Category Archives: Kislev
Condolences
EDITOR’S NOTE: Our condolences to Janet and her family.
http://www.helenafuneralhome.com/obituaries/beverly-tatz-age-90-of-helena/
Happy Hanukah
Rabbi Kalman Packouz (Originally a Reform Jew from coastal Oregon) and now the sender of Aitz Ha Torah, sent this out today. I like the Latke beginning and am reminded of a young Jewish recruit to the US Army in WW II, who went to the Army Doctor and told him that he was dying. “Why “asked the Doctor, “Well”, he replied,” I have been eating the Army food for two months now and my fire has gone out!”
Jerry Weissman
Mikeitz (Genesis 41:1-44:17)
GOOD MORNING! A friend of mine told me that as he grows older he experiences a personal miracle on Hanukah. He eats one potato latka — and it burns for eight days.
I share with you this week two stories about Hanukah — my Hanukah gift to you!
I heard the following story years ago when I lived in Israel and to the best of my knowledge it is true. Before the USSR let the Jews leave for Israel, Jews used to hire a guide to smuggle them out of Russia. One Hanukah a group of Jews were playing “cat and mouse” with a Soviet army patrol as they approached the border. When the guide thought they had lost the patrol, he announced an half-hour break before continuing the trek. One of the escapees, hearing the “magic” number of “one-half hour” — the minimum time a Hanukah candle must be lit to fulfill the mitzvah — pulls out his menorah, sets up the candles, says the blessing and starts to light the candles. The other escapees immediately pounce upon him and the menorah to put out the candles — just as the Soviet patrol moves in and completely encircles them!
The head of the army patrol speaks: “We were just about to open fire and wipe you out when I saw that man lighting the Hanukah candles. I was overcome with emotion; I remember my zaideh (grandfather) lighting Hanukah candles …. I have decided to let you go in peace.”
There is a verse in the Book of Psalms, (chapter 116, verse 6), “The Almighty protects fools.” Should he have lit the candle? NO! The Talmud tells us (Ta’anis 20b), “One should not put himself in a place of danger saying, ‘Let a miracle happen.’ ” So, while the story is one of action, adventure, suspense … the real lesson is not to rely upon a miracle to save you from danger … but to be thankful if the Almighty performs one to save you!
The second story was sent to me years ago. I was never able to verify it, but I love the story. I offer a prize of $100 to the first person who can prove it true! The story: Young private Winneger was with the U.S. Army as it marched through Europe at the end of World War II. His unit was assigned to a European village with the orders to secure the town, search for any hiding Nazis and to help the villagers any way they could.
Winneger was on patrol one night when he came across a young boy with an ornate menorah. The menorah was his only possession and his only remnant from his family. The boy had survived a concentration camp and was mistrustful of all men in uniforms. He had been forced to watch the shooting of his father. He had no idea what had become of his mother. Winneger calmed the boy, assured him that he himself was Jewish and brought him back to the village.
In the weeks that followed, Winneger took the young boy, David, under his wing. As they became closer and closer, Winneger’s heart went out to the boy. He offered to adopt David and bring him back to New York. David accepted.
Winneger was active in the New York Jewish community. An acquaintance of his, a curator of the Jewish Museum in Manhattan, saw the menorah. He told David it was a very valuable historic, European menorah and should be shared with the entire Jewish Community. He offered David $50,000 for the menorah.
But David refused the generous offer saying the menorah had been in his family for over 200 years and that no amount of money could ever make him sell it.
When Hanukah came, David and Winneger lit the menorah in the window of their home in New York City. David went upstairs to his room to study while Winneger stayed downstairs in the room with the menorah.
There was a knock on the door and Winneger went to answer. He found a woman with a strong German accent who said that she was walking down the street when she saw the menorah in the window. She said that she had once had one just like it in her family and had never seen any other like it. Could she come and take a closer look?
Winneger invited her in and said that the menorah belonged to his son who could perhaps tell her more about it. Winneger went upstairs and called David down to talk to the woman … and that is how David was reunited with his mother.
ARE YOU COMING TO NADYNE AND JERRY WEISSMAN’S TO COOK AND EAT LATKES?
