Urgently Needed

Dear Friends,

If you’re like me almost every day something comes at you by email or snail mail or Facebook announcing yet another collection drive for something or other. I get them from my kids’ school, organizations galore, friends and acquaintances who send me (or “friend” me) the things they or their favorite charities are working on. And, of course, the Temple! We are one of the major producers and proliferators of collections of all sorts. So, I apologize for what I am about to do by adding to your collection of collections. But, we really need your help.

You see, Mitzvah Day is coming up on November 6th, and our collection boxes are bare. We made a commitment as a congregation not only to run a blood drive that day at Temple but to collect school supplies for the Paterson public schools and garden supplies for senior citizens who plant indoors in the winter. We are also collecting arts and crafts projects for Chai Lifeline, which helps children who have been diagnosed with cancer and other serious illnesses. The Temple office sent you a notice – and quite possibly the religious school and ECC as well – but perhaps due to the collection din you have overlooked our collection bins.

All kidding and rhyming aside, we really do need your help. For us these collections may feel like a nuisance but for those who receive the items we collect they can be a godsend. As I said on Yom Kippur, tzedakah matters. It changes lives.

Specifically, please bring the following to the Temple on or preferably before November 6th:

School supplies – New pens, pencils, crayons, markers, rulers, notebooks, highlighters, scissors, erasers, folders, glue sticks, glue or any other unused classroom supplies
Gardening supplies – Seeds, potting soil, small pots and gardening tools
Arts and Crafts Projects – Not supplies, but art projects sold in the store for children that can be done in bed, e.g. Pixos, Mosaics, Crayola Explosion, etc.

And don’t forget to come to Temple Sinai, 1 Engle Street, between 8:45 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. on November 6, Mitzvah Day to donate blood! (Contact Ilene Wechter to sign up: ilene5656@gmail.com).

Last but not least, on Mitzvah Day Temple Sinai is joining with other members of the Northern New Jersey Jewish community to help renovate and fix up buildings in need of repair through “Bonim Builders.” Bonim Builders, a project of Federation’s Synagogue Leadership Initiative, performs home renovations and modifications for low to moderate-income families, seniors, the physically challenged, and local Jewish agencies. Participants should be age 16 and up; 16 – 18 year olds must be accompanied by an adult and there must be 1 adult participant for every 4 teens.

Hope that through all the “collection clutter” and “bin din” you can hear the call to help those in need. So many of you responded by donating clothes for the homeless before the youth groups’ “Midnight Run” program. Thank you! Please bring your donations for Mitzvah Day to Temple Sinai. To register for Mitzvah Day, go to www.jfnnj.org/mitzvahday. Mitzvah Day is a project of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey. Join in this occasion to give – and keep your eyes open for future opportunities which we will share with you. Remember, YOU can make a difference!

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Jordan Millstein
rabbimillstein@templesinaibc.org

p.s. Don’t forget that my informal adult education class, “God Talk” begins this Sunday at 11:00 a.m. Come and join us for bagels, coffee and some “God Talk”. No belief in God ort pre-registration required!

Temple Sinai Congregational Trip to Israel Info Meeting

On Rosh Hashanah morning I spoke about our relationship with the State of Israel in a sermon entitled, “Purim Jew – Pesach Jew.” In the sermon I announced a Temple Sinai congregational trip to Israel to take place during the December 2012 holiday vacation period (school break). An informational meeting will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Sunday, November 20, 2011. I hope you will be able to make the meeting. If you and your family are interested in participating but can not make the meeting, please contact me at rabbimillstein@templesinaibc.org.

"Gilad Shalit’s Release: A Heavy Hearted Celebration" by Rabbi Avi Weiss

Dear Friends,

I found this piece on Gilad Shalit’s Release by Rabbi Avi Weiss very meaningful. Rabbi Weiss is the Founder of the modern Orthodox Rabbinical School, Yeshivat Chovevei Torah and Senior Rabbi at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale. I share his view and look forward to hearing your thoughts on this topic.

