Announcements and Reminders!

Here are some dates and activities to keep in mind along with some HHD information.

1.) Remember...you will not be getting paper tickets for the High Holy Days services this year.  Please scroll down to see that information. RE: COST....on the left hand side of the page, go to the section marked Blog Archive.  Find "September" and CLICK THE ARROW next to it.  Then look at the list of posts for September.  Click on the one that is called "TICKETS AND OTHER HIGH HOLIDAYS INFORMATION" That is where you can find the cost for attending, who pays, when they pay, and how much.

2.) Please keep in mind the play "1776" that is mentioned on this page as well.  Please scroll down for information on that.

3.) Live music at the Triple J Steakhouse 2218 Thomas Drive - Panama City Beach, Florida 32408 - 233-9514 Steven Wiggins will be playing from 7 to 9pm tonight and Saturday night.  Please consider taking in his show!

High Holiday Services Schedule

HIGH HOLIDAY SERVICES SCHEDULE (conducted by Rabbi Kenneth Kanter))

Rosh HaShanah

            Monday, September 29

            Erev Rosh Hashanah                         7:30 pm

            Tuesday, September 30

                Rosh Hashanah                                  10:00 am

                Children’s Service                               3:00 pm

Yom Kippur

            Wednesday, October 8

                Erev Yom Kippur - Kol Nidre             7:30 pm

                Thursday, October 9

                Yom Kippur                                           10:00 am

                Children’s Service                               3:00 pm

                Yizkor                                                     4:00 pm

                Neilah Closing Service                      5:00 pm

                Break-the-Fast

TALENT IN THE MIDST OF OUR MISPUCHA

A Performance to See

1776

 

Temple Member Pam Sutton's husband Mike Stone will be co-starring in"1776", the musical about the Continental Congress and signing of the Declaration of Independence!  He truly has an amazing voice and looks enough like Benjamin Franklin, the part he plays, that you'll think old Ben has come back to life!

 

VENUE	Martin Theatre
SHOW DATES	Thursday:  Sept. 25 Friday: Sept. 26 Saturday: Sept. 27
SHOW TIME	7:30 p.m.

 

Mark your calendars for a night of good entertainment.  Support our local temple community as well as encourage the performance of the arts in Panama City.

Important Announcement About High Holiday Tickets

Some members of the congregation have been concerned that they have not received their High Holiday tickets as of yet.  Please do not worry.  There will be no paper tickets this year but you are still guaranteed a seat!  Because mailing tickets costs the temple money, uses paper, and generates waste, we decided not to do so this year.  When you arrive,your name will be checked against a list of "virtual ticket" holders.

If you are not on that list, you will be billed if necessary so that
we do not have to deal with money during the High Holidays.  If you'd like to check that you are on the list please call the Temple to set your mind at ease.

Social Action Update from the URJ

Here are some things from the URJ for Social Action.  

Featured Projects and Events

Get Out the Vote 
It is our civic duty to register promptly, educate ourselves about the critical issues and vote. Visit ourwebsite for information about hosting a voter registration drive, issue night or learning the “do’s and don’ts of pulpit politics.”

Sweeten your New Year!
With the High Holy Days just around the corner, we’re here to help you incorporate timely social justice themes into your holiday observance with our Days of Awe: Social Action Guide for the High Holidays.

Shake This: Social Justice and Sukkot
Looking for a way to highlight social justice in your sukkah? Our Sukkot Social Action guide provides resources on how to incorporate social justice issues into this festive holiday. To view all holiday guides, see our Holiday Guides Resource. 

Tzevet Mitzvot: Young Adult Mitzvah Corps, December 20-25, 2008.
Do you know a young adult, aged 25-35 who is interested in joining fellow Reform Jews for an intensive week of volunteering, study and worship? Encourage them to join our Tzevet Mitzvot trip to help rebuild New Orleans this December!

