Shalom fellow TBE congregants, I’m pleased to share this video update of our Chazon Restoration Campaign and our progress toward reopening. If you would like to make a donation to help us finish the campaign, click here (and select Chazon Campaign from the dropdown), or contact Amy Rubin in the temple office to make a Continue Reading »
At Temple Beth-El, Torah is taught not just by our professionals. From Shabbat minyans to Brotherhood and Sisterhood study gatherings, from the pulpit to our classrooms (where nearly half of our faculty are graduates of our program!), words of Torah are offered regularly by our lay members. All Temple Board, Oversight, and committee meetings begin Continue Reading »
On Tuesday April 20 our congregation hosted a virtual conversation with Senator Kip Bateman, co-sponsored by RAC-NJ. Senator Bateman shared his story of how he got into politics, why he stayed, and what he has gained from his public service. And he spoke warmly of his many ties to our Temple Beth-El community. Throughout our conversation, Continue Reading »
With this week’s parashah, Acharei Mot-K’doshim, we reach the pinnacle of the Torah’s vision for human life – that we should love our neighbor as ourselves; love the stranger and harbor no hatred; share our bread with the hungry; do justly, honor the elderly, and treat all people fairly – that we should be holy. Continue Reading »
On Israel’s 73rd Birthday: Yesterday, Israel turned 73 years young. I say “young” because in the grand scheme of history, especially Jewish history, 73 years is a relatively short span. I also say “young” because I see in Israel a youthful spirit and dynamism that is vital and exciting. And I say “young” because Israel Continue Reading »
A Message for the Shabbat After Yom HaShoah: Yesterday at 10:00 a.m. sirens blared throughout the land of Israel and everything came to a halt. For two full minutes, cars and buses stopped on the highways so drivers and passengers could get out and stand in respectful silence. Bustling marketplaces and busy office spaces fell Continue Reading »
This last year has been challenging for all of us, with great difficulties for many, and tragedy for some. In recent weeks, I have started to feel sentiment beginning to turn toward optimism, as the trends in infection rates and deaths fall and we contemplate when the vaccines can begin to deliver us from our Continue Reading »
Jewish Communal Response to Health Crises Across the Ages This time last year, Dr. Joseph Teplisky, an associate professor of History at Stony Brook University, wrote a piece entitled “Plague, Passover, and Perspectives on Social Distancing.” He began his article by discussing how Pope Francis altered Easter week and celebrations and the recommendations from the Continue Reading »
A message for Shabbat Hagadol (the Shabbat before Pesach) Seder means “order” in Hebrew, and on Passover it refers to the order of the service we conduct to relive the journey from bondage to freedom. A year ago, as we prepared for Passover, we found ourselves suddenly out of order, or, as we say in Continue Reading »
The Book of Leviticus opens with a curious scribal anomaly. The letter alef at the end of the first word, vayikra, is tiny. It probably began as a scribal error, but it was embraced as a “tradition” by our rabbis, who taught that Moses himself wrote it this way when he received the Torah at Sinai. He did Continue Reading »
