Rabbi's Ramblings...... 

 

Shalom Congregants and Friends.....    

 

We had a lot of rain last Sunday, and some of us lost power for several hours, but generally our area was spared the damage that occurred both to our south and north. When we see the strength of these manifestations of nature, the blessing, ".....whose power and might feel the universe," is most meaningful and real!
I hear that somewhere in the South Atlantic, Hurricane Katia is starting. The old "Fiddler on the Roof" "blessing" comes to mind -- May God bless and keep the (hurricane) very far from us!

 

I wish everyone an enjoyable Labor Day holiday weekend. Whether you look on it as the "last fling" of summer or not, it is an opportunity to be grateful for the many blessings in our lives. See the modification to service schedules below... join us as you can.

 

Next week we get into "High Gear" for the High Holy Days. The September bulletin is out (if you called in for e-mail distribution you have it already!) Other HHD information will be mailed out soon.

 

We have prepared an updated membership brochure as well as membership packets. Again,.....  If you know of any possible members, let the office know so we can invite them to consider membership. David Nemirow and Joel Neuwirth are heading our reinvigorated membership committee. We have scheduled,  for example, an open house at the Gillette Ridge clubhouse for residents there on Sunday, September 11.

 

Remember the Abe Morrison Shabbat dinner coming up on Friday evening, September 9th. Please put that date on your calendar and consider coming to / making your RSVP! We will also celebrate September Simcha Shabbat and remember both Friday evening and Saturday morning the tragedy of 9/11 ten years ago. There are also community observances as well which you may choose to attend.

 

I invite all parents of college students to ask their children to either sign up for the e-shul or send us their e-address so we can stay in contact with them!

  

Shabbat Shalom ....... Rabbi Gary and Iris Atkins

 
"All it takes to study Torah is an open heart,

a curious mind and a desire to grow a Jewish soul."  

Shabbat  Services & Candle Lighting Times
CANDLE LIGHTING     
Friday, Sept. 2, 7:03pm

SHABBAT SERVICE TIMES    

Friday, Sept. 3, 6:15pm  EARLY SERVICE - AS PER HOLIDAY SCHEDULE

Saturday, Sept. 4, 9:30am, 7:00pm Mincha/ Maariv

 

MONDAY, SEPT 5.... 9am MORNING MINYAN / OFFICE CLOSED

 

PLEASE NOTE: When sunset becomes earlier than 7:30, we will only daven Maariv at our evening service. This was effective with the coming of Rosh Hodesh Elul last Monday evening,  August  29.

Joke of the Week  

 

 A dog walked into a bar and ordered a martini. He said to the bartender, "What are you staring at?"

 

The bartender replied, "Just surprised to see a dog here ordering a martini."

 

"Well," replied the dog. "At these prices, I'm not surprised!"

Social Action Updates    
 
Be a reading  volunteer! Sign up to be a member of the Hartford Jewish Coalition for Literacy! Organizational / training meeting Sept. 14. Visit JewishHartford.org or call 860-236-7323 for more information!

 

Become involved!!.... Ther Bloomfield ClergyAssociation has become the Bloomfield Interfaith Association, open to all interested participants. Please join us for an organizational meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 6, 12 noon at the First Congregational Church. Lunch will be provided, so please let Rabbi Atkins know of your interest in attending --  to both greet you there and pass on attendance figures re food.

 

Be aware of those less fortunate than we are!! Carry out the mitzvah of tikkun olam!

 

A mitzvah we can ALL DO: Visit a friend in a nursing home or assisted living center or who otherwise can't get out! Or bring someone to a service here who c ouldn't get here on their own!
Community Events    

JCC Annual Memorial Service for the Six Million.

At the JCC Sunday, September 18, 2pm.

 

Save the date:
Monday, October 24, Special showing: Nuremberg - Its Lessons for Today.... the suppressed film! Sponsored by JFACT

For All You Basketball Fans    

  

Hoopster Jon Scheyer makes aliyah

JERUSALEM (JTA)

Scheyer, who signed in June to play with Israel's championship Maccabi Tel Aviv team, landed Tuesday in Israel on a group aliyah flight organized by Nefesh B'Nefesh in cooperation with the Jewish Agency and the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption. 

