This Week At Beth Or

Your guide to upcoming programs,

activities and news

October 7, 2014

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In This Issue

Rabbi Mark Kram

Shabbat Service

Rabbi

Mark Kram

Click here to meet
Rabbi Mark Kram

D'Var Torah

October 11, 2014

Chol Hamoed

Beth Or Links

Other Links

Jewish Reconstructionist Federation

What is Reconstructionism?

Ma Nishma: The latest news from JRF

Alper JCC

Rabbi Rami Shapiro: Our Founding Rabbi

Greater Miami Jewish Federation

Center For The Advancement of Jewish Education

Contact:

Kathy Fisler
bethortemple@aol.com

Temple Beth Or

305-235-1419

Office Hours:

Tuesday 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Wednesday: Noon - 3:00 pm.

Thursday: 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Friday: 10:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

What's Happening This Week at Temple Beth Or

Tuesday, October 7

Wednesday, October 8
Chit Chat 10:00 a.m.
Pizza and Salad in the Sukkah 6:30 p.m.

Thursday, October 9
Weight Watchers Meeting 10:00 a.m.

Friday, October 10
Sukkot Potluck Supper 7:00 p.m.
Kabbalat Shabbat 8:00 p.m.

Saturday, October 11
Chapman Partnership Volunteer Day

Sunday, October 12

Red Tent Women's Reading Group 1:00 p.m

Monday, October 13
Ritual Meeting 7:30 p.m.

Tuesday, October 14

Wednesday, October 15

Chit Chat 10:00 a.m.
Executive Committee Meeting 7:15 p.m.
Board of Directors Meeting 8:00 p.m.

Thursday, October 16
Weight Watchers 10:00 a.m.

Friday, October 17
Simchat Torah at 8:00 p.m

Temple Beth Or
Events

Save the Date!

Sunday, October 19
(and Oct. 26, Nov. 2, Nov. 9)
Little Known Jews program

Wednesday, October 22
Adult Education with Rabbi Kram

Friday, October 31
Story-Telling Shabbat

Friday, November 7
New Member Recognition Shabbat

Saturday, November 8
Spaghetti Dinner

November 17, and
December 1
Book Discussion: My Promised Land, by Ari Shavit

Temple Beth Or

Community Notices

Kol Nidre shabbat shalom

Celebrate this special Kabbalat Shabbat with our Sukkot Potluck Supper at 7:00 p.m, followed by Kabbalat Shabbat at 8:00, with services led by Zack and/or Michael Henry.

Please let the Temple office know what you're bringing for the Potluck. 305-235-1419 or bethortemple@aol.com

Thank You, Thank You!

..to those who have generously donated to Temple Beth Or...

We're still gathering up the gifts and in memorial donations we received over the High Holiday services, and you'll see the list in the next edition of TWABO.

In the meantime, the collective thank-you is to everyone, and that list is very long, who worked so hard and diligently to make this year's services and the auxiliary activities, from Erev Rosh Hashanah to Break the Fast, and everything in between.

It's what makes Beth Or who we are.

Temple Beth Or

2014 High Holy Days Services Schedule

And you thought we were all done!

Pizza, salad, and the lulav and etrog in the Sukkah Wednesday evening, October 8,
at 6:30.

Sukkot Potluck Supper at 7:00 p.m. and Kabbalat Shabbat services at 8:00 p.m. Friday evening, October 10.

Simchat Torah, with Rabbi Mark on the bima, Friday, October 17, at 8:00 p.m.

Sukkot Celebration on Wednesday

Join us on Wednesday, October 8, at 7:00 p.m. for pizza, the lulav and etrog, and a nice fall evening in the sukkah.

Bring your sukkah decorations: greenery, flowers or colorful plant materials (real or not!), and be ready to find out whether you can build a sukkah using one side of an elephant.

Sukkot Potluck Dinner

Friday, October 10, at 7:00 p.m., we'll gather before services for a Sukkot Potluck Dinner.

Get out those recipes -- Beth Or Kosher, of course, and let us know what you plan to bring and how many will attend.

The Oneg Shabbat will consist of the dessert items brought in.