Consultation on Conscience
Save the Date: April 19-21, 2009

Demand Health Care Reform as a Priority in your State
Help set the agenda! Invite candidates for your state’s legislature to your congregation to discuss their views on health care or organize a letter-writing campaign to support health care reform. Materials including sample letters and program suggestions available on our website.

Month-by-Month Guide to Programming

Plan ahead using our Social Action Calendar.

October 
15th Annual Children’s Sabbath, October 17–18, 2008
In the United States today, 9 million children do not have health care coverage and 13 million children live in poverty. The Children’s Defense Fund provides information and program materials for congregations to demand justice for future generations.

Jewish Social Action Month: Cheshvan, October 30–November 27, 2008
Cheshvan is known as MarCheshvan, a month of bitterness because it contains no Jewish holidays. By launching new social action initiatives, participating in community service projects or highlighting existing efforts, we can remove the bitterness from the month and make a difference in our community.

November
Stuff Your Thanksgiving with Social Justice! November 27, 2008.
Add an additional layer to this national holiday by incorporating tikkun olam into your celebration. For ideas, including creative food drives, hunger banquets and pulpit exchanges, view our National Holiday Guide.

December:
World AIDS Day, December 1, 2008.
World AIDS Day brings attention to the nearly 40 million people infected with HIV around the world. Programming materials are available at our World AIDS Day site.

Spread the Light of Chanukah: Ner Shel Tzedakah, December 22–29.
The Ner Shel Tzedakah (Candle of Righteousness) Project encourages families to devote the 6th night of Chanukah to learning about issues of poverty. For additional Chanukah program materials, visit our website.

SAVE THE DATE -- Summer camp Conference Call

 Save the Date: October 28 (Tuesday), 8:00 pm, Conference Call just for small congregations

A Presentation on Camp Coleman with Bobby Harris, Camp Director, and Jay Gellman, Camp Chair.

We urge you to contact Helaine or Paul Zipes to indicate your interest in participating in this conference call.  We will require a RSVP for the program. This web based program will include a visual presentation on the camp. Participants will need to be in front of a computer with internet access. This program is not just for temple leaders, it is for parents and grandparents and any congregant wishing to learn more about Camp Coleman.   

Camp Coleman web addy is:  http://coleman.urjcamps.org/   

Two Special Weekend Events

TWO SPECIAL WEEKEND EVENTS

YOU WILL WANT TO ATTEND!

 

With Well Recognized and Respected Rabbi Kenneth Kanter

 (Who will also be conducting High Holidays Services

at Temple B’nai Israel in Panama City, FL this year)

 

1)       SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18 AND SUNDAY, 5:30 PM

 

      DINNER AND DESSERT

      On the lovely verandas of Ed Walborsky's Watercolor home

Discussion lead by Rabbi Kanter about topics including "How Do Good People Deal With Bad Events"

Cost:  $25 per person

Reservations (space is limited at 60 people

Geared to adults and open to all.

 

For further information or to make a reservation call, get your name on the list FAST, call:  Diane Siskin at (850) 267-0099.

____________________________________________________________

2)     SUNDAY, OCTOBER 19, 12:30 p.m.

 

MUSICAL PROGRAM

Presented by Rabbi Kanter

At Christ the King Episcopal Church on Highway 393 in Santa Rosa Beach.   

Lively program combining singing and discussion about famous Jewish composers and their popular songs.  Rabbi Kanter will be accompanied by Adele Armitage as they present music from the 1840's to 1940's.  This program will literally have you singing along for it includes music that has been passed down for generations.  The first book written by Rabbi Kanter was "The Jews on Tin Pan Alley.''

Free:  (includes refreshments)

Open to public (adults and children):

No reservations needed.

 

For more information call and directions to the church call: (850) 267-3332.

Jewish Vocabulary

Jewbilation: (n) Pride in finding out that one's favorite celebrity is Jewish.

Torahfied: (n) Inability to remember one's lines when called to read from the Torah at one's Bar or Bat Mitzvah (or from the Hagadah at Passover.)

