Shema3-08.tal

The Newsletter of Kol HaEmek (Voice of the Valley) P.O. Box 416, Redwood Valley, CA 95470 Phone # 707-468-4536 Please note all submissions preferred by the 15th of each month to [email protected]
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COMING EVENTS
Saturday Evening
Saturday, March 1: 9 am - Torah Study with
Carol Rosenberg; 10:00 - Shabbat Service with
visiting Rabbi Carol Caine; 1:30 - 4 pm
Talmud Study with R. Caine (see page 3)
Tickets in advance $18,
Saturday, March 15, 7:00 pm - Movies at the
at the door $24
Fine finger food
Sunday, March 16, 10:15 am - Rabbi’s class
Merry music
“Life in the Diaspora”: Our Jewish heritage inIraq & Iran (ancient Babylon and Persia) Alluring Auction
Attire? Formal with a twist
Friday, March 21, 5:30 pm - Purim Kaballah
Shabbat at the home of Louisa Aronow and
--or Formally twisted.
Valley. We will first read the Megilla and then Saturday March 22, 8:00 pm - DADA Purim at
the Shul.( $18 tickets in advance, $24 at the
door.) Music, Dancing, Refreshments, Auction,
Sunday Afternoon March 23
1:30-4:00
Games for the Children
Sunday, March 23, 1:30-4:00 pm - Purim Party
Raffle, Hamantashen
for the whole family: Games, Hamantashen,music, and more.
Fun for the Whole Family
Wednesday , March 26, 6:44 - Men’s Group
Friday, April 4, 6:30 pm - Kaballah Shabbat &
potluck to follow,
Saturday, April 19 - Erev Pesach -1st Seder
Holidays & Portions of the Week
Donations to Kol HaEmek
Make a Difference
Kol HaEmek is grateful for all contributions to our various funds. The following is a list of 2) Religious School Fund (Kalifornia Memorial) 6) Tzedakah Fund7) Rabbi’s Discretionary Fund Update on Ella Russell
Ella has started treatment both chemo and radiation. Friends from Mendocino have been caregiving. Her treatment is very expensive.
9) Caring for needy Jewish and Arab people in Please mail your contributions to:
Kol HaEmek, P.O. Box 416, Redwood Valley,
Miriam Jacobs is asking for people to knit 9-inch woolen squares to be crocheted into a blanket for Israel-Endowment Fund and earmark it to the Ella’s homecoming. She needs them as soon as possible, as Ella will be home in a week.
Acre; HaAsif program. (There is a $25 mini- mum requirement for checks to Israel).
PASSINGS
anniversary of your loved one’s death. CallRabbi Shoshanah at 467-0456 with your con- Our condolences to Marcia Pratt and the
cerns about the loss of a loved one and/or the friends and family of Ben Langton, who died on name and either the Hebrew or English calendar And to Janine (Vogel) Lieberman and the friendsand family of her father Daniel Lieberman, who We Remember:
died February 25, 2008 in Philadelphia.
Dottie Marans - March1Mildred Rosen - March 4 23rd Annual Jewish Music Festival
March 22-30, 2008
Concerts throughout the Bay Area
Bessie Dale - March 29Paul Rothchild - March 30 Tickets 800-838-3006
for information:
<www.jewishmusic festival.org>
ASK JCI & R
Visiting Rabbi Made
Q: Farmisht, farbissen, fartumelt, farblondget,
March 1 a Special Shabbat
farpatshket…I remember the five Fs from my
Yiddishe bubbe. Now I am ready to learn more
weekly parashah (portion) with Carol
Rosenberg - thanks Carol D. for another delicious
A: Can you believe….We can recommend some and nutritious morning excursion into the Torah.
excellent adult education classes and bands as A minyan explored the parashah & haftorah.
well as private tutors and even Yiddish singingand dancing groups. And if it’s just a word or two, we haimesheh folks at JCIR will give it atry.
young and old led by GUEST RABBI CAROL
CAINE, followed by potluck lunch - well
attended, (even baby Leora came), teen leader-
ship, much singing and Rabbi Carol was engaging
Jewish life or for your free copy of Resource/A for younger and older; mazel tov to Eva and Bill
Guide to Jewish Life 2008/5768 (which has a for their Torah reading.
Yiddish section), call JCI & R at 415/777-4545or toll-free 877/777-JCIR (5247) or email Jewish Community Information and Referral is a Imagine an opportunity to enter into an on- service of the Jewish Community Federation of going conversation with the great sages of the San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma and the Peninsula Jewish tradition, claiming a place for ourselves at their holy table. In this workshop, we willprovide an accessible introduction to theTalmud and contemplate the meaning itsteachings have for us today.