Beth Or Day at Chapman Partnership

Saturday, October 11

We have another opportunity for members to enjoy spending time together while doing a Mitzvah!

Five more volunteers are needed to make a complete roster for this event!

This time, we will be helping to serve lunch from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. We are also welcome to help prepare the food from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., but this is not required. We need ten volunteers for serving. If you would like to participate, please contact Andrea Loring at
andrealor@bellsouth.net to save a place.

And while we're talking of Chapman....

A story about Temple Beth Or's community partner, Chapman Partnership for the Homeless, was in the Herald this week. Copies are in the Oneg room. You will be proud to know that this shelter is the most effective one in the country for helping homeless individuals and families to end the cycle of homelessness and transition into independent living arrangements. Much of what they accomplish is possible due to their huge cadre of volunteers. If you haven't signed up to help serve lunch there on Saturday, Oct. 11th, there are still a few slots open.

Mazon and Food Drive Continue

We'll be continuing to collect monetary donations for Mazon for the remainder of this week and the coming weekend.

The blue and white Mazon box is on the information table in the Oneg Room. Checks can be sent in or dropped into the box, made payable to Mazon, or they can be sent to Adrienne Hochman at 7550 SW 107 St., Miami 33156, no later than October 12.

Adrienne will send the Mazon donations to them on the 13th.

We want to thank everyone who donated food which will be taken to Chapman. They can still donate this week. Deadline Friday as Adrienne will be taking it to Chapman on Sat the 11th.

Red Tent Women's Reading Group

This Sunday, October 12, we will be meeting at Temple Beth Or at 1:00 p.m. to discuss Trains and Lovers.

Kathy is leading the discussion, and refreshments will be potluck. Please bring something for everyone to share.

Little-Known Jews

Our very own Norma Salz will present a four-part education program on Little-Known Jews on four consecutive Sundays from October 19 through November 9 at the Temple, from 10:30 - 11:30 a.m.

Programs:

October 19: Nathan & Isadore Straus

October 26: Rabbi Tobias Geffen of Atlanta,

Georgia

Private Joel of the 23rd Ohio

Volunteer Regiment, Fayette,

West Virginia

November 2: Rabbi Brennglass of Massena,

New York

Fanny Levy & Sarah Edelson,

Lower East Side, NYC

November 9: Manya Shahat

Please leave a voicemail at the Temple or email bethortemple@aol.com. You don't need to be able to attend all four sessions, but we'd love it it you can. We just need a general idea of how many to expect.

This educational series is being presented at no charge to Temple members.

My Promised Land

by Ari Shavit

A Temple Beth Or Book Discussion, led by Rabbi Mark Kram, to meeto on Monday, November 17, and Monday, December 1.

Note: Author Ari Shavit will be at Temple Beth Am, 5950 N. Kendall Drive, on Thursday, October 30, at 7:30 p.m. Please contact Rebecca Leibowitz, South Dade Director for AIPAC, at 954-382-6110 or RLeibowitz@aipac.org for more information. Advance registration is required for the event at Temple Beth Am.

Excerpt from the book's summary on Amazon.com:

"We meet Shavit's great-grandfather, a British Zionist who in 1897 visited the Holy Land on a Thomas Cook tour and understood that it was the way of the future for his people; the idealist young farmer who bought land from his Arab neighbor in the 1920s to grow the Jaffa oranges that would create Palestine's booming economy; the visionary youth group leader who, in the 1940s, transformed Masada from the neglected ruins of an extremist sect into a powerful symbol for Zionism; the Palestinian who as a young man in 1948 was driven with his family from his home during the expulsion from Lydda; the immigrant orphans of Europe's Holocaust, who took on menial work and focused on raising their children to become the leaders of the new state; the pragmatic engineer who was instrumental in developing Israel's nuclear program in the 1960s, in the only interview he ever gave; the zealous religious Zionists who started the settler movement in the 1970s; the dot-com entrepreneurs and young men and women behind Tel-Aviv's booming club scene; and today's architects of Israel's foreign policy with Iran, whose nuclear threat looms ominously over the tiny country.