Matzilation: (v) Smashing a piece of matzo to bits while trying to butter it.

Bubbegum: (n) Candy one's mother gives to her grandchildren that she never gave to her own children.

Chutzpapa: (n) A father who wakes his wife at 4am...so she can change the baby's diaper.

Déjà Nu: (n) Having the feeling you've seen the same exasperated look on your mother's face, but not knowing exactly when.

Disoriyenta: (n) When your aunt gets lost in a department store and strikes up a conversation with everyone she passes. 

Goyfer: (n) A gentile messenger.  

Hebort: (v) To forget all the Hebrew one ever learned immediately after one's Bar or Bat Mitzvah. 

Jewdo: (n) A traditional form of self-defense based on talking one's way out of a tight spot. 

Mamatzah Balls: (n) Matzo balls that are as good as your mother used to make.

Meinstein: (slang) "My son, the genius!" 

Mishpochadots: (n) The assorted lipstick and make-up stains found on one's face and collar after kissing all one's aunts and cousins at a reception. 

Re-shtetlement (n) Moving from Brooklyn to Miami and finding all your old neighbors live in the same condo building as you do. 

Yidentify: (v) To be able to determine Jewish origins of celebrities, even though their names might be St. John, Curtis, Davis, or Taylor.

Minyastics: (n) Going to incredible lengths and troubles to find a tenth person to complete a Minyan. 

Feelawful: (n) Indigestion from eating Israeli street food, especially falafel. 

Dis-kvellified (v) To drop out of law school, medical school, or business school as seen through the eyes of parents, grandparents, and Uncle Sid.  In extreme cases, simply choosing to major in Art History, when Irv's son David is majoring in Biology is sufficient grounds for diskvellification. 

Impasta: (v) A Jew who starts eating leavened foods before the end of Passover.

Kinders Schlep: (v) To transport other kids besides yours in your car. 

Schmuckluck: (n) Finding out one's wife became pregnant after one had a vasectomy. 

Shofarsogut: (n) The relief you feel when, after many attempts, the shofar is finally blown at the end of Yom Kippur.

Trayffic Accident: (n) An appetizer one finds out has pork in it.

URJ Opens Hurricane Emergency Relief Fund

September 15, 2008 | 15 Elul 5768

Dear Friends,

"It is a humbling experience to accept Tzedakah, but one that has made me a much more thoughtful giver,” Ann Kimball, who was president of Temple Sinai in New Orleans when Katrina hit, wrote to presidents as the latest storms approached. “Never in my life have I felt such overwhelming love and support than I did starting that week,and it still continues to this day. The staffs of both our North American and regional offices were on the phones, in our synagogues, asking how they could help and then providing that help.”

That, my friends, is what the Union for Reform Judaism is all about. And now, three years after Katrina, we are being called upon to once more join forces to help the victims of a hurricane. And that is why we are asking you to give to the URJ Hurricane Disaster Relief Fund.

The Union is already helping victims. During Hurricane Gustav, the URJ Camp Jacobs opened its doors to evacuees from New Orleans. And as of this writing, hundreds remain at the URJ Greene Family Camp, which is a Red Cross Evacuation Center. But this is just a start.

While Hurricane Gustav spared New Orleans, it left its mark on the Baton Rouge community, where 40 percent of its residents were without power for a week or more.

Hurricane Ike may have been downgraded to a tropical storm, but it continues to cause incredible damage, bringing flood and death to the Midwest. It is too soon to know the impact it has had on our synagogues and their members in Galveston, Lake Charles, Beaumont and Clear Lake (we will be posting information online at www.urj.org/relief), but we know from all reports that thousands of people will be homeless and in dire need of assistance.

As of this morning, close to three million residences and businesses in the Gulf Coast and Midwest are without power, and the flooding is substantial. The people in these areas need our help – and that is why we have opened the Hurricane Relief Fund. Our donations will help both our own member congregations and the general public. And, as in the past, all donations, less any fees charged by credit card companies, will be used for these efforts.