L’Shalom V’reiut – Peace and Friendship,
Jordan

Events in Honor of Gilad Shalit

Dear Friends,

As I imagine many of you saw on the news Gilad Shalit was freed and returned to his family yesterday.  There are many complex and conflicting emotions that Israeli Jews and Jews in the diaspora feel right now:  relief at the end of a long ordeal; joy for the family of Gilad Shalit; fear of what the Palestinian prisoners – many of whom are terrorists with blood on their hands - might do now that they have been released; anger at the release of these terrorists; disgust at the way Gilad Shalit was interviewed by Egyptian television; even hope that the end of this ordeal will somehow sow the seeds for a renewed peace process.  

Tonight Reform Jewish congregations around the world celebrate Simchat Torah.  (It is tomorrow night for Conservative and Orthodox Jews in the diaspora; tonight for all Jews in Israel.)  The focus of the celebration of this holiday are the “hakafot,” the 7 circuits made around the sanctuary in which we parade and celebrate the Torah.  This evening at our 7:00 p.m. service we will honor Gilad Shalit by dedicating one of our hakafot to him for his remarkable courage and fortitude.  I hope that you will be able to join us.

Sunday evening there will be a gathering for our entire northern New Jersey Jewish community at the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades at 7:00 p.m. to recognize the meaning of Shalit’s release to us.  For more information click on http://www.jfnnj.org/page.aspx?id=247410.

Chag Sameiach – Happy Simchat Torah,

Rabbi Jordan Millstein

"A Jewish Goodbye"

Dear Friends,

Chag Sukkot Sameiach – Happy Sukkot – and Shabbat Shalom. I imagine many of you are familiar with the term, “a Jewish goodbye”. A Jewish goodbye is when you are at a party, a gathering or some sort of social event and you say goodbye to people only to find you are still standing there chatting a half hour or more later. So, you start saying goodbye to people all over again, which leads people invariably to respond, “wait, I thought you left already.”

The Jewish holidays are like that as well. We observe Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year. We blow the shofar announcing the end of the holiday, the proverbial “closing of the gates,” only to find that 5 days later there is another holiday, Sukkot. Sukkot then goes on for a week only to end in another holiday, Simchat Torah. I guess the message is that as Jews we never really want to say goodbye to our friends, our community, or for that matter, to God. The goal is to keep coming back.

This past Wednesday evening many Temple Sinai members did come back for a wonderful Sukkot celebration, featuring our ECC kids making Sukkah decorations, a Tot Sukkot service, dinner attended by close to 100 people and family services with music led by our 4th and 5th grade students. You have a chance to get in on the fun by joining us for Simchat Torah this coming Wednesday night, October 19th. You can sign up for our family dinner at 6:00 p.m. and/or join us at 7:00 for our Simchat Torah celebration, featuring consecration and parading with all our Torah scrolls. See the Temple web site, www.templesinaibc.org for more information. Hope you join us!

Sukkah: Photographs by Suzy Rosenberg – Now through October 26th at the JCC
Here’s another really neat way to celebrate Sukkot: Go see the exhibit by Temple Sinai member, Suzy Rosenberg, on display right now at the Waltuch Gallery Exhibits at the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades. This exhibit is a photographic journey through the sukkah, inspired by the beautiful prayer: Ufros aleinu sukkat sh’lomecha, which translates as “Spread over us the shelter of your peace.” This exhibit explores not only the physical construction of the sukkah, but also the intertwined spiritual essence people experience when they build and enter the sukkah with family and friends. These unique photographs examine the many elements that give a sukkah its identity: structure, texture, pattern, color, light, and the personal touch of those who build it. Rosenberg’s work has been exhibited at Fairleigh Dickinson University, the Tenafly NatureCenter, Tenafly Public Library and the Puffin Cultural Center. It will only take a few minutes to see Suzy’s work; it is terrific! So, stop by when the JCC reopens on Sunday.

Don’t Forget: Our Youth Group Needs Clothing for “Midnight Run”“Midnight Run” is a highly regarded organization which helps the homeless on the streets of New York City. This Saturday night our high school youth group, SFTY, will go into the city and hand out food and clothing to the homeless. Clothes can be brought to the Temple anytime through this Saturday, October 15th at 6:30 p.m. We specifically need new or gently used men’s coats, long sleeved shirts & sweatshirts, pants, and new underwear & socks (in unopened packages) in larger sizes.

