Torah Study, 1st and 3rd Saturdays 8:30 am via Zoom
No Torah Study September 19
ZOOM LINK BELOW
Contact Suzanne (suz_darby@hotmail.com) for information and study guide
Topic: Torah Study Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/
Meeting ID: 845 9030 4211
HIGH HOLIDAYS INFORMATION
The High Holydays are rapidly approaching! Note that no tickets are required for any of these services, although we do welcome your donations and will have pledge cards available for this purpose.
Here is the schedule of our services:
ROSH HASHANAH
Erev Rosh Hashanah – Friday, September 11th – 8 PM
Morning service – Saturday, September 12th – 10 AM
Followed by Tashlich (brief service, then throwing bread into water) and lunch
YOM KIPPUR
Kol Nidre service – Sunday, September 20th – 8 PM
Morning service – Monday, September 21st – 10 AM
Activity: You Be the Judge! – Monday, September 21st – 4 PM
Yizkor service – Monday, September 21st – 5 PM
Ne’ilah service – Monday, September 21st – 6 PM
Followed by Havdalah and Community break-the-fast
For Yizkor, please be aware that all names on our memorial board will be read aloud. If you have additional names you would like to be included in this service, there will be a list available on which you can write these names.
Lunch on Rosh Hashanah will be provided by the congregation, but for the break-the-fast on Yom Kippur, we ask that you bring a dish for us all to share. Your food can be brought to the kitchen any time that day; just make sure to include instructions as to refrigeration, reheating, etc.
We suggest that you bring a nonperishable food item (cans, not glass) when you come to the synagogue on Yom Kippur, for donating to those in need.
If for some reason you are unable to make it to one or more of our services, you can access them on Zoom instead:
http://us02web.zoom.us/j/
Meeting ID: 893 0603 8164
Passcode: 871775
WHY DON’T MANY JEWISH COMMUNITIES BLOW THE SHOFAR ON SHABBAT?
In traditional synagogues, the shofar is not blown when Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbat. The reason for this is very interesting: You might guess it’s because of the exertion of blowing the shofar, but the historical reason is because of carrying the shofar to the synagogue! The traditional rules on Shabbat forbid carrying anything from a private to a public space and the reverse – from your home to the streets and then into the synagogue.
The clever little girl in the front row raises her hand and waves it for attention. “But what if you kept your shofar at the synagogue? Then it would already be there and you wouldn’t have to carry it through the public streets.”
Very wise question, little girl. But the Rabbis did already anticipate this in the Talmud. When they ruled against blowing the shofar on Shabbat because it might be carried, they ruled against all shofarim as a class. Nobody puts a sign on their shofar that says, “I was here in the synagogue all along.” Nine out of ten people might do it right, but we need to guard against the tenth, who might violate the law by sneaking his shofar in from home.
SO WHY DO WE BLOW IT AT CSS?
Because we are a Reform community. The Reform movement’s position is that halakha (Jewish law) gets a vote but not a veto. So we do blow the shofar on Shabbat, because it adds so much more to Rosh Hashanah than silence would add to Shabbat. Similarly, we can play musical instruments during a Shabbat service because they too elevate the spiritual experience. Traditional law wouldn’t permit a guitar, for instance – not just the carrying aspect, but because you might tune it or you might replace a broken string, both of which are forbidden “work.” Simply playing and enjoying the guitar is in itself no violation at all.
WHY ONLY ONE DAY OF ROSH HASHANAH?
It’s fortunate that we do blow the shofar on Shabbat, because at CSS we observe only the first day of Rosh Hashanah. Since Rosh Hashanah does fall on Shabbat this year, we’d miss it entirely. The one-day observance isn’t uniform across the Reform movement; some congregations keep two days. Even in Israel, where most holidays are not doubled up as they are in the Diaspora, two days of Rosh Hashanah are observed.
The two-day observance goes back much further than you might expect — all the way to the early prophets, in the First Temple period. In that era, the new month was sanctified by the testimony of witnesses who had seen the first sliver of the new moon. For Rosh Hashanah alone, the only holiday that falls on the first of its month, the court had to sanctify the expected day before knowing whether witnesses would actually show up, since there was no way to notify the outlying towns once the holiday itself began. (They did this by lighting signal fires.) If witnesses appeared, that day was Rosh Hashanah; if not, the next day was, and the “sanctified” first day turned out to have been an ordinary weekday all along. So that people wouldn’t treat the first day carelessly, the prophets ordained that both days be sacred, but regarded as a single 48-hour-long “day”!