We urge you to join us in helping the victims of these storms by making a donation to this fund today—and urging everyone you know to join you as well.

Peter Weidhorn Chairman Union for Reform Judaism

Rabbi Eric Yoffie President Union for Reform Judaism

Why I am a Jew by Edmond Fleg

 To begin with, this picture here is called a Wordle.  You can make a Wordle on www.wordle.net.  I used some of this piece to create this picture.  You can see it in a larger format using this link to the original work.  Give it a try it's great fun.

OK, on to the work of Edmond Fleg, which should be known to just about everyone.  But it's worth reading if you haven't before.  Especially since Israel has turned 60 this year.  

Why I Am a Jew

by Edmond Fleg, 1927

(Translated from French. Excerpts from original as reprinted in The Zionist Idea; a Historical Analysis and Reader edited by Arthur Hertzberg)

People ask me why I am a Jew. It is to you that I want to answer, little unborn grandson. When will you be old enough to listen to me? My elder son is nineteen, the younger fourteen. When will you be born? Perhaps in ten years' time, perhaps in fifteen. When will you read what I am writing? In 1950 or thereabouts? In 1960? Will anybody be reading in 1960? What will the world look like then? Will the machine have killed the soul? Will the mind have created for itself a new universe? Will the problems that trouble me today mean anything to you? Will there still be Jews? I believe there will. They have survived the Pharaohs, Nebuchadnezzar, Constantine, Mohammed, the Inquisition, and assimilation; they will know how to survive the motorcar.

But you - will you feel yourself a Jew, my child? People say to me, "You are a Jew because you were born a Jew; you neither willed it nor can change it." Will this explanation satisfy you if, though born a Jew, you no longer feel one? When I was twenty I too had no lot, nor part in Israel; I was persuaded that Israel would disappear, and that in twenty years' time people would no longer speak of her. Twenty years have passed, and another twelve, and I have become a Jew again-so obviously, that I am asked, "Why are you a Jew?"

What has happened to me can happen to you, my child. If you believe that the flame of Israel is extinguished in you, watch and wait; one day, it will burn again. This is a very old story, repeated in every generation: A thousand times Israel it has seemed, must die, and a thousand times she has lived again. I want to tell you how she died and lived again in me, so that, if she dies in you, you in your turn can feel her born in you once more.

So I shall have brought Israel to you, and you shall bring her to others, if you will and can. And both of us, in our own way, will have preserved and handed on the divine commandment:
"Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul; and ye shall bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them to your children."

Since the beginning of the Dreyfus affair the Jewish question had seemed to me a reality; now it appeared tragic: "What is Judaism? - A danger, they say, for the society to which you belong. What danger?... But first, am I still a Jew?... I have abandoned the Jewish religion.... You are a Jew all the same.... How?... Why?... What ought I to do?... Must I kill myself because I am a Jew?"

At moments I envied the strong and narrow faith of my ancestors. Penned in their ghettos by contempt and hatred, they at least knew why. But I knew nothing. How could I learn?

Of Israel I was entirely ignorant. And I regretted all the years I had spent in the study of philosophy, of Germanic philogy, and of comparative literature. I ought to have learned Hebrew, to have studied my race, its origins, its beliefs, its role in history, its place among the human groups of today; I ought to have attached myself, through my race, to something that would be myself and more than myself, and to have continued, through her, something that others had begun and that others after me would continue.

And I told myself that if I made some other use of my life, if I devoted myself to some other study, if later I founded a family without being able to bequeath to my children some ancestral ideal, I should always experience an obscure remorse, the vague feeling of having failed in a duty. And I remembered my dead father, I reproached myself with not having understood that Jewish wisdom of which he talked to me and which lived in him - and with no longer finding, by my own fault, anything in common between Israel's past and my own empty soul.

