Shabbat Shalom GRJC

Weekly Emails to the Congregation

Parshat Ki Tissa 2008

Shabbat Shalom to the GRJC family,

We light our Shabbat candles this week at 5:20 pm.  Friday evening services will begin at 8 pm.  Saturday morning services will begin at 9 am.  Heather Misrok will become a Bat Mitzvah this Shabbat.  We wish an early Mazel Tov to the whole Misrok family.

This year is a leap year both in the secular and in the Jewish calendar.  In the secular calendar we have February 29th, and in the Jewish calendar we have an extra month, Adar II.  I would like to invite anyone with a February 29th birthday to join us Friday evening for a special birthday blessing and song.

We read this week from the beginning of parshat Ki Tissa in Sefer Shemot, the Book of Exodus.  There are two sections in our reading this week that describe the preparation of fragrant mixes, one for anointing the holy objects in the sanctuary and one for incense.  Unlike Renuzit and Glade, the goal of these mixes, these aromatic blends, is not to make the holy place smell better.  Although, one could argue from a practical point of view that due to the sacrifices that the Israelites offered in the Temple, there surely were smells that required the help of an air-freshener.  Jewish tradition disputes this reality and suggests that there were neither terrible smells nor flies buzzing about the Temple.

The goal of the anointing oil and the incense were to help establish the Temple as a holy place.  Bible scholars teach us that spices and perfumes were special and highly valuable in the ancient world.  Significant amounts of raw materials were required to produce them, and these materials came across great distances, even from far away China.  To an ancient Israelite, only a special place would be filled with these special blends of aromatic incense and oil.

We know also that smell and memory are closely connected.  Our sense of smell is a powerful memory tool that connects us to people, places, and special times in our lives, both past and present.  The ancient Israelite, then, associated the special smells of the oil and incense with the presence of God in the Temple.

Can you think of a memory you have connected to a smell, perhaps the smell and taste of a family recipe?  Was this memory connected to the Jewish calendar in any way, the smell of challah baking or a fresh Rosh Hashanah honey cake?

MAZEL TOV to -

Mike and Rita Greenberg on the recent Bat Mitzvah of their granddaughter.

All our GRJC students who took part in the musical Footloose at Glen Rock High School



ANNOUNCEMENTS:
1.  Adult Education - Rabbi Tow's Class - Sunday, 9:30 am.  Join us for a new class that will explore Jewish business ethics.

2.  Gabbai Training - Sunday, 1-2 pm.  A program to refresh skills for current gabbais and help new gabbais to achieve the skills they will need for helping with our weekly Torah service.

3.  PROJECT COLLEGE BOUND! - Sunday evening at 7 pm.  Please RSVP to office@grjc.org to let us know if you would like to attend this program for BOTH PARENTS AND STUDENTS.  The program will help our high school teens to navigate the college search process, and also think about issues of Jewish presence on campus.

4.  Cheryl David will become a Bat Mitzvah next week.

With prayers for a restful Shabbat,

Rabbi Tow

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