Donations to the Rabbi's Discretionary Fund: 

• Nurit & Gary Adler
• Razel & Yosef Adler
• Elaine & Howard Alt
• Gilad Barach
• Arlene & Arthur Eis
• Tal & Marc Felsen
• Roz & Ira Friedman
• Marianne Gorlyn & David Goldberg
• Linda & Mark Karasick
• Earl Klayman
• Tova Resnick & Philip Meyer
• Aaron Rabin
• Miriam & Izzy Salomon
• Irit & Chanani Sandler
• Joy & Robert Sperber
• Bashi & Howie Tepper
• Jamie & Asher Toporovsky
• Warren Wacholder

Suggested donation for contributions to this fund is $18.00 for each listing.

Yahrtzeit Donations: 

• Rachel & Henry Holland
• Sharon & Gary Kinstlinger
• Phyllis & Sandy Zlotnick

The following have been Parnas Hayom (daily learning sponsors) at Beth Aaron during the month of July: 

Beth Aaron Brings Community Together in Time of Tragedy

The article below appeared in the July 17 issue of the Jewish Link of Bergen County.  Click here to read the article online.  

To view a video of the shiur, click here.

by Isaac Hagler

Congregation Beth Aaron hosted Rabbi Yakov Horowitz in a community-wide discussion on "The Tragedy in Eretz Yisroel -- Sorting It Out Ourselves; Explaining It to Our Children." Rabbanim in the community, including Rabbi Michael Taubes, Rabbi Aharon Ciment, Rabbi Benny Krohn, and Rabbi Larry Rothwachs, came together with congregants from shuls throughout the Bergen Jewish community to mourn, say Tehillim, and try to better understand and explain this horrific loss.

Rabbi Horowitz is the founder and dean of Yeshiva Darchei Noam of Monsey, a yeshiva noted for its positive, child-centered learning environment. He is also the founder and director of The Center for Jewish Family Life/Project YES, a national parenting organization that conducts numerous programs designed to promote family stability in the Jewish community. He is a recognized authority on raising children and has authored a number of books including Growing with the Parsha and Living and Parenting; he conducts parenting seminars internationally, and is a regular contributor on Torah, educational, and parenting topics to Jewish periodicals and websites.

He talked about how, for 18 days, children, teenagers, and adults poured out their hearts to ha-Kadosh Boruch Hu (HKB'H), praying for a positive outcome through communal Tehilim, learning, and personal supplications. How could HKB'H allow this to happen? Doesn't HKB'H listen to our prayers? Why bother praying at all? Asking the tough questions, the questions that we as adults are thinking and that our children and teens are asking, the ones that mere mortals struggle with; but, as a community, we tried to cope with the lack of answers to deep questions. The message was simple, even though there are no simple answers; we must try to take away lessons from this tragedy, starting with the concept of silence.  While it is considered a sign of strength, this is not the way we naturally look at how one should deal with loss.

However, there is a Torah basis for this concept. Rabbi Rothwachs, the Mora d'Asra of Congregation Beth Aaron, and Rabbi Horowitz each discussed a Halacha of Nichum Aveilim --comforting a mourner -- during the period of shiva. Before a visitor can talk to the mourner, he or she must first wait for the mourner to speak. We see from here that a person can fulfill this mitzvah simply by showing up and not even saying a word.

Rabbi Horowitz discussed Aharon ha-Kohen's reaction to the loss of his two sons. The Torah says "Vayidom Aharon," "and Aharon was silent," for which the Torah praises him and rewards him. As seen in these two examples, not all the time is there something to say or that can be said about a tragedy. Similar to the concept of Tzaddik V'rah Lo -- when bad things happen to good people -- there is no easy explanation to these challenging phenomena.

Rabbi Horowitz also discussed the need to have faith in HKB'H, that He knows what He is doing. If we believe that HKB'H is Avinu Shebashamayim, we know he wants what is best for us. We don't always understand His plan, because we do not see the entire picture. That does not mean we have to fully understand what He is doing, even though we know at the end it's good for us. It's like a person coming into a movie in the middle and expecting to understand the remainder of the movie.

