Update for June 12th

Date: June 12th 2008

Share your synagogue with your friends who are not yet members.

There are some fun activities coming up including

Sing It Yourself Shabbat Friday June 20^th (with potluck following),

the annual Swim Party and BBQ at the JCC on Sunday, August 17,

In this Update:

- Upcoming Services

- Temple Emanu-El seeks a Temple Administrator

- In the community

- Silicon Valley Duck Race (supporting Jewish Family Services and Temple Emanu-El)

- JCC Summer Classes

- Federation Annual Meeting and BBQ Monday, June 23rd

- Torah Portion

UPCOMING SERVICES

Friday, June 13: 6:30 PM Kabbalat Shabbat Service: first summer service on the patio

Saturday, June 14: 9:00 AM Shabbat Morning Minyan led by Ken and Linnea Abrams

Friday, June 20: 6:30 PM Sing It Yourself Shabbat with lots of music

Tot Shabbat starts at the same time. After the blessings and some songs, those families will move to the patio between the education building and Temple House for potluck dinner and play time.

Potluck Dinner for the other families in Temple House following the service.

Saturday, June 21: 9:00 AM Shabbat Morning Minyan led by Cantor Intern Meeka Simerly

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Temple Emanu-El continues seeking a Temple Administrator.

We provide a collaborative, warm and nurturing environment to work in.

We are looking for an experienced administrator who is responsible for supervising paid staff, directing volunteers, managing the budget and overseeing the day-to-day operations and facilities of our spiritual home. The Administrator acts as the liaison to members, clergy, the Board of Trustees, the preschool, religious school, committees and auxiliaries. Experience in running a non-profit enterprise is a plus.

The position is available immediately. If you know of someone who might be interested in and appropriate for the role, please contact Ruth Krandel, ruthkrandel@yahoo.com or 264-5376 or Pam Schuur, pamela.schuur@comcast.net or 483-6810.

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IN THE COMMUNITY…

Silicon Valley Duck Race: June 22^nd

Adopt a duck -- Support Temple Emanu-El and Jewish Family Services by purchasing 1, 5, 10, even 25 ducks or more!

On Sunday, June 22^nd at 1:00pm egg-zactkly, 10,000 darling rubber duckies will dive under the bridge and into Vasona Lake, racing downstream into a prize picking net. The Lucky Duck winners will go home with more than $15,000 in prizes, with the possibility of winning a $1 Million nest egg.

The Silicon Valley Duck Race is a fun opportunity for the whole community. In addition to the race, there will be a festival, food and games, beginning at 11:00am. Bring the entire family! Jewish organizations in the South Bay are cooperating in this quacky fun day, sponsored by Jewish Family Services of Silicon Valley, which provides social, vocational, counseling, crisis intervention, refugee resettlement services and programs for seniors.

The best way to adopt your ducks is online at www.siliconvalleyduckrace.org. Go to the right of the home page and click on “Temple Emanu-El” as your team, and your synagogue will receive $2 for every $5 donated. Then come on down for all the fun on June 22^nd! Duck adoption papers are available on the Shalom Table and in the Temple office.

JCC SUMMER COURSE LIST

For more information:
Rabbi Joshua Fenton, Director of the Center for Jewish Life & Learning, rabbifenton@svjcc.org or 408.357.7413

1. Creating a Jewish Home Crash Course

In just 6 weeks we will investigate what Jewish living is and what it means to build a Jewish home. Topics will include Shabbat, Keeping Kosher, Family, Charity, Jewish Holidays, and the Synagogue.

Mondays 12:30-2:00 6/30-8/4

$45.00 members; $55.00 non-members

No Hebrew Required

2. What is a Good Life?

Drop in and learn a little with Rabbi Fenton. In this informal study session we focus on the question, “What is ethical living?” as we investigate what classical Jewish texts have to say on the topic.

Wednesdays 11:00-12:15

Ongoing. Free. No Hebrew Required.

3. Silicon Valley Beit Midrash

The APJCC and participating local Synagogues are excited to announce the opening of the Silicon Valley Beit Midrash. Join local Rabbis on Thursday mornings in study and discussion.

