Author Archives: Joy Breslauer
WHO BY FIRE? LEONARD COHEN
EDITOR’S NOTE: I know this is late for this year, but I found it to be so beautiful and meaningful that I didn’t want to wait till next year to post it.
SUKKOT 2015 5776
The Festival of Sukkot begins on Tishrei 15, the fifth day after Yom Kippur. It is quite a drastic transition, from one of the most solemn holidays in our year to one of the most joyous. Sukkot is so unreservedly joyful that it is commonly referred to in Jewish prayer and literature as Z’man Simchateinu Z’mn Simchateinu (in Hebrew), the Season of our Rejoicing.
THE YO-YO DIET GUIDE TO THE JEWISH HOLIDAYS
- Rosh Hashanah: Feast
- Tzom Gedalia: Fast
- Yom Kippur: More fasting
- Sukkot: Feast
- Hoshanah Rabbah: More feasting
- Simchat Torah: Keep feasting
- Month of Cheshvan: No feasts or fasts for a whole month. Get a grip on yourself.
- Hanukkah: Eat potato pancakes
- Tenth of Tevet: Do not eat potato pancakes
- Tu B’Shevat: Feast
- Fast of Esther: Fast
- Purim: Eat pastry
- Passover: Do not eat pastry
- Shavuot: Dairy feast (cheesecake, blintzes etc.)
- 17th of Tammuz: Fast (definitely no cheesecake or blintzes)
- Tisha B’Av: Very strict fast (don’t even think about cheesecake or blintzes)
- Month of Elul: End of cycle.
A NEW YEAR’S WISH FOR US FROM RABBI RUZ
To all my family and friends, I wish for you, on this Yom Kippur 5776, a kinder world. May we be inspired and infuriated enough to make the changes we know we need. Seal yourself to Life.
WANT TO WALK OR RUN IN THE GREAT FALLS CROPWALK OR SPONSOR ANOTHER AITZ CHAIM CONGREGANT?
Great Falls CROP Hunger Walk – Great Falls, MT – Sunday, October 4, 2015
CROP Hunger Walks are community-wide events sponsored by Church World Service and organized by religious groups, businesses, schools and others, including the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, to raise funds to end hunger in the U.S. and around the world.
HISTORY
On October 17, 1969, a thousand people in Bismarck, ND, walked in what may have been the start of the hunger walks related to CROP – and raised $25,000 to help stop hunger. As far as we know, York County, Penn., was the first walk officially called the CROP Walk for the Hungry – and that event has been continuous since 1970. Several other CROP Hunger Walks occurred soon thereafter, and before long there were hundreds of Walks each year in communities nationwide.
Currently, well over 2,000 communities across the U.S. join in more than 1,300 CROP Hunger Walks each year. More than five million CROP Hunger Walkers have participated in more than 36,000 CROP Hunger Walks in the last two decades alone.
What does CROP stand for?
When CROP began in 1947 (under the wing of Church World Service, which was founded in 1946), CROP was an acronym for the Christian Rural Overseas Program. Its primary mission was to help Midwest farm families to share their grain with hungry neighbors in post-World War II Europe and Asia.
Today, we’ve outgrown the acronym but we retain it as the historic name of the program. CROP Hunger Walks are interfaith hunger education and fundraising events sponsored by Church World Service and organized by CWS local offices across the U.S.
Where do CROP Hunger Walk funds go?
CROP Hunger Walks help to support the overall ministry of Church World Service, especially grassroots, hunger-fighting development efforts around the world. In addition, each local CROP Hunger Walk can choose to return up to 25 percent of the funds it raises to hunger-fighting programs in its own community. 25% of revenues raised in Great Falls will go to support our local My Neighbor In Need organization.
CROP Hunger Walks help to provide food and water, as well as resources that empower people to meet their own needs. From seeds and tools, to wells and water systems, to technical training and micro-enterprise loans, the key is people working together to identify their own development priorities, their strengths, and their needs, something CWS has learned through some 68 years of working in partnership around the world.
Local Event
The Great Falls CROP Walk will be Sunday, October 4, 2015. Registration begins at 12:30 P.M. Walkers/runners will assemble at the band shell at Gibson Park at 1:00 P.M. . to begin the CROP Walk. The exact route of the CROP Walk is yet to be determined.
How can I participate?
There are two ways you can participate in the Great Falls CROP Walk.
1. Collect sponsors and walk/run in the Great Falls CROP Walk.
2. Sponsor someone else who is participating in the Great Falls CROP Walk.
The list of Aitz Chaim congregants who will be participating in the Great Falls CROP Walk currently includes:
- Laura LaBelle
- Laura Weiss
- Terry Thal
- Wendy Weissman
- Julie Nice
- Meriam Nagel
- Jack and Diane Sherick
- Robert Fineman
- Nadyne Weissman
- Helen Cherry
MATCHING GIFTS
Your company may match your donation!
Matching gifts are a great way to make your support go further in the fight against hunger!
When making a donation in support of a CROP Hunger Walk participant or team, you’ll see a section called “Matching Gift Information” on the donation form. Enter your company name in the box to “Find Your Employer”, then click the search button.
If your employer is listed, you’ll see the criteria for the match. Your donation receipt will provide any contact information we have for your company, which you can use to request the match.
For more information, please contact Helen at 727-2572 OR helen@aitzchaim.com or visit the CROP Walk web site.
ASK BIG QUESTIONS
Rosh Hashanah 2015/5776
1) What Will You Do Better this Year?
Isaiah 55:6-7 You should seek God while God may be found, call upon God while God is near; Let the wicked forsake his way, and the man of iniquity his thoughts; and let him return unto God, and God will have compassion upon him, and to our God, for God will abundantly pardon.