It was then that, for the first time, I heard of Zionism. You cannot imagine what a light that was, my child! Remember that, at the period of which I am writing, this word Zionism had never yet been spoken in my presence. The anti-Semites accused the Jews of forming a nation within nations; but the Jews, or at any rate those whom I came across, denied it. And now here were the Jews declaring: "We are a people like other peoples; we have a country just as others have. Give us back our country."

I made inquiries: The Zionist idea, it appeared, had its origins far back in the days of the ancient prophets; the Bible promised the Jews of the dispersion that they should return to the Holy Land; during the whole of the Middle Ages only their faith in this promise kept them alive; in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, such great spirits as Maurice de Saxe, the Prince de Ligne, and Napoleon had caught a glimpse of the philanthropic, political, economic, religious, and moral advantages which a resettlement of the Jews in Palestine might offer; since 1873 colonies had been founded there and were developing; and now a new apostle, Theodor Herzl, was calling upon the Jews of the whole world to found the Jewish state. Was this the solution for which I was looking? It explained so many things. If the Jews really formed but a single nation, one began to understand why they were considered Jews even when they ceased to practice their religion, and it became credible, too, that a nation which had welcomed them should be able to accuse them of not always being devoted to its national interests. Then the Zionist idea moved me by its sublimity; I admired in these Jews, and would have wished to be able to admire in myself, this fidelity to the ancestral soil which still lived after two thousand years, and I trembled with emotion as I pictured the universal exodus which would bring them home, from their many exiles, to the unity that they had reconquered.

The Third Zionist Congress was about to open at Basel. I decided to attend it. My knowledge of German enabled me to follow the debates pretty closely.

I listened to it all; but, with even greater interest, I looked about me. What Jewish contrasts! A pale-faced Pole with high cheekbones, a German in spectacles, a Russian looking like an angel, a bearded Persian, a clean shaven American, an Egyptian in a fez, and, over there, that black phantom, towering up in his immense caftan, with his fur cap and pale curls falling from his temples. And in the presence of all these strange faces, the inevitable happened; I felt myself a Jew, very much a Jew,...

...What then, for me, was Zionism? It could enthrall me, it enthralls me still, this great miracle of Israel which concerns the whole of Israel: three million Jews will speak Hebrew, will live Hebrew on Hebrew soil! But, for the twelve million Jews who remain scattered throughout the world, for them and for me, the tragic question remained: What is Judaism? What ought a Jew to do? How be a Jew? Why be a Jew?

I am a Jew because, born of Israel and having lost her,

I have felt her live again in me, more living than myself.

I am a Jew because, born of Israel and having regained her,

I wish her to live after me, more living than in myself.

I am a Jew because the faith of Israel demands of me no abdication of the mind.

I am a Jew because the faith of Israel requires of me all the devotion of my heart.

I am a Jew because in every place where suffering weeps, the Jew weeps.

I am a Jew because at every time when despair cries out, the Jew hopes.

I am a Jew because the word of Israel is the oldest and the newest.

I am a Jew because the promise of Israel if the universal promise.

I am a Jew because, for Israel, the world is not yet completed; men are completing it.

I am a Jew because, above the nations and Israel, Israel places man and his Unity.

I am a Jew because above man, image of the divine Unity, Israel places the divine Unity, and its divinity.

Sometimes, my child, when I wander through a museum, and stand before all the pictures and statues and furniture and armor, the faience, the crystals, the mosaics, the garments and the finery, the coins and the jewels, gathered there, from every place and every age, to hang on the walls, to stand on the plinths, to line up behind the balustrades, to be classified, numbered, and ticketed in the glass cases, I think that one or other of my ancestors may have seen, touched, handled, or admired one or other of these things, in the very place where it was made, and at the very time when it was made, for the use, the labor, the pain, or the joy of men.

