Posted on November 14, 2025 by Rabbi Noah Diamondstein
Dear Temple Beth-El,
I want to start this message with gratitude: We called upon you to rally to support our food insecure neighbors, and you have answered the call. Our community has donated over $7,000 of critical funds to the Food Bank Network of Somerset County–a testament to the mensches of which our community is made. The need is still great! Please continue to give that tzedakah.
With this week’s parashah, we move from the story of Abraham and Sarah into the beginning of the story of Isaac and Rebekah. We encounter Rebekah at the well through the eyes of Abraham’s servant who, upon realizing how special Rebekah is, gives her a gift of a nose ring worth half a shekel, and two gold bracelets worth ten shekels. For the midrash, this gift symbolizes another present that Israel would be given in the future: the two bands correspond to the two Tablets, and the ten shekels to the Ten Commandments.
If I were to continue riffing on this moment the way the midrash does, I’d note that there is another obvious hint here–the half shekel nose ring is a precursor to the half-shekel each and every Israelite would eventually come to donate to the Mishkan, the mobile sanctuary we built in the wilderness. These gifts–the Tablets and Commandments from God, and the shekels we donated to our community–are emblematic of Jewish community. This balance of top-down (mitzvot) and bottom out (donations in support of community) has been the standard for Jewish civilization from its inception.
We have an amazing opportunity in front of us to embody exactly those values, to live out our commitment to mitzvot and to sustain our beloved TBE community. My Installation Shabbaton is in less than a month, and we are BEYOND excited. We will be joined by amazing clergy, including my former Senior Rabbi from Temple Sinai, Jon Roos, as well as Rabbi Yosef Goldman, a nationally renowned Jewish musician and educator. We will have events that are fun for individuals and families of every age and stage. It should look and feel like Beth-El at its very best: dynamic, exciting, and full of Jewish joy.
For that weekend to be its most successful, we need you to deliver on both the bracelets and the nose ring, the mitzvot and the support shekels. Donate us your TIME: attend the services, come to the lunch and learn with Yosef, come to the TBE Boardwalk or the Trivia Night. Donate us your SHEKALIM: Become a sponsor of the weekend at whatever level you can, and help us maximize Jewish life at Temple Beth-El! Scroll down, and check elsewhere in your inbox and mailbox, for more information on how to be a part of this incredible Shabbaton.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Noah Diamondstein
