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Looking Ahead
Here are a few upcoming events you might consider
participating in:
Latke Palooza
Annual event
at Gershman
Y,
December 11, 2005 from 2:00 PM - 4:30 PM.
Looking for volunteers
for Super Sunday,
to be held
at the Federation Building, 2100 Arch Street,
beginning at
9:30 AM. If interested, contact Beverly at
215-557-3777.
Fundraiser for Gershman Y, Saturday Evening,
April 8, 2006. Arlo Guthrie in performance. Tickets
$35 - $50 Reception before concert, $150
Gloria's Poem
For the women who can and the women who can’t
For the women who will and for the women who
won’t
For the women who died unfulfilled and unloved &
For the women who were their own person regardless
of the consequences
For the women who fought, marched and protested
&
For the women who remained silent & bore their pain
For the women who stood tall & kept the vigil during all
wars &
desperately tried to keep it all together during peace
times
For the women who are nurturers & the women who
only want to be pampered and waited on
For the women who care & for the women who
don’t
For the women who struggled for their place in the sun
& for the women who knew not their place nor dared
or cared to know
For the women of today who have met the challenge
of a man’s world
And for the women who have not and who remain
locked in their own cocoon & refuse to grow with the
times
I only know that I am proud to be a woman with
strong convictions & it is great to be living in the
20th century
Which has given me the opportunity to be myself to
express myself artistically & I look forward to the 21st
century with great enthusiasm & delight
Gloria Goldstein
12/5/1997
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Dear Friends,
As most of you know by now, Joanne Perilstein has
resigned as President of Leyv Ha-Ir ~ Heart of the
City, and I will complete her term pursuant to our
by-laws. Once again, I thank Joanne for her
dedicated service as President, and for the grace with
which she has assumed some much needed
post-presidential projects including Chesed and Bagels
and Books. Let her be a model for all members.
It is my pleasure to tell you how proud I am to be
the new President of Leyv Ha-Ir ~ Heart of the City. I
am consistently amazed at how we continue to live up
to our name. It is important for each person reading
this newsletter to understand that we are a small
congregation. Everything that gets done in this
community is done because someone like you exerts
effort, and because someone like you donates some
money.
We are currently in an interesting part of the
Jewish ritual calendar. After a flurry of excitement and
deep spiritual work ending with Simchat Torah, we
mostly have shabbos until our Chanukah celebration.
During that same time period we read Berashit
(Genesis), our foundation stories that explain our
origins and invites us to explore family relationships.
Let's take this time to appreciate the close
relationships that are available to us in sacred
community.
My door is always open. Please call or e-mail me
to share your ideas or your energy for our synagogue's
future. I look forward to seeing all of our members
and friends at services and other events. Please come
up to me and say hi.
Sincerely,
Michael Meketon
President
Leyv Ha-Ir ~ Heart of the
City
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| December 2005 Activities |
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Saturday, December 3
Shabbat Services,
Lay-led
Ethical Society, 10:00 AM
Tuesday, December 6
Ma'ariv Meditation,
Rabbi Myriam
Ethical Society, 7:00 PM
Wednesday, December 6
Council Meeting,
Michael
Ethical Society, 7:00 PM
Friday, December 9
Kabbalat Shabbat,
Rabbi Julie
Ethical Society, 7:30 PM
Sunday, December 11
Habitat for
Humanity, Center City Kehillah
North Philadelphia, 8:30 AM
Wednesday, December 14
Prayer Class,
Rabbi Julie
Ethical Society, 7:00 PM
Saturday, December 17
Shabbat Services,
Lay-led
Ethical Society, 10:00 AM
Sunday, December 18
Jewish Relief Agency,
Center City Kehillah
925 Lombard Street, 9:30 AM
Saturday, December 24
Erev Christmas Chinese Food Fress
with
Congregation
Beth Ahavah
See website or contact Bobbi, 7:00 PM
Saturday, December 25
Hanukah Party, 1st candle
Ethical Society, 3:00 PM
Saturday, December 31
Shabbat Services,
Lay-led
Home, 10:00 AM
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Click here for a complete look at activities for the next two months... |
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| Two opportunities to help! |
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Congregations Leyv Ha-Ir ~ Heart of the City
and Beth
Ahavah proudly
co-sponsor two special opportunities to work together
to help others:
Work on two houses in North Philadelphia with
Habitat for Humanity, Sunday December 11,
2005 from 8:30 AM - 3:30 PM
Assemble and deliver food packages to needy people in
Center City with the Jewish Relief Agency,
Sunday December 18, 2005 from 9:30 AM - 1:00
PM
Both activities are jointly sponsored by Congregation
Leyv Ha-Ir and
Congregation Beth Ahavah in conjunction with Center
City Kehillah (Center City congregations and
organizations acting together).
For registration, questions and meeting places,
contact
Sibyl Cohen at 215-568-9827
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or e-mail Sibyl |
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| Latkes and Laughs! Let's Party... |
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It's a Hanukah Party at Leyv Ha-Ir ~ Heart of the
City. Please join us at the Ethical Society
Building, 1906 S. Rittenhouse Square on Sunday,
December 25 at 3:00 PM
• Bring Salads, Main course, Desserts, Drinks, Hanukiah
& Candles
• Bring your family, friends, jokes and family
stories.
CONTACT: Myrna, 856-795-6956
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Kol Nidrei Sermon 5766
by Rabbi Julie Greenberg |
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My colleague Rabbi Sheila Weinberg suggests that we
think of these High Holy Days as a marathon. How
many of you have ever been in a marathon of any kind
or know someone who has been? When you think
about it there are some common features.
