Rabbi Bach, Rosh Hashanah Morning

The blasts of the shofar, which we’ll hear in just a few minutes, are a key element of the Rosh Hashanah service. To hear the sound of the shofar – lishmo’a kol shofar– is the central commandment of this holiday.It’s worthwhile to reflect for a moment about just why we listen to the shofar blasts. One way of answering the question, “Why,” is with that time-honored response, “because God says so.” The Torah’s account of the festival calendar calls the first day of the month of Tishrei a yom teruah, a “day for blowing the horn.” If the Torah tells us so, perhaps that ought to be enough. it was certainly enough for a certain Rabbi Isaac whose words are remembered in the pages of the Talmud (BT RH 16a): “Why do we blow? God said, ‘Blow!’”

Rabbi Bellush, Erev Rosh Hashanah Sermon

A quote often attributed to Albert Einstein is that “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but, expecting different results.” Yet, here we all are again: Another Rosh Hashanah, using the same book, praying the same prayers, maybe even sitting in the same seat. Well, I guess one thing is different; me being here. Still, we’re all here to do the same thing: each year at this time we attempt to acknowledge our faults, repair relationships and return, once again, to God. Teshuvah would be easy if it weren’t for the fact that it requires us to change and most of us, just don’t like change.

Holocaust Survivor David Kaplan, 8/28 at the Holocaust Museum

An important and powerful program from our friends at the El Paso Holocaust Museum and Study Center

The EPHM Book Club will continue its quarterly discussions with the book “I Forgive Them” by Holocaust Survivor David Kaplan. The discussion will be at 11 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 28 at the Museum, 715 N. Oregon. That date also marks Mr. Kaplan’s 83rd birthday.

Darren Hunt, KVIA reporter and host of ABC-7’s “Xtra” will moderate the discussion and will interview Mr. Kaplan about the book and his life as a young victim of the Holocaust. He was only 12 years old when he was first moved to a ghetto with his family in Lithuania and, for the next several years, would experience grueling hardships in several concentration camps throughout Europe. Mr. Kaplan’s strength is evident, not only in his will to survive, but in his ability to forgive, which is detailed in his book.

In 2011, the EPHM Book Club chose to feature books that highlight the lives of Holocaust survivors who made El Paso their home. Already this year, books by Sara Hauptman (“The Lioness of Judah”) and the late Itzhak Kotkowski (“The Wiles of Destiny”) have been featured. In November, the Museum will feature the book “From Darkness to Sunshine” by the late Mark Kupfer.
Please join us as we examine the life of another survivor who made El Paso his home. The book “I Forgive Them” is available at the Museum Bookstore for $15.

Details

• What: EPHM Book Club presents the book “I Forgive Them” by Holocaust Survivor David Kaplan. KVIA’s Darren Hunt will moderate the discussion and interview Mr. Kaplan.
• When: 11 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 28, 2011
• Where: El Paso Holocaust Museum and Study Center, 715 N. Oregon
• Books: Available for purchase at the Museum Bookstore for $15
• Information: 351-0048 ext. 24

Rabbi Bellush’s Installation — September 9, 2011

The members and friends of Temple Mount Sinai will celebrate a special milestone in our 113-year history on September 9: the installation of a new spiritual leader for our community. On that evening, Rabbi Sandra Bellush will be formally welcomed as Temple Mount Sinai’s ninth rabbi and first woman rabbi, joining Rabbi Larry Bach in leading our growing congregation. Rabbi Sigma Faye Coran of Cincinnati will join Rabbis Bach and Bellush, and Rabbi Emeritus Ken Weiss, in conducting the historic installation during Friday night services.

Ordained in May 2011 at the Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion, Rabbi Bellush brings a wealth of experience to her new position. After a career in management consulting and investment banking in New York City, she pursued her Jewish studies first in the Sh’liach K’hilah training program in 2003-2004. There she met Ellen Goodman, one of our Temple’s lay leaders, and first heard about our congregation.

Rabbi Bellush went on to earn her Master of Arts in Hebrew Letters in 2010, receiving the Nathan Stern Prize for achieving the graduating class’s highest academic standing. While a student and rabbinic intern, she worked with six congregations, including a university Hillel group and taught at the Cincinnati Reform Jewish High School. At Hebrew Union College, she was awarded the Cora Kahn Prize for outstanding sermon delivery and oratory, a prize also earned by Rabbi Bach during his rabbinical training.

To celebrate the long-anticipated addition of a second rabbi, we will be welcoming Sandra and her husband Arnold with a fiesta: a festive dinner of Mexican specialties catered by The Greenery. El Paso’s entire Jewish community is invited to join us on this landmark occasion in Temple’s Schwartz Hall, following the Kabbalat Shabbat Service of Installation.