That’s the place to be Sunday evening after the lighting of the first candle of the Diane Kaplan Memorial Chanukkiah at the Great Falls Civic Center at precisely 5:30 P.M. Who knows, maybe one of the following 17 latke recipes from the Los Angeles Times will be served there, and become the new Aitz Chaim Congregation favorite.
http://www.latimes.com/food/dailydish/la-dd-17-latke-recipes-hanukkah-20151203-story.html
PLEASE MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR THESE UPCOMING EVENTS
Please mark your calendars to remind you of these upcoming events.
- Monday, 12/07/2015—Monday, 12/14/2015: Chanukkah.
- Sunday, 12/06/2015, 5:30 P.M.: Erev Chanukah. We will light the first candle of the Diane Kaplan Memorial Chanukkiah at the Civic Center. If you come at 5:30.30, you’ll probably miss it, especially if it is cold. From there we will go to the home of Jerry and Nadyne Weissman, 2777 Greenbriar Drive, for the annual community Chanukah party. Please bring a milchig (dairy) dish to share, and a hearty appetite for latkes and Sufganiyot. Please see separate article in Ram’s Horn.
- Monday, 12/07/2015: First day of Chanukah. We will light the second candle at the Civic Center at precisely 5:30 P.M.
- Tuesday, 12/08/2015: Second day of Chanukah. We will light the third candle at the Civic Center at precisely 5:30 P.M.
- Wednesday, 12/09/2015: Third day of Chanukah. We will light the fourth candle at the Civic Center at precisely 5:30 P.M.
- Thursday, 12/10/2015: Fourth day of chanukah. We will light the fifth candle at the Civic Center at precisely 5:30 P.M.
- Thursday, 12/10/2015, 12:00 P.M.: Annual MAJCO Chanukiah lighting at the Capitol Rotunda in Helena. Please see separate article in Ram’s Horn.
- Friday, 12/11/2015, Fifth day of Chanukah. We will light the sixth candle at the Civic Center at precisely 5:30 P.M.
- Saturday, 12/12/2015: Sixtht day of Chanukah. We will light the seventh candle at the Civic Center at precisely 5:30 P.m.
- Saturday, 12/12/2015, 4:00 P.M.: Helena Community Chanukah potluck and celebration. Please see separate article in Ram’s Horn.
- Sunday, 12/13/2015: Seventh day of Chanukah. We will light the eight candle at the Civic Center at precisely 5:30 P.m.
- Monday, 12/14/2015: Eighth day of Chanukah.
- Thursday/Friday, 12/24-25/2015: Christmas at the Mercy Home. Please see separate article in Ram’s Horn.
YAHRZEITS — DECEMBER, 2015, KISLEV-TEVET, 5776
RAM’S HORN POLICY FOR LISTING YAHRZEIT MEMORIALS:!
Yahrzeit memorials are listed by consecutive Gregorian month, date, and year, if known, or at the beginning of the list for one calendar year following the date of passing.
Compiled by Aitz Chaim over many years, this Yahrzeit list is maintained by the Ram’s Horn. Please send any corrections or additions to editor@aitzchaim.com
May the source of peace send peace to all who mourn, and comfort to all who are bereaved.
| Name of Deceased |
English Date of Passing | Hebrew Date of Passing | Deceased Relationship to Congregant |
| Dr. Charles (Chuck) Astrin | Jan 29, 2015 | 17 Sh’vat, 5775 | |
| Henry Espelin | Dec 1, 1984 | 7 Kislev, 5745 | Father of Dawn Schandelson |
| Diane Kaplan | Dec 3, 2009 | 16 Kislev, 5770 | Mother of Kai Nealis |
| Carl Weissman | Dec 9, 1960 | 20 Kislev, 5721 | Grandfather of Jerry Weissman |
| Irving Tatz | Dec 9, 2008 | 12 Kislev, 5769 | Beloved husband of Beverly Tatz and father of Janet Tatz |
| Joseph Magalnick | Dec 12, 1970 | 13 Kislev, 5731 | father of Elliot Magalnick |
| Richard Weiss | Dec 12, 2000 | 15 Kislev, 5761 | Father of Laura Weiss |
| Jules Cherry | Dec 13, 1972 | 8 Tevet, 5733 | Father of Don Cherry |
| Louis Eisenberg | Dec 17, 1985 | 5 Tevet, 5746 | Father of Sharon Eisenberg |
| Molly Dunaeff | Dec 20, 1985 | 8 Tevet, 5746 | Aunt of Meriam Nagel |
| James Levie | Dec 22, 2010 | 15 Tevet, 5771 | Uncle of Wendy Weissman |
| Theodore Eichner | Dec 30, 1970 | 2 Tevet, 5731 | Father of Jerry Eichner |
| Joe Lavin |
CHANUKAH IN HELENA
Now that Thanksgiving is behind us, we can look forward to Chanukah that begins this year on Sunday, December 6th ( just one week from today!).
