Food Donation Barrel
We are asking everyone to bring (1) one canned good to Temple each time they come. There are many in our community that need your help.
Please donate. Thank you.
We are asking everyone to bring (1) one canned good to Temple each time they come. There are many in our community that need your help.
Please donate. Thank you.
We have focused on the miracle thing and I think we often overlook the message of Hanukkah. To me, the core of the holiday is the cleansing of the temple… The accomplishment was in restoring the temple to the purpose which it was built. Now think of the temple as a symbol. Perhaps it represents my life. The world has tried to use for its own (perhaps good, but none-the-less extrinsic) purposes. But now I can rededicate myself to my own original purpose. Ralph Levy Another View
Dear Friends,
Once more the Holidays of Christmas and Hanukkah intersect. I don’t know which is more difficult to deal with; when they coincide or when they fall far apart. Credit or blame the Jewish calendar which is based on the cycles of the moon with its 19 year intercalculation of the solar calendar. (This is why we have a leap month every 2nd or 3rd year)
What they have in common is apparent; a time to keep warm as the shortest days approach, the emphasis on light and the never ending calories to be enjoyed and avoided. As for the themes of history they could not be more different. The Messianism in the Christian celebration is paramount, a concept that we sired but whose fulfillment awaits us still. Our celebratory theme emphasized freedom. But most distinctively it is the Jewish insistence that our uniqueness was worth the sacrifice and that our struggles to remain Jewish are to be heralded. That another message of freedom of diversity for all people has been grafted on to our holiday is worthy, but not central. The tendency to emphasize the latter as we ignore the distinctive message of being Jewish for its own sake is our loss.
This has led to the universalization of Chanukah as a sad usurpation by non-Jews of our holiday. It takes the form of the odd celebration
called Chrismakah, a false fusion of the two traditions that are not fully the same, but in some measure quite different. Other fake aspects like Chanukah tinsel is imitation of Christmas as is the so-called Hanukkah bush. The Christmas tree, to thoughtful devout Christian devotes, is filled with great meaning; the tinsel is the angel’s hair that flowed at Jesus’ birth, the star at the top is the Star of Bethlehem announcing his birth, the wreath with red berries is the future blood spilled on his crown of thorns. None of these comport with Jewish belief or practice. More than this it is usurpation of Christian holy objects which ought not to be done.
I know I am in the “meaning business” and I tend to take all traditions seriously and respectfully. I appreciate Christmas, Kwanza, and Chinese New Year, but from afar. They are not my celebrations.
Boundaries are important to respect.
Still ours the dance, the feast, the glorious Psalm, The Mystic lights of emblem, and the Word. Emma Lazarus The Feast of Lights
Wishing you a great Hanukkah, Rabbi Yossi Liebowitz, D.D.