Dear {{first_name}}, "Our youth is our future". That's not a euphemism, it is reality, and it’s the Jewish perspective.
G-d agreed to give the Torah to the Jewish people only after they guaranteed that they would teach the Torah to their children.
I guess that’s where “our youth is our future” comes from.
Just this week 40 of our 7 and 8th grade Jteen Jr. got together for Kosher Pizza making and Jewish themed bracelets. We have our Purim events and Hamantaschen Bakes coming up for the teens, as well as a brand new four-week Jewish discovery course and an amazing weekend Shabbaton in the Poconos for our High School Jteen Club.
See all upcoming events below.
We are laser focused on the young generation to help ensure that our children will lead the future of our Jewish identity as a nation with great pride in their connection to the Torah and to Jewish observance!
Sincerely, Rabbi Mendel & Elke Zaltzman
Shabbos Times
Friday, March 1
Candle Lighting: 5:30pm Evening Service: 5:30pm
Saturday, March 2 Tanya Class 9:15am Morning Service: 10:00am Kiddush: 12:15pm Evening Service: 5:20pm Shabbat Ends: 6:30pm
Kiddush Sponsorship Kiddush Fund
FAIR LAWN JEWISH DAY CAMP
A BISSELE HUMOR
An old Jewish lady sold pretzels on a street corner for 25 cents each. Every day a young well-dressed man would leave his office building at lunch time, and as he passed the pretzel stand, he would leave her a quarter, but he never took a pretzel. This went on for more than seven years. The two of them never spoke. One day, as the young man passed the old lady's stand and left his quarter as usual, the pretzel lady spoke to him. "Sir, I appreciate your business. You are a very good customer, but I have to tell you that the pretzel price has gone up to 50 cents."
WEEKLY eTORAH
It's too late. I'm too far gone. It'll never be the same. How many times have we heard those words? Or, worse still, said them? This week's Parshah tells the story of the Golden Calf, the worst national sin in the history of the Jewish people. Frankly, if I were the editor of the Bible I'd have left that part out. How humiliating to the Jews! Just weeks after the greatest revelation of all time, when they saw and heard G‑d up front and personal, they go and bow down to a cow?! How fickle can you get? But the Torah is unflinchingly honest and records this most unflattering moment of ours in all its gory detail. Why? Perhaps the very important lessons we need to draw from this embarrassing episode are, firstly, that people do sin, human beings do make mistakes, and even inspired Jews who saw the divine with their own eyes can mess up — badly. And, secondly, that even afterwards there is still hope, no matter what. In the very same Parshah we read how G‑d tells Moses to carve a second set of tablets, to replace the first set he smashed when he came down the mountain and was shocked by what the Jews were up to. (Sort of "You broke them, you fix them" — like the guy who fell asleep during the rabbi's sermon and the rabbi tells the shamash to go and wake the fellow up. The shamash says, "Rabbi, you put him to sleep, you wake him up!") The Torah does not intend to diminish our respect for that generation, but rather to help us understand human frailty, our moral weakness and the reality of relationships, spiritual or otherwise. G‑d gave us a perfect Torah. The tablets were hand-made by G‑d, pure and sacred, and then we messed up. So is it all over? Is there really no hope now? Are we beyond redemption? After all, what could possibly be worse than idolatry? We broke the first two commandments and the tablets were shattered into smithereens because we were no longer worthy to have them. It was the ultimate infidelity. So Torah teaches that all is not lost. As bad as it was — and it was bad — it is possible for man to repair the damage. Moses will make new tablets. They won't be quite the same as G‑d's, but there will be Tablets nonetheless. We can pick up the pieces. It is possible to pick up the pieces in life. Whether it's our relationships with G‑d, our marriage partners, our kids or our colleagues, we can make amends and repair the damage. If the Jews could recover from the Golden Calf, our own challenges are small indeed.