Rabbi Horowitz brought an example from his own life. When he was a young boy, his father passed away. To this very day, he cannot understand why HKB'H took away his father while he was a young boy, but he is still able to accept His divine will. This faith is inherent within each one of us and is a core belief. When we date, does everyone know with 100% certainty that our other half is right for us and that it was meant to be? Some of us may be 60%, 70%, or even 90% certain but we each must take a leap of faith that we have met our match. If we waited for 100% certainty, we would never get married.

Rabbi Horowitz quoted Rav Moshe Tendler, who quoted his father-in-law, Rav Moshe Feinstein, zt'l, who asked why we say "Boruch Dayan ha-Emet" when we hear of someone passing. Shouldn't we say the bracha of ha-Tov ve-ha-Maytiv that HKB'H gives us good, since everything that He does is good? If we accept what HKB'H does as right and just, this would be a more appropriate bracha to recite. Rav Moshe answers that the Sages recognized that there is a disconnect between what we say and what we feel and believe by saying this we are encompassing what we need to say, while taking into consideration what we are feeling. When a tragedy occurs, we cannot fathom it and we don't care if it's good for us. This is why we don't say ha-Tov ve-ha-Maytiv.

What is the takeaway from this tragedy in particular? For 18 days, all sects of Judaism united as one in prayer, performed acts of kindness, took on additional acts such as lighting more candles or keeping Shabbat longer. People changed the way that they prayed, personalizing their tefillot more, and asking HKB'H to intervene. The idea of tefilah is to help us become close to HKB'H. Rabbi Rothwachs, over the past Shabbatot, discussed the concept of saying Tehillim; it's not the words per se that bring about salvation. Rather, he says, davening and saying Tehilim are a conduit to bringing us close to Hashem.

The book The Garden of Emunah, by Rabbi Shalom Arush, says we should ask HKB'H for the tiniest things as well as the largest things. The main thing is to be close to him and develop a relationship with him, like we would our own parents. We need to be close to Him at all times, good and bad. Over the 18 days, all of Klal Yisroel tried to get closer to Hashem. Let us hope and pray we each take away from this tragedy that we continue to work on being close to HKB'H and continue our relationship with Him. May HKB'H fulfill what we say in tefilah daily, "Sim Shalom Tova u-Vracha Alenu v'Al Kol Yisrael Amecha," may He bring goodness and bracha to all of Klal Yisrael.

The OU Solidarity Trip to Israel During Tzuk Eitan
 (Operation Protective Edge)

In the shelter at the Dimona Youth Center, children hold a sign that says "the best shelter in Israel.

Mollie Fisch (front row, center) took part in the recent OU Solidarity Mission to Israel.

Earlier this summer, I took a trip to Spain to see the sights and to learn more about our Jewish history, our gedolim, and their writings before our expulsion in 1492, not to return for 500 years. On the last day I visited the Miro museum with a few friends and found a mirror hanging as part of the art collection. When you looked in that unadorned mirror, you saw yourself behind these words etched into the glass: YOU ARE STILL HERE. That is surely our story as Jews.

I thought that was my trip for the summer of 2014, but Eyal, Gilad, and Naftali were murdered, and Israel came under attack. I felt compelled to make my presence felt in some way and jumped at the opportunity for a spontaneous trip, organized rapidly by the OU and filled to capacity in a day or two. This was the OU Solidarity Mission to Israel. We left Thursday night, approximately 50 people ranging from 21 years to 85 years old, for a four-day jam-packed trip that started with soldiers and Iron Dome and ended back at the airport.  It included the following and more: 