We will be gathering at the State Capitol rotunda on Thursday, December 10th at high noon for our annual MAJCO chanukiah lighting ceremony and speeches. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to tell their friends. “You don’t have to be Jewish”. The more the merrier. Set up and schmoozing begins at 11a.m. Immediately following this program, we will hold a MAJCO board meeting. Room to be determined. All are welcome to attend.
Then, on Saturday, December 12th, the Helena Jewish Community is hosting a Chanukah potluck and celebration. This program will begin at 4pm in The Forum ( on the 2nd floor) of Touchmark on Saddle Dr. ( 915 Saddle Dr.) At that time, Rabbi Ed will offer a shiur (Jewish study session) on the topic of religious zealotry, focusing on the Chanukah story which begins (in 1 Maccabees chapter 2, as follows:
“A Jew came forward in the sight of all to offer a [Greek style] sacrifice upon the altar in Modein, according to the king’s command. [24] When Mattathias saw it, be burned with zeal and his heart was stirred. He gave vent to righteous anger; he ran and killed him upon the altar. [25] At the same time he killed the king’s officerwho was forcing them to sacrifice, and he tore down the altar. [26] Thus he burned with zeal for the law, as Phinehas did against Zimri the son of Salu.”
At this shiur, we will look at what the Jewish tradition, and especially the Talmud, have to say about this part of the Chanukah story, the preceding Pinchas story, and religious zealotry in general. You may find it surprising. The shiur will be open to whoever wishes to do some Chanukah learning.
Immediately following this study session, we will hold havdalah, followed by chanukiah lighting and a vegetarian potluck. This is a rare opportunity to partake of a little Jewish learning, socializing and holiday celebration right here in Helena. Hope you can attend.
Shavuah tov ( have a good week),
Janet
Submitted by Janet Tatz
A KOSHER RESCUE MISSION
EDITOR’S NOTE: Yes, there are Jews, even in the desert of Montana, and perhaps they are here for just such a time as this.
The following was submitted by Nancy Oyer.
I thought this was great. Nice job, Congregation Beth Aaron (Donna Healy) and Bozeman Chabad (Chavie Bruk)!
Just in case anyone missed it – see below. The story made it to Tablet Magazine and the Times of Israel among many other news outlets. Here are three of the articles out there.
Nancy Oyer
Butte
406.490.8989
neogeo@montana.com
After an Emergency Landing in Montana, El Al Passengers Are Treated to a Kosher Feast
A rag-tag group of caring Jews came to the aid of about 300 stranded passengers on their way from Israel to Los Angeles
By Tess Cutler
November 16, 2015
It could be the premise of a hit sitcom: An El Al flight en route to Los Angeles is forced to make an emergency landing in Billings, Montana, and its passengers are stranded at the airport for 12 hours, waiting for the next aircraft to arrive from New Jersey. But here’s the kicker: There’s no kosher food at the terminal, or enough food to feed nearly 300 hungry passengers, many of whom are presumably Jewish. Well guess what? It happened over the weekend.
At 6 a.m. on Sunday morning, an El Al airplane experienced engine issues and was forced to touch down in Montana, a state which boasts a population of 1,350 Jews as of 2014. “You just don’t often get a planeload of Israelis in Billings,” local resident Donna Healy told The Billings Gazette. Healy, who is Jewish, sprung into action, supplying the stranded passengers with snacks and toiletries, such as diapers. “We thought we should do what we could to make them comfortable,” she said. “Kosher food is a part of that.” (Her congregation, Beth Aaron, paid for the goods.)
