Shabbat Gathering: Celebrating Shavuot.
Dear Chevra, as is our custom, we will gather tonight at 5.45p ct to welcome Shabbat. These are the coordinates:
Zoom
Meeting ID: 963 5113 1550
Password: 1989
Phone: +1 312 626 6799
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Regarding Janice Kaplan's funeral.
On Sunday, May 21, at 11.00am, a funeral service will be held for our friend Janice Kaplan. The service will be held in Madison at Cress Funeral Home, 3325 East Washington Avenue. For those of us who will be attending by Zoom, here's the link.
And may Janice's memory be a blessing unto us forever and ever.
Here we go.
I’ve already written a newsletter about Shavuot and I reread it to find out if there was anything more I needed to add to it. There is and I can’t believe I left it out of that previous newsletter: Shavuot is my favorite Jewish holiday.
Shavuot is coming up one week from today, Friday, May 26. It marks the day that G!d gave us Torah and made us Jews. It’s that important.
One of the ways I practice my Judaism is through active Torah Study. CSS has Torah Study every Shabbat morning, either at a member’s home or before services at our synagogue (Except when there’s a b’nei mitzvah when we don’t have a Torah Study.). If you need more information on Torah Study, please feel free to contact me.
Torah is precious to me. I skate dangerously close to the controversial issue of Jews being chosen when I think or talk about Torah. I think it’s Torah that defines Jews and separates us from other peoples. (See, I told you I’d get close to that issue of being chosen.)
There’s another reason I cherish Shavuot and that has to do with my personal journey in Judaism. There’s an expression, “I was at Sinai.” It isn’t about actually being at Sinai. Rather, it means that your soul was at Sinai. (Some Jews believe in reincarnation, but this expression is usually meant more figuratively than literally.) There’s even an online dating service called “I Saw You at Sinai.” Someone usually tells a Jew-by-choice that they’ve always been a Jew even before they made their choice and, sometimes, even further back than their birth.
In my particular case, I had a woo-woo moment when I experienced being at Sinai as the Torah was given to us and that moment helped propel me to my choice. That woo-woo moment helped me realize that I always and forever was a Jew.
So, I study Torah. I figure if G!d went to the trouble of giving us Torah, the least we can do is study it and try to understand it. This year, as in the past, CSS is joining with Beth Israel to celebrate Shavuot. Here’s the information from our Happenings newsletter:
Save the Date: Tikkun Leil Shauvot
Thu, May 25, 7:30 p.m.
Beth Israel Center, 1406 Mound Street
CSS is pleased to again co-sponsor this community event. Join in receiving Torah as a community by studying texts and sharing learning late into the night. Come learn with rabbis and other scholars from around our community. This year's theme is Write for Yourself this Song: Adding to the Melody of Torah. The program begins at 7:30 p.m. and goes late into the night.
And may it be for all of us a blessing.
See you tonight!
Gut Shabbes!
All my love,
brian.
PS
Lior Zaltzman
Rabbi Shlomo Zuckier
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