Midnight Run is this Saturday, October 15 from 6:30pm-1am. The program will begin at Temple Sinai and is open to all high school students. Interested teens should sign up at online at http://tinyurl.com/MidnightRunRSVP. Please contact Jonah Zinn, our Rabbinic Intern, atjonahzinn@gmail.com with any questions.

Wishing you festive festivals,
Rabbi Jordan Millstein

Happy Sukkot, Gilad Shalit

Dear Friends,

We are about to celebrate the festival of Sukkot, not Passover, but freedom is in the air.  This evening the Israeli government and Hamas announced an agreement which will allow IDF soldier Gilad Shalit, who has been held captive for 1934 days, to return home.  Under the agreement Israel will be releasing over 1000 Palestinian prisoners, 280 of whom were serving life-sentences in Israeli prisoners.  The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that no prominent prisoners will be released.

“After 5 years, 1935 days and long nights, the government of Israel is returning our son Gilad to us,” Noam Shalit, Gilad’s father, said minutes after the results of the vote were announced. “We bless the government for its courageous decision, despite the long stretch of time that has passed…”  Since March 2009 members of Shalit’s family had been living in a protest tent across from the Prime Minister’s residence in Jerusalem.

When I think of this tent and the long journey it represents it makes me think of the sukkah, the temporary hut we build on Sukkot.  The Torah tells us that we dwelt in sukkot during our long, difficult period of wandering in the harsh wilderness.  The sukkah is also said to represent both the fragility of life and God’s providence, God’s protection in difficult times.  I can think of no better time for us to hear the wonderful news that Gilad Shalit will finally be coming home than this festival.  For over 5 years the Jewish world has watched and prayed for Shalit, knowing how precarious his situation was.  We thank God for protecting him through this time and will all breathe a sigh of relief when he is actually (k’nu huru) back on Israeli soil.  It is a statement of the value our people places on each and every life that we never forgot Gilad Shalit and that the government of Israel was willing to release so many dangerous prisoners in order to bring home just one of our own.

I hope you can join us for our Sukkot evening celebration tomorrow (Wednesday) afternoon and evening.  We begin with decorating our Temple Sukkah at 4:00, sponsored by the ECC and Sisterhood.  This is followed by a Tot Sukkot service at 5:30 and a family dinner at 6:00 p.m.  The evening culminates with a musical family service at 7:00 p.m. where we will say a special prayer of thanks for the release of Gilad Shalit.  Hope you will be able to make it.

New of Gently Used Clothes Needed Now for Important Mitzvah

It is also fitting that this Saturday night, during Sukkot, our high school youth group, SFTY, will be participating in “Midnight Run.”  Through this nationally recognized social justice program, our students will distribute food and clothing to the homeless on the streets of New York City.  The sukkah represents shelter, something all people should have but sadly some in our society lack.  I am very proud that our kids are participating in this program. 

But, in order to do this critical mitzvah SFTY needs more clothing to distribute!  Clothes can be brought to the Temple anytime through this Saturday, October 15th. We specifically need men’s coats, long sleeved shirts & sweatshirts, pants, and new underwear & socks (in unopened packages) in larger sizes. 

The parent of one student emailed Jonah and Rosie Moss, our other youth advisor, after last year’s “Midnight Run”:

Hi, Jonah and Rosie,
Just to let you know that (my daughter) was really touched by the experiences she had during the Midnight Run. She realized that the homeless are human beings, and that brand names which are so important to some people have no meaning for those who have no clothes. She told me that she wants to go each time there's a Run.

Midnight Run is this Saturday, October 15 from 6:30pm-1am. The program will begin at Temple Sinai and is open to all high school students. Interested teens should sign up at online at http://tinyurl.com/MidnightRunRSVP. Please contact Jonah Zinn, our Rabbinic Intern, at jonahzinn@gmail.com with any questions. 

Chag Sukkot Sameiach – Happy Sukkot!

Rabbi Jordan Millstein