Rebbetzin Chavie Bruk of Chabad Montana in Bozeman also got word of the incident. So she packed her three children into her car and drove 150 miles (about a two-hour journey) to deliver a smorgasbord of cold cuts galore, hummus, eggplant, fruit and bagels. “It was a tremendous kiddush Hashem—amazing and inspiring!” gushed Israeli passenger Hillel Fuld about the impromptu kosher food delivery.
Apparently, El Al crew members also went on a Costco run, nabbing lifetime supplies of grapes, Cheerios, milk, and sacs upon sacs of what appears to be onions.
The famished passengers noshed on the delights, kibbitzed, and Facebooked to pass the time. In their 12 hour interim, they had a feast fit for kings and queens due to numerous supermarket sweeps.
The well-nourished, jet-lagged passengers eventually landed in Los Angeles at 4:45 pm.
LA-bound El Al plane makes emergency landing in Montana
http://www.timesofisrael.com/la-bound-el-al-plane-makes-emergency-landing-in-montana/
Fire breaks out in Boeing 777’s right engine; flight had nearly 300 passengers on board
By JTA November 16, 2015, 12:59 am
An El Al flight with nearly 300 people on board made an emergency landing in Billings, Montana.
Warning lights showed that there was a fire in the right engine, the Billings Gazette reported Sunday. The passengers had to exit using a landing ladder, according to the newspaper, as the Boeing 777 was too large to park at the terminal.
A spare plane was being sent from New Jersey to allow the passengers to finish their journey, which started in Tel Aviv.
With no US Customs agents stationed at the Billings airport, Customs officials were sent from Great Falls to handle the passengers, the Gazette reported.
A Kosher Rescue Mission for El Al Travelers Stuck in Montana
http://www.chabad.org/news/article_cdo/aid/3130372/jewish/A-Kosher-Rescue-Mission-for-El-Al-Travelers-Stuck-in-Montana.htm
Hillel Fuld from Beit Shemesh, Israel, says that Chabad emissary Chavie Bruk “showed up and instantly put a smile on hundreds of faces.”
They were stuck in a Montana airport with no end in sight to their wait and no kosher food to eat. That’s what happened today to some 300 passengers on an El Al airlines flight Tel Aviv to Los Angeles. The Boeing 777 made an emergency landing in Billings, Mont., when a reported fire in one of the engines made it unsafe to continue.
Passengers disembarked the plane and were bused to a terminal, where they waited for another plane to take them to their final destination—Los Angeles International Airport. There they sat as the hours ticked away and the food supplies—in particular, the kosher food—dwindled.
Hillel Fuld of Beit Shemesh, Israel, says that somehow, Rabbi Chaim and Chavie Bruk—co-directors of Chabad-Lubavitch of Montana in Bozeman—got news of the situation and set about immediately to offer assistance. With her three young children in tow, Chavie Bruk drove a car full of kosher food 150 miles to Billings Logan International Airport, where passengers had been waiting for nearly 10 hours.
“She showed up and instantly put a smile on hundreds of faces. She did it with utter grace and never stopped smiling for a second,” says Fuld, 37, who works in technology. “Based on the constant smile on her face, she is happier to be here than we are to have her here.
“It was a tremendous kiddush Hashem—amazing and inspiring!”
Fuld, who is traveling with his wife and 11-year-old son to Los Angeles, enjoyed kosher bagels, cold cuts, chips and cake. Heaps of hummus, fresh fruit and other goods were also available.
Rabbi Chaim Bruk recounts that the rabbi at El Al in Israel called him this morning and apprised him of the plane trouble. Bruk himself was on a flight to Minneapolis, but his wife snapped into action. She gathered as much ready-to-eat food as she could—they had just received a kosher shipment the night before—piled her children into the car and drove two hours to the airport.
“She was welcomed like a heroine,” says the rabbi.
Meanwhile, the group of tired (but not hungry) passengers remain in the airport two hours later—a half-day now—waiting for the next leg of their journey.