Number one, you get to choose your level of
participation. Just as in a marathon, some runners aim
to stay the whole course—they’ll be proud of
themselves if they finish, regardless of their time;
others have a goal to get there in a certain amount of
time; others show up for the beginning and go as far
as is comfortable and fun; others watch the festivities
and others are judges, registration people, setter
uppers, medics, news people. It takes a lot of roles
and levels of participation to make the thing work and
each person enters the experience in the way that
works best for them. This is true for the marathon and
for the High Holy Days.
Number two, whatever level of participation you
choose, the more you prepare for a marathon, the
better shape you’ll be in. Training, stretching, weight
lifting, proper nutrition, practice runs all play a part in
getting an athlete ready to participate. Similarly,
preparing for these Holy Days days helps open the
heart to the meaning and purpose of this time. You
get to design your own training regimen, the one that
works best for you. The tradition offers the entire
month of Elul for daily reflections on forgivingness,
teshuvah. Listening to the shofar, being part of the
selichot prayers of forgiveness, saying special psalms
that focus attention on what is important in life are all
options for spiritual preparation. In this congregation
we also always hold a session specifically devoted to
spiritual preparations for the High Holy Days and we
welcome everyone to join in.
Number three in this analogy of High Holy Days as a
marathon, you may just bump up against a wall at
some point. In a marathon this is when you just can’t
imagine gasping in any more air or pumping those
muscles a single extra minute. Overcoming the wall
involves psychology, guts and physical endurance. Our
walls here in the synagogue take all different forms.
For some people the wall is "I’m not sure I belong, I
don’t understand Hebrew." Or "there’s not enough
Hebrew," For other people, the wall might be, "these
aren’t the people I like to hang out with," or "I don’t
really know anybody." Or "it’s too long," or "too
boring." We all have our own walls in the marathon and
in the synagogue.
I like the marathon idea but I’ve always had one
question about marathons and that is why in the world
would anyone want to run one?
I’ve concluded that there are just some human
activities that you have to experience from the inside
to understand. You may have had that experience in
one realm or another. Some people say " Why would
anyone want a child? They’re sticky and dependent
and expensive." But from inside parenthood you know
the absolute joy of raising up a human being.
Some people say "Why would anyone want to be an
artist? It’s messy and there’s no money in it." But you
know what it means to create an artistic
expression.
"Why would you want to live in center city?" Cultural
life, companionship, excitement of the city,
commitment to the complexity and diversity of city
living.
"Why would anyone want to climb Mt. Everest?" That’s
a hard one.
Some experiences really only make sense from the
inside. Allowing yourself to step inside, gives a whole
new perspective. The High Holy Days are an invitation
to step more inside than you’ve ever been. To follow in
the footsteps of the High Priest who would access the
Holy of Holies, the inner-most sanctum of the Temple,
on this one sacred day. From inside the experience,
you might have a different understanding of what it
means to participate in these holy days than if you
weren’t here.
Nevertheless, each one of us, just as in a marathon,
most likely will sooner or later encounter a wall. Every
year there are moments for me when I wonder with
huge self-doubt, why am I doing this? Am I even good
at it? What’s the point? These walls can be forms of
spiritual resistance. To walk away at that point is to
give up on yourself and your potential for spiritual life
Whatever our spiritual resistance, getting past it takes
some intention and effort. Feelings of not belonging,
feelings of boredom, antsy-ness, shpilkes. But on the
other side of the wall there are treasures waiting to be
realized. The treasures are not things that I will
enumerate in depth here because they are for you to
discover. But just some brief headlines:
A Treasure: Jewish community is a joyful, uplifting
experience. It’s also annoying and frustrating and
will
stretch you to the limit because that is what intimacy
is about.
A Treasure: Time to nourish the soul is an
essential
part of human life—our ancestors knew the
centrality of spirit. It’s only in an industrial or
post-modern age that we forget we even have souls.
A Treasure: Living by the sacred rhythm of the
Jewish
year which is close to the cycles of nature and
makes
room for work and rest, work and replenishment, and
for acknowledging the joys and the sorrows of a life
richly lived.
By being here, this evening, you have stepped into
this marathon. You are an insider on the Jewish
journey into this New Year. You are surrounded by
supporters, wishing you well, offering you the water of
song and prayer, and the cheers of witnesses who
champion your progress.
Tonight is a night of stepping inside. Our task tonight,
tomorrow and in the year ahead, is how to make this
inside more than a place to visit. How can we make
this inside a home for all? Just as there is no one
correct way to relate to a marathon (there are many
roles and many levels of participation), in our home
here there are diverse ways to connect. We welcome
you to find the way that works for you. Engaging in
leadership or arranging chairs/writing a check or being
present at a service—each and all are of great
value, each helps make this a home. Let us remember
that to lack a home is one of the worst human
tragedies; to have a home is the greatest blessing of
all. Welcome home to the New Year 5766.
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Click here to read Rabbi Julie's additional sermons... |
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| We Welcome Your Simchas |
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If you have a special occasion coming up such as a
birthday, anniversary, retirement or recovery
celebration, Leyv Ha-Ir ~ Heart of the City would love
to be part of it. There are a range of ways to
integrate your celebration into the life of the
community, from a simple candle-lighting on Shabbat
to making a presentation at a service, co-leading a
service, being called to the Torah or bringing in
klezmer music for dancing. By working with me you can
craft a moment of ritual that works for you, ensuring
that your milestone will be noted in a spiritual
framework. In this way the Torah of our lives is shared
and recognized. Be in touch!
Rabbi Julie
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