Hello Hanukkah!

As we continue to say Hello! to Hanukkah, here's a parody of the hit Adele song, entitled Shalom (warning, this really does make fun of the original, while also continuing the latke theme of yesterday's post):





And here are the lyrics by Ari Blau:

Shalom, it’s me
I was wondering for Chanukah, would like to meet
To go over everything
The miracle of Chanukah and Judah Macabee
Shalom, can you hear me?
I’m in Synagogue dreaming about when you’d play with me
Light the menorah and eat
I remember you and I would made delicious latke treats
When you see Christmas amongst us
It is Chanukah time
Shalom from the other side
I must’ve spun a thousand times
To tell you I’m sorry for beating you at this game
But I promise to go easy when we play dreidel again
Shalom from the Kosher aisle
We used to shop, we used to smile
We’d get onions, eggs and potatoes with starch
Matzo meal, veggie oil, and applesauce on the top
We need more…we need more applesauce
Shalom, how are you?
It’s the festival of lights, we need to celebrate together
The Jews, beat King Antiochus
And they shooed the Greeks right out of town like nothing ever happened.
And the biggest miracle
Oil lasted 8 nights
Shalom from the other side (other side)
I must’ve spun a thousand times (thousand times)
To tell you I’m sorry for beating you at this game
But I promise to go easy when we play dreidel again
Shalom from the Kosher aisle (Kosher aisle)
Now we shop, And now we smile (now we smile)
We get onions, eggs and potatoes with starch
Matzo meal, veggie oil, and applesauce on the top
We need more
We need more, ooooohhh
We need more, ooooohhh
We need more applesauce, ooooohhh
We need more, I love this applesauce
We need more, We need moreeeee
Shalom from the other side
I must’ve spun a thousand times
To tell you I’m sorry for beating you at this game
But I promise to go easy when we play dreidel again
Shalom from the Kosher aisle
Now we shop, And now we smile
We get onions, eggs and potatoes with starch
Matzo meal, veggie oil, and apple sauce on the top
We need more…
Mmmm, latkes and applesauce
Happy Chanukah, everyone…
SHALOM!

And we echo that sentiment, Shalom you all on this happy season of Hanukkah, and Shalom to all, all over the world! And don't forget our outdoor candle lighting at 7:00 PM!

The Festival of Latkes!

What would Hanukkah be without its special culinary delights? By which, we mean... LATKES!!! And sure, there are all kinds of different recipes out there for making them, but how about this musical Latke Recipe? 





This new song by The Maccabeats sure is a great way to enhance our appetite for celebrating Hanukkah! And a reminder once again, that our outdoor menorah lighting will be held at 7:00 PM sharp tonight, and you are invited to join us for five minutes of blessings, songs, and stories.

Happy Hanukkah!

Our Hanukkah holiday begins tonight at sundown. If you're in the neighborhood, come join us as we light our outdoor menorah promptly at 7:00 PM, tonight and for the seven nights that follow. we spend five minutes saying the blessing the blessings, and maybe a song or two, and a story. Join us... but don't be late.

And to get in the mood, here's a music video by Jewish a cappella group Shir Soul, entitled Lift Yourself Up: 





And with that, we wish you a very happy first night of Hanukkah!

Our Garden of Zen

Here are some photos from the latest addition to our Adas Emuno Garden, a Zen Garden! Here are Michael Cohen and Rabbi Schwartz working on the garden, pictures courtesy of Michael Fishbein:

And here is the finished garden, pictures courtesy of Rabbi Schwartz:

 

 

The perfect setting for a moment of Zen, prayer, and meditation, or simply a bit of quiet relaxation!

 

The Jewish Trinity

Another op-ed by Adas Emuno president Lance Strate was published in the Jewish Standard on October 30th, inspired by and referencing the High Holy Day services at Adas Emuno. The title of the piece is, The Jewish Trinity, and here it is:

This past Rosh Hashanah, as I was sitting in the sanctuary at Congregation Adas Emuno, listening to the Torah portion known as the Akedah or, the binding of Isaac, my thoughts turned to the Avot prayer, and the phrase God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob.

It occurred to me that the patriarchs constitute a trinity, but we never call them that. We shy away from that word, trinity, no doubt because it is so strongly associated with Christian Trinitarianism, which posits one God taking the form of three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Christians do not have a monopoly on divine trinities, however. The Hindu religion also includes a doctrine of three-in-one, in which the divine Godhead is composed of Brahma the Creator, Vishnu the Preserver, and Shiva the Destroyer. And then there is the Triple Goddess, a New Age notion based on ancient polytheistic beliefs, in which the three manifestations of the Goddess are referred to as the Virgin or Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone or Wise Woman, corresponding to three main stages of life.

Apart from religion, we encounter countless other trinities in many different realms, from Sigmund Freud’s id, ego, and superego to the three witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth; from Alexander Dumas’ Three Musketeers to the three little pigs of fairytale fame; from Julius Caesar’s veni, vidi, vici, to the French Revolution’s liberté, egalité, fraternité; from Abraham Lincoln’s government of the people, by the people, for the people, to Kellogg’s Rice Krispies’ Snap! Crackle! Pop! Lists of three are psychologically satisfying, conveying a sense of completion. They are especially quotable and easy to remember: blood, sweat, and tears; sex, lies, and videotape; and stop, look and listen.

The Jewish trinity, especially as expressed as God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, is certainly memorable in being a list of three, and even more so through the poetic technique of rhythmic repetition. Also, from an anthropological perspective, our trinity uses the motif of family to represent relationships between peoples, so that the Children of Israel share a degree of kinship with the other descendants of Abraham via Ishmael, and the other descendants of Isaac via Esau.

