHS)
 
July 20 - Tisha B'av services 7am and 1pm at Beth Hillel Synagogue
 
July 16 and 23 - Book reviews at Friday evening services
 
July 30 - Shabbat Under the Stars - BBQ and Services -6:00pm
 Social Action Updates    
 
Help with Darfur
Help in Hartford
 
Be aware of those less fortunate than we are!!
Israel in the News    
 WHO'S AFRAID OF THE PALESTINIANS?
Moshe Arens
Ha'aretz, July 6, 2010

Little noticed in the brouhaha that surrounded the Israeli interception of the "peace flotilla" that tried to break the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip was Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's remarks to the Egyptian parliament last week. Trying to distance Egypt from the problem of allowing supplies to enter Gaza, even though Egypt shares a border with the Strip and could supply the population there with all its needs, he said: "Israel is trying to shirk its responsibility to Gaza and throw it at Egypt." He studiously ignored the fact that if Egypt had been prepared to allow supplies for Gaza to enter through the Rafah crossing, there would have been no excuse for attempting to bring supplies in by sea.

But Egypt is afraid of the Palestinians on its border. The Egyptians will not allow Palestinian refugees to enter Egypt, nor do they want to assist the Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip in any way. Continually voicing their concern for the plight of the Palestinians, Egyptian rulers over the years have done little to help the Palestinians in Gaza, out of fear that they may be reinforcing Hamas, which is an ally of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood.

Putting the burden on Israel is Egyptian policy. Their attitude to the Palestinians is not that different from that of King Farouk 62 years ago when he sent his army, navy and air force to squash the newly born Jewish state. Trying to gain control of as much as possible of the territory that British forces had evacuated in Palestine, he had no intention of establishing a Palestinian state in these areas...

The Jordanian government's policy, as well, seems to be based on the principle of keeping one's distance from the Palestinians. Jordan, the majority of whose population is Palestinian, desires no more of them. King Abdullah II sounds pathetic alarm bells every few weeks that a war in the area is inevitable unless a Palestinian state is established, but will not entertain the thought that the areas in Judea and Samaria populated by Palestinians be incorporated into Jordan as part of a negotiated settlement with Israel.

It was many years before he was born-May 15, 1948-that his great-grandfather King Abdullah sent his British-officered and British equipped Arab Legion across the Jordan aiming to gain as much territory as possible for his kingdom. After months of fighting, his army on the verge of defeat by the IDF, he managed to retain control of Judea and Samaria and East Jerusalem, including the Old City, in the 1949 armistice agreement with Israel. He had no intention of establishing a Palestinian state in the areas that came under his control. Instead, he annexed the areas to Jordan, granting Jordanian citizenship to the Palestinian population living there.

That was the situation until the Six-Day War. Seven years later, in 1974, King Hussein, Abdullah II's father, effectively renounced Jordan's claim to Judea, Samaria and East Jerusalem by recognizing Yasser Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. At that point, with the memory still fresh in his mind of Black September in 1970, when the PLO attempted to take over Jordan, Hussein decided that he already had enough Palestinians on his hands. Better that they become Israel's problem.

There are many reasons why Egypt and Jordan have come to fear the Palestinians. Part of the responsibility rests on the Palestinian leadership, which on almost all occasions chose the path of violence-first the Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj Amin al-Husseini, who during World War II allied himself with Hitler, and later Yasser Arafat, who headed an international campaign of terror to be followed by a wave of Palestinian suicide bombers in Israel's cities. And more recently, the Hamas leadership in Gaza that has made rocket terror attacks against Israeli civilians its specialty.

It remains to be seen whether Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, who advocates a policy that forswears violence, can establish sufficient authority among the Palestinians so as to allay Egyptian and Jordanian fears of the Palestinians. 

Torah Portion -- Commentary of the Week 
 
This week written by my colleague, Rabbi Michael Gold of Tamarac, Florida... 
 
With this long double portion we come to the end of the book of Numbers.  The Israelites are encamped on the eastern border of the land of Canaan.  Moses will be unable to enter the land, but shortly the Israelites will conquer it.  Towards the end of the portion the Torah carefully lays out the borders of the land.
       Reading this, we should be able to carefully trace out the borders promised to the people Israel.  Unfortunately, borders have turned out to be an ever shifting and changing reality.  King David expanded the borders, while various conquerors contracted the borders.  The northern kingdom disappeared never to appear again.  The southern kingdom disappeared, then reappeared, only to be conquered by the Greeks followed by the Romans.  And eventually the Romans destroyed the second Commonwealth.  For almost 2000 years of Jewish history there were no borders.
       Modern Israel was founded in 1948, but even after sixty years of statehood there are still no agreed upon international borders.  Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip (which she had conquered from Egypt in 1967) and allowed Gaza to be its own place.  Hamas came into power and so began almost daily rocket attacks across the border.  Four years ago Hamas commandos crossed the border into Israel proper and kidnapped a young soldier Gilad Shalit.  He is still being held a prisoner in Gaza.   In the end Israel may have to give up hundreds of terrorists prisoners to get one soldier back.
       If Israel and the Palestinians ever come to a peace agreement, where will the borders be?  Israel demands an undivided Jerusalem that includes both the western (Jewish) and eastern (Arab) parts of the city.  The Palestinians demand east Jerusalem as the capital of a newfound state.  Even in Jewish Jerusalem, there are whole ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods who do not recognize the legitimacy of the Jewish state.  Some would prefer to live under Palestinian sovereignty.  How do you possibly draw borders in such a situation?
    
   Even the United States with its well-established international borders has border difficulty.  How do we guard the border with Mexico against those who would illegality cross into the United States?   Arizona has passed extremely strict laws against illegal immigrants, laws that have been condemned by many liberals, including the president of the United States.  Most of us want secure borders, but are happy to hire those who cross them illegally to clean our houses, mow our lawns, or wash the dishes in our restaurants.  Borders create difficult problems.
       As I write this, I am flying across the country from Fort Lauderdale to Los Angeles.  I am sitting at a window seat looking out at the landscape below.  From up here there are no borders.  The airplane flies over each state but without a GPS, it is impossible to tell when we leave one and cross into the next.  What is true for airplanes is so much more true for spacecraft.   Astronauts have remarked how, when they look down on earth, they see no boundaries.  All they see is a unity.
       Borders and boundaries are artificial human inventions.  We need them.  Even in our private lives, we need to know where our property line ends and our neighbors' property line begins.  But how often do our artificial borders become a way of cutting us off from our neighbors.  Borders become barriers.  And how often to our international borders become a way of preventing us from knowing others.  Borders are a source of separation.  And as our rabbis taught long ago, whenever there is separation there is sadness.
       I look forward to the day when Israel has secure, internationalized recognized borders.  I doubt that it will happen in my lifetime, but I believe it will happen someday.  But beyond that, I look forward to the day when those borders are not a barrier between peoples.  Someday Israeli families will be able to drive from Tel Aviv to Ramallah, and Palestinian families will be able to drive from Jenin to Haifa, and they will visit one another, shop in each others' stores, and see each other as human beings.  Some day the borders will stop being barriers.  As Theodore Herzl so aptly taught, "If you will it, it is no dream."