Glen Rock Jewish Center

We light our Shabbat candles at 8:11 pm

Shabbat evening services begin at 8 pm

*We will celebrate all July BIRTHDAYS and ANNIVERSARIES during tonight's service!*

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Saturday morning services will begin
at 9 am

Shabbat ends at 9:19 pm on Saturday.

Welcoming Cantorial Intern Ted Prosnitz and Cantor William Walton
We are happy to announce that cantorial student Ted Prosnitz will be leading services on a volunteer basis during this summer and upcoming year.

This is an opportunity for us as a congregation to help a soon-to-be Cantor have a learning experience that will help him in his future career. Ted is going to be starting his senior year at the H.L Miller Cantorial School of the Jewish Theological Seminary in Manhattan.

Ted lives in Wyckoff with his family.

Ted will be joining us for our Congregational Shabbat Dinner tonight (along with 140 GRJC members and children!).He will lead parts of the Friday night and the Saturday morning service this Shabbat.
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Our High Holiday and part-time Cantor William Walton will be visiting with us at the Summer BBQ on August 14 and will lead our Selichot High Holiday services, teach the Hay class and work on many other projects during the 2009-2010 year.

Cantor Walton was selected following a thorough search process in which five candidates auditioned for the position.

More information to follow...

THE ISRAEL TRIP IS ON!
After a successful opening meeting, we're moving forward with the Israel trip that's scheduled for February 6-16, 2010. We have the proposed itinerary available as well as the costs. Please contact Rabbi Tow (rabbi@grjc.org) to learn more about this exciting Israel opportunity! This trip offers a maximum Israel experience at the most affordable price available today--a unique opportunity!.
*See Tel Aviv, Haifa, the Golan, the Galilee, Jerusalem, Masada, the Dead Sea and more...
*Participate in an archaeological dig and planting a tree in Israel

*Dinner with members of a Masorti/Conservative congregation in Rehovot.
*Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial
*Wine tasting in the Golan Heights Winery
*See where King David lived
*And so much more...

Join us on our Israel adventure!

Dear GRJC family,

It is my goal to be of service to all congregants and members of our GRJC family at large.

In order to better serve you, I would ask for your help and support:

When there is a family member who is in the hospital, ill at home, or elsewhere, and would appreciate a visit from me, please let me know. We can also add the individual's name to the healing prayers we recite on Shabbat and holidays. If you have a parent or relative in independent or assisted living or in a nursing home, please let me know so that I can make a visit.
When there is, God forbid, a death, please contact me first before being in touch with the funeral parlor so that we can work together to create a meaningful memorial service and shivah observance for your loved one.

Thank you!
-Rabbi Tow

Shabbat Shalom to the GRJC family!
From Rabbi Tow

Question:

I would like to thank the Scheraga family for raising an astute and compelling question this past week.

If beef and chicken are MEAT -
And veggies, flour and fruits are PAREVE -
Why are eggs, milk and cheese DAIRY, since they all came from animals that we label MEAT!?
... and if the answer is that these are by-products of animals and not the animal itself, then why is something like schmaltz consider MEAT too?

Answer:

It is important to note that the Rabbis whose discussions comprise the Talmud discussed this very question. In other words, they had to contend with the same questions within the set of issues raised above.
To begin, we should clarify the different categories mentioned above. Beef, chicken, and other similar meats, are considered "basar"/meat, in Yiddish "fleyshik", in Hebrew "be'sari". The Torah teaches us that we may consume the meat of animals the Torah deems pure, tahor. According to Leviticus Chapter 11, they must have split hooves and chew cud. In order to be kosher, they must also be slaughtered, in yiddish "schechted", according to the Jewish practice which consists of a trained individual, "shochet", who cuts the windpipe (trachea) and food pipe (esophagus) of the animal in one stroke (and at least one of these two pipes with fowl.)

Dairy, in Yiddish "milchig", in Hebrew "chalavi", is identified as something that is produced from the milk of a pure animal, one of the ones described in Leviticus 11.
Pareve refers to foods that are neither meat nor dairy. All vegetables and fruits are pareve. Eggs and fish are also pareve. The Shulchan Aruch, the basic Code of Jewish Law, explains that fish are considered pareve rather than meat/fleyshik. Despite the fact that fish do have blood and the flesh of many fish can be "meaty", the Rabbis did not consider fish to be in the same category as beef and other things we normally refer to as meat. According to Leviticus 11, fish must have fins and scales to be kosher.

The Torah teaches three times "You shall not cook a kid in its mother's milk."(Exodus 23:19, Exodus 34:26, Deuteronomy 14:21) This teaching is the basis of prohibiting the consumption of milk and meat in the same meal, whether the foods are milk and meat or products related to them, e.g. cheese and soup made with beef stock.

If milk comes from an animal, why is it considered dairy and not meat?
The Rabbis do not think of milk as "meat" despite the fact that it is "min ha'chai", meaning "from a living thing." However, fundamentally the milk is supposed to come from a pure animal only. It is a a by-product, something that while produced inside an animal is not part of the animal itself. A related issue is whether to consider milk (or eggs as we will see in a moment) part of a living thing--something that is a physical part of a living animal--"ever min ha'chai", in which case it would be forbidden for us to eat. The Torah teaches us that we may not eat part of an animal that is still alive. With regard to milk, the Rabbis do not think of milk as part of the animal that produces it.

Regarding eggs, only eggs from a pure animal are kosher, and we must check eggs for blood spots that render an egg un-kosher. The Rabbis of the Talmud legislate that once the shell of the egg has formed, it is no longer considered part of its mother. As a result, it is not part of a living animal (which would render it unkosher as mentioned earlier), and due to the separation with the mother it does not fall under the meat/milk prohibition, ie you can eat a cheese omelette.

We can now address the question of schmaltz. Schmaltz, known in kitchen-terms as rendered chicken fat, is created by cutting the skin and fat from chickens and cooking it. Schmaltz, then, is made from the actual flesh and fat of the chicken, making it a meat product.

In the supermarket, we can see whether a product is kosher meat, dairy, or pareve by taking a look at the kosher symbol ("hechsher") printed on the label.

A couple of examples...

kosher dairy symbol

This is one of many kosher dairy symbols, the "D" is for dairy.

This is one of many kosher parve symbols.

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