Weekly E-News 5784
September 29 - October 5, 2023
|
|
Menu
Tuna & Chickpea Salad
Spinach Kuegel
Green Salad
Cookies
Thank you to Libby Waldman-Strugatch & Bruce Strugatch
for preparing this week's kiddush!
Please consider sponsoring a shabbat, in whole or in part, to celebrate a special achievement or celebration. You may also donate to the kiddush fund in any amount at any time.
Contact the office for more details.
Another way to help with our kiddushes is by donating kosher items from the pantry list published in each issue of the Hayom.
|
|
We are exploring the possibility of another trip to Israel!
If you are interested, email the office or call Motti.
There will be a planning meeting mid-October.
|
|
Spouse of the Torah/Spouse of Bereshit Honors
This year we are excited to honor Marvin Cweibel and Lynn Reeves as the Spouse of the Torah and the Spouse of Bereshit! Both Marvin and Lynn have done a great deal for the ritual of Agudath Achim. Marvin Cweibel has gabbai'd almost every single week and often leads parts of the service. Lynn Reeves has worked tirelessly to organize daily minyans and is a fantastic Torah reader. It is a blessing to have both of them in our shul community, and we invite you to come to Simchat Torah services Sunday morning October 8th to honor all of their service to our community.
|
|
Opportunities at AA
We're still looking for new members of the Bylaws and Fundraising Committees. These committees will help update our practices and ensure our long-term congregational health. They will form and begin work after the High Holidays. Please let Adam know if you are interested.
|
|
Upcoming Themes
9/29 - Fiddler on the Roof Shabbat-The Savannah Theater's cast of Fiddler on the Roof is coming to services this Friday night, and we want to give them a warm Agudath Achim welcome! So please, gather your friends and family, and let's enjoy the Tradition of our Sabbath Prayers not at Sunrise, but Sunset.
10/6 - Pajama Shabbat - Come join us for an intergenerational PJ Shabbat! We invite everyone to come in their comfiest PJs and get cozy with us, as we sing songs to welcome in Shabbat, read a book all about Purim, and pray together as a community. The person in the best set of PJs wins a prize! This slightly abbreviated service is for people of all ages.
Please add these to your calendars!
|
|
New Class: The Soul of Prayer |
|
For many of us, when we come to services, whether that is twice a year or twice a month, we open the prayer book and are immediately faced with questions. What do these words mean? Why am I saying this? Why do I bow here? Why are Shabbat morning services 3 times as long as Shabbat evening services, which are 5 times as long as weekday evening services? Join Rabbi Gelman as we work our way through the prayer book. We’ll examine the origin of Jewish prayer, what the words mean, and the where the order and stage directions come from. Together, we’ll answer the question: why and how do we use a siddur to pray?
We will be holding class twice a week: on Tuesdays at 4 PM on Zoom and on Thursdays at 10 AM in person. Both classes will cover the same material, so feel free to come to whichever class is most convenient. Classes begin the week of October 1st.
|
|
Daf Shevui/Talmud Update! |
|
Thank you to those who registered for the Daf Shevui Talmud class! Class will move to 4 PM Thursday Afternoons on Zoom. Class will resume Thursday September 28th.
We look forward to learning with you!
|
|
Rabbi's Message
Who is ready for another holiday? With this Shabbat, we start celebrating Sukkot. We’re going to celebrate by shaking the lulav for seven days (but not on Shabbat), eating in the Sukkah, and of course, celebrating the first two days of Sukkot as a full holiday. That means longer Shabbat length synagogue services, and Shabbat-like restrictions on work. And then, after Sukkot ends, we’re going to have another holiday! Shemini Atzeret, the eighth day of celebration, which we celebrate for two days, the first as Shemini Atzeret and the second as Simchat Torah. Once again, we’re going to have Shabbat length synagogue services and Shabbat-like restrictions on work. Is it any wonder that one of the viral images that always goes around observant Jewish social media at this time of the year is a photoshopped Berenstain Bears book cover that says “The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Yontif (Holiday)!”
Indeed, the entire month of Tishrei seems packed with holidays. In the first 23 days, there are 4 holidays (Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, and Shemini Atzeret) celebrated over 12 days, in which 7 are full fledged holidays with longer services and Shabbat-like rules. And that is not counting the actual Shabbats within those 23 days! The amount of holidays truly can be overwhelming. But it can help to think of them all as one long holiday.
If you come to synagogue on Shemini Atzeret (Saturday October 7th), you’ll see me wear my kittel, the white robe I wore for High Holidays, during Musaf, as we begin to pray for rain in Israel. You might be wondering why. And you might have heard, drawing on the Zohar, that at Shemini Atzeret the judgement that was passed on Rosh Hashanah is finally and utterly sealed. Hence the kittel, and the melody of the prayers that reflects the High Holidays. But Sukkot and Shemini Atzeret do not stand alone from Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. We are more removed from it now, but Sukkot was originally an agricultural holiday. The Sukkot were erected not just to commemorate the Israelites in the desert but to store food for the upcoming harvest. And for our ancestors, the harvest was an matter of life or death. Why is the New Year in fall? Because that is when the harvest is about to begin. Why is judgement for the year given in fall? Because depending on the harvest, we will live or we will die. Why do we celebrate Sukkot? To pray for rain and rejoice in the harvest.