Mostacudos
Register for the workshop by calling Carol
Rosenberg, 463-8526 - the small study circle
was thoroughly engaged in the sampling Rabbi
Carol provided and two hours seemed like ten
minutes.
1 & 1/2 cup of cleaned ground almonds1 & 1/2 cup of cleaned ground walnuts How Many People are interested in a
Community Seder - Sunday, April 20?
We are currently considering a community Seder 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon2 generous tablespoons honey and need a committee of volunteers as soon aspossible! 1 large or 2 smaller eggsMix until it all sticks togetherShape into small balls Bake on a greased pan about 7 minutesat 395 degrees F.
If interested and/or willing to help, call Carol,463-8526 In My Opinion:
On Thursday, February 7, David Smith-Ferri spoke at our Shul. For those who might not knowDavid, he is a slight, shy man. He loves his wife and daughter, but left them at home when heneeded to evaluate another’s situation with his own eyes. He went to Iraq, again and again.
David read to us his poems, inspired by his experiences with the people of Iraq and his reaction totheir stories. He showed the faces of those (non-combatants) who found their bodies and livesaltered by the bombing.
What struck me most was what he and his friends did when faced with the pain of others, and theunfairness of their injuries they saw. They created an agency in Amman, Jordan that providesmedical care to Iraqi refugees.
They help choose the clients, they find the funds; when possible they connect with other agenciesthat can help these people. They make a difference in the lives of people who are not remotelyrelated to them.
All my life I have been told “It is not your problem,” “ Don’t interfere,” “Mind your own busi-ness,” “You can’t change the world.” David felt the pain of others and took action. He is affecting the world.
One man living right here in Ukiah is making life better for one person at a time.
To contribute to David’s efforts e-mail him at <[email protected]> or The Direct Aid Initia-tive (DAI ) < www.directaidiraq.org>.
On a local level there are many in our Jewish community also committed to affecting the injusticeand pain in the world by seeing a need and taking action. To support David’s work go to<www.battlefieldwithoutborders.org> If you want to be involved locally in helping others you may want to call Cassie Gibson, our Ukiahcontact for meals for the homeless in Ukiah, or Bruce Andich for those in need in Willits. CallPlowshares and volunteer, as many in our congregation do. Judy Corwin and Sara Esserman-Melville will tell you how to provide money for refugees in Darfur. The Ukiah Community Centerneeds volunteers as well. There is no lack of opportunities to provide hands-on service to those inneed.
Cassie - 468-5351Bruce - 459-4855Judy - 469-1680Sara - 463-2247Plowshares - 462-8582Community Center - 888 N. State St., Ukiah To Our Movie Lovers:
Many thanks to Bill Ray for his efforts in bringing interesting films to our community. Bill has now
resigned as chair of the Film Committee; the new chairpersons are Steve Levin and Robert Klayman.
They will be bringing a film to us on the second Saturday of each month!
Steve’s e-mail is < [email protected]> Robert’s is <[email protected]>
Saturday, March 15, 7:00 pm - first film in the new series is Left Luggage
Set in Belgium in the early 70’s, Left Luggage is an intensively emotional story of twoJewish families struggling to rebuild meaningful lives after their personal devastationduring the Shoah. Chaja, a rebellious philosophy student struggling to come of age in boththe secular and Jewish worlds, accepts a position as a nanny in a Chasidic family with 5children. Drawn to Simcha, the youngest, who doesn’t speak, Chaja is forced to confrontand painfully reconcile which pieces of one’s lost luggage must be left behind and whichare carried along throughout one’s life.
This film is deeply thought provoking and is definitely not suggested for young audiences.
Strong performances by Maximilian Schell, Topol, Isabella Rossellini, and director/actorJeroen Krabbe.
To all Shema Readers!
Do you want a paper Shema, an electronic Shema, or Both?
To utilize the bulk rate for mailing we need to send out 200 copies. Currently we have fewer than
we need, since many ask for an electronic Shema. If we could double the electronic Shemas only,
we could save money on printing costs with little increase in postage costs. We have been told that
some people don’t remember the info on the electronic version and want both, one for speed and one
for retention. Please e-mail me and specify your preferences; we need to do a cost analysis.
