Rabbi's Ramblings...... 

 

Shalom Congregants and Friends.....    

 

        Congratulations again to the many individuals and/or couples who have been members of Beth Hillel Synagogue for 50 years or more. They were honored last Friday evening for their half century of connection to our synagogue.

     Congratulations also the the JCC for a most meaningful film festival. Iris and I saw three films, all excellent. The final one, Nicky's Children, was a most meaningful account of a British citizen who, almost on his own, rescued over 600 Jewish children from Czechoslovakia... and whose story was unknown for over 40 years. Footage of his reunions with many of "his" children were so very moving!

    This Shabbat, Iris and I will be away, attending in the Boston area, the bar mitzvah of the son of close friends of ours. I thank in advance members of the ritual committee for leading Shabbat and daily services in my absence for the weekend.

      The annual Connecticut Valley Rabbinical Assembly meeting in New Haven on March 28 was most interesting. Rabbi Martin Cohen taught on the halacha of intellectual property and also about an upcoming book of which he is editor, entitled The Observant Life, which will be a guide to serious Jewish living as Conservative Jews in the twenty-first century, written by over 20 leading Conservative rabbis. Should be a most important book for the movement! And then Rabbi Eric Silver gave a very impressive historical talk on how there have been serious errors in the evaluation of the position of Pope Pius XII in regard to the Jews at the time of the Holocaust.

     Trust your Passover preparations are coming along well. Please don't forget to fill out the forms for selling your hametz and making a maot hittim donation! I noticed that Maxwell House has out a new version of their haggadah this year... and they have finally updated the English from "Thou" and "hast" to more contemporary words!

    

  Shabbat Shalom u'm'vorach......

 ...... Rabbi Gary and Iris Atkins

Why belong to  a synagogue?........ to help you

 "To Learn, Live, and Love Jewishly...."

The B eth Hillel Synagogue Mission Statement.....
 

Beth Hillel Synagogue takes its mission statement very seriously:

 

"Beth Hillel is an egalitarian Conservative synagogue rooted in the ancient traditions of the Torah while growing to meet the changes and challenges of our world. Its core are the many people of different ages and backgrounds who have chosen to make it their spiritual home, joining together for prayer, learning, and celebration. The many branches of Beth Hillel's community provide support to its congregants, reaching out to each other and welcoming our neighbors as together we learn from the past and teach for the future."

 Services & Candle Lighting Times

   

Friday, March 30 --  8:00P.M. (CLT 6:55 DST)

Sat., March 31 -- 9:30A.M; Mincha, Maariv 6:45 P.M.

Humor for the Week  
I had to go to a selp-help group for compulsive talkers..... It's called "On and On Anon."
Israel Tour this Summer???  
Rabbi Richard Plavin of BSBI in Manchester is leading a group tour to Israel this summer. Might you be interested? Give him a call / check out the website...

 Ask yourself these questions: 
 
"Has it been too many years since you'walked the streets of Jerusalem? "

Get back to Jerusalem and remember why it is called "The Holy City.'" 

"You've seen the length and breadth of the land. Now see it in depth." 

The website for the trip is  

As we approach Yom HaShoah   

 

National Archives gets two more albums on Nazi looting

March 27, 2012 WASHINGTON (JTA)

 

      The U.S. National Archives recovered two additional albums cataloging Nazi looting. The Monuments Men Foundation, which tracks undiscovered cultural artifacts stolen by the Nazis, handed the two albums to senior National Archives staff members at a ceremony Tuesday in Dallas.

      "It is exciting to know that original documents are shedding light on this important aspect of World War II," David Ferriero, the national archivist, said in thanking Robert Edsel, the president of the foundation. "Documents such as these may play a role in helping victims recover their treasures."

      Previously recovered albums compiled by the looters have been used to track stolen items and return them to their rightful owners.

       The Monuments Men Foundation honors the original 345 or so men and women from 13 countries who protected cultural treasures during World War II, and tracked and returned to their owners more than 5 million items in the war's aftermath. It continues to track such items, in part through its outreach to families of soldiers who brought home souvenirs.