The dinner will include a Favorite Desserts Buffet, with our members bringing their own dessert specialty or family favorite. Volunteers are needed to contribute a dessert and to help with table decorations and set-up; please be in touch to offer your help. For payment information, please call the Temple at 532-5959.

Mitzvah Day!

On Sunday, December 12, we gathered in Krupp Chapel. As students walked into the Chapel, they placed their donated items on the Bimah. Rabbi led us in T’filah, Michelle Blumenfeld thanked the students and faculty for their donations and encouraged all to continue doing Acts of Random Kindness throughout the year. Grace gave an overview of the Mitzvah Day activities for the morning.

After T’filah, students and teaching assistants helped take all the items from the Chapel to the Resource room to be sorted for delivery. Every one then returned to their classrooms for a G’Milut Chasadim lesson from 10:00 – 10:45 am.

This year we decided to honor the elderly with our main mitzvah project. Michelle Blumenfeld volunteered to head this year’s Mitzvah Day projects and Becky Horowitz, with Visiting Nursing Association, helped to identify their clients’ specific needs: baby wipes, new wash cloths, Ensure or Boost drinks, Dove Sensitive Skin Body Wash, Carnation Instant Breakfast, fitted and flat sheets for hospital beds (extra long), plus the items that went into the gift bags.

At 10:45 the students started working on their Mitzvah projects: the Pre-kinder through second grade (led by teachers and teaching assistants) worked on “Well Wishes” cards to put in the gift bags. The third through eighth grade students decorated forty cloth bags for the forty patients, assisted by VNA nurses. The bags included a lightweight throw blanket, shampoo, rinse, body cream, toothpaste, toothbrush, notepad and pen, wooden handle bell, M&M’s and two lollipops.

Becky Horowitz, VNA-Hospice representative, visited the classrooms to thank the students for their donations and to talk about Hospice and answer the students’ questions. Our VNA guests were very grateful for all the items donated by our students, parents, faculty and our Religious School. Additionally, we collected items donated by students during this time. Everything we collected will be donated to the children at La Clinica Guadalupana.

At 11:30 am, we all gathered in Schwartz Hall for lunch and socializing. We sold tacos, salsa, drinks and yummy treats and we raised $470. The money collected at this lunch is being saved for a special Religious School Tzedakah Project, “Packages From Home.” Money we raise at the next Taco Lunch Fundraiser (planned for March 6 during our Cultural Celebration), will be added to the $470 to help with this important project.

A very special “THANK YOU” to everyone for their generous donations, to Simon Bir, David Wolfe, Ed Solomon, Elisa Gluck, JoAnn Farley, the Feldt’s, Shana/Carly/Gabe Levin, and Ellen Goodman for all of their help in the kitchen, to Sally Parke, Joyce Davidoff, Ethan Reiter, Meredith Heins, Matthew Bowman, Leah Gluck, Gabe and Carly Levin for helping out during the sale. We also truly appreciate Frank’s assistance during our Religious School projects and events.

On Monday, December 13, Michelle delivered the forty gift bags to VNA. Thank you Michelle!

Meditation Sits, beginning Tuesday, January 11 at 6 pm

A weekly meditation “sit” will begin in January, 2011, on Tuesday evenings at 6 pm.

Rabbi Bach is joined by co-facilitators Mary McIntyre and Nancy Schwartz. All three have some experience meditating. They share a commitment to a regular meditation practice, and recognize that a group environment provides support for that practice.

Our weekly sits will be held in the Krupp Chapel, and will consist, for the most part of…sitting. We will open with a chant to
center, and one of the facilitators will offer some focus and instruction for practice. There will also be time at the end for ques- tions and sharing.But come prepared to sit in silence, opening heart and mind to what arises.

For more information and to confirm your interest in attending, call Mary at 915-490- 7359 (for those who called last Spring, please call again so we can update our potential attendee list).

Sits begin on January 11 at 6 pm, and continue each Tuesday following.

Thanks, Sh’lichim!

Rabbi Bach’s January “Messages” Column…

I had the great pleasure to speak with a fifth-year rabbinical student at my alma mater, the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, near the end of December. Sandra is currently writing her rabbinical thesis on the phenomenon of “para-rabbinics” in the Reform Movement, and she interviewed me about Temple’s decision to invest in becoming a “multiple-shaliach congregation” several years ago. She was curious to know how Ed Solomon, Ellen Goodman, and Tina Wolfe our sh’lichei kehillah (literally, “emissaries of the community”) functioned, what roles they fill, how they had been accepted by the community, and more.

I think Sandra expected a brief call, but we wound up speaking for just shy of an hour (tip of the day: if you want a good chunk of a rabbi’s time, call him or her on December 23; it’s a very quiet day, he’s lonely, and he won’t let you hang up!). Her very well-structured interview, and her willingness to speak with me about what she’d learned left me feeling very good about the decision we made, and the fruits it has borne.