Thanks, Carol
(ed note: it is possible for each recipient to print out all or any part of their electronic Shema - see the
menu bar options of Adobe Acrobat Reader)
Announcement From Tikkum Olam
I’m writing to ask for your help in identifying outstanding teens in Jewish communities throughout
California to be nominated for the 2008 Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Awards. The award, from the
San Francisco-based Jewish Community Federation’s Endowment Fund, grants $36,000 each to five
Jewish California teens. Nomination forms are due on March 11, 2008.
Our goal is to reach out so that all who are eligible can be considered. We would appreciate your help by distributing this “call for nominations” through your congregation’s email or newsletter,asap. The details are below, including links to nomination forms and an online video of the 2007winning teens. Please feel free to contact Robyn Carmel at the Diller Teen Initiative, 415-512-6432or [email protected] with any questions. Thank you so much for helping us in this effort to show-case California’s exceptional teens.
Regards,Suzan Berns,for the Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Award Dear KHE Chaverim,
I’ve spent these past few days cutting my first CD. And it’s been a lot of fun.
The motivation came from bar mitzvah students who found use of a practice tape ofprayers and songs to be archaic, and requested a CD with tracks for easy honing-in anddownloading.
Since the tape the kids had been using was one that I had made back in the 1990s for acongregation in Boulder, Colorado, it did make sense to me not only to move to CDformat,but to update the contents.
Now what does “update the contents” mean when we’re talking about a Shabbat morningservice? The CD follows the basic setup of our KHE Shabbat morning siddur. In one sense, we’retraining our students to become familiar with a prayer format which enables them to enterany Jewish community in the world and recognize the basic elements of the service. Andyet, each congregation, let alone country ordenomination, develops its own style of prayerand rendition of songs.
How many of you grew up with particular prayers or parts of a service that feel all wrong toyou when you hear them sung to a different tune or “done” differently? The Boulder tape offers two different tunes for singing the Halleluyahs of Ps. 150, neitherof which is in current use at Kol HaEmek (nor were they the Halleluyahs I grew up with).
Even with our new KHE CD, choices had to be made, and so one Halleluyah tune isoffered, with options as to whether to sing it with or without verses.
This is the melody that our Shul School children know best. I didn’t record another popularKHE Halleluyah tune (a Shefa chant often led by Harvey Frankle at Bnei Mitzvah ceremo-nies and holidays). At this writing, I have invited Harvey to record it for our CD. Hopefully,it will continue to thrive in our community whether or not it is part of the new CD.
I think it is a blessing that our services are not completely standardized, and may theynever be!When meeting with Bnei Mitzvah families to plan their ceremonies, we go through oursiddur and choose which versions of the classic prayers to use, and which optionalprayers, songs and readings to include. So no two Bnei Mitzvah services are ever exactlyalike.
Partly for this reason, we included in the CD renditions of Pitchu Li, Kol HaolamKulo, and Because of My Brothers and Friends, none of which are a traditional part of theSaturday morning liturgy, but all of which are in our prayer book and have been popularwith members of our community. And we put in Tov L’Hodot L’Adonai, which is in the liturgybut which we have rarely sung since I moved here, and yet I know it was regularly sung bythose who would meet for Saturday morning services in Willits some years back.
And the CD includes two different traditional hymns for ending a service (Eyn Keloheynuand Adon Olam) as well as the popular Od Yavo Shalom, which was created only a fewdecades ago and has swept the Jewish world, including our congregation, and which doesnot appear in the siddur at all.
While the immediate impetus for the recording was to meet the needs of our Bnei Mitzvahstudents, I do hope that the CD will enjoy a much larger listening audience! Anyone whowould like to become more familiar with the service will benefit from having a copy andusing it as a learning tool. So often people tell me that they don’t come to servicesbecause of a “fear factor” of feeling awkward because of not knowing the service andtherefore feeling like an outsider. Well, here is a good solution to overcoming that obstacle.
The CD also offers a way of observing the Shabbat without actually coming to Saturdaymorning services at our Shul, which is handy since at KHE we favor Friday night obser-vance and don’t currently have all that many Shabbat morning gatherings during the year.
I also recommend the CD for anyone who wants to deepen their spiritual practice, since,in my experience, simply listening to the prayers and songs shifts one’s being into a moreconsciously sacred state. FYI, with the exception of a few tracks such as the Torah serviceand the Nishmat prayer, most of the items are part of the daily Shacharit (morning)prayer service, and so are very suitable for everyday prayer purposes--and certainly suit-able for everyday listening.