      "The foundation often receives calls from veterans and their heirs who don't know the importance of items they may have picked up during their service, or aren't aware that anyone is looking for the items," Edsel said.

      It is not known precisely how many albums cataloging the looting were made, but the Archives has more than 40 in its possession, including 39 recovered by the original Monuments Men and four recovered in recent years by the foundation. 

Torah Commentary of the Week  
This week's commentary was written by Rabbi Jack Luxemburg and forwarded by the Rabbinic Cabinet of the Jewish Federation. 
 

      In the opening verses of Parshat Tzav are the details and instructions regarding the careful tending of the fire that burned on the altar. The compelling image and profound symbolism of a flame perpetually burning rooted in these verses, is an expression of our Judaism - spiritual and historical - that is found in every synagogue today - the Ner Tamid - the Eternal light that burns warmly in our sanctuaries.
       Of course, there are isn't a rabbi who hasn't been asked by a practically minded religious school student, "What kind of light is it that never burns out?" or "What happens if you have to change the blub?"  No matter how we answer those important questions, it has to occur to us that in some ways, it was easier to tend a fire and keep it continuously burning that it is to accomplish the same with a light bulb.

      The commentary Me'Am Lo'ez explains, in reference to Lev. 6:6, that keeping the fire burning on the altar was actually a coordinated effort requiring not one burning fire, but three.  Two of the fires are referred to as ma'arachot , or "arrangements".   The first of these, and the greatest, was the one that burned on the altar itself, and upon which sacrifices were burned. 

     The "second arrangement" was set to one side and from this fire, coals were taken and upon the coals, incense was burned.  This would seem to meet all the ritual needs of the Tabernacle.  However, a third and smaller fire was established and this, according to Ma'am Lo'ez was "...to keep the altar lighted. This was to fulfill God's commandment, 'A constant fire shall be lit on the altar.  It shall not be extinguished' - for even one second."
      From this we might understand that the fire burning on the alter for sacrifice  and the second fire used to generate coals for the incense offering, had their continuity protected by the flames burning in the "back up" -- the third, smaller fire, and the one which the commentary suggests is that which must burn without interruption.
       This passage and the commentary took on some new meaning for me in light of my experience as a member of the Rabbinic Cabinet's recent mission to Budapest and Israel.  While in Budapest, we met people, young and old, who under extraordinary circumstance - past and present - have made it possible for the flames of Jewish ritual and cultural life to burn brightly after long periods of disruption and interference.  They are the bearers of that third flame that makes it possible for the others to persist.  The luminosity and warmth of our Judaism, the vitality and energy of the Jewish people is sustained by the "pintele yid" ... the Jewish spark ... that smaller fire which burns in the hearts and souls of our people, even in the darkest of times and places.
       The eternality of this sometimes flickering flame is a perpetual source of amazement and wonder to any who reflect on the experiences of our people through the ages.  On this Shabbat HaGadol, as we anticipate Pesach and the celebrations around our Seder table, we might consider how it was that even after 400 years of slavery and the "kotzer ruach" ... the diminished spirit which the Torah tells us afflicted our ancestors ... there was still an unextinguished spark of Jewish soulfulness that helped our ancestors find their way from the darkness of bondage to the light of freedom. Around the Seder table, we pledge ourselves to maintaining that spark within ourselves while living in freedom and abundance ... and to nurturing its growth in Jewish communities where Jewish life is constrained and scarce.  With the taste of each morsel, symbolic or savory, we fuel that inner flame so that joining together we might enable the light and warmth our Judaism, our passion for justice and our love of freedom to touch every soul chilled by oppression and to brighten every dark place where tyranny still persists.   May we all enjoy a Chag Samayach ... and our "pintele yid" fuel sacred fires, eternally.

 

Beth Hillel Synagogue Library    

SPECIAL ARTICLES TO READ:

 * CONGREGATON B'NAI KABUL 

* BABY, YOU CAN DRIVE MY ELECTRIC CAR

 Lots of new books and videos......

 Read contemporary newspapers and magazines,.......