Do a Heshbon HaNefesh, an accounting of the soul.
(Follow this link for a great step by step, as well as an explanation of where the custom began in the 12th century: http://www.jewishmag.com/58mag/chesbon/chesbon.htm)
If your friend calls you an ass, put a saddle on your back.
If you have any shortcomings– you be the first to reveal them.
Though the wine belongs to the horse, the butler gets the praise.
A hungry dog will eat even stones.
If you will help lift the load, then I will lift also; if not, then I will not do it alone. (Found in Bava Kamma 92b)
2) What has your Jewish practice looked like in the past year? How do you want it to look in the coming one?
A Blessing
Help us to be modest in our demands of one another, but generous in our giving to each other. May we never measure how much love or encouragement we offer; may we never count the times we forgive. Rather, may we always be grateful that we have one another and that we are able to express our love in acts of kindness.
Keep us gentle in our speech. When we offer words of criticism, may they be chosen with care and spoken softly. May we waste no opportunity to speak words of sympathy, of appreciation, of praise.
Bless our family with health, happiness, and contentment. Above all, grant us the wisdom to build a joyous and peaceful home in which Your spirit will always abide. Amen. (Gates of Shabbat, p. 82)
3) What is one thing you will change in the new year, be it Jewish or otherwise?
R. Isaac…said: Four things cancel the doom of a man, namely, charity, supplication, change of name and change of conduct. (Talmud, Masechet Rosh Hashanah, 16b)
In the hour when an individual is brought before the heavenly court for judgement, the person is asked:
Did you conduct your [business] affairs honestly?
Did you set aside regular time for Torah study (learning)?
Did you work at having children (a legacy)?
Did you look forward to the world’s redemption? (Babylonian Talmud, Shabbat 31a)
4) What Jewish principles do you want to consciously add to your life to enhance it?
When God created Adam, God led him around the Garden of Eden and said to him: “Behold my works! See how beautiful they are, how excellent! All that I have created, for your sake did I create it. See to it that you do not spoil and destroy my world; for if you do, there will be no one to repair it after you.” (Ecclesiastes Rabba 7:13)
Elana Nemitoff
Rabbinical Student – HUC-JIR, 2018
enemitoff@gmail.com
Congregation Beth aaron, Billings
Follow my Journey at: http://jewishwanderings.blogspot.com
LOOKING FOR SOMETHING FUN TO DO THE SECOND WEEK END IN OCTOBER?
Why not come to the Eaton Road Cemetery October 10-11 around ten A.M. and help Max Weissman with his Eagle Scout project, graveling about 200 feet of the road to the old cemetery? This will be a monumental project. We want to get this done before the snow flies, or at least before the frost freezes the ground too hard.
We will also need to mow and weed the area so that the road can be properly leveled. Anyone with a mower or a weed whacker or a burning desire to run one would be most welcome to help with this project.
Another way to help is to donate towards the purchase of the gravel, which will be approximately $700.00.
We also have several old Siddurim that we no longer use that we could bury during the project. If you have anything else that you would like to bury properly, bring it with you or let us know. We will aim to do this on Sunday the 11th.
Another option for helping with this project is to provide food or drink for those doing the work.
There are two cemeteries in the Great Falls area where Jews are buried, one older than the other. The staff of Mount Olivet Cemetery has the responsibility of taking perpetual care of the graves of the persons, including the Jews, who are buried there. The Aitz Chaim Community takes responsibility for the perpetual care of the graves of the Jews buried in the Eaton Road Cemetery.
We will let you know more as the plans for this project become finalized. Thank you in advance for your help.
YOM KIPPUR 2015 HOSPITALITY
Todah Robah to the following Congregation members who have offered their hospitality to Rabbi Ruz Gulko:
- Tuesday, 09/22/2015: Airport pickup for Rabbi Ruz Gulko: Marty foxman
- Tuesday, 09/22/2015: Dinner hosts for Rabbi Ruz Gulko: Don and Helen Cherry
YOM KIPPUR SCHEDULE 2015
Please mark your calendars for these upcoming events.
Kol Nidre
Tuesday evening, 09/22/2015, 7:00 P.M.: Kol Nidre, led by Rabbi Ruz Gulko, at the YWCA.
Yom Kippur day schedule
- Wednesday, 09/23/2015, 10:00 A.M.: Yom Kippur Morning services, led by Rabbi Ruz Gulko at the YWCA, followed by a break.
- Wednesday afternoon, 09/23/2015, 3:00 P.M.: Discussion.
- Wednesday afternoon, 09/23/2015, After Discussion: Prepare the room for Break The Fast — set up tables, etc.
- Wednesday afternoon, 09/23/2015, 5:00 P.M.: Yizkor
- Wednesday afternoon, 09/23/2015, 5:30-6:15 P.M.: Neilah
- Wednesday evening, 09/23/2015, 6:30 P.M.: Break the Fast Potluck, traditionally dairy (milchig.)
The space at the Bethel is temporarily unavailable due to site renovation. The address of the YWCA is 220 Second Street North.
As is Aitz Chaim tradition, and since we are fasting, please pay it forward and bring nonperishable food items to Yom Kippur services for the Great Falls Food Bank. Helen will collect and distribute the food items. Thank you, everyone.
Helen also has the sign-up sheet for what to bring for Break
The Fast. You may contact her at 727-2572 or helen@aitzchaim.com or bring something without signing up. We have enough fruit/vegetables/drinks; we need salads, hot dishes, or dessert. We could also use bread/bagels/chips with spreads. This is a traditionally Milchig (dairy) meal. Thank you in advance for all you do for the Aitz Chaim community.
The Aitz Chaim Ram's Horn 