• A visit to an Iron Dome station, Although quiet when we were there, it activated successfully as we were leaving. One of our group took a great picture, posted on the OU Facebook site.
• A visit to a Golani group of chayalim, waiting impatiently to go back to the action. Such sweet and respectful boys, now very much men, coming from many different backgrounds, joined together with a single mission and purpose: to complete the action successfully and as a team. Their commander said, "When we pray, we take three steps back. We remember that in back of us is all of Am Yisrael that we protect as we pray before G-d." We brought donated goodies and other supplies and saw the generators that the OU military funding had raised, enabling soldiers to plug in and call their parents when they were permitted to do so.
• A Sderot Shabbat complete with inspirational davening and divrei Torah, food, dancing, and singing accompanied by the loud booms of the IDF destroying tunnels with returning rat-a-tat firing that continued all night long.  And in Sderot we experienced, 
• The most incredible davening and Shabbat meal, full of singing and dancing: yeshiva students, soldiers with their rifles slung on their shoulders (with and without kippot, and from all backgrounds and origins: Sabras, Ethiopians, Russians, Moroccans, Tunisians, Europeans, Americans). One soldier stood to say that he was a Tel Aviv boy who had never before understood what the people in Sderot were going through the past 14 years, and loved and respected them. Another, who had never before experienced a real Shabbat, spoke of his gratitude to the yeshiva for hosting him and his troop, and the ruach went on and on as they sang and danced with the yeshiva boys and Rebbeim and the men of our own group.
• We were privileged to hear from Rav Shlomo Eliyahu, Chief Rabbi of Tzfat (and I got to speak as well to his lovely Rabbanit); from Rav Fendel, who is a real inspiration and a life force of the full Sderot community; and from our own OU rabbis, Rabbi Tzvi Hirsh Weinreb, Rabbi Steven Weil, Rabbi Avi Berman of OU Israel, and other Rabbis in our group.
• We had wonderful opportunities to talk individually with soldiers on a few days' respite at Sderot between active duties, talks, and visits with local adults and kids, who are determined to stand strong despite the terrible stresses they encounter daily.
• We enjoyed home hospitality for lunch: mine with Chana, a wonderful, bright and lovely Moroccan-born mother and her three Sabra sons (twins 11 1/2 years old and a 14-year-old). At the lunch table, Chana explained the long list of places in the parsha of Masei to her sons in the following way. "We learn from these pesukim that we go through many experiences and places in life, we must remember them all and not erase any of them -- the happy the ordinary or the difficult ones. We must remember them by name and detail, know that they have made us who we are today, and that keeps us strong. When we look back, we can say, yes I remember, but I learned from each experience and became stronger and got through them all, and I will continue to learn from and remember each new one as well as I go through life." Wow, what a lesson, to boys who had been sleeping now for three weeks in their Mom's room, which she has made a safe room, while she sleeps on the floor in the adjacent smaller built-on extension that is the safe room mandated for each and every apartment in Sderot. Lunch with Chana was of gourmet quality, fresh, beautiful to look at and delicious! She is artistic and creative, and I am proud to have her as my new friend.
• Sunday morning brought a Kotel Shacharit davening led by Rabbi Weil of our OU group. We prayed alongside of many fellow Jews and many non-Jews who came to see and experience  the Kotel, to pray or recite tehillim. The Kotel is my favorite place in the world, the one I envision when I am stressed and need to focus. (Lots of Asians were there, too, and in our hotel; God bless the tourists who continue to come)
• We visited a youth center (operated by the OU) in Dimona, where the teenagers, all from a very low socio-economic background, hang out in or around a well-placed shelter complete with pool table and refreshments and counselors who try to engage and motivate them to pursue education, moral and religious values, and personal growth and development. We interacted with the teens and the mothers and grandmothers who were sitting there and with their leaders and teachers. Some of our folks had brought bags loaded with candy and games, well-received to be sure.
• We paid visits to injured soldiers and their families in Barzilai Hospital (Ashkelon) and Siroka Hospital (Beer Sheva). This was highly emotional and so gratifying and interesting, a very intimate experience. Everyone in the hospital exuded a remarkable spirit. A group of six quite elderly, but very energetic people visiting from Migdal HaEmek engaged us in the hospital lobby, and we soon found ourselves dancing with them and singing loudly "Am Yisrael Chai," while a judo Olympic medalist visiting soldiers was being interviewed in another corner and an artist was making an Israeli flag out of blue and white balloons on a steel frame. We heard from both hospital directors of the extraordinary measures their staffs undertook to transfer vulnerable patients to safe areas. These hospitals need our support!
• A most meaningful visit was to a therapeutic activities session in Kiryat Malachi (another very impoverished area) for children 3 to 15 years old who had not left their apartments for three weeks until Esther Gross and her wonderful team came in to help them learn techniques to alleviate their fears and stress levels. Esther heads up the OU team to help those with terror related stress issues.
• We heard remarkable words from Miriam Peretz, the mother who lost two sons in different campaigns and who is passionate about helping bereaved parents learn how to continue living and helping chayalim address their concerns. What a heroine of Israel! She explained that we are fighting a war of totally competing ideologies and that ours is based on one place and one value system, best expressed as JERUSALEM, with our total commitment to our Torah principles, our  land, and our people.
• We received a military strategy and ethics briefing by Colonel Bentzi Gruber, a fascinating and well-spoken military and moral hero of our people, a man who has fought in six wars and who spoke of the burden of carrying every civilian enemy death on one's shoulders for a lifetime, particularly the children, and how the collateral damage they try so hard to avoid is unavoidable, particularly with the enemy using civilians as shields. IDF statistics indicate that the rate of enemy deaths -- contrary to the propaganda we get that is shoveled out by the media -- two civilians to each Hamas member, in contrast to the ratio of British coalition forces in Iraq, 25 civilian deaths to each military death (statistics by Col. (Res.) Ben Tzion Gruber, Ph.D.).  

