8/2 Ruben Falcon
8/4 Carter Smith
8/6 Joan Barnet
8/6 Lynn Stauber
8/9 Mary Freedman
8/11 Sandy Smiley
8/24 Thomson Halley
8/24 Mark Lurey
8/24 Tina Lyon
8/26 Sara Liebowitz
8/26 Kim Pickett
8/27 Daniel Falcon
8/29 Ina Minsky
8/30 Ray Frye
8/15 Alane & Rex Russell
8/16 Ina & Mike Minsky
8/19 Carter & Louis Smith
8/22 Lori & Rob Axelrod
8/25 Lianne & Dave Wood
8/29 Louise & Steve Garrell
8/31 Arden Levy & Mark Lurey
8/1 Sherron Weinberger
8/2 Louis Anderson
8/4 Isaac H. Greenwald
8/5 Abraham Freedman
8/5 Edward Reichel
8/5 Trudy Reimer
8/6 Daisy M. Spigel
8/7 Jack Garrell
8/7 Ralph Neufeld
8/8 Freida Anderson
8/8 Toba M. Segal
8/8 Linda S. Ungvarksy
8/9 Henry B. Barnet, Jr.
8/9 Herb Moglin
8/9 Fannie E. Poliakoff
8/9 Fannie Yoffe
8/10 Maurice H. Freedman
8/11 Sidney Kirshman
8/12 Estelle D. Kaplan
8/15 Mayer J. Price
8/16 Pauline H. Bernanke
8/16 Chayim E. Levovitz
8/18 Luevina M. Powers
8/20 Samuel Feinstein
8/20 Myer Poliakoff
8/20 William A. Poulson
8/21 Eva Geller
8/21 Leo Gunther
8/21 Mitchell R. Price
8/21 Fannie Simon
8/22 Max Greenwald
8/22 Jennie Novey
8/22 Sara Simmons
8/23 Samuel Fox
8/24 Bea Adelman
8/25 Ben Barbarash
8/25 David Sher
8/28 Ida Koshak
8/28 Max Lessner
8/29 Fannie R. Cohen
8/29 Edward Shane
8/30 Calvin Fuller, Jr.
8/30 Frank Hendrickson
8/30 Sam Hyman
8/30 Gert Klein
8/30 Miriam Levine
8/30 Rachel L. Michel
8/30 Rebecca Schaefer
8/30 Irving Zeiger
8/31 David Adelman
8/31 Harold Bronstein
Dear friends,
My sister Janice who lives in England has started to become a family archaeologist, that is to say, she is digging deeply into our family roots. She is a whiz at it, discovering documents long hidden and fairly revealing. (Yes, one skeleton or two that I would only share over a glass of wine if you are interested!) These finds included some Yiddish letters that were dusty and worn. Finding an expert Yiddishist to translate them was not as challenging as I had first thought. While not all that inexpensive it was worth it. Two of them resolved a debate over our Great Grandfather’s occupation. On his immigration paper he was listed as a Hebrew teacher. Memories fail and often become embellished. I remembered that he was not only a Hebraist but a Rabbi. Of course, my sister disagreed. As you can see from the two letters below, despite my aging memory, I was vindicated. The first letter, a poem from the student of my great grandfather. The second is Great Grandfather’s poem which was an acrostic. As is traditional, often poets would use the letters of their name to configure one verse or line after another. The Sabbath bride verses Lecha Dodi is an acrostic spelling out Shlomo Ha-Levi. (Solomon the Levite) Various psalms also employ acrostics as does the Book Lamentations in the Bible. Such was the case of the poem he wrote back to his student. It was signed Rabbi Binyamin Budafsky.
Rabbis start to think about the High Holy Days in July. The first poem from his student contains a High Holy blessing. From his time to ours. From the students of my Great Grandfather Binyamin to you and yours. A wonderful summer! A wonderful year to come!
Rabbi Yossi Liebowitz, D.D.
Dear Members,
As everyone may or may not know, I grew up on a large farm in Landrum, SC. Other than farm work, there was not a lot of entertainment. Because of the lack of things to do it would drive the teenagers to, well, drive. My friends and I would drive all over the area on winding back roads in the evening and night and enjoy time together, stopping every so often to meet other friends who were driving around out of boredom, also. I have many fond memories of driving and sometimes even “off-roading” after dark.
One of my favorite memories of night driving in the summer is going through a dark grove of trees and coming upon one of the most interesting things I have ever witnessed in nature. As my friends and I were driving through this grove of trees, we noticed tiny lights flashing at the same time throughout the trees lining the road. On, off, on, off… my friends and I realized we were watching hundreds, maybe even thousands, of fireflies synchronize their flashing. It was truly amazing.
Years later I read an article in a wildlife magazine about Synchronous Fire- flies and I knew instantly that must have been what I had seen during that late night summer drive long ago. Apparently, Synchronous Fireflies are males that are displaying their romantic side. This mating ritual only occurs two to three weeks out of each year and is usually during the month of June. I learned from the article that these Synchronous Fireflies can be seen in the Great Smoky Mountains for a couple of weeks every June. Luckily, this year I had a chance to go see Synchronous Fireflies in action. This recent June, David and I drove to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, spent the weekend and was able to witness the fireflies synchronize on a Saturday night. It was close to 10:30 pm when hundreds of male fireflies put on their flashing romantic show. It was spectacular and mesmerizing.
I love nature and seeing natural phenomenon like the mating ritual of the Synchronous Fireflies. It is interesting how something as small as a firefly can come together and synchronize their light. If a tiny firefly can join other fire- flies to put on a beautiful light show, imagine what we humans can do when we join and work synchronously. It truly makes me pause and think.