9:00-10:00 Introduction to Jewish Thought Through Text

10:15-11:45 Advanced Talmud Study

Location: Congregation Sinai of Willow Glen

Ongoing. Free.

4. Hebrew Reading Crash Course Part II

Take your Hebrew reading skills to the next level with this course that promises further instruction in Hebrew reading with an added focus on comprehension. This course begins where Crash Course 1 leaves off.

Tuesdays 12:30-2:00 5/20-7/1 (no classes on 6/10)

$60.00 members; $75.00 non-members

Instructor: Rabbi Simcha Green

5. Summer Hebrew Intensive

Have you always wanted to spend some time and focus on improving your Hebrew skills? Join the APJCC Summer Hebrew Intensive. This 12 course program lasting 6 weeks will focus on practical Hebrew skills: conversation, strengthening reading and comprehension, and expanding vocabulary.

Some Hebrew required/Graduates of the Crash Course are welcome

Tuesdays and Thursdays 7:30-9:00 pm 6/24-8/7

$110.00 members; $125.00 non-members

Instructor: Sheryl Wit

Jewish Federation of Silicon Valley Annual Meeting and Poolside BBQ

Monday, June 23^rd at 6:00 PM

$10 per person (hotdog dinner/vegetarian option on request only)

RSVP to (408)358-3033 or www.jvalley.org

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Refuah Shleymah – we pray for the following individuals – that they will be returned to good health in short order so they can resume a full life with their loved ones.

- Arthur Cagan

- Judith Siegel

- Eva Stanley

- Joelle Wolf

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Torah Portion of the Week from www.urj.org

B'haalot'cha, Numbers 8:1−12:16
Shabbat, June 14, 2008 / 11 Sivan, 5768
The Torah: A Modern Commentary, pp.1,075−1,100; Revised Edition, pp. 950−973;
The Torah: A Women's Commentary , pp. 843–868
Haftarah, Zechariah 2:14−4:7
The Torah: A Modern Commentary, pp. 1,259−1,261; Revised Edition, pp. 974−976

To listen to this commentary, please click here.

D'VAR TORAH |

B'haalot'cha : Outside the Camp—A Modern Midrash
Carol Ochs

This midrash, or haggadic story, takes place amid the Israelites' wandering in the desert. We read in B'haalot'cha :

When they were in Hazeroth, Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman he had married: "He married a Cushite woman!"

They said, "Has the Eternal spoken only through Moses? Has not spoken through us as well?" . . . [God said,]"How then did you not shrink from speaking against My servant Moses!" Still incensed with them, The Eternal departed.

As the cloud withdrew from the Tent, there was Miriam stricken with snow-white scales! When Aaron turned toward Miriam, he saw that she was stricken with scales. And Aaron said to Moses, "O, my lord, account not to us the sin which we committed in our folly. Let her not be as a stillbirth which emerges from its mother's womb with half its flesh eaten away!" So Moses cried out to the Eternal, saying, "O God, pray heal her!'"

But the Eternal One said to Moses, "If her father spat in her face, would she not bear her shame for seven days? Let her be shut out of camp for seven days, and then let her be readmitted." So Miriam was shut out of camp seven days; and the people did not march on until Miriam was readmitted. (Numbers 11:35, 12:1–2, 12:8–15)

In our midrash, Miriam loses her status after she argues with Moses, but strangely, that loss turns out to be a gain. Now, people who come to her are no longer seeking indirect access to Moses. During her struggle with leprosy, Miriam learned about vulnerability and learned what it was like to be banished from the camp for seven days. A week is a short time, but for Miriam it is long enough to view the camp, with its problems and intrigues, from a new perspective. She is still the same person she was before, but not completely. How do you regard your skin when it has once begun to flake with leprosy? And how do you re-engage completely with the drama of the camp when you have once lived outside its borders, away from its machinations? Contemplating these questions confirms for Miriam what she always suspected: that it is we who create worlds of meaning and value, worlds that are suspended on fragile threads of relationships. Experiencing marginality gives her the distance she needs to choose once again to relate to others and to God, or to reject making such commitments.