The numbers of people we saw on Friday coming to roads that the military had closed to civilians with boxes and boxes of food and supplies, to give chizuk to the chayalim, was mind boggling. People from every part of the vast range of the Jewish population, chiloni to chareidi, men, women, and children, politically right and left. Of course, there is a fringe of people who are not supportive, but the vast majority realize that they are as much targeted as the most right-wing "settler" type, and peace demonstrations have scattered quickly when the siren goes off, both sides running to share the same shelter.

Rabbi Berman and his team at the OU in Israel, the hospital directors and staffs, and many wonderful organizations are doing yeoman work to keep people safe and secure. I urge you to lend support wherever your heart takes you.

Yes, WE ARE STILL HERE, and God willing will remain in our land in safety. Libi ba-Mizrach, while I am, unfortunately still be-Maarav, but -- who knows?

May we and all Israel have a shana tova, may we hear good news around the world, may this action be resolved speedily and successfully, and may our chayalim all return home safely. May we all take our future trips to Israel just to focus on beautiful places, inspirational history, and personal spiritual growth, with our minds free and our hearts easy.

Shalom, kol tuv.

It's over two months since we left Teaneck and our dear friends at Beth Aaron. We just did not have any time, until now, to gather our thoughts to express our very deeply felt appreciation for this amazing community. We are very thankful to Hashem for the many years that we were part of this beautiful kehila. We really had some great times together.

We have been the recipients of many acts of chesed by so many of you, whether at the births of our children, at various smachot, at the petira of each of Zvi's parents, the visiting and calling Chana's mother, and other occasions. The outpouring of love and caring has always been unbelievable.

The Beth Aaron kehila was a wonderful community for our children to grow up in. In many ways, it was a home away from home for each of them -- whether in youth groups or NCSY, both as participants and as leaders. And the adult leadership always made sure that the environment for our children -- and yours -- would be safe and would reflect Torah values.

We also would like to express our respect and appreciation for Rabbi and Rebbetzin Kanarfogel for the many years of exemplary leadership of the shul, providing us with the benefits of his Torah knowledge (including excellent drashot and shiurim) and keen insights about the shul's welfare.

And to our current mora d'asra, Rabbi Rothwachs, and Chaviva, we would like to thank you -- first, for putting Schley Place on the map; second, for the rabbi's inspirational and thought-provoking drashot and shiurim; and third, for your caring, openness and modesty. For us, you have exemplified how to combine bein adam le-makom with bein adam le-chaveiro in a beautiful tapestry.

