BET CLASS
SHABBAT DINNER
tonight at 6:30pm
in the Social Hall
BET CLASS SHABBATON
8:00pm
in the Sanctuary
|
GRJC 2009
Scholar in Residence:
Dr. Elisheva
Baumgarten
We are pleased to welcome Dr. Baumgarten
to the GRJC this weekend as
Scholar-in-residence. She is a
Professor at Bar Ilan University in
Israel and is now at the Institute for
Advanced Study in Princeton. Her
book, Mothers and Children: Jewish
Family Life in Medieval Europe,
received the Koret Foundation prize for
best book in Jewish history in 2005.
See the box below Rabbi Tow's "Shabbat
Shalom" message for details on her
talks tonight and tomorrow.
|
 IN-SCHOOL
REGISTRATION for 2009-2010 SUNDAY SCHOOL
AND HEBREW SCHOOL
This Sunday, March 29
10am - noon
Bring the registration
packet you received in the mail; stop in
the GRJC with your completed forms and
$50 registration fee (check or credit
card).
OF COURSE, YOU MAY MAIL
IN YOUR REGISTRATION FORMS AS WELL
|
GRJC Annual Music Festival
"Songs of Shabbat"
April 5, 2009 10:00am -noon
Join Cantor Michelle Freedman
the GRJC Adult Choir
Religious School and Nursery School
Students in a celebratory songfest!
zimriya!
|
ON EASTER SUNDAY
APRIL 12, 2009
10AM - 12 NOON
Good Shepherd
Lutheran Church
in Glen Rock is
looking for
volunteers (teen
to adult) to watch their toddlers and
young children in the Church Nursery
during Easter Services.
A great
opportunity
for community
service hours!
Call the Lutheran Church directly at
201-444-6598.
|
LOOKING FOR NEW
SHOFAR BLOWER(S)
for the High Holidays
experience with woodwind or brass
instruments preferred, but not
required.
Rabbi Tow can provide training. Call
him at the GRJC or email him at
rabbi@grjc.org
|
 Pampers
has a program called 1 pack = 1 vaccine.
Pampers will donate the cost of one
tetanus vaccine to the US Fund for Unicef
for every pack of specially marked Pampers
diapers and wipes purchased by May
1,2009. For those congregants who have
children or grandchildren in diapers this
seems to be a "no-brainer". For those of
us who do not have anyone in diapers this
can serve as a double mitzvah: We can buy
the SPECIALLY MARKED Pamper diapers and
wipes and drop them off at the GRJC where
they will be donated to those in need of
them. There is only a short window of
time to do this, so please participate
now!
Note: The cost of a package of Pampers
wipes is significantly cheaper than a
pack of diapers, but still results in a
tetanus vaccine for a child in need. So
please pick up a package the next time
you're out shopping!
For further info
please go to
www.pampers.com/en_US/unicef/tab/partner.
|
|
|
Shabbat, March
27-28, 2009
2-3 Nisan, 5769
SCHOLAR-IN-RESIDENCE WEEKEND:
DR. ELISHEVA BAUMGARTEN
The
Torah portion for this week is
Vayikra.
We light our Shabbat candles at 6:58
pm.
Friday night services will begin
at 8 pm.
BET CLASS SHABBATON
8:45 pm - Dr.
Baumgarten's opening talk
Saturday morning services will begin
at 9 am
11:45 am - Dr. Baumgarten's second
presentation and luncheon
7:45 pm Shiva Minyan for
Michael Stricker z"l
at the Stricker home: 45 Iona Pl
Glen Rock
Shabbat ends
at 7:59 pm Saturday.
8 pm - Mariv/Havadalah and Dr.
Baumgarten's third presentation
|
|
Shabbat Shalom to the GRJC family
The alarm clock rings and we begin our
morning ritual. For some of us that
ritual begins with the ceremony called
"snooze". We engage in activities
with the goal of preparing ourselves,
and others in the case of children, to
face the day. After weeks, months,
years we can almost face the normal
morning ritual without too much
thought. Almost without thinking we
turn on the radio to get the weather
report, the lunch-boxes are sitting by
the door, and the Black Berry turned
on for an email check as the time to
leave approaches.
An aspect of ritualized behavior is
present in everything that we do
throughout the day and through the
moment when we close our eyes. Those
who have dogs at home know well the
way dogs prepare to lay down to sleep
by walking in a circle to get
themselves in a comfortable sleeping
position. We all live our lives in a
ritual way, even though we might not
think of it as ritual in the religious
sense. Religious rituals, like
Shabbat, help us to appreciate the
transcendent nature of God and God's
creation. Our day-to-day rituals help
us to find order in our lives through
the day. Take for example the coffee
shop ritual order, "I'll take my usual
double cafe-latte with two sugars, soy
milk, and a pump of cinnamon spice,"
or the time and manner in which we
like to pay our bills or do our taxes.