"I am really looking forward to starting my new life in Israel and playing for Maccabi Tel Aviv," Scheyer said.

Scheyer, a guard who during his senior year helped lead the Blue Devils to the 2010 NCAA Championship, signed a two-year contract with Maccabi, which was the runner-up to the Euroleague champions this year and has won the Euroleague championship four times.

The team by Israeli rules is limited to no more than four foreign players. Since Scheyer has made aliyah, he will not count as one of the four. 

"I wanted Jon already last season, and I'm very happy that we managed to sign him," Maccabi coach David Blatt told reporters at the signing, adding that Scheyer is "a very talented and smart player" and "a true winner."

"Not less importantly he is a Jew who is coming to Israel," Blatt said, "and I wish he will stay here for many more years."

 News from Israel... Two very moving articles

 

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO ISRAEL?
George Rooks.... Jerusalem Post, August 22, 2011

Something has gone horribly wrong here in Israel.
How did we ever get to a point in this country where the South, including Beersheba, Sderot, Ashkelon, Kiryat Gat, Kiryat Malachi, Be'er Tuvia, Ofakim, Azrikam, Gan Yavne, Gedera and Ashdod were hit by more than 100 Grad rockets this past weekend? How did we ever get to a point in this country where we put the safety of our citizens at the mercy of international approval--with an Israeli defense official proclaiming on Monday morning that "lack of international support" was a reason that "Israel could not open a larger offensive" against the terrorists in Gaza.

 

Let me tell you how I think we got here. We got here by hiding the truth in euphemisms. Since the last "cease-fire" in 2008, the South has been assaulted by over 800 Kassams, mortars and Grads. How many times have you heard or read in the media, "No injuries or damage reported," or "The missile landed in an open area," or "Rockets disturb relative calm in South"? When did we ever get to a point where "relative calm" meant Israeli men, women and children being hit by over 800 missiles--or that missiles being fired at our citizens is a "disturbance"? Would any other country tolerate even a single missile fired at its citizens? A study as far back as 2008 revealed that "between 75 and 94 percent of Sderot children aged 4-18 exhibit symptoms of post-traumatic stress." Each time a missile is fired at Israel, there is emotional or physical injury to our citizens.

We got here by accepting the farcical nonsense that the IDF is doing something to stop the rocket fire. Sure, the government has ostensibly embarked upon a campaign of tit for tat. Hamas fires a rocket at us, and we drop a bomb on them--except that we really don't drop a bomb on them. We bomb the smuggling tunnels, rocket-making factories, and any empty building the IAF can find. How successful has that been? By the IDF's own estimate, Hamas has now smuggled in over 10,000 rockets and missiles.

We got here by the IDF's coming up with every conceivable rationalization not to act at all. Some of the most absurd rationalizations have been the most recent. On August 3, it was reported that two rockets struck the Lachish area. In response, the IAF hit the requisite empty buildings in Gaza. No sooner had this happened, however, than IDF spokesmen quickly excused the rocket attack by rationalizing that "the increase in rocket fire is Hamas's way to vent its frustration [over] being left out of the Palestinian Authority's current plans to unilaterally declare statehood at the United Nations in September."

 

Does the IDF really believe that Hamas's continuing assault on innocent children, women and men is a way for its members to "vent their frustration" with their fellow Palestinians? I thought that Hamas simply wanted to see Jews and Israel wiped off the face of the planet. Next we'll have the IDF blaming Hamas missile attacks on the price of cottage cheese in Beit Hanun.

We got here by the IDF's being unprepared to do anything. On Saturday night, after a day of unrestricted rocket fire against Israel, causing death and destruction--with more firing on Sunday morning--the IDF did nothing. Instead, we had an army spokesman coming up with the gem that "deterrence must be established before the situation spirals out of control." But the IDF has no idea about how to deter anything.

Are we supposed to feel comforted that Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz held security consultations all day this past Saturday "to draw up potential responses and courses of actions?" Where has the IDF staff been for the last three years? Weren't the events of the weekend completely predictable by your average first-grader? The IDF suddenly seems paralyzed by indecision and beset with passive and failed leadership among its top officers.
We got here by hiding behind technology and letting the IDF hide behind technology. Whatever wondrous results the Iron Dome produces, it is a form of passive protection. We let Hamas and Hezbollah accumulate and fire missiles at us, and we intercept as many as possible. Are lives saved? Undoubtedly. Is the terror lessened? Not at all--as the sirens blare, we run to hide in our bomb shelters or crouch behind walls. Technology is no substitute for boots on the ground--or a comprehensive, well-planned aerial attack.

