"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