Chavie Bruk, co-director of Chabad-Lubavitch of Montana in Bozeman with her husband, Rabbi Chaim Bruk, drove a car full of kosher food to Billings Logan International Airport for stranded passengers of an El Al flight to Los Angeles that had to make an emergency landing. (Photo: Hillel Fuld)
Hundreds of people enjoyed bagels, cold meats, hummus, fresh fruit, chips and more as they lingered in the terminal. (Photo: Hillel Fuld)
A welcome respite from a long and hungry wait. (Photo: Hillel Fuld)
Fuld, his wife and their 11-year-old son in Tel Aviv at the start of their trip. (Photo: Hillel Fuld)
Also picked up by the Times of Israel
Today’s Torah – Shabbat Parashat Toldot – 5776 – Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies
American Jewish University – Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies
Today’s Torah
Shabbat Parashat Toldot
November 14, 2015 / 2 Kislev 5776
By: Rabbi Adam Greenwald,
Executive Director, Miller Introduction
to Judaism Program
Loving Wisely
Torah Reading: Genesis 25:19 – 28:9
Haftarah Reading: Malachi 1:1 – 2:7
“And Isaac loved Esau… and Rebekah loved Jacob” (Gen 25:28)
Parashat Toledot is a story of unwise parental love and the tragedy it engenders. At the beginning of the story, Isaac and Rebekah spend many lonely years praying for a child, and their prayers are finally answered with twins – Esau and Jacob. Rebekah and Isaac’s long childlessness ought to make them particularly grateful for both of their sons. Yet, this isn’t the case. From the outset, the parents divide their loyalties and their love. Isaac favors Esau, his rough-and-tumble boy, the skillful hunter and family provider. Rebekah prefers her mild-mannered Jacob, whom the text tells us liked to stay in the shade of the tent, presumably in her company.
The rest of the parashah is one long tale of the deceit, trickery, and misery that follows from Isaac and Rebekah’s unequal application of love. Jacob deceives his brother for a birthright, his father for a blessing. Rebekah connives against her blind husband. Esau is left tearfully begging his father for words of love and kindness that the old man cannot or will not bestow in some of the Torah’s most heartbreaking words: Barcheini gam ani, avi! ” Father, have you just one blessing to bestow?” By the end of the story, the family is irrevocably broken, with Jacob on the run and Esau vowing bloody revenge. What began with so much promise ends with alienation.
In truth, the whole Book of Genesis is the story of the disastrous consequences of treating love like a zero-sum game, a limited commodity which must be rationed out and fought over. Again and again we read about characters who struggle for limited love – Cain and Abel, Sarah and Hagar, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, Rachel and Leah, Joseph and his brothers. In every case the result is violence, loss, and grief.
Rabbi Lawrence Kushner writes in his spiritual classic Honey from the Rock that learning that love is not a limited commodity is the great challenge of growing up. He writes:
“Is this not the great childhood problem– and therefore the great human problem: To learn that it is good for you when other people love other people besides you? That I have a stake in their love? That I get more when others give to others?”
Genesis records the infancy of our People, when we were still young and selfish and did not know that there is always more room in an open heart. There is nothing inherently wrong with infantile narcissism; it’s a normal part of human development, as long as it doesn’t persist into adulthood. The sin is getting stuck in a world of suspicion and fear, of failing to mature into the comprehension that our world is not a zero-sum game, but rather we are part of a web of interconnection, caught, in Dr. King’s prophet words, “in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny.” Then, we become destructive.
So much of our contemporary discourse, particularly in the spheres of politics and religion, in America and overseas, suggests that we as a culture are stuck in this mindset of scarcity; that we still believe that love and honor given to others is necessarily love and honor stolen away from us. This week, let’s turn from the story of a broken family to the redemptive start of the month of Kislev, which culminates in the festival of Chanukah. Let’s turn our attention ahead to the message of its candles: That light can be spread freely without diminishing the original light, that the shine of one candle is enhanced, not dimmed, by the brightness of its neighbor.
Shabbat shalom.
Rabbi Adam Greenwald is the Executive Director of the Louis & Judith Miller Introduction to Judaism Program at American Jewish University. Before coming to AJU, he served as Revson Rabbinic Fellow at IKAR, a Los Angeles congregation often recognized as one of the nation’s most creative and fastest-growing spiritual communities. Prior to ordination, he served two years as Rabbinic Intern at Congregation B’nai Israel in Tustin, CA and as Director of Education of the PANIM Institute’s IMPACT: DC program. Rabbi Greenwald was ordained at the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies in 2011.
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Submitted by Rabbi Ruz gulko
The Aitz Chaim Ram's Horn 