This door with the gray nails, between two poplars, in a gilded frame, this is the Geneva synagogue where my father went in to pray. And see this bridge of boats on the Rhone: my grandfather crossed the Rhine, at Huninger. And his grandfather, where did he live? Perhaps as he dreamily calculated the mystical numbers of the cabbala he saw, through his quiet window, this sledge slide over the snow of Germany or Poland? And the grandfather of his grandfather's grandfather? Perhaps he was this money-changer, in this Amsterdam ghetto, painted by Rembrandt...

...One of them drove this plow, tempered in the fire, through the plains of Sharon; one of them went up to them Temple to offer, in these plaited baskets, his tithe of figs...

...and this Sumerian idol, with spherical eyes and angular jaws, is perhaps the very one that Abraham broke when he left his Chaldean home to follow the call of his invisible G-d.

And I say to myself: From this remote father right up to my own father, all these fathers have handed on to me a truth which flowed in their blood, which flows in mine; and shall I not hand it on, with my blood, to those of my blood?

Will you take if from me, my child? Will you hand it on? Perhaps you will wish to abandon it. If so, let it be for a greater truth, if there is one. I shall not blame you. It will be my fault; I shall have failed to hand it on as I have received it.

But, whether you abandon it or whether you follow it, Israel will journey on to the end of days.

Student Rabbi Presents the Mishkan T'filah

On Sat 13 Sept at 3:30pm, the student Rabbi will present a "Get to know the Mishkan T'filah" program.  You do not need to be a member of the Adult Hebrew Class to attend!  Please come and get to know the new student Rabbi as well as the new prayer book!

First day of Sunday Shul by Paul Zipes

After a delay caused by Tropical Storm Fay a few weeks ago, today we finally had our first day of Sunday Shul for the 08/09 school year.  It was well attended with 11 kids present.  3 new kids arrived.  We extend a warm welcome to Ben, Judah and McKenna.  Also, welcome to new teachers Cheryl and Carolynn.  Your children can still attend if interested so please contact us at any time.  Remember, there are Bar and Bat Mitzvah requirements that include Sunday Shul attendance.  Please make every effort to attend if you want your children to have their special day.  Below are few pictures from our first day of Sunday Shul.

I hope to see you soon.

Shalom,
Paul

TICKETS AND OTHER HIGH HOLIDAYS INFORMATION

Dear Congregants and Prospective Members:

We hope that you are enjoying your summer.  Already, the Ritual Committee, trustees, officers, Rabbi Kenneth Kanter, Dean of the Hebrew Union College and Melissa Gray, Soloist for this year’s High Holidays services, are busy with preparations for making it a most meaninful experience for us.

Please help us in our responsibilities to you in creating a smooth and memorable experience by reviewing the following information.  Contact Helaine Norman at (850) 522-8685, with any questions or concerns.  First, please refer to the schedule of services listed on the blog and/or website.

TICKETS ARE REQUIRED.  Tickets are needed for all adults attending High Holiday services.  All tickets are non-transferable and may only be used by the person for whom they are issued.  You get your tickets by completing and returning the TICKET REQUEST FORM that is on the back of your membership application form.  You must have this to us no later than 20 September. The children of members who are between the ages of 18 and 24 but still live at home are eligible for complimentary tickets. The children of members up to age 18 are not required to have tickets at all. If you miss this deadline by mail, call Helaine at 522-8685 by the same deadline date.

FAMILY GUEST TICKETS.  Tickets may be purchased by members for (i) their parents, (ii) their children and grandchildren over 25; or (iii) a spouse or significant other of their parents, children or grandchildren. Cost per guest is $70 for both holidays or $35 for one holiday.  Guest tickets must be paid in full by the member when ordered or at the door.

CREDIT TOWARD MEMBERSHIP DUES.   For prospective or returning members the cost of High Holiday tickets may be credited toward the yearly membership dues of Temple B’nai Israel if you join by retuning the membership application by September 20, 2008.

RECIPROCITY.  Members in good standing at other Union for Reform Judaism member synagogues are welcome at our High Holiday services at no charge through a reciprocity system. To take advantage of this system, you'll need to have a letter from the temple where you are a member.  Please call the temple for more information on this program.