Ellen went first, in 2003 and 2004. Ten-day sessions at HUC-JIR each summer, retreats during the intervening winter, and ongoing study with her classmates led to her certification as a “Synagogue Associate.” Ed and Tina followed in 2004 and 2005. With three sh’lichim, Temple was well-covered when I left El Paso for several weeks during the summer of 2005 on sabbatical. Leading services, teaching Torah study, providing pastoral support, and (sadly) officiating at several funerals…our sh’lichim did it all.

But Ed, Ellen and Tina are not just “pinch-hitters” for the rabbi when he is away. They have been my partners on the bima for Sabbath and holiday worship. Furthermore, they have each continued to grow in skills and talent, and have taken on leadership in various aspects of Temple’s religious life. Ed has become an outstanding Torah chanter and Hebrew teacher, Ellen a gifted life-cycle officiant, and Tina a sensitive and caring mentor for those choosing to become Jewish. Temple would be a different, and poorer, place without their enthusiasm and dedication.

From my conversation with Sandra, I learned that Temple really hit the “sweet spot” as far as para-rabbinical training is concerned. Shortly after Ed and Tina’s cohort, the program was significantly pared back, and relocated. A much shorter program, without the exposure to the HUC-JIR faculty, took its place, and our movement seems to be poorer for that fact. But our congregation has been blessed, many times over, by the actions we took several years ago. May the blessings only continue, for many years to come.

Thank you, sh’lichim!

Rabbi Bach

Some thoughts on why we do interfaith dialogue

Rabbi Bach spoke at this evening’s dinner sponsored by the Institute for Interfaith Dialogue. Here’s what he had to say…

The Koshnitzer Maggid, a spiritual master who lived and taught in eighteenth-century Poland, has something to say about making peace through dialogue. He taught that everything and everyone comes from one Source, and that our very existence is the result of a great wisdom. We are all more or less the same, made of the same stuff. Jews, Christians, Muslims, and everyone else…sun, moon and stars, and everything else…all of it is one essence.

As he puts it,

Everything that exists is composed of the four elements: fire, wind, water, and earth. And these elements are in opposition to one another. For example, water extinguishes fire, while wind fans it flames. Each of the elements exists in a complex relationship with the others. This claim that such diverse and even oppositional elements can come together and form compound matter defies all logic. But they do. A spiritual force unites them and completes them…and that is God (Avodat Yisra’el).

The science of his day put it in terms of the four elements – water, earth, wind, and fire – while today’s physicists would talk about quarks and strings. But the Koshnitzer’s point is no less valid in a post-Einsteinian universe than in a pre-Newtonian one. As different as we are in temperament, in creed, in values, we are all created of one substance, and of one Source. In light of this, our task is two-fold.

In the first instance, we are called to embrace difference, celebrating the fact that there are so many different ways to be and to serve. Some of us live with hearts aflame, while others are more grounded; some of us swim in the living waters of ancient traditions, while others attune ourselves to the sound of the breeze. We are different from one another, and our differences are not to be ignored or minimized. The real goal of interfaith dialogue is not to arrive some bland middle ground where everyone can affirm every single word, but to come to know just how many different, and beautiful ways there are to live and to serve.

But even as we embrace our diversity, praying in our own traditions, celebrating our respective feasts and observing our respective fasts, we also look for that which is shared among us. Like earth, wind, fire and water come together to form infinitely complex, harmonious beings, so can people of different faiths and no faith come together and, out of difference, create harmony and peace.  Though it defies all logic, a spiritual force can unite us, and complete us.

May we be blessed, through the gift of open hearts, open minds, and joined hands, to know that Force. And may we know the peace that will, in due time, come. Amen.

Rabbi Bach is a “Rabbi Without Borders”

A press release from CLAL…

Rabbis Without Borders (RWB), the Center for Learning and Leadership’s (CLAL) new initiative to help rabbis make Jewish wisdom accessible to the wider American public, selected its second cohort of fellows for its competitive rabbinic fellowship program. More than 80 applications were received for the 22 spots. Of those selected, Rabbi Larry Bach was picked for this prestigious program.

“We are very excited by the amount of interest generated by this program,” said Rabbi Rebecca W. Sirbu, RWB Director. “Clearly rabbis recognize the need to apply their skills in new ways to reach a wider audience, and make the teachings and tools from Jewish wisdom more accessible. This unique program offers that kind of support, helping rabbis to better communicate in both familiar and new venues, and to make Jewish thought and practice a real resource for the American public.”

The program, in its second year, is designed to encourage rabbis to “think out of the box”, and create a network of interdenominational religious leaders from across North America who can make Jewish wisdom more available to people to enrich their lives. As the key conveyers of Jewish wisdom, rabbis, who can disseminate the insights more easily, will not only nurture better teachers and community builders, but will create religious leaders with unique tools to offer to the broader culture.