And so our ancestors celebrated for close to a month, praying and hoping for a good harvest, for a year of life and not death, for a year of plenty and not famine. This Sukkot, I hope you will join me in also continuing to celebrate the new year, in continuing to pray for a prosperous year and a good harvest, and in seeing Sukkot not as a disconnected holiday crammed into the holiday season, but the natural conclusion of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Gelman
|
|
Service Leader Sign Up
Are you interested in leading services? Reading Torah? You can sign up on our service leader sign up sheet! If you are interested in learning how to read Torah or lead services, contact Rabbi Gelman at rabbi@agudath-achim.com.
|
|
Tuesday: 7:30 AM
Wednesday: 8:00 AM
Friday: 8:00 AM (followed by breakfast) & 6:00 PM
Shabbat: 9:45 AM
|
|
This Shabbat:
2023 | 5784
Sukkot Day 1
Candle Lighting: 6:54 pm
Candle Lighting Saturday Evening: 7:47 pm
(all times are for Savannah)
Annual Torah reading: Leviticus 22:26-23:44 (Etz Hayim pp 723-730)
Triennial Torah reading: Leviticus 22:26-23:44 (Etz Hayim pp 723-730)
Haftarah: Zechariah 14:1-21 (Etz Hayim pp 1253-1255)
|
|
September 30th
Liz Arkin
October 1st
Chrissie Karp
Suzanne Konter
Steve Sacks
October 2nd
Janet Benjamin
October 3rd
Steve Arkin
Jerry Parker
|
|
Mitzvah Grams
If you'd like wish AA members Happy Birthday or Happy Anniversary, the Sisterhood will be glad to send cards for you!
The cost is just $.75 for individual names or $50.00/ 6 months for all members with a date to celebrate.
For more information or to enroll, call Natalie Hyman at 518-265-6777 or email her at njhyman@aol.com.
|
|
Yahrzeits
September 29 - October 5
Thursday night/Friday, September 29 - 14 Tishrei
Harriet Konter - mother of Sally Greenberg & Jerry Konter
Marylin Seeman - mother of Sharon Sand
Friday night/Saturday, September 30 - 15 Tishrei
Lawrence Lasky - father of Jeffrey Lasky & Jodi Sadler
Saturday night/Sunday, October 1 - 16 Tishrei
Barbara Rubin - sister-in-law of Elise Shernoff
Monday night/Tuesday, October 3 - 18 Tishrei
Abraham Goodman - father of Judy Todtfeld
George Schneider - father of Lewis Schneider
Rosalie Shernoff - mother of Victor Shernoff
Tuesday night/Wednesday, October 4 - 19 Tishrei
Abe Harkavy - father of Freddie Harkavy
Wednesday night/Thursday, October 5 - 20 Tishrei
Julius Rosenthal - father of David Rosenthal
Tillie Seligman - mother of Marcus Seligman & Arnold Tillinger
Mark Ullman - son of Mark Ullman
Thursday night/Friday, October 6 - 21 Tishrei
Dorothy Brown - mother of Connie Glaser
Harriet Jolles - mother of Marilyn Farley
Commemoration of the Yahrzeit begins the evening of the first noted date.
|
|
The Art Show at the JEA beginning October 1, 2023,
will feature the works of
Bailey Davidson
|
|
Bailey Davidson, originally from Milledgeville, GA, has called Savannah home since 1999. An aspiring artist from a young age, Davidson's creativity ranges from acting and playing music to photography and painting.
Davidson attended Georgia Military College Prep for high school and graduated with a degree in Theatre Performance from Georgia College in 1995. He continued to pursue Theatre after college and studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, The Burt Reynold Institute for Theatre Training, and the Actors Studio.
In 1999, Bailey decided to formally study another passion, photography. He graduated from SCAD in 2001 with a Master of Fine Arts degree. Since then he has maintained a freelance photography business, specializing in commercial and editorial work, while continuously creating art. He has exhibited his photography in numerous solo and group exhibitions both nationally and internationally.
Expanding on his 2001 thesis show, Bailey’s Acres, Davidson has chosen the plastic Holga pinhole camera and its unique characteristics as the consistent theme for this body of work. With the camera and lens themselves being rudimentary, the results are often unpredictable, imperfect, and distorted. The challenges created by using this camera and lens are what make successful images more rewarding.
|
|
|
|
Bailey Davidson’s artwork will be available for viewing from
October 1, 2023 to October 31, 2023, at the JEA (5111 Abercorn Street).
Join us for the Opening Reception on October 5, 5-7 pm.
|
|
Rabbi Samuel Gelman
Adam Fins, President
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