I want to deeply thank Tony Melville, who has been joyfully bringing music to our ShulSchool kids this year, for handling the technical end of making this CD. Tony has put inmany hours on this endeavor. And thanks to Sara and Ethan who were so gracious whilewe appropriated their living/dining room area to make the recording. May this little CDmake its way into our minds and hearts! B’shalom oovrachah (in peace and blessing),
Shoshanah
Copies of the CD will be available at the Shul for a cost of $10. If you want us to mail
you a copy, please send money to David Koppel at P.O. Box 416, Redwood Valley 95470
Cookie Dough Hamantash Recipe
2/3 cup of Pareve margarine or butter
3 tablespoons of milk, water or fruit juice Cream shortening with sugar. Add egg and continue creaming until smooth. Add liquid and vanilla. Chillfor 2-3 hours or overnight. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Take 1/4 dough, roll on floured board to 1/8”. Cutinto 2-inch circles. Fill with 1teaspoon filling. Fold in to 3-corner cookies. Press sides together, then fold3rd side over. Bake on a well greased cookie sheet 10-15 minutes, until tops are golden brown.
Nut filling: 1-1/2 cup ground walnuts, 1 t.cinnamon, 1/2 c. sugar
Poppy seed filling
1 egg white, 1/8 c. water, 1/4 lb poppy seeds, 1/4 t. vanilla, 1/4 rinds of lemon & orange, dash of cinnamon,
1/4 c.margarine/butter, 1/4 c.sugar, 1/2 raisins, 1/2 c. apricot or raspberry jam, 1/4 c. butter/margarine
Combine sugar and water. Simmer over slow heat. Grind poppy seeds in a food processor, add to sugar -
water. Add egg white, vanilla orange & lemon rind, raisins, cinnamon. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add jam &
butter until butter melts and all is combined. Chill in refrigerator until firm. Fill cookies 1 t.per cookie.
Kol HaEmek/MCJC-Inland
P.O. Box 416
Redwood Valley, CA 95470
Our purpose is to create an environment in which Jewish culture, religion
and spiritual life can flourish; to perpetuate and renew our Jewish connections
with ourselves and our homes, within our community and the world.
Our Mission is to express and support Judaism in the following ways:
• To provide a space for religious study and prayer• To share life cycle events through meaningful Jewish traditions• To offer and sponsor Jewish education for all ages• To be inclusive of all partnership and family configurations• To include interfaith families and Jews-by-choice• To network with other Jewish communities• To educate and share our culture with other Mendocino County residents• To be a foundation for tikkun olam (healing of the world) as a community through socially just actions and education, and by mitzvot (good deeds)• To offer membership in exchange for financial and other contributions, and allow all to participate regardless of ability to pay Kol HaEmek Information & Resources
Kol HaEmek
468-4536
David Koppel, Treasurer (Financial Committee) (open seat)Nancy Merling (Rabbi’s Council) Address changes (e-mail, etc): contact David Koppel [email protected] or call (485-8910)
Brit Milah: Doctors willing to do circumcisions in their office or in your home: Robert Gitlin, D.O. (485-7406);
Sam Goldberg, M.D. (463-8000); Jeremy Mann, M.D. (463-8000); Sid Mauer, M.D. (463-8000),
Chanan Feld, Certified Mohel (510-524-0722). Assistance with the ceremony, contact the Rabbi (see below)
Chevra Kadisha (Jewish Burial): Eva Strauss-Rosen (459-4005); Helen Sizemore (462-1595)
Community Support: If you need help (illness, family crisis) or you can be called on when others need help;
in Willits, call Divora Stern (459-9052); In Ukiah, Tal Sizemore (462-1595): Lake County (Volunteer needed, call a board member)
Editor of the Shema: Carol Rosenberg, Dan Hibshman & Tal Sizemore ([email protected])
Interfaith Council: Cassie Gibson (468-5351) (Food preparation for homeless in Ukiah)
Jewish Community Information and Referral: Bay Area activities and services (415) 777-4545 or toll free at (877)777- 5247.
Library: At the Kol HaEmek shul, 8591 West Road, Redwood Valley; open at shul events and by appointment
Movies-at-the-Shul: Bill Ray (459-5850)
New Members: Carol Rosenberg (463-8526)
Rabbi’s Council: assists with community and calendar planning; liaison - contact Nancy Merling, [email protected] (456-0639)
Rabbinical Services/Special Ceremonies: Rabbi Shoshanah Devorah, 467-0456, [email protected]
Use of Torah/Siddurs: Schedule ahead of time with a board member.
Tzedakah Fund (Financial Assistance): David Koppel (485-8910)

Source: http://www.kolhaemek.org/newsletters/Shema3-08.pdf