Dear Friends,
There is a Hebrew expression: “Change your location, change your luck- Meshaneh makom, meshaneh mazal” and like so many other expressions, it will mean whatever you wish it to mean. By looking at the Hebrew words, one notices that the word for change, ‘meshaneh’ (change) has the same root letters as the word for ‘year- shana’ and the word for ‘place- makom’ (place) is the same as a rabbinic name for God- ‘Makom.’
Therefore, I would not be too far afield to hold that the expression can also mean: “As we change ourselves in this new year, so too will we change our relationship with God.”
To begin the change process, marking the start of the High Holy Day period, a special “Selichot (Penitential) program and service will be held 8 PM this Saturday evening (Sept. 4) in our temple’s Youth Lounge. It will include a light dinner, study session on the theme of Repentance (using Darth Vader in video clips from ‘Star Wars’ as the individual in greatest need of repentance), a brief Selichot service, including the changing of our Torah mantles from blue to white, and havdalah ceremony marking the conclusion of Shabbat. This year, because of their labors of love, our Friday night Oneg Angels, Lenore Rosa, Elaine Jacobson, Lenore Redstone and Alice Hoffman- Judaica Shop Executive, par excellence, have been given the honor of changing the Torah mantles.
Please call the temple now (954-389-1232) to reserve your place at the table for dinner, discussion and service.
This Oct. 1st and 2nd, our high school youth group, TOUCHY, will be hosting the Fall Kallah for NFTY-STR. 350 teens be descending upon us for the youth Shabbat week-end enabling our temple family the opportunity of performing the mitzvah of “hachnasat orchim- hospitality” by opening our homes to the Jewish teens who will be participating in the event. At last count, (9/1), housing has been accounted for 197 teens, which means that 150 teens are still in need of housing. If you are a temple family, with children in religious school, ECE, or not, Empty Nester, Brotherhood, Sisterhood member or not, this is a wonderful opportunity meet a new generation of Jewish leaders of tomorrow (4 teens will be hosted at the Lipson home; Mookie and Max are very happy about it).
How many mitzvot are there in which you, your family and pets can participate?
I can’t thing of any. Contact Amy Wulwick at temple: 954-389-1232 for additional information on this mitzvah.
Our temple trip to Central and Eastern Europe: Prague, Warsaw, Krakow and Budapest, was such a powerful experience, that a number of you have requested that it be repeated. A website containing all the details of a projected tour, June 13-23, 2011, is included in this email. To learn more about participating, with your temple family, in one of the most powerful experiences for a Jew of today- visiting not only the cities where many of our families originated, but also the places where so many of them perished at the hands of the Nazis: Terezin, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and behind the walls of the Warsaw Ghetto, highlight the website, cut and paste into your URL bar. The trip, limited to one bus and a maximum of 36 people, is being offered to members to Temple Dor Dorim, before being opened to non-members.
http://146.145.193.26/stw/STWProduct.aspx?ProductCode="22327&Custom=prod&CustomCode=22327&Theme=AYELET&QC=USD&NoCache=Y&NoRedirect=Y"
(Please note the pricing listed on the page is the full credit card pricing, which Ayelet Tours is required to list first. Participants can choose the Cash/Check discounted pricing once they click BOOK- participants can still send deposit by credit card and pay remainder by check to get the discount).
This year, may God grant all of us, America, Israel and our world, one of health, prosperity, peace and blessing.
L’shana Tova and see you in temple.
Rabbi Lipson