CHILDREN.  We are again offering a Children’s service during both holidays conducted by Rabbi Kenneth Kanter.  We will even have a special celebration for the Birthday of the World on Rosh Hashanah.  See schedule of services in this blog.   However, children are welcome at all services.

BREAK-THE-FAST.  As usual, we will be breaking the fast together at the temple at the end of Yom Kippur with our traditional Break-the-Fast.  Please contact Debra Holbrook at 230-0383 for coordinating what you can bring.

YIZKOR.  Please call Helaine Norman at 522-8685 no later than September 27 if you want to remember a loved one during the Yiskor service on Yom Kippur.  This allows you to enter names of loved ones into our Book of Remembrance, which is distributed during the Memorial Service. This is a traditional way to appreciate, remember and honor loved ones.

PARKING   We reserve our parking lot for seniors and the disabled.  DMV handicapped parking passes will be honored.  If you do not have a handicapped parking pass but require special parking, please check your ticket request form accordingly, so that we can include a special placard for your windshield with your tickets. Please help ease traffic congestion by:

1.   Arriving early, as services begin promptly.

2.   Parking in only one space.

3.   Not parking in or blocking the temple or neighboring driveways.

4.   Parking in the real estate office to the right of the temple.

5.   Being extremely careful on walking from and to your car on the streets and following directions from police, security guards and volunteers helping direct traffic.

FINANCIAL OBLIGATIONS.  Members must be current in their dues and other financial obligations in order to receive High Holy Days tickets.  There are outstanding dues which haven’t been paid.  If certain arrangements need to be set up please contact Helaine Norman or Nathan Miller

REMEMBER that no one will EVER be turned away for the inability to pay, and your information is completely confidential between only you, the president and/or treasurer of the temple.  Please call Helaine at 522-8685 or Nathan at 215-2056.

B’Shalom,

Your Board of Trustees

Reminders for Mid September

The new student Rabbi will be at the Temple on Friday Sept 12th at 7:30pm.  There will not be a Torah service this time but please turn out to greet this young woman who will be an important part of our community.  

Additionally, Saturday the 13th at 3:30pm the Adult Hebrew Class will meet.  The student Rabbi will be in attendance and help kick things off.  Please come and participate no matter what your level of fluency with Hebrew.  Call Helaine or e-mail her and let her know you are coming.  Or, just show up at the Temple!

SOMETHING I FEEL LIKE SHARING WITH OUR TEMPLE FAMILY ABOUT THE URJ's HURRICANE RELIEF FUND by Helaine Norman

The Union for Reform Judaism has a system in place within its Southeast Region (and I'm sure nationally) of which we are a part, to help congregations and their congregants during weather-related emergencies.  I was contacted by telephone not only by the Regional Director, Rabbi Linda Joseph herself, but twice by the Southeast Regions's Chairman for Emergency Operations, located in Atlanta, to check on us during the recent threats of hurricanes and stoms, to make sure we were okay, not just our building but our members as well, and asked if there was anything they could do to help.  Since I did not know about this system before, I asked just exactly what the URJ actually could do for our temple and congregants in such emergencies? 

I was told they could help with many things, but among them, help us take care of our Torahs and even find places for congregants to stay if necessary.  Our officers have made sure that if there is a threat to our Torahs the bank we do business with will store them in their vault.  But, more and more I realize why it is so worthwhile to be a member of the URJ and why we should be proud that we are!  It is a great comfort, especially, to small congregations like ours.  The URJ practices what Judaism speaks!

Emily Grotta, Director of Marketing and Communication for the URJ recently wrote to the president's listserv for which all URJ presidents communicate and get advice from one another (another wonderful source throught the URJ) the following.

