The Temple offices and Preschool will be closed on Friday, July 4th.
Happy Independence Day!
Share your synagogue with your friends who are not yet members.
- the annual Swim Party and BBQ at the JCC on Sunday, August 17,
sponsored by Brotherhood and WOTE,
- the next fabulous Rock Shabbat on Friday, August 22, and
- a “getting to know us” brunch on Sunday, August 24 at 10:00 AM.
Call the administrative office for more information…and bring a friend!
>> If your email address changes, please let the office know so we can update our records.
>> If you know of someone who could use a friendly phone call from the Caring Committee, or a ride to services, please contact Dan and Shirley Lee, sabl@sbcglobal.net.
UPDATE FOR JULY 3, 2008
In this Update:
- Upcoming Services
- In the community
- Life Cycle Events
- Torah Portion
UPCOMING SERVICES
Friday, July 4, 2008
6:30 PM Kabbalat Shabbat Service in the BFR this week
led by Cantor Intern Meeka Simerly
Saturday, July 5
9:00 AM Shabbat Morning Minyan, led by Gordon and Laura Danoff Robinson
Friday, July 11
6:30 PM Kabbalat Shabbat Service, led by Brotherhood
If you would like to participate in the service (Hebrew or English) please contact brotherhood@templesanjose.org or call the office on Monday.
Saturday, July 12
9:00 AM Shabbat Morning Minyan, led by Linnea and Ken Abrams
Friday, July 18
6:30 PM Tot Shabbat and Kabbalat Shabbat Service
led by Cantor Intern Meeka Simerly
Potlucks for both groups follow services: Tot Families on playground between Temple House and Education Bldg; everyone else in the BFR.
Saturday, July 19
9:00 AM Shabbat Morning Minyan, led by Rebecca Bronstein and Jonathan Hirshon
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TEMPLE AUXILIARIES…
WOTE
Thursday, July 17 - Dinner and a Meeting
Friday, August 1 – WOTE Shabbat on the Patio
Saturday, August 2 (note change of date) a group outing to COMEDY SPORTZ
Thursday, August 14 – Dinner and a Meeting (in the Cottage)
Let Rita or Anita know if you want to help with the Yom Kippur Break-the-Fast
WOTE & BROTHERHOOD
Sunday, August 17 –
TEMPLE SUMMER BBQ
swimming, water slide, and BBQ with friends
at the Addison-Penzak Jewish Community Center
on Oka Road in Los Gatos
from 11-3pm
Sponsored by Brotherhood and Sisterhood
Brotherhood will BBQ again
We provide the main course, chips, drinks and paper goods.
You bring a side dish or dessert to share.
RSVP to Bernice Gaon at 269-0131. Need RSVP to ensure enough food.
$5 per person or $20 per family
Pay at pool or send check to temple.
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In the Community:
Everyone has the right to be...
SAFE AT HOME
It's Jewish Heritage Night at the ballpark again--come schmooze with us!
Monday August 25, 2008
Join us for the pre-game dinner...
5pm - Dinner at Gordon Biersch. Includes 3 hours of free parking.
Co-hosted with the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco , the Peninsula, Marin, & Sonoma Counties
Or meet up with us at the game...
7:15pm - SF Giants vs. Colorado Rockies
Includes view section seat, "Go Giants" custom Jewish Heritage Night scarf, and a "Safe at Home" Shalom Bayit tote bag
Join our fabulous contingent at the game AND support everyone's right to be SAFE AT HOME!
Tickets: $45 ~ Dinner & Game discount package; $20 ~ Game only; $30 ~ Dinner only
Don't miss this fabulous and fun community event!
Order tickets now- space is limited. Reserve by July 25th at (510) 451-8874 or info@shalom-bayit.org
Shalom Bayit
Ending Domestic Violence in Jewish Homes
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Look for the details on offerings from Jewish Studies Program at San José State University in the August Connections.
or contact: Victoria G. Harrison, Program Coordinator
victoria.harrison@sjsu.edu ~~ 408-924-5547
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Refuah Shleymah – we pray for the following congregants – that they will be returned to good health in short order so they can resume a full life with their loved ones.
- Arthur Cagan
- Gerald Prizant
- Judith Siegel
- Eva Stanley
- Henry Thailer
- Joelle Wolf
Life Cycle Notifications
We note with sorrow the passing of
Ben Byers, nephew of Ellie Gerstley (Michael)
Mary Port, mother of Sue Timpson (Ron)
May their memories be a blessing.
Torah Portion of the Week Parshat Chukat Numbers 19:1−22:1
from www.urj.org
A Progressive, But Non-rational Approach
Matthew D. Gewirtz
A rabbinic mentor told me he used to give unhelpful advice to his congregants when they struggled with guilt. They would tell him, “Rabbi, my mother died and I didn’t visit, care, or tend to her enough in her final weeks. Now she is dead. The guilt is unbearable.” In his early years of rabbinic experience, he would provide this counsel: “You did your best; don’t feel guilty.” As time went on, the rabbi realized that this advice was not helpful. In essence, he had answered an irrational emotion with a rational response. Instead, he started to give ritual assignments in response to these types of quandaries. Rather than urging people not to feel guilty (that is, trying to will people not to feel their feelings), he would prescribe an activity for a certain period of time. For example, in one case, he advised a congregant to visit patients who were terminal, as the congregant’s mother had been, and try to provide some of the care that had not been given to his mother. Sure enoug
h, his desperate congregant fulfilled the six-week assignment and reported back that his guilt had begun to subside. There was no rational reason for the relief of guilt. Indeed, some rituals have no rational reason. But sometimes ritual fulfillment brings us to new levels of awareness and resolution that simply have to do with plugging into an age-old ritual that exists because God demands it of us.
I do believe emphatically in our progressive approach to reading the Torah as a living and continually revelatory document. However, we have to be careful not to simply pick and choose certain pieces of Torah based on whether they conflict with our modern sensibilities. Indeed, the fundamentalist right has hijacked Scripture to be read by letter and not by spirit. But we do not have to relinquish complex and ancient ideas because we think they are outdated. I am not suggesting that we sacrifice (much less look for) a red cow, but just because its mystical and magical elements don’t resonate in a rational manner does not mean the message behind the sacrifice is not helpful somehow. While the rationale of my mentor’s assignment to his congregant described above was unclear, performance of that assignment had a healing effect.
The benefits of many rituals may not be apparent immediately, but sometimes when we engage in them, we find a sense of awareness and balance that we had not realized was possible. I may rail against the fundamentalist path. But I also encourage us to engage in the nonrational religious act because you never know what potential power, sense of awareness, balance, and resolution of complex feelings may result. This does not mean we should be irrational and crazy, just that sometimes we should take the non-rational route to wholeness.
Rabbi Matthew D. Gewirtz is the spiritual leader of Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in Short Hills, New Jersey. He has just realized his first book, The Gift of Grief (San Francisco: Celestial Arts, 2008).
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