The Torah portions that we will read
in the weeks ahead from the third book
of the Torah, the Book of Leviticus,
all teach us about rituals in ancient
Israel. These rituals were the
regular ways that people connected to
God, mainly through the offering of
animal sacrifices. These rituals were
as important to the ancient Israelites
as our day-to-day rituals are to us.
They helped to remind the people that
there is some larger order in this
apparently chaotic world. The One
God, Ado-nai, is at the source of this
order, and through the sacrifices we
came to appreciate the holiness and
meaning that God's presence brought to
our lives.
With the destruction of the Second
Temple in the year 70 CE, we moved as
a people from rituals based on
sacrifices to rituals based on the
words of the Torah, the prayers that
we say, and the way that we set aside
special time for Shabbat and
holidays. The reason that our Jewish
rituals and observances are important
is that they help to give us a
spiritual foundation in our lives so
that when life is difficult we can
lean on that strong foundation. We
build that foundation through bringing
Jewish rituals into our lives day to
day and year to year, connecting us to
an ancient and ongoing tradition and a
living faith community today that is
there for us at times of celebration
and sorrow.
This Shabbat, I invite you to
participate in an annual ritual, our
Scholar-in-Residence weekend, as we
welcome Dr. Elisheva Baumgarten, an
eminent Israeli scholar, who will
enlighten us with a fresh view of
history and its impact on the present
in her lectures on the Jewish family
and the development of womens' roles
in Judaism and Jewish society.
With blessings,
Rabbi Tow
|
|
2009
GRJC
Scholar-in-Residence
Dr.
Elisheva Baumgarten
Friday/Saturday, March 27-28
Dr.
Baumgarten will offer three sessions
over the course of Shabbat that will
focus on the history and development
of the Jewish family, gender roles and
relationships in Jewish society, and
the place of women in Jewish society
throughout the ages. She will take
the wisdom of the past and help us
apply it to the present and future.
Finding a Useable Past: Searching for
Jewish Women in the Sources
Friday Night, March
27 (8:45pm*)
At the conclusion of Erev Shabbat
services, Dr. Baumgarten will
discuss some of the problems finding
Jewish women in the standard Jewish
sources. She will use a biblical
example to illustrate some of these
issues, and provide a beginning
point for Saturday's talks.
Meet and greet Dr.
Baumgarten and her family at Oneg
Shabbat, immediately following her
talk.
Secrets
from the Geniza: Divorce Medieval
Style
Shabbat Morning, March
28 (11:45am*)
At a special Kiddush luncheon
following Shabbat morning services,
Dr. Baumgarten will examine a
response by Maimonides, the great
medieval Jewish thinker and legal
authority, to two questions by a
couple settling on divorce terms in
the 12th century. A
central issue in the divorce suit
was the wife's profession - she
taught Torah at a boy's school in
Cairo. The examination of these two
letters reveals the cultural values
of the period and the social
expectations of men and women during
this period.
Wonder Women? Changing
Models of Jewish Women of Valor
Saturday Evening, March
28 (8:00pm*)
Following Maariv and Havdalah
services at 8:00, Dr.
Baumgarten's final talk will focus
on the daily lives of Jewish women
in Ashkenaz (Germany and Northern
France) in the medieval period (12th
and 13th centuries). Their family
responsibilities and religious
practices as well as male attitudes
towards the place of women in Jewish
society will be examined, using
written sources as well as art from
the period. Coffee and desserts
served.
*all times approximate
Please join us for any or all of Dr.
Baumgarten's talks; they are offered
without charge to the community.
Contributions, however, help make the
continuation of our
Scholar-in-residence program
possible. If you wish to make a
donation, please make your check
payable to Glen Rock Jewish Center
with scholar-in-residence written on
the memo/notation line of the check,
and send it to GRJC, 682 Harristown
Road, Glen Rock, NJ 07452. Thank you. |
Upcoming Week's Calendar
Sunday, March 29
9:am
- 12 noon
Religious School and Zimriya
Rehearsal
10am - 12 noon
Religious School
In-school Registration
11am - 12 noon
Rabbi's Adult B'nei
Mitzvah Class
7:00 - 8:30pm
Rosh Chodesh Women's
Group (Social Hall)
Monday, March 30
7:30 - 9:45pm
Melton II Adult Ed
Class (Youth Lounge)
Tuesday, March 31
9:30 - 10:45am
Mommy & Me
4:00-6:00pm
Bet Class Interfaith
Seder
Thursday, April 2
11:45am
Movin On' Lunch and
Speaker Lisa Athan
from
Griefspeaks.com
3:15pm
Daled Class trip to the
Hackensack IRF Soup
Kitchen
8:15pm
Adult Choir Rehearsal
for Zimriya
Friday, April 3
9:30 am
Nursery School
Passover Celebration
with parents
|
|
|