Since moving to Israel, we have been extremely busy with the kinds of tasks that all olim need to do, plus looking for an apartment. Be'ezrat Hashem, in a few weeks, we will be moving into a rental apartment in Alon Shvut. Please, please, please, consider visiting us. Our doors will be open.

Of course, please continue to support all of us in Israel during this eit tzarah -- whether politically or financially, or by continuing to visit, and most importantly, with your tefilot and mitzvot. We know how deeply you all understand that we are areivim zeh la-zeh, and that you are continuing to support us in all these ways. Yasher koach, and kol ha-kavod!

Chana & Zvi Weissler

Chana: cweissler@yahoo.com   929-235-1265 (US number)   058-438-7000   

Zvi: hweissler@yahoo.com   929-235-1266 (US number)   058-438-7001   

P.S. from Zvi: I would also like to thank all of my predecessors as president of the shul, each of whom served as an important role model for me; the many volunteers who served the shul during my term, especially the two vice presidents, Allen Friedman and Larry Shafier, each of whom willingly shouldered a tremendous amount of responsibility; and Shelly Leffel z"l, who often provided invaluable advice; and all members of the kehila, who made the job easy by consistently treating me be-sever panim yafot.

As you may recall, following the murder of the three Israeli teenagers, Chana & Zvi Weissler, Beth Aaron members who recently made aliyah, paid shiva visits to the homes of their families and brought with them a photo of the #BringBackOurBoys poster displayed on the Beth Aaron lawn. Chana & Zvi sent us an article describing how meaningful this display was to the bereaved families, and we sent the article out to the Beth Aaron membership.  Inadvertently, the opening paragraph of the article was omitted. It reads as follows: 

 We continue to hope that the article will, in their words, "provide some chizuk and remind all of our friends of what you all already know: that all of us here need your continued support." 

Pictured above is a one of the special gift packages delivered to the at-home wives of IDF rabbis in the field who have not been home for more than a month. These packages offered Hakarat Hatov to the unsung heros: the wives and mothers of many children fending for themselves without their husbands, who are in the field of battle.

Beit Yatir in Gaza

by Tzvi Ben-Gedalyahu

Beit Yatir sent 36 fathers and sons to the Gaza front or to guard elsewhere to free active duty soldiers to be deployed at Gaza.

Seven fathers, eight single men, four career officers, and 17 reservists who are living elsewhere had been called up as of Friday, July 25.

We have no idea of what will have happened since the time this is being written. We know your prayers as well as ours are for our sons and fathers to return home safely and for the IDF to destroy the Hamas terrorist infrastructure.

War never comes at a convenient time.

Take the case of Rabbi Moshe Bloom, whose mother Sandy has been the liaison with Beit Aharon for years.

Moshe learned at a Hesder yeshiva and earned the rank of captain of a platoon when he served in the infantry. Last year, married with three children under the age of 5 and having been officially ordained as a rabbi, he and his family flew to Poland, where he is the head of the Kollel in Warsaw and assistant to the Chief Rabbi of Poland. He and his wife Chava flew back to Israel for an annual one-month vacation on June 30. They spent their first few days with Moshe's in-laws in Petach Tikvah and planned to spend the last half of their vacation with Sandy and his father Dov in Yatir.

And then the war came.

With the war, came the "Tzav 8," emergency orders to more than 50,000 reservists to appear for duty.

Dov and Sandy managed to see their son for one hour -- he rushed to Yatir in the middle of the night to pick up his gear and was off to the front.

Moshe, as of this writing, is stationed along the front in southern Gaza, near the Rafah crossing from Egypt. His platoon's duty is to protect the surrounding communities, especially from Hamas terrorists using tunnels to try to massacre Israelis. His platoon was involved in maneuvers that prevented one attack, at the cost of lives of several of our soldiers. Moshe could have pulled out his airline ticket and told his commanders he has to go back to Poland at the end of July, but he chose to postpone his return date in order to continue to serve on the front.