The Rabbinic Fellows will gather four times over the course of the year in New York City. The first session, scheduled for October 18-19, 2010, will host Professor Barry Kosmin, the principal investigator of the 2001 American Religious Identification survey. The survey revealed that while many Jews do not feel connected to traditional religious institutions, they still identify with being Jewish. Other sessions will feature a variety of leading thinkers, authors, and influential people from many different fields. These experts will work with the Fellows to help them spot the trends and identify the ways in which Americans find meaning in their lives.

The program is also developing several resources to help rabbis enhance their skills for addressing a variety of audiences. From online learning to one-on-one conversations, participants will work with CLAL faculty to develop methodologies that draw on the texts and traditions in new ways. The goal is for these “spiritual innovators” to see their congregations as more than just members of their school, community or institution.

Since CLAL began in 1974, its mission has been to help prepare the Jewish people for the unprecedented freedom and openness of America. Started by Rabbi Irving “Yitz” Greenberg and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel, CLAL formed a network of rabbis capable of translating Jewish wisdom and practice into useful idioms for contemporary life. RWB is the next phase of this work.

Greetings from Rabbi Ken and Sue!

Dear Temple Family,

It has been more than seven years since we sold our El Paso home and moved – first to San Diego and now to Salem, MA. In the ensuing years, we’ve visited you whenever special occasions and celebrations permitted. We’ve stayed in close telephone contact with a significant number of you – calls from us to you at times of family transition or crisis, calls from you to us when our family experienced births and deaths, greeting cards exchanging words of fondness – a fondness that has not diminished.

It remains a privilege to be able to speak with you during the special moments of your lives. Sue and I think of ourselves as two additional sources of outreach for Rabbi Larry and Alanna as they work so diligently to enhance, enrich and deepen Temple life for you and your family. This was especially true last summer when the Bachs were in Israel. We were able to connect (though from a distance) with a number of you who experienced some of life’s difficult moments.

So, we continue to refer to you as our “Temple Family”, with Rabbi Bach’s blessing. May we retain that sense of ‘mishpocha’ for many years to come.

In the past year, our lives have continued to unfold…Our month’s stay in Minsk, Belarus last October enabled us to work with and bond with the Belarussian Jewish community. We hope to return and help dedicate their new center, which represents all the hard work they engage in every day to re-build their Jewish community.

Last December 6, our daughter Amy married Scott Levingston. Amy and Scott (one of his brothers is a Conservative rabbi) live in the Boston area about 50 minutes from us; they are expecting their first baby in late October. It is most special to live near enough to see them and know how happy they are (and share it all with Scott’s parents who live here as well).

We oversaw our first convention as Exec- Veeps of NAORRR (National Assoc. of Retired Reform Rabbis) last January in Florida. We are enjoying this new responsibility very much and have met terrific colleagues, wives and surviving spouses who come to the convention and with whom we stay in touch during the year. This January we will reconvene in San Diego.

Last February and March we traveled through California and other points West, where we spent time with Daniel, along with other family and friends, vacationed in Hawaii, had two parties for the new brideandgroom(AmyandScott),attended the Rabbinic conference in San Francisco, visited El Paso, and missed much of the snow in Boston.

Grandchild number seven recently came into our lives – yes, Jennifer and Jonathan brought another beautiful baby into the world: Jessica Miriam, born on July 13th, which just happens to be Jennifer’s 40th birthday. What a blessing and how fortunate for us to live here and watch these children grow. Joshua is 10, Juliana is about to turn 9, Jillian is 7, Jeffrey is 5, Jared is 3, Joel is 2 (so wonderful to share grandparenting ‘naches’ with Jonathan’s parents).

Our ‘highlights’, along with the every day routines of life keep us busy and fulfilled. We exercise, visit the kids, attend two synagogues (Ken teaches and conducts services on several Shabbat mornings each month), support various activities in the community, take short driving trips, and are finding our way toward feeling comfortable in our new community.

As we write this, we are looking forward to a cruise from the very end of Yom Kippur and over Sukkot. We will be sailing from Boston to Bar Harbor, Nova Scotia, Sydney, Prince Edward Island, Quebec City and Montreal. Sounds beautiful and we look forward to this new adventure.

This letter should reach you just as the Torah reading ends and begins on Simchat Torah at the beginning of October. As the readingcycleis renewed,we reaffirm that, though Torah doesn’t change, each of us does. Since last fall, we’re all a year older, hopefully a year wiser: more patient, more peaceful, more challenged (and able) to make our world a better place, more hopeful about the future (because we ARE Jews, we MUST BE optimists).

May the Jewish year 5771 be for all of us a time of Shalom and Love,

Rabbi Ken and Sue