Rabbi's Ramblings...... 

 

Shalom Congregants and Friends.....    

 

 

This edition of the e-shul will cover the next two weeks. Iris and I will be on vacation December 4 through 11. As I wrote in the Chai-lites, a good friend, celebrating his 65th anniversary, invited Iris and me to be his guests, along with another couple, on a week's cruise. Can't say "no" to that. Look forward to seeing me with some amount of tan upon my return to the office Monday, December 12! As always, rabbinical coverage has been arranged for any emergency situation.

 

I am looking forward to this Shabbat at services.... this week we will be celebrating Jewish Book Month (which is traditionally the month before Hanukkah) with book reviews Friday night and Saturday morning. Friday evening I will review "Lovesong," by Julius Lester, and Saturday morning Maura Nemirow will comment on a few books, incluiding "Songs for the Butcher's Daughter." We will hold oneg and kiddush in the library to encourage you to browse our library and see its many charms! Saturday morning, Len Holtz will be visiting ... He will be leading part of the service and chanting the haftorah.

 

I was most impressed by the film adaptation, shown on ABC last Sunday evening,  of Mitch Alboum's book, Have A Little Faith, the story of Rabbi Albert Lewis z"l and Pastor Henry Covington. It was the subject of one of my High Holy Day sermons in 2010. You should be able to get a DVD release in the near future if you missed it on television. Not too many movies made about rabbis! 

 

I invite you to attend services Shabbat December 9 and 10 and support Mike and David as they conduct services in my absence. Sunday morning, December 11, Brotherhood will be holding a breakfast meeting and Barry Kosmin will be speaking.

 

The December bulletin will be out soon -- and you'll receive it almost immediately if you e-mail Lynn at the office.

 

Friday evening, December 16, is our next congregational Shabbat dinner. Make your reservation now! And start looking forward to Hanukkah!

 

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."  

    
 Services & Candle Lighting Times

 

Friday, December 2,  8 P.M.. (CLT 4:01 EST)

Saturday, December 3, 9:30 A.M.,  Mincha, Maariv 4:00 P.M

 

Friday, December 9, 8P.M.. (CLT 4:00 EST)

Saturday, December 10, 9:30 A.M.,  Mincha, Maariv 4:00 P.M

Joke of the Week 
"I went out with twins last night."
"Really? Did you have a good time?"
"well -- yes and no."
Social Action Updates    
 

 Donate to an AREA FOOD BANK. THE NEED IS GREAT!

  
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 couldn't get here on their own!
Weekly Torah Portion Commentary.....
This week by Steven Lindemann  

 

This week's Torah portion is Vayaytzay-"And he went out..."  It contains Jacob's famous dream of the ladder and his marriages to Rachel and Leah.  It was my Bar Mitzvah parashah.

 

"He went out!"  The truth is I couldn't wait to get out.  It was like that terrible joke going around: "A minister is complaining to a rabbi about mice in his church.  He just can't get rid of them.  I know how to do it says the rabbi-just give them a bar mitzvah."  I hate that joke...maybe because it hits too close to home.  I'll tell you the truth-I don't remember much about my Bar Mitzvah.  I recall only the last part of the Haftorah, and I have a vague recollection of being on the bimah reciting it.  There was no D'var Torah.  I don't remember the party much.  Vayaytzey-I went out.  Period.

 

I went out with no intention of ever coming back.  And then, about a year or so later, the rabbi asked me to come to a class.  To get my mother off my back I went once, and I have been going ever since.   We studied Torah.  After another year, I began studying Hebrew.  It kept going through High School and college.  For me, the study has never stopped.

 

In the Parashah, Jacob leaves home and it will take him 20 years to come back.  He'll marry, establish himself in his profession, raise a family.  Finally, after all that, he will come back to his land, his people, and the covenant with God. 

Interestingly, this entire Parashah is one long passage of text, unbroken by any of the Torah's spaces used to divide a portion into a series of sections.  Thus, this whole Parashah is designated as Satum-closed.    