I am grateful how well we work together for the well-being of our Temple. Seeing the Synchronous Fireflies again reminded me there is always more that can be done by being united and working synchronously. Let’s continue to stand together and find ways that we can be more synchronous. Together our light shines brighter than alone.
I wish you a wonderful July and August. Enjoy a safe Fourth of July holiday. Please check the Temple Topics for the July and August Temple calendar and join us!
Tina Lyon Temple President
7/9 Wanda Greenfield
7/11 Laura Filler
7/11 Mark Packer
7/11 Mauro Wilk
7/14 Susan Abelkop
7/14 Nancy Anderson
7/18 Miriam Gordin
7/18 Rabbi Yossi Liebowitz
7/20 Hannah Keen
7/21 Barbara Barnet
7/26 Cheryl August
7/28 Stephen Talbot
7/29 Linda Tanenbaum
7/3 Sandy & Gary Smiley
7/3 Shannon & Steve Smiley
7/5 Ruth & Paul Friedberg
7/11 Lorraine & Joseph Wachter
7/16 Joan & Tom Barnet
7/21 Kim & John PIckett
7/1 Louis B. Freedman
7/1 Sarah Robkin
7/3 Zolley W. Lerner
7/5 Myron Parsons
7/6 Harry Tanenbaum
7/7 Ernest M. Acanfora
7/7 Fay Friedberg
7/7 Bella C. Karsh
7/7 Richard Packer
7/8 Sidney Anderson
7/11 Abraham Gelburd
7/11 Lena F. Reimer
7/11 Milton Vogelstein
7/12 Betty Freed
7/13 Marvin Singer
7/14 Lillian S. Lustgarten
7/14 Edith Silverman
7/14 David M. Spigel
7/15 Charles Simmons
7/16 Lucy Britanisky
7/18 Maurice Abelsky
7/18 Dorothy Cohen
7/18 Ida Litoff
7/19 Sandor Teszler
7/20 Barry August
7/20 Osher Koser
7/20 Benjamin Levin
7/22 Maurice E. Bromley
7/24 Rose Lessner
7/25 Miriam M. Price
7/27 Frances Briller
7/27 Sarah L. Freedman
7/28 Abe H. Morris
7/28 Kathy Steinberg
7/29 Evelyn Fleishman
7/30 Richard August
7/30 Reba B. Morewitz
7/30 Irving Soloway
7/30 Jack Steinberg
7/31 Miriam Shapiro
Dear Friends,
As I am preparing to teach a mini-course on God (a fairly broad subject p. 5), I have come to see how glibly folks toss about the idea of the Divine being responsible for blessings. Curious assertions such as “I prayed to God and the tornado in my town spared my home!” or “God has blessed me all the days of my life!” (a favorite of televangelists) or when I was watching the suspenseful moon landing, my devout Christian boss said, “They will land only if God wants them to! Not the science of course or Armstrong’s skill as a pilot made the difference. This antique view of course is matched by a series of curses that can also be traced to the Holy One. My favorite curse came from one-time presidential candidate and TV 700 Club evangelist Pat Robertson. When that awful Hurricane afflicted New Orleans claiming the lives of hundreds and causing untold pain to thousands of its citizens this Bible thumping self-appointed prophet claimed how God was displeased with the gay population in that city. Ergo, God’s curse-filled wrath poured forth. The fact that the neighborhoods inhabited by a largely gay presence was the least affected by the hurricane could only have meant that God had bad aim.
In the cited quote from the Seven Beggars written by Rabbi Nachman of Bratislav, a young couple is visited every day for a week by a well-meaning man with a deformity. One could not see, another was blind, one more was lame, and so forth. But, each brought with him a blessing which could be traced to making what would seem to be a curse into something good. The blind man claimed he could now see with his heart and the deaf man better understood the cries of the world. He cleverly noted as well in his narrative how too many blessings can become a curse. Ergo, “There was much muchness!”
The Jewish view of the flip side of blessings, curses, is informative. Under the category of “If you don’t laugh then you will cry!” Yiddish folklore absorbs life’s pains with a touch of whimsy making our sufferings more tolerable. Here are a few of my favorite curses that one might wish to have inflicted on an adversary.
May all your teeth fall out but one – and may that one have a tooth ache!
May you win the lottery – and spend it all on hospital expenses!
May you prosper selling candles and then may the sun never set!
May you be like a chandelier – hang by day and burn by night!
Summertime and the living is easy – so we hope and pray that whatever burdens you have you will take heart from the Yiddish proverb. “God gives us burdens, but he also gives us shoulders to carry them!”
Blessings only to you and yours, Rabbi Yossi Liebowitz, D.D.
Does God have a body? Is God able to create a stone too heavy for himself or herself to lift? Is He/She male, female or hermaphroditic? Does he have a wife, a husband? A significant other? Throughout the centuries religious traditions from east to west have depicted the Divine in moving and troubling ways. Questions about Divine justice, omnipotence, omniscience, transcendence and immanence are but a few of the concerns addressed. Not for the weak of spirit or minds and hearts that are closed! Students will need to purchase: The Life of God (as Told by Himself) Paperback – November 8, 1997, by Franco Ferrucci (Author, Translator), Raymond Rosenthal (Translator) 4.1 out of 5 stars.
Fee: $21.00
Dates: 6/6/2022 – 6/27/2022
Times: 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM
Days: M
Max Enrollment: 30
Building: Central Methodist Church Room: Upper Room
Instructor: Yossi Liebowitz
*Register by June 6*