Miriam always taught about the role of boundaries, but the circumstances surrounding her leprosy show her how important and also how potentially stultifying religious boundaries can be. Thrust out beyond the borders of the camp, she experiences God, an event that brings her to a deeper life. Separated from the community, she can look toward the camp and feel excluded, or she can turn away from the camp and exclude it from her line of vision and concern. Or, as we will see, she can gain a new perspective, bring it back to the people in the camp, and have it stand them in good stead for millennia to follow.

Miriam's marginalization prefigures that of Jews, in one society after another. For two millennia, marginalized Jews have brought fresh perspectives to the societies in which they dwelt and ultimately have contributed great advances in all endeavors such as science, literature, psychology, economics, and the arts. Similarly, Miriam's experience of marginality has given her the tools to bring a new gift to the Jewish people.

In our midrash, Miriam returns to the camp and begins to speak about her time "outside." She teaches the Israelites, and most especially the women, that she has seen how people build worlds of meaning and value in their homes and in their relationships, and how these are the worlds through which they can experience God. She shares with them the knowledge that even outside the camp, one can build structures in which to experience God. These are not the structures of the Levites, and perhaps the aspect of God experienced outside the camp is not the same as that addressed in Levitical worship. Rather, the aspect of God addressed outside the camp is that of the marginalized.

“The God I experienced in the days of my banishment was not that of the kohanim ," she explains. "But there is only one God!" exclaim the women. Miriam replies, "Yes, there is, indeed, one God, but we have been told where we may experience God, how we may worship God, and what God expects of us. But we also know, in the Holy of Holies of our own hearts, that we have experienced God outside the structure of the formal offerings." The women murmur a quiet assent.

Miriam talks about something else she experienced outside the camp, something neither seen nor heard, but felt: "I was never alone." The women grow silent, reflecting and remembering. Others must surely have come to Miriam's insight, but she is the first to articulate it to the women. She teaches them to transmit it to their infants as they nurse them: "Wherever you are, God is, and even if someday there are no longer priests or Levites, there will be mothers telling their children of the presence of God."

Dr. Carol Ochs is director of Graduate Studies and adjunct professor of Jewish Religious Thought at Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion in New York.

DAVAR ACHER |

Divine Mistakes
David Spey

Dr. Ochs insightfully teaches the idea that we humans, we Jews, instill our own lives and experiences with meaning and thereby can find God in all aspects of life. In that light, we must take Miriam's instructions to the women reflectively and apply the lesson to the Torah portion and midrash themselves. We must note that it is God who punishes Miriam. Moses, the victim, is prepared to forgive her completely, but God banishes her from the camp. We must ask, toward what end? As Dr. Ochs has taught, through her isolation, Miriam not only atones, but also grows as a person. She emerges from her isolation with a greater understanding of the relationships between God and the world. And so we learn that punishment is not about retribution and revenge, but rather, punishment is a teaching aid.

Miriam teaches the women that God is always with them and instructs them to share that message with their children. Her example shows them a way to find God's presence in their lives. Just as God experienced by Miriam outside the camp was not the God of the priests, neither were the rules of living outside the camp the rules of the kohanim . Miriam demonstrates that through the unconstrained introspection afforded by her isolation, she is able to grow and develop as a person. Her process of t'shuvah , atonement, and learning from errors is a profound educational experience, both spiritually and emotionally. Sometimes, only through transgressing the rules can we come to understand their wisdom and moral value. From Miriam, we learn that God exists in all of our experiences, the good and the bad, the proper choices and our mistakes. We just need to take the time and do the work to find God there.

Rabbi David Spey is associate rabbi at Temple Beth Ami, Rockville, Maryland.

RJ.org : News and Views of Reform Jews. Join the conversation on the new Reform blog at http://www.rj.org

Adult Study Retreat 2008
Registration is now open for the Summer Adult Study Retreat (formerly known as Kallah) July 8-13, 2008, Franklin Pierce College in Rindge, NH. The theme will be Israel at 60. http://urj.org/educate/adultstudy/summer/