A Shabbos of Learning, Laughter and L'chaim
A CommUNITY Shabbos experience Friday, January 11
6:30pm: Services
7:00pm: Four course traditional, gourmet Shabbos dinner with select wines and plenty of spirit.
Guest speaker: Internationally acclaimed guest speaker, psychotherapist, humorist and scholar
Dr. Edwin Susskind, Ph.d
Women are from Mars, Men are from Venus, Jews are From Sinai
Sensitivity to the Emotional Needs of Teens & Raising Your Child To Be a Mentsch.
Saturday mornings, 11am-12pm
Give your child an opportunity to explore, learn and discover with songs, story time with Russian language, and kiddie play area! Bond with your little one while connecting with other moms in our area.
Moms and Kids Challah Bake
Sunday, January 13 at 5:00pm-6:30pm
Join for a fun and meaningful time together and making traditional Challah.
With guided step-by-step instructions, each participant makes their own batch of challah.
Suitable for all women, and kids ages 8 and up.
Seating and drinks: 5:00pm. Program begins 5:30pm
Connect with over 100 teens from our community, for a unique Shabbat experience exclusively for teens!
Cocktails, Photos and Candle Lighting,
followed by Kiddush ceremony, dinner and dessert buffet.
Table seating requests upon reservation.
Join us for a women's evening, celebrating the New Year for the trees.
Discuss the mystical meanings of this holiday, while enjoying a delightful buffet of exotic fruits and wines!
Every Wednesday, 6:00pm-7:00pm
Hang out, and get connected with other Jewish
teens in the area for casual, social meet and discussions.
Chats, Snacks, and Drinks
A Biselleh Humor....
Rabbi Weber hired a junior rabbi to help with some of the responsibilities he had for his large congregation. As the first task he asked the new young Rabbi Abrahams to write his Shabbos morning sermon. He asked that it be thoughtful, humorous and 20 minutes maximum.
After Shabbos services Rabbi Weber was furious.
"Why did you write me an hour-long speech?" he demanded of Rabbi Abrahams. "Half the shul walked out before I finished."
Young Rabbi Abrahams was baffled. "I wrote you a 20-minute speech," he replied. "I also gave you the two extra copies you asked for."
Weekly E- Torah
Imagine you have been working on the job for years and years. It is hard, manual labor and you are not simply tired but exhausted, demoralized, drained and frustrated. And then, one fine day, some new fellow on the floor stands up and promises a whole new world of equality, rewards and ultimate freedom. Do you believe him or are you beyond hope? Do you dare hold out for a better tomorrow and risk being devastated and cast into despair yet again or do you simply accept your fate and give up dreaming?
So it was with our ancestors in Egypt. They were slaving away all those years when a new face appeared and began making promises. Moses brings a message from G‑d that they are about to be redeemed. There is a Promised Land ahead. All is not lost. There is light at the end of the tunnel.
The Jews' response? And they did not listen to Moses out of shortness of breath and from the hard labor.
One commentary explains that “shortness of breath” shouldn’t be understood only literally. The Hebrew for breath is ruach, which can also mean “spirit.” In other words, they weren’t able to heed Moses’ call not only from physical breathlessness, but because they lacked the spirit. Having suffered in bondage for so long, they no longer had the faith or hope to believe that freedom was still in the realm of the possible. It was simply beyond them. They had lost the spirit.
In the history of Egypt not a single slave had ever escaped. How could an entire nation ever walk free? Moses was a dreamer, they must have thought. It is just not realistic to hold out such high hopes only to have them dashed yet again. And so the people were utterly despondent and spiritless and, therefore, they could not hear, i.e. absorb, Moses’ message.
It happens all too often. People become so set in their mediocrity that they give up hope of ever achieving the breakthrough. Marriages get stuck in the rut of routine and the tedious treadmill keeps rolling along until we lose even the desire to dream. And Israel’s people, even brave leaders, are so despondent from years of war, attrition and terror that they clutch at imaginary straws because, basically, if we are honest with ourselves, they have simply lost the resolve.
I have often quoted a wise proverb heard in the name of the legendary Chasid, RebMendel Futerfas. “If you lose your money, you’ve lost nothing. Money comes and money goes. If you lose your health, you’ve lost half. You are not the person you were before. But if you lose your resolve, you’ve lost it all.”
Moses brought new hope to a depressed, dreamless nation. He gave them back the spirit they had lost and eventually, through the miracles of G‑d, the promise was fulfilled and the dream became destiny.
To be out of breath is normal. To be out of spirit is something the Jewish People can never afford. May we never lose the spirit.