"With more storms approaching land, the Union has re-opened its Hurricane Relief Fund to assist those impacted by the storm. (See the home page of the Union’s web site, www.urj.org).  But of course, the assistance and aid that comes from the Reform Movement and its members is far more than simply money; it’s the security of knowing that no one faces these issues alone.  I hope some of those impacted by Katrina and Rita will jump in here to recount what happened… Many of the evacuees of those storms once again went to Camp Jacobs during Gustav; J.C. Cohen, the director of Jacobs, filed two reports that are also on line. While we were ready to mobilize Jacob’s Ladder, which collected and distributed tons of food and supplies from congregations across the Union, fortunately that was not necessary this time."

TZEDAKAH AND THE TIME HONORED TRADITION OF OUR CONGREGATION

During the High Holidays we collect non-perishable food items for the needy in our community.  Immediately after services, all donations will be taken to Family Services.  Please bring non-perishable items with you to services, along with your ticket of course!  There will be a place to deposit them when you come in.  This is tzedakah in it's most important form.  Even though tzedakah is often translated as "charity" that is not correct.  It is not the wealthy giving to the poor out of benevolence and a sense of generosity.  The word tzedakah comes from the Hebrew root tzadi-dalet-kof -- meaning rightousness, justice, or fairness.  For Jews, it's not about whether or not you feel like helping someone, or making a determination if you are wealthy enough to offer help.  It's about the performance of a duty, giving to the poor because it's what we should do.  The poor deserve help.  

The High Holiday liturgy tells us that G-d has inscribed a judgement against those who have sinned but that judgement can be changed through the three obligations of teshuvah (repentance), tefilah (prayer) and tzedakah.  Certain tzedakah is more honorable than others.  The Talmud describes the different types of tzedakah and Rambam organized them into a list.  From the least to the most honorable:

1.) Giving begrudgingly

2.) Giving less that you should, but giving it cheerfully.

3.) Giving after being asked.

4.) Giving before being asked.

5.) Giving when you do not know the recipent's identity, but the recipient knows your identity.

6.) Giving when you know the recipient's identity, but the recipient doesn't know your identity.

7.) Giving when neither party knows the other's identity.

8.) Enabling the recipient to become self-reliant.

PSALM 27:5-7

"G-d will shelter me in a pavilion on an evil day,

grant me the protection of G-d's tent, 

raise me high upon a rock.

G-d will raise my head high above my enemies.

I will bring G-d offerings with shouts of joy,

singing, chanting praise to Adonai.

Adonai, hear my voice when I cry aloud;

be gracious to me, answer me."

 

New Year Message from Miriam Gilberg

To my Dear Friends at Temple B’nai Israel,

A very Happy and Healthy New Year to you all. I miss you very much and wish I could be there for the Holidays. There is a small, young congregation starting up in Dahlonga and I have been there once. They have services once a month and are having them in a church.  It is almost like deja vu.  But no one could take your place in my heart - my heart is there in your Temple.  I wish you all health and happiness for the coming year.  Stay well, my friends.

I love you all,

Miriam

Rabbi Harold S Kushner Comes to Montgomery AL

The Rabbi Kushner, author of many books such as: To Life!, When Bad Things Happen To Good People, Living a Life that Matters, and Overcoming Life's Disappointments among others will be speaking in Montgomery AL on Tuesday, 11 November 2008 at 7 pm on the Alabama Shakespere Festival Stage. This is only a 3.5 hour drive or so from Panama City. The event is free of charge, open to the entire community, and is being sponsored by the Rothschild Blachschleger Lecture Series.

I'll be there! But it's well worth the drive to see a man who has been such a force in American Judaism.

Karen Swanay

POTLUCK BREAK-THE-FAST-TOGETHER by Debra Holbrook

To make it easier on me would you please call me so that I don't have to make so many calls to our congregants regarding what you will be bringing to the potluck Break-the-Fast Together following services on Yom Kippur. In keeping with dietary guidelines of the temple, please bring only "dairy" dishes. If you have any questions and need to know what to bring, I will be glad to give you some choices so I can coordinate the menu and we'll have a little of everything. Contact me at 230-0383 or theholbrooks@comcast.net.