Then there is Aviyad Hilleli, a Givati combat soldier who was on a month's vacation before his official discharge when his Tzav 8 arrived. His mother Zahava, a teacher, said he went into Gaza on Friday, July 28. For security reasons, soldiers turn in their mobile phones to their officers before entering Gaza. When Aviyad returned on the following Tuesday for a short respite, he was able to call his parents and say everything is fine -- and then turned off the phone and went back into Gaza. Zahava admits she does not sleep well at night.

Neither does Rabbi Baruch Luvish, who has been teaching Daf Yomi in Yatir for two decades. Uri, the son of Rabbi Luvish and Dr. Liat Luvish, is a combat soldier who was in the last stages of advanced active duty training when he was called to the front. Like Aviyad, he turned off his cell phone.

Tuvia, the oldest son of Yatir's Rabbi Avi Smotritz, was called up for duty and has crossed into Gaza several times. His special and secret unit involves all-land vehicles with very sophisticated navigation equipment. Rav Smotritz says that Tuvia's unit operates on a "hit-and-run" basis, going into action with a specific mission, completing it as quickly as possible and returning to home base. Other information is not allowed to be published; Tuvia cannot even tell his parents.

Neither can Noam Shapira, an officer in the reserves who is serving in Gaza. He is in an elite and secret combat unit.

Our two older sons, Elazar and Elisha, also are serving. Elisha is in a tank unit, but does not give us much information. He has said his cell phone battery is running low, which could be true if he is in the field without electricity. Or, it could be a cover so that we won't worry that he crossed into Gaza -- as if sitting on the Israeli side under a barrage of enemy rockets every day is comforting.

Elazar, a Golani combat soldier, received his Tzav 8 by phone at 11:00 p.m. Thursday night. The following morning, he was on the bus to Tzfat to sign for his equipment and by evening was on the Gaza front. He is on standby near Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, approximately five miles north of Gaza.

IDF officer Uri Batt also has not crossed into Gaza, but his brother-in-law reports that he is anxious to join the fight. His father, Lt. Col. Aryeh Batt, also has been called up for duty. Another son, Ron, is on active duty at the front.

Tzur Isaacs, whose father is a cousin through marriage of the Leichmans, was called up to serve in the Jordan Valley and replace active duty soldiers who were deployed around Gaza.

His story is the tip of the iceberg of the real heroes behind the heroes -- the wives of the soldiers. Tzur's wife Yehudit, a daughter of Rav Avi and Yochi Smotritz, is a nurse at a hospital in Netanyahu and is responsible for the ER, but still manages to work her schedule despite having four children.

Another unspoken part of this story is the national unity expressed through the help of friends and neighbors and even distant neighbors, who help out, babysit, shop, and do whatever is necessary to help families maintain some semblance of routine.

At Yatir, Beit Yatir, Bnei Akiva, and adults have traveled to rocket-battered communities to bring a bit of cheer and goodies and have visited Yatir's neighboring IDF base, where reservists have been assigned to take the place of active duty troops.

Batya Baziz, whose husband Avi fought on the front lines in the Second Lebanon War in 2006, had received permission from the base for more than dozen soldiers to eat their Shabbat meals with Yatir families. As expected, her request to Yatir families was over-subscribed, but the base commander had to cancel the plan because of security alerts that required the soldiers to be on patrol or on call day and night.

The Mechina pre-army Torah academy hosted 15 families from Be'er Sheva, which has been under daily rocket fire.

One Yatir woman who has a vested interest in this war is Ruthie Rivlin, whose husband Asaf died of cancer four years ago. Five of her eight sons -- there is one daughter somewhere in between -- are serving in the army. The youngest is in basic training, one still is on duty as a Hesder yeshiva soldier, and three others were called up for the emergency (two of them at the Gaza border). Ruthie's interest is two-fold. She is a nurse in the ER in Be'er Sheva's Soroka Hospital and has been working 12-hour shifts because of the workload. Soroka receives most of the wounded soldiers. She says that while she is sad that she has to treat wounded soldiers, some of whom do not survive, she is happy that she is able to directly contribute to the war effort.