L’shana tova to you and yours.
Religious School Has Returned
We had a great first week back at religious School.
Introducing “Rabbi Gail and the Back Scratchers”.
Remembering the 9/11 “Walk of Bears”
Feb 16, 2026
A memory of how we are all connected across time and space, through sorrow and hope.
Deep calls to deep, in the voice of Your channels…. (Psalm 42:8)
In the NYC disaster relief efforts following September 11th, 2001, one of the sites I served as a chaplain was the Family Assistance Center at Pier 94. At one end of that huge complex, a long open corridor was designated as the “Walk of Bears.” Stuffed bears of all shapes, sizes and colors were arranged along the floor against the wall. Signs explained that they were a gift from the people of Oklahoma City, and were not to be removed.
The shipment of bears had arrived on September 19th. We learned that after the domestic terrorist attack of April 19th, 1995 on the Oklahoma City Federal Building, survivors and disaster relief workers there began to find teddy bears left on the chain-link fence. No one knew who was leaving them, but they kept showing up. Now the people of Oklahoma City had decided that it was time for the people of New York City — and Washington, D.C. and Shanksville, PA — to take comfort in these bears.
And posted across the long wall of the NYC Family Assistance Center, above the bears, were the photographs of the missing and the dead. Like the teddy bears, their faces reflected all shapes, sizes and colors — people from all over the world.
Every day, the Walk of Bears would be visited by family members and friends, law enforcement officials, support agency staff and disaster relief workers. People came to write and read messages on the wall, to meditate, to cry, to reflect, to remember, to tell and hear stories…to reach out and care.
The Walk of Bears was a refuge at a time of overwhelming pain. As we move through each memory of tragedies that shake our cities, our nation and our world, may we all take refuge in the memories that will help us to reach out and care for each other — day by day, over the long term.
Note from your editor- Thank you to my friend from High School and B’nai B’rith Girls Laurie Levy for sharing this moving story. This is included in her sermon for Rosh Hashanah.
BUILDING UPDATE
Building news: just wanted to let everyone know, especially the ladies, the toilet in the woman’s room has been fixed in time for the holidays. I had turned it off because it continuously ran and the water bill got out of hand. As an aside please let me or any board member know if you observe an issue with the building. Richgilpin@yahoo.com
Fund Raiser For Safety Personnel
Dear Members,
Congregation Sha’are Shalom has started a never ending Fundraiser to pay for Security at our synagogue.
We want all our members to feel safe coming to services and events at the Synagogue, so we will be having
Security Personnel there at all events.
There will be a tab under Donation on our website where you can make a donation for Security.
Thank you in advance.
Jackie – Treasurer
SPOTLIGHT ON OUR MEMBERS
The Brag Space for Members to share special moments and events
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
Lead a Friday evening Shabbat service — we’ll help you!
We at Sha’are Shalom are proud of our long tradition of member participation in everything our synagogue does — including leading Friday night services. While we’re fortunate to have Rabbi Gail Fisher on the second Saturday morning of most months, it’s our own congregants who lead the evening service on the fourth Friday.
Our prayer book makes it easy — just choose your favorite reading from each two-page spread, either in English or Hebrew, spoken or sung. We even have some pre-chosen plans to use. The pressure is very low — the audience is usually small and supportive. If you’d rather not write a brief d’var Torah (a mini-sermon on how something from the week’s Torah portion might apply to our lives today), Suzanne Darby has volunteered to write it; and if you’re hesitant about leading songs, I can help out with that.
We’d just like more of our members to come up and play a part in services, and so we’re eager to help any way we can.
You don’t have to know Hebrew, and you just have to be past bar/bat mitzvah age. You can even enlist your spouse and/or kids to be your co-leaders. We’re looking for volunteers for Friday evenings. Please contact me at myerspat@gmail.com to sign up or for more information.
See you at our next service
HELP WANTED
Dates Available for Oneg Sponsors
Shar’are Shalom each Saturday morning (every 2nd Saturday) and Friday night (every 4th Friday) service at the temple ends with the pleasure of fellowship. A little nosh usually makes this fellowship last longer and adds to its delightfulness. Each post service nosh or oneg requires an Oneg Sponsor. Whether it is wine, juice, a challah, and some cookies, or even more – it is always appreciated by those in attendance.
Contact Marshall Jones (Mjones.shaare@gmail.com) if you would like to sponsor an oneg or lead a Friday Night Service or have any questions about doing either.