 

I guess the point of all this is that eventually we all go out.  There are "Vayaytzays" for all of us.  We leave the synagogue where we grew up, leave home, leave the old places, the old classes, the old friends....and maybe even leave regular Jewish practice and involvement. Perhaps we become closed off to Jewish identity and Jewish life.  What does it take to get us back, to open us up to Judaism and Jewish community?  It could be a class, a course, a shabbat dinner, a visit home, a chance encounter with a person who opens our eyes or our hearts.  

  
Beth Hillel Synagogue Library    

Lots of new books and videos......  

 Read contemporary newspapers and magazines!!
 
Celebrate Jewish Book Month - Visit the Synagogue Library....
Coming.... Book Reviews in Honor of Jewish Book Month.....
at services December 2nd and 3rd!
Upcoming Synagogue Events    

 

Upcoming Shmooze and Lunch programs -- December 15,  Laura Zimmerman of the JCRC

 

Brotherhood Meeting and Program - December 11, after minyan

 

Congregational Shabbat Dinner - December 16 - Welcoming new members, meet our Young Israel Emissary, Inbar Ribenzon

 

Hanukkah begins - Tuesday evening, December 20.

News from Israel...   

 

Breakthrough: Israel Develops Cancer Vaccine

Vaxil's groundbreaking therapeutic vaccine, developed in Israel, could keep about 90 percent of cancers from coming back.


As the world's population lives longer than ever, if we don't succumb to heart disease, strokes or accidents, it is more likely that cancer will get us one way or another. Cancer is tough to fight, as the body learns how to outsmart medical approaches that often kill normal cells while targeting the malignant ones.

In a breakthrough development, the Israeli company Vaxil BioTherapeutics has formulated a therapeutic cancer vaccine, now in clinical trials at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem. If all goes well, the vaccine could be available about six years down the road, to administer on a regular basis not only to help treat cancer but in order to keep the disease from recurring.

The vaccine is being tested against a type of blood cancer called multiple myeloma. If the substance works as hoped - and it looks like all arrows are pointing that way - its platform technology VaxHit could be applied to 90 percent of all known cancers, including prostate and breast cancer, solid and non-solid tumors.

"In cancer, the body knows something is not quite right but the immune system doesn't know how to protect itself against the tumor like it does against an infection or virus. This is because cancer cells are the body's own cells gone wrong," says Julian Levy, the company's CFO. "Coupled with that, a cancer patient has a depressed immune system, caused both by the illness and by the treatment." The trick is to activate a compromised immune system to mobilize against the threat.

A traditional vaccine helps the body's immune system fend off foreign invaders such as bacteria or viruses, and is administered to people who have not yet had the ailment. Therapeutic vaccines, like the one Vaxil has developed, are given to sick people, and work more like a drug.

Vaxil's lead product, ImMucin, activates the immune system by "training" T-cells -- the immune cells that protect the body by searching out and destroying cells that display a specific molecule (or marker) called MUC1. MUC1 is typically found only on cancer cells and not on healthy cells. The T-cells don't attack any cells without MUC1, meaning there are no side effects unlike traditional cancer treatments. More than 90% of different cancers have MUC1 on their cells, which indicates the potential for this vaccine.

"It's a really big thing," says Levy, a biotechnology entrepreneur who was formerly CEO for Biokine Therapeutics. "If you give chemo, apart from the really nasty side effects, what often happens is that cancer becomes immune [to it]. The tumor likes to mutate and develops an ability to hide from the treatment. Our vaccines are also designed to overcome that problem."

For cancers in an advanced stage, treatments like chemo or surgery to remove a large tumor will still be needed, but if the cancer can be brought down to scale, the body is then able to deal with it, Levy explains. ImMucin is foreseen as a long-term strategy - a shot every few months, with no side effects - to stop the cancer from reoccurring after initial treatments, by ensuring that the patient's own immune system keeps it under control.

In parallel, the company is also working on a vaccine that treats tuberculosis, a disease that's increasing worldwide, including in the developed world, and for which the current vaccine is often ineffective and treatment is problematic.
Based in Ness Ziona, Vaxil was founded in 2006 by Dr. Lior Carmon, a biotechnology entrepreneur with a doctorate in immunology from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot. In June, Vaxil signed a memorandum of understanding to merge its activities into Sheldonco, a company traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.
By Rivka Borochov