One last note: Some of Yatir's sons have been in Gaza before. They lived or learned at yeshivot in Gush Katif until the Sharon government carried out the expulsion.

It is no wonder they are anxious to return.

We are very blessed to be part of a wonderful community, one which constantly seeks to identify and address the many needs of its members.

We encourage you to fill out our new online Chesed Sign-up Form, indicating some of the ways that you may be available to assist in times of need. You are not committing yourself by checking any of the boxes, rather you are informing us that you are available for us to contact if a need should arise. Please consider indicating in the designated box any other areas in which you feel you can contribute to our community's chesed program.

Completing the form will take only a moment of your time, but, hopefully, will make a tremendous difference in the life of another.  

Please note that we have added a new category: "Shiva Minyan On-Call List." If you already have completed the form, but wish to add this category to your list, just send a note to rabbi@bethaaron.org. 

Thank you to all those who already have filled out the form, and thank you to all those who will do so!

Kiddushim are held weekly, except when there are private events or rentals in the Social Hall. The Men's Club is pleased to offer four options for kiddushim, both single-sponsored as well as multi-sponsored.  Our standard weekly kiddush is the "Weekly Cold Kiddush."

WEEKLY KIDDUSHIM: Weekly dairy cold kiddushim with chips, cookies, and soda. Become a Mezonot sponsor for only $54 or a L'Chaim sponsor for $72. 

MULTI-SPONSORED KIDDUSH: Hot fleishik Kiddush with chulent, kugel, cakes and more. Multi- sponsored kiddushim are held approximately every six weeks. Sponsorships are only $200.

The inaugural year of the Hashkama Minyan "Society" has come to a close. Thank you to everyone who contributed and helped make the monthly Hashkama Minyan Kiddush a success. Now is the time to renew your membership in the "Society" by contributing $54 to help keep the monthly hot kiddush on Shabbat Mevorchim going for second year. Contributions can be made online; please note in the "Comments" section that the contribution is for the Hashkama Minyan Kiddush. Contact Ari Gononsky, kiddush@bethaaron.org, with any questions. 

The Tree of Life commemorates the birth of a child or grandchild, honors someone, or celebrates a marriage or other family simcha.  Leaves on the Tree of Life are $100 each. For further information, please contact Aviva Leffel, springspoon@hotmail.com.

Memorial plaques commemorate the passing of a loved one and perpetuate his or her memory. Plaques are $350 each. For further information, contact Aviva Leffel, springspoon@hotmail.com, or Larry Kahn, kahnclan01@gmail.com.

For information about youth programs, contact Beth Aaron Youth Directors Erica and Jason David, bethaaronyouth@yahoo.com, 732-618-9473. 

For information about NCSY events, please email Rabbi Rael Blumenthal, rael@ncsy.org.

Join us on Facebook, facebook.com/BethAaronNcsy20122013, or email us, teens@bethaaron.org. 

The choir is known for its warm, friendly and fun atmosphere, and we welcome suggestions and initiatives from our boys. There is no charge and no try-outs. We only require that the boy loves to sing, be serious and come to practices and performances.

Be part of a great group, learn new songs, participate in various performances in and out of the shul, and take part in the upcoming CD.

For more information, or to join the choir, contact Benjy Rosenbluth, 201-357-5685 or Yehiel Levy, 201-357-5495; or e-mail bethaaronboyschoir@gmail.com.

Pictures and videos of various performances of the Beth Aaron Boys' Choir can be viewed on the shul's website, www.bethaaron.org, at the bottom of the Events, Committees and Youth Section. 

Benjy Rosenbluth & Yehiel Levy

Directors

Lamdeinu

Bergen Reads

Need Help with Hebrew?

If you need help with Hebrew, please contact Yehiel Levy, yehiel@optonline.net, 201-357-5495.  He will be happy to coach any shul member for free.  

Mark Sommer is available to repair personal siddurim and seforim for Beth Aaron members.  The cost is $2.00 per book (no minimum), of which $1.00 will be donated to the Rabbi's Discretionary Fund.  Contact Mark at 201-837-0489.