Of course, there is another trinity, of Noah, who, like Abraham, hears God’s voice and follows his commands, along with Shem, one of the three sons of Noah and the ancestor of the Semitic peoples, and Arpachshad, the father of the founders of the city of Ur and the ancestor of Abraham. But we don’t invoke that list of three in our prayers.

From a theological perspective, the parallel structure of God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob is interpreted to mean that each of the patriarchs had to form his own individual relationship with God. So, from a purely subjective standpoint, the God of Abraham is not the same God as the God of Isaac, and both are distinct again from the God of Jacob (referring to each person’s own personal conception or perception of the Divine).

So what are the differences? Abraham, who hears God’s voice commanding him to leave home and go forth to a foreign land, is a model of obedience. That is never more true than when he demonstrates his willingness to follow God’s command and sacrifice his son Isaac. A religion that follows Abraham alone would be one of submission. Submission alone, obedience to a higher authority, may include license to kill, without question, in God’s name. That is why a religion of Abraham is incomplete.

Isaac also submits to God’s will, but does so by playing the part of the martyr. The religion of Isaac therefore is one of sacrifice as well as submission. Certainly, Abraham also demonstrates a willingness to sacrifice by offering up his own son, but there is a world of difference between being the one who wields the knife and the one who is the sacrificial lamb.

Sacrifice alone threatens to privilege death over life, and rituals of sacrifice suggest that the appetite for such forms of submission may never be satiated or appeased. That is why a religion of Isaac also is incomplete.

Jacob does not reject submission and sacrifice, but adds the all-important element of struggle. His religion is one that is not only about a voice that commands, but also about a vision that inspires, of a stairway to heaven that suggests the possibility of reaching for a higher state of being. His story is one of laboring for love—he worked for 14 years to earn the right to marry Rachel. And as the patriarch who wrestles with God, he is renamed Israel, becoming the eponymous ancestor of the Israelites, the Jewish people.

Jacob adds the vital third element of struggle, not blind obedience, but questioning, grappling, reasoning, a raising of awareness, of consciousness, and that is what makes the religion of Jacob complete.

The Jewish trinity is an altogether human one, consisting of three different and distinct individuals, not in any way consubstantial, not a three-in-one, but rather three patriarchs who simply are related to one another by direct line of descent. And yet they point to what might be considered a divine trinity in Judaism, what might be thought of as three faces or aspects of God, but more appropriately as three relationships to God: submission to God in the religion of Abraham, sacrifice for God in the religion of Isaac, and struggle with God in the religion of Jacob.

Perhaps, then, there is a message of caution against the varieties of religious experience that include submission and/or sacrifice alone? Without the third person of Jacob, without the struggle, there is no Israel, and Judaism as a religion would not be complete.

Sports Talk Sunday December 6th

Join us on Sunday, December 6th at 10AM in the Social Hall when the Congregation welcomes guest speaker, Dr. David Kristol, who will speak on “Jews in Sports.” 

Lite refreshments served

Sponsored by the Adult Education Committee

November Religious School News

From the pages of Kadima, the Newsletter of Congregation Adas Emuno:

Religious School News 

     from


Cantor Sandy Horowitz

Religious School Director

As I write this, we just had our highly successful religious school fundraiser, “Treats and Treasures”—there was wonderful food and wine, a photo booth, cooking demo by Gibson Borelli, and many terrific gifts to bid on. But most of all was the atmosphere of camaraderie and enjoyment from the crowd of Adas Emuno members and friends, including religious school families as well as invited guests. This is what community is all about. Thank you to everyone who was involved in planning this terrific event!

In the meantime, religious school life is thriving. The first Tot Mitzvah program with Doris White was a great success. This year we have eight madrichim to assist the teachers in the classroom. Last month the Seventh Grade class helped to lead our first Family Service of the year, as they led prayers and spoke about endangered species as a reflection on the Noah story. With the new Family Service attendance policy in place, we were thrilled to see so many families of other grades in attendance! It made for a lively evening, followed the next morning by the Bar Mitzvah service of Cole Rosenthal—mazel tov Cole! We are all proud of you. Meanwhile, Confirmation class is also in full swing, as Rabbi Schwartz leads the class in ethics-related discussions of contemporary issues.

The school functions in large part due to the tireless efforts of our Religious School Committee, co-led by Elka Oliver and Michael Raskin with members Susan Grey, Marilyn Katz, Jody Priblo and Sandy Zornek. They handle a wide range of school-related matters from policy and planning to the most mundane and necessary tasks, including organizing parent volunteers and making sure there are snacks for the students each week. I could not do what I do without their help, advice and encouragement.

Dates to remember for November and December:

Saturday, November 7
Bar Mitzvah of Emery Jacobowitz

Friday, November 13
Family Service featuring the Sixth Grade

Sunday, November 29
NO SCHOOL—Happy Thanksgiving!

Thursday, December 10
7:30 PM—School Committee Meeting

Thursday, December 3
7:30 PM—New B’nai Mitzvah Parent Meeting For Sixth Grade Parents

Friday, December 11
Family Service featuring the Fifth Grade

Saturday, December 12
7:00 PM—Community Outdoor Menorah Lighting and Chanukah Party in the Social Hall

Sunday, December 27
NO SCHOOL—Winter Break

Confirmation Class: Nov. 1, 8; Dec. 6, 20 

Tot Mitzvah: November 8 & December 6