 

We got here by buying into and perpetuating the idiotic notion that every group except Hamas is responsible for the rocket fire emanating from Gaza. Al- Tawhid wal-Jihad, the Popular Resistance Committees, Islamic Jihad, and a hundred other groups: Suddenly all of these are "radical," but Hamas is not. How nauseating it was to read on Sunday that Hamas was now trying to get Islamic Jihad to stop firing missiles at the South. This is classic good cop-bad cop--with Hamas astonishingly being portrayed as the good cop wanting peace. This nonsense has to stop.
We got here by trying to be politically correct and adopting the thinking of human rights organizations that want us to assume responsibility for the "poor" people of Gaza. Late last month, the army stressed its ongoing efforts to help Palestinian farmers export their produce to European markets. So this is how the IDF now spends its time? How proud we are to say that we drop leaflets and make phone calls in advance of our attacks against terrorists. How morally superior that makes us feel. Yet every time we do this, we help the terrorists escape, ultimately at the bloody expense of our own citizens. No matter how many leaflets we drop and how much we help the Palestinians, our attempts to ingratiate ourselves in the arena of world opinion miserably fail.

Finally, we got here by unilaterally withdrawing from Gaza. Whatever else you want to say, the settlements in northern Gaza were a buffer between the rest of Gaza and Israel, and to have left without having any security guarantees in return was a gross demonstration of weakness........

War journal:

Beer Sheva, Wednesday 24 August 2011, 10:50PM

 

A few days ago, I stopped writing this letter, because on Sunday a ceasefire was announced. Today, on Wednesday, we heard the sirens again. I am writing to share with you some of my experiences and feelings.

 

I did not think that I would be writing a war journal again, and despite the fact that the hope for peace still rings within me, reality demands attention. Last Shabbat (August 20), I came as usual to our shul, Congregation Eshel Avraham in Beersheva. It was 9AM. One minute before the services began, the siren sounded. We all ran into the small shelter in our building. We took into account that we have less than 60 seconds, according to the Home Front Command, to find cover.

 

There was a tense quiet as we looked at one another. We waited to hear the explosion. Our first hope is always directed towards Iron Dome, the new anti-rocket system that is capable of destroying the rocket in the air. Our second hope, in case Iron Dome fails, is that at least the rocket will explode in an open area. But we also know that hopes are not always actualized, and there is always a chance that a rocket will explode in a place filled with people, maybe even where we happen to be.

 

 Tension. Fear. The silence is broken by the cries of one of the congregants. What to do?  Suddenly I remember that we also have tools in our arsenal for moments like these. I make a suggestion: Why don't we start praying. We begin to sing together the "Ma tovu" prayer, "How wonderful are your tents, Jacob, your dwellings, Israel." In the background we can hear the first explosion. After a few minutes in the shelter, we return to the synagogue sanctuary.

These moments, when you are in a building, are the hardest. But they will be even harder outside. The instructions are to take cover within seconds, and if there is nowhere to go, lie on the ground with hands on your heads. As the minutes pass, more congregants arrive. It's clear that they experienced the sirens outside on the street.

 

The first to arrive was a new immigrant woman from the former Soviet Union. When I asked her what she did, she replied that she tried her best to remain far from places with glass. She was breathing heavily because she had to run in order to get to a safe place - the synagogue. Each congregant had a different story; one, a new immigrant from Canada (arrived only a few months ago), said she crouched down and put her tallit over her head. Faith, it turns out, is a powerful weapon.

 

That morning - on a weekend in the middle of the Israeli summer, in the middle of the school holiday, in which many people were looking for somewhere outside the city where they could spend time in light of the circumstances - we had approximately 30 people at services.

 

We are believers, but we are also worried. In our congregation, we have eight preschool classes, in which 230 children come to learn every day. Today they are on holidays. But on the first of September, when the schoolyear begins, the tension will be enormous.

