Shabbat Shalom GRJC

Weekly Emails to the Congregation

Parshat Naso 2008

Shabbat Shalom to the Glen Rock Jewish Center family,

We light our Shabbat candles this week at 8:08 pm.  Friday night services will begin at 8 pm and Saturday morning services will begin at 9 am.  Ruben Rivera will become a Bar Mitzvah this Shabbat.  The family extends a warm welcome to all members of the congregation to join in the services and onegs this Shabbat.

During tonight’s evening services we will celebrate the installation of the new Board of Trustees as we recognize and thank those who will be stepping down from their leadership positions.

Sunday evening at 7 pm we will usher in Shavuot with a service and Aleph class consecration & siddur ceremony.  This wonderful simcha will be followed by a special Shavuot dairy Oneg for everyone and our annual Tikkun le’il Shavuot, the Shavuot-eve learning program.  We are pleased to have guest teachers Ornit Michael and Anita Nakhimovich.  I will be presenting a lesson and a siyum, a completion of study ceremony, for a study project I have been pursuing over the past three years.  Most important, though, there will be great desserts…as well as good fellowship and great discussion.

Shavuot Services:

Sunday evening 7 pm

Monday morning 7 am

Monday evening 8 pm WITH YIZKOR

Tuesday morning 7 am WITH YIZKOR

On Sunday morning, we will welcome all our graduating high school and college students for an informal celebration brunch at 11:30 am. We wish all of our graduates good health and happiness!

Speaking of graduation…the graduation ceremony for the nursery school 4s class this morning was a great success.  The students each taught the audience a word in Hebrew, and they sang several songs as a group.  Yasher ko’ach/Congratulations to Hilarie Kay for a wonderful program and for all her hard work this year along with all the teachers and parent volunteers in our nursery school.

We read from the beginning of parshat Naso this Shabbat.  The beginning of the reading may sound like a rehashing of the census that was taken in last week’s parasha.  For this census, we turn our attention to part of the greater tribe of Levi, the Gershonites and the Merarites.  These two groups have the honor of carrying parts of the holy sanctuary, the Mishkan or Tabernacle, through the desert.  Indeed, the Torah teaches that the entire tribe of Levi, some 8,580 individuals, served God by facilitating the rituals or carrying parts of the Temple on the journey through the wilderness.

When we read about these duties, we may have a negative reaction to the idea that “schlepping” can be a Divine service.  Having had some experience in moving furniture up and down staircases, which may in fact be more difficult that carrying things through the desert, I find that in lieu of thinking about God in those situations I am thinking about survival.  Did the Gershonites and Merarites feel a constant and strong connection to the holy nature of their task? The objects they carry are not chairs and sofas; rather, they are the holiest items for the entire people of Israel.  Is this physical labor also a spiritual labor for them?

I often find that there is a great deal of spiritual meaning and satisfaction to be found in the physical labor that accompanies our religious rituals and holidays.  Putting up the sukkah each year is a project that involves a group of people and we can see the results of our efforts.  The Torah becomes heavy when we carry it on Simchat Torah, but there is something special about holding it as everyone dances.  On Shavuot you will see the bimah decorated with greenery and baskets of food offerings.  In ancient Israel the Jewish people brought their offerings, their bikkurim or first fruits of the harvest, to the Temple and placed them on the altar themselves.

When we look at the Torah and our prayer book, it is clear that Jewish tradition has always recognized that the mind and body work together to do God’s mitzvoth, to carry God’s message to the world.  In the Nishmat section of the Shabbat service we read, “Kol atzmotai tomarnah Ado-nai, mi chamocha…”  “All of my bones proclaim, Ado-nai, Who can compare to You?…”

Do you find satisfaction in other physical labor that you do, either at work or at home?  What are the qualities of this kind of activity that cause you to feel good about yourself or the impact that the work has on others?

May this Shavuot, the time when we celebrate receiving the Torah and the first fruits of the harvest, be a time when we can appreciate all of God’s blessings—the blessings that fill our mind with thoughts of holiness and meaning, and the blessings that direct our hands to build and re-build this world that continues to need our loving care.

With wishes for a Shabbat of peace and rest, and a chag same’ach/happy holiday to all,

Rabbi Tow


ANNOUNCEMENTS

Tonight, 8:00pm:  Annual Installation of GRJC Officers and Trustees during our Erev Shabbat service, followed by a Special Oneg Shabbat honoring our Bar Mitztvah Ruben Rivera and our board members.

Sunday, June 8:
11:30 am HS and college graduates brunch with Rabbi Tow in the GRJC Social Hall
7 pm: Shavuot service and Aleph class consecration & siddur ceremony, followed by special Shavuot dairy Oneg for everyone and our annual Tikkun le ’il Shavuot, the Shavuot-eve learning program.

Monday, June 9:
7 am: Shavuot services
GRJC OFFICES CLOSED
8 pm: Shavuot service WITH YIZKOR

Tuesday, June 10
7 am: Shavuot service WITH YIZKOR
GRJC OFFICES CLOSED

Wednesday, June 11
7:30 pm: Library chair Michelle Strassberg and Librarian Elisa Hirsch will lead a training session on using computer software to catalogue our entire updated collection of books and other resources.  They are looking for a small group of volunteers who can spend some hours over the summer months in our newly renovated library cataloguing our collection.  If you have any interest, this training session is a must.  Call Michelle at 689-3141 or email her at mstrassberg@hotmail.com

Thursday, June 12
11:45 am:  Monthly Widow/Widower’s Chavurah with lunch and special guest speaker Sandy Rubenstein, daughter of former GRJC member Joe Horn, z”l  She will lead a video presentation based on her father’s book, Mark It With A Stone: A Moving Account of a Young Boy’s Struggle to Survive the Nazi Death Camps. Those who are not widows/widowers are welcome to join us, but please call the GRJC office first to RSVP, so we know how much food to prepare.  There is a $5.00 per person donation to cover lunch.

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