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Upcoming Etz Chaim Events
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Shabbat, May 25th & 26th
Scholar-in-Residence
Dr. Erica Brown
Sponsored by the Singer Family in memory of
Julie Lipsett-Singer's mother, Phyllis Lipsett, z"l
Thursday, June 7th
Sisterhood Book Club:
Before We Were Yours
by Lisa Wingate
Monday, June 18th
Etz Chaim Annual BBQ
Details to Follow!
Thursday, June 28th
Men's Club Golf Outing
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Mazal Tov!
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Mazal tov to Caryl Hirsch & Jay Feingold on the birth of a grandson,
who was born May 1st in Minneapolis.
Mazal Tov to proud parents Shaina & David Feingold.
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Mazal Tov!
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Mazal Tov to Arthur Stark on being elected as
Chairman of The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
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Save the Date!
Scholar-in-Residence
Dr. Erica Brown
Shabbat, May 25th & 26th
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Please Join Us As Etz Chaim Welcomes
Scholar-in-Residence
Dr. Erica Brown
Shabbat, May 25th & 26th
The Weekend is generously sponsored by the Singer family in memory of Julie Lipsett-Singer's mother, Phyllis Lipsett Z"L.
Dr. Erica Brown is an associate professor at George Washington University and the director of its Mayberg Center for Jewish Education and Leadership. She is the author of eleven books on leadership, the Hebrew Bible and spirituality; her forthcoming book is a commentary on the Book of Esther. She has been published in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Tablet and The Jewish Review of Books and writes a monthly column for the New York Jewish Week. She has blogged for Psychology Today, Newsweek/Washington Post's "On Faith" and JTA and tweets on one page of Talmud study a day
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Pirkei Avot is Back!
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Now that Shabbat afternoons are longer, come join us for our
very popular series on Pirkei Avot.
Each Shabbat afternoon, from now until early summer, we will have an elongated Seudat Shlishit following Mincha. During this time we will study and converse about the weekly chapter of Pirkei Avot.
Everyone is encouraged to attend.
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Kiddush Sponsor
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Kiddush this week is sponsored by
Deborah & Wayne Zuckerman in honor of
the anniversary of Abraham Zuckerman's liberation by the Americans on May 5, 1945.
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Rabbi's Message
Parshat Emor
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Rabbi Klibanoff is away this Shabbat.
This week we have a guest post by Rabbi Berel Wein:
The Torah obviously envisions the creation within Jewish society of a special rite if not even elitist group of people - the kohanim, the priestly descendants of the family of Aharon.
The existence of such a group within the ranks of Israel - a group that has laws exclusive to it alone and extra economic privileges - seems to fly in the face of all our current democratic ideals and societal fairness and equality. All humans are created equal and the same sets of laws should apply to all of them indiscriminately.
This mantra is currently subscribed to or at the very least, paid lip service to by "progressive" sections of human society. So, by current standards and accepted wisdom, the entire concept of kohanim seems to be an anachronistic one at best. And, it is interesting to me that this idea and grouping itself has lost none of its vitality in the Jewish world over the many millennia of our existence.
I knew a Jew who was a high ranking official in a very left-wing party here in Israel. He was not visibly observant of halacha or Jewish tradition and practice. It so happened that we were walking together to attend a funeral service for a mutual acquaintance of ours and as I was about to enter the funeral hall, he held back and refused to enter stating, quite definitively, "I am a kohein." That vestige of Judaism was simply something that he could not bring himself to discard. Apparently, once a kohein always a kohhein.
An insight into this matter can be gleaned from the later description of the role of the kohein by the prophets of Israel. The kohein was charged with being the guardian of faith, the teachers of Torah, and the promoters of social peace and harmony. They were to be the good guys in a world where such people were often difficult to find.
It was this challenge that preserved their special identity throughout history. Every society requires people whose goal in life is to do good without harming others in the process. Other faiths have priestly classes that are devoted to seemingly doing good However, almost without exception in history, doing good somehow always involved persecuting and demeaning others. That was and is not the way of the children of Aharon.
The kohein was a role model and an example of what one should be and can be. His mere presence in society serves as a moderating influence on the mood and behavior of the public in general. Societies require people of altruism and permanent goodness. When one states that one is a kohein it is much more than a declaration of one's genealogy.
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Next Sisterhood Book Club Read:
Before We Were Yours
June 7th
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Start Reading!
The next Sisterhood Book Club meeting will be June 7th
Location TBA
Before We Were Yours
by Lisa Wingate
Based on one of America's most notorious real-life scandals--in which Georgia Tann, director of a Tennessee adoption organization, kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families all over the country--Lisa Wingate's riveting, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting tale reminds us how, even though the paths we take can lead to many places, the heart never forgets
where we belong.
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JNF - Breakfast for Israel
Friday, May 4th
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"Ask, Eat, & Schmooze"
with Nechama Price
Wednesday, May 9th
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Join us for Nechama's Favorite Questions & Answers
Wednesday, May 9th at 8:15pm
at the home of
Julie Schwartz
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This is the last in the series of lectures by
Nechama Price.
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NCSY Shavuot Cooking Demo
Thursday, May 10th
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American Society for Yad Vashem
Spring Luncheon
Wednesday, May 23rd
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JKHA 8th Grade Student Documentary:
Names Not Numbers
Wednesday, May 30th
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Golda Och Academy
Spring Gala
Wednesday, June 6, 2018
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| Yiddish Class *Now on MONDAY Evenings* |
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Updating
Cholim List
Prayer for the Ill
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