For example... Commentary/ BAR, The Jewish Week, The Forward, Consumer Reports, Moment, and others.....
Social Action News     

* Beth Hillel will participate in the Greater Hartford Seasons of Service -- day of volunteering -- by serving dinner at the "Peters Retreat" soup kitchen, 123 Retreat Ave (near Hartford Hospital) on Sunday April 1.  Volunteers  needed!  Contact the office / Len Swade.

 * Foodshare needs volunteers to pick up donated food. Contact them

at 286-9999.... 

 * Now available for your perusal,  the 2012 version of the Volunteer Guide for Hartford Non-profits... find how you can best do Tikkun Olam in the Community

Upcoming Synagogue Events    

 
* April 5 - 10am - Learn Talmud - Combining Lunch and Learn and Chai Mitzvah classes - contact Rabbi Atkins if interested!
* April 6 - Taanit Bechorim Service for first born - 6:45am
COMPLETE PASSOVER SERVICE SCHEDULE in the Chai-Lites
* April 16, 23, 30 Spring Adult Ed - Monday evenings after minyan.
The Idea of The Messiah: How/ When/ Who/ Why..... 
* April 12, Free TRY -OUT Yoga Session, Thursday, April 12, 11:30-12:30 at BHS. Call Joel Neuwirth at 860-242-7084 to register!  
* APRIL 18 - GAME NIGHT - Register now! Call office if you need another copy of the flyer or send your check to Barbara Leslie, 103 Oliver Way, Bloomfield. 
* May 19 -  Annual Synagogue FUNDRAISER.... SATURDAY NIGHT... Save the date!

Report from Israel.....   

A Step Toward Jerusalem Recognition
Tuesday, March 27, 2012  (Jewish Week)

 

      With a Supreme Court ruling this week, the chances have improved that Menachem Zivotofsky, who was born in 2002, may have a passport by the time of his bar mitzvah that records his birthplace as "Israel" rather than "Jerusalem," as it now reads.

The high court's surprising 8-1 ruling did not resolve the case, known as Zivotofsky vs. Clinton, which Menachem's parents initiated nine years ago. They sought to force the State Department to list "Israel" on his passport, citing a law passed by Congress a month before his birth. But in returning the case to the lower courts, the Supreme Court overruled previous lower court decisions that the judiciary does not have the authority to rule on matters of foreign policy since that is the purview of the executive branch.

     "The courts are fully capable of determining whether this statute may be given effect, or instead must be struck down in light of authority conferred on the Executive by the Constitution," wrote Chief Justice John Roberts for the majority.

      Only Justice Stephen Breyer dissented, saying this was a rare case where a presidential decision should be beyond review.

      The issue at hand may be passports, but the deeper and politically sensitive matter is whether or not the U.S. should recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, whose international status remains in dispute.

      President George W. Bush signed the 2002 law that would have the State Department record Israel as the birthplace of children born in Jerusalem. But Bush said he would not follow the law because it interferes with presidential power regarding foreign policy. President Barack Obama has followed suit.

Nathan Lewin, the Washington attorney who has handled the case (pro bono) over the last nine years for the Zivotofskys, told us that the high court this week ruled exactly as he had requested in confirming that issues regarding the balance of power between the executive and legislative branches on foreign policy can indeed be determined by the courts.

     Now the lower courts will decide whether Congress has the right to authorize listing "Israel" on the passports of children born in Jerusalem.

      Most Jewish groups backed the Zivotofsky effort, and the Orthodox Union this week noted, "Congressional policy on Jerusalem, ignored by successive administrations, will get its day in court."

     The decision this week was the first step in a long judicial process still fraught with major political and diplomatic implications. But we would hope that along the way the White House, on its own, would acknowledge that the current passport policy is one of the vestiges of the historically pro-Arab State Department and simply replace "Jerusalem" with "Israel," noting that not a single brief was filed against the Zivotofsky side by an Arab group. 

Community Events...     

 * Tuesday, April 3, Identity2 - "We are all flowers of the same tree"

Bloomfield School System Concert at the Bushnell, 7pm

 * Sunday, April 22, Community Yom HaShoah Memorial Service

Beth El Temple, 7pm

 * Tuesday, April 24..... Community Yom HaZikaron Memorial Service, JCC