As it examines the complexities and contradictions of the Israeli condition, My Promised Land asks difficult but important questions: Why did Israel come to be? How did it come to be? Can Israel survive? Culminating with an analysis of the issues and threats that Israel is currently facing, My Promised Land uses the defining events of the past to shed new light on the present. The result is a landmark portrait of a small, vibrant country living on the edge, whose identity and presence play a crucial role in today's global political landscape."

The book is available for purchase through Amazon and other sources and is also available at the Miami-Dade Public Library.

Green Stuff!

Beth Or's ORGANIC GARDEN

ontinues to grow!

Put the 'Or' in 'Organic"

Certified Florida Master Gardeners Wilfredo and Candy Candelaria will support

Beth Or's Organic Garden and Campus Edibles Program for 2014-15.

They will help train volunteers and provide education for Green Thumb congregants

who want to practice organic, sustainable vegetable, fruit and medicinal cultivation.

Watch for opportunities to cultivate your own plot at Beth Or or help our next communal crops of: bananas, papayas, other edibles, herbs and medicianals!

We're also submitting a grant proposal to improve the irrigation for many edibles on campus!

Do's and Don'ts:

Don't step on a bed. Your weight compresses the soil, reducing "friability."
If you don't know what to do, ASK!
Learn as much as you can about organic-veganic methods- Rodale's magazine is a good resource

Kavanah by Rabbi Mark "...to help build up our people, our institutions and our strength so that we continue to l'takein olam b'malchut Shaddai, 'repair the world under the kingdom of heaven.' Let's get our hands deliciously "dirty" in this endeavor as we grow and sustain our beloved community."

Story: We are Shomrei Adamah, Guardians of the Earth or Keepers of the Garden of Eden. To start off we will be practical and do whatever works- but we aspire to the highest standards of earth ethics summarized by Organic/Veganic Gardening. We will carefully select the veggies and herbs to maximize output, balanced cultivatino, companion planting, insect control, etc. With today's high prices for quality veggies and herbs, a garden is economically desirable. Plus it is part of a healthy lifestyle, good education, and a social communal experience. All those with green (or any color) thumbs are welcome to cultivate with us.

Weight Watchers at Beth Or

Weight Watchers continues its meeting series on Thursday mornings at 10:00 a.m. at Beth Or.

New members should arrive at about 9:45 and enter by the back door at the top of the ramp.

For more information, please contact Ilien Hechtman at ilienh@aol.com

Chit Chat

Chit Chat meets on Wednesday mornings at 10:00 at the Temple.

We've picked up several interesting articles from reputable sources -- BBC News and the New York Times among them -- and we're ready to launch into topics of local, national and international interest with a distinctly Jewish approach. We talk about cultural, legal, educational, social, political, religious and secular subjects, with a text usually from the media to start us off.

There's always room for more, so please don't hesitate. If you're available, so are we.

If you want to be included on the Chit Chat email list, please contact Mike Leslie at hebrewnatl@aol.com.

TBO Members' Page

Break a Leg, Marcy and Butch!

Marcy Prince and Butch Falgiatore are appearing in Little Shop of Horrors at the Murray Nelson Government and Cultural Center, Mile Marker 102, Key Largo, opening October 31.

Please click on www.debpro.me

for more show and ticket information. This is Marcy's first retirement venture -- Mazel Tov!

Lost and Found

Someone left a brown ladies' cardigan at the Temple in the last week or two. Please contact the office if it's yours.

Mah Jongg Lessons

Mah Jongg Lessons are offered by TBO member Sharon Abramson in 4-week sessions, consisting of 1 hour of instruction and 2 hours of supervised pay for each session.

Please contact Sharon Abramson for more information.

A minimum of 8 students is needed for class (2 Tables). Sign-ups must be made at the beginning of each series of sessions in order to insure continuity in the instruction and practice. If you miss the start of one series, it will be necessary to wait the the start of the next series.

A Mah Jongg Card is required to play. Please contact Sharon if you do not have a card.

A Mah Jongg set will be needed per group of four players. Sharon has one, however, additional sets will be needed for each table.

Notes will be provided and presented in instructional structure; once you are familiar with the concepts, you'll start to play.

Suggested day and time of meetings: Thursday afternoon from 3 pm. to 6 p.m.

There will be no charge to Temple members, and the cost to non-members will be $5 per meeting.