 

In our congregation we have two buildings. The new building has a shelter than can house 120 children and our staff. The old building, however, which is home to classes with 110 children from ages three months to three years, does not have a shelter. The entire community of Eshel Avraham and our friends around the world are doing our best to find the 180.000 dollars funding in order to urgently build the missing shelter . God willing we will have a real ceasefire so that we can come to synagogue to pray in peace, so that our children will not be in danger and the shelter will be just another play room.

 

May he who makes peace in high places, make peace for us, for all Israel, and for all the humanity, and let us say, amen 

 

Rabbi Mauricio Balter

Congregation Eshel Avraham ..... Beer Sheva 

 

 

 

GILAD SHALIT...... OVER 1890 DAYS IN CAPTIVITY.... NO CONTACT ALLOWED BY HAMAS......

Weekly Torah Portion Commentary  -   

Courtesy of Rabbi Michael Gold   

 

WISDOM TEETH AND TORAH
 

"When he (the king) is seated on his royal throne, he shall have a copy of this Torah written for him on a scroll by the levitical priests." (Deuteronomy 17:18)
 
 

          My son Ben had his wisdom teeth out last week. He is doing okay, thank you. It is one of those rites of passage that most young adults need to go through (at least those young adults who can afford it or have good insurance.) But the issue of wisdom teeth raises a fascinating religious question. Why did God make our mouths too small for the number of teeth we have?

            It strikes me that if we believe in intelligent design, God would have designed a mouth for 28 teeth. 32 teeth just do not fit. They become impacted and create lots of business for oral surgeons. Why?

            Evolution does give an answer. If we evolved from lower primates, these primates have much bigger jaws. Their teeth easily fit. I have never heard of a chimpanzee needing its wisdom teeth removed. But as humans evolved, we needed a bigger and bigger brain. It takes more space to handle language, reason, and all the other wonderful things human brains can do. But if the skull grew bigger to allow more room for the brain, something else had to grow smaller. The head still needs to fit through the birth canal. (This is another interesting biological question. Why are we humans born at such a late age when it is difficult for the baby's head to fit, creating a risk to both the baby and the mother? That is a question for another time.)

               Biologists believe that if our brains were to become bigger, something had to give. Our jaws became smaller. Human beings evolved in a way that made it more difficult for all the teeth to fit in. So we are born with the potential to grow more teeth than can fit in our jaw. As I have often said, God created a world which is very good, but not perfect. The oral surgeons help to perfect the world. (And hopefully they will also volunteer to help the poor who do not carry insurance and cannot afford such surgery.)

            Darwin's theory of natural selection provides a partial answer to one of the oldest religious problems in history. Why is the world imperfect? Natural selection claims that life evolved not by design but by trial and error, minute changes over eons of time, allowing survival only of the fittest. So we humans received through natural selection big brains and little jaws. 

            Where is God in this process? A thought occurred to me this week . This portion gives the laws of a king. A king, even if all powerful, must always keep a copy of the Torah in front of him. The king could not arbitrarily pass rulings; he must consult some ultimate teaching. Even kings were responsible to a higher law.

            God is a King. Or so the liturgy of the High Holidays says over and over. Perhaps God also must constantly refer to a copy of the Torah. Perhaps God created the world with a copy of the Torah as a blueprint. If you think this idea is a little absurd, I did not make it up. It came from the Rabbis of Jewish tradition, straight out of the Midrash on the creation story. "The architect moreover does not build it out of his head, but employs plans and diagrams to know how to arrange the chambers and the wicket doors. Thus, God consulted the Torah and created the world." (Genesis Rabbah 1:1) Perhaps the whole process of evolution has a direction and a design.

           It is a radical but fascinating idea. Darwin's evolution by natural selection is a random process. Yet perhaps it is not totally random. Perhaps there is a direction to evolution. Perhaps there is a goal towards which life is progressing. Perhaps there is a lure that serves as an attractor for the development of life. Many mystics and philosophers have written that this is precisely how biology works.

           Wisdom teeth gives us an opportunity to speculate on why our bodies are built they way they are. Perhaps they point towards a profound mystical idea, the image of God holding the Torah while setting the entire process of evolution into motion.