sisterhood news - Plainview Jewish Center

More documents

Recommendations

Info

ORBIT Page 6 From The Rabbi ( continued from Page 5 ) back to the days of rampant anti-Semitism; when there were quotas on the number of Jews admitted to Ivy League Colleges, when there were neighborhoods Jews could not buy homes in and companies they could not work for, when expressions of anti-Semitism were commonplace even from respected leaders like Henry Ford and Charles Lindbergh? I don’t think so. As a Jewish community, we face some real challenges today. But for the first time in American Jewish history, the challenges we face come entirely from within. We have to find ways to make Jewish rituals and traditions speak more meaningfully to a group of confident, proud American Jews who feel very much at home in the secular world. We will need to be more creative and more nimble in order to respond to this challenge. Perhaps, in its own small way, the Thanksgivukah phenomenon can help us see the way forward; providing us with a model for a new way of being and doing Jewish that is also distinctly American.
ORBIT Page 7 The Cantor’s Note: It’s the Calendar Again The last time I visited my barber, a gentleman of Italian ancestry who, I suspect, has numerous Jewish clients, he bemoaned the fact that Hanukkah would be a whole month before Christmas this year. His own preference is to have them occur more or less simultaneously. My response was to give him a short discourse on the intricacies of the Jewish calendar as he cut my hair, but I had to concede that on a certain level he had a point. Surely, only a Grinch could object to the general aura of cheerfulness and proverbial goodwill when Jews and Christians observe their holidays at the same time at the end of December. There is an inescapable downside, though, in that the usual proximity of Hanukkah to Christmas encourages well-intentioned but possibly misinformed people to equate them, which was not, nor ever will be, the case. To do so is a disservice to both faiths. If anything, the Macabbean uprising against the Greeks represented a rejection of assimilation into the dominant culture and was an assertion of Jewish distinctiveness. To my mind, then, it will be somewhat restorative to be able to celebrate Hanukkah on its own merits, devoid of the baggage of Christmas, even in fact, as all Americans observe the national holiday of Thanksgiving. I have a hunch, too, that my colleagues in the Christian clergy would prefer to celebrate their holy season untainted by much of the superficial commercialism that intrudes on its sanctity. It is possible to draw a connection between Thanksgiving and Hanukkah in several ways. The Pilgrims immigrated to the New World to practice their Puritan brand of Christianity unhindered by the Church of England and the authorities. Their first winter in Massachusetts was so dreadful that almost half the colonists died. A successful harvest in the fall of 1621 brought renewed hope and Governor William Bradford proclaimed December 13th as a day of feasting, prayer and gratitude. The Pilgrims, being very conversant with the Hebrew Bible, felt a strong kinship with the faith and practices of our ancestors. It is well known that the inspiration for a day of Thanksgiving came from the biblical harvest festival, Sukkot. What is less familiar is the historical connection of Sukkot to Hanukkah. The details of the Maccabean struggle come to us from the two Books of the Maccabees. The Second Book of Maccabees relates that Hanukkah is actually patterned after the festival of Sukkot. The day designated for the rededication of the Temple, the 25 th of Kislev, coincided with the third anniversary of its desecration by the Greco-Syrians. The Maccabees celebrated for eight days, akin to Sukkot, which had not been observed in its proper time. They carried lulavim and offered psalms of praise, Hallel to God. Though the practice of holding the lulav quickly reverted to Suckkot, it is still our custom to recite the entire Hallel on each of the eight days of Hanukkah. The Talmudic legend of the miraculous jar of oil dates from a later period in history. Hanukkah is popularly known as a celebration of religious freedom. While this is arguably an oversimplification, it is true that Judaism was defended and preserved by the Maccabbees from contamination by idolatry. The Pilgrims looked to the New World for the freedom to practice their faith purified of the doctrines of the High Church. Their feast of Thanksgiving, patterned after the Biblical Sukkot, completes our analogy, Sukkot to Hanukkah to Thanksgiving. Americans are living through a troubled time of political rancor and paralysis. As we celebrate Thanksgiving this November we should not lose sight of the big picture and remember with gratitude how fortunate we are to live in this land which sacrificed so much for freedom and has brought so much blessing and hope to the world. This year I will have my Thanksgiving turkey with a side of latkes. Hag Urim Sameach – Happy Festival of Lights! Cantor Morris Wolk, DMus.
Page 1 and 2: PLAINVIEW JEWISH CENTER 5774/2013 N
Page 3 and 4: ORBIT NOVEMBER CALENDAR Rabbi Steve
Page 5: From The Rabbi ( continued from Pag
Page 9 and 10: ORBIT Page 9 Join Us As We Begin Ce
Page 11 and 12: O R B I T Page 11
Page 13 and 14: Page 13 TERMS AND CONDITIONS ROOMS:
Page 15 and 16: ORBIT Page 15 Please join us at our
Page 17 and 18: ORBIT Fa mil y Educati on Cor ner b
Page 19 and 20: ORBIT Page 19
Page 21 and 22: SCHOOL NEWS By Rachel Ginsburg, Pri
Page 23 and 24: ORBIT Page 23 3
Page 25 and 26: ORBIT Page 25 ShopRite & Fairway Fo
Page 27 and 28: ORBIT Page 27 PROGRAM Rose Weiner -
Page 29 and 30: ORBIT Page 29 TORAH FUND - Rose Wei
Page 31 and 32: ORBIT Page 31
Page 33 and 34: ORBIT Page 33 WE WISH TO THANK AND
Page 35 and 36: ORBIT Page 35 Hatzilu Means Rescue
Page 37: ORBIT Page 37 PSSST! IT’S OKAY TO

sisterhood news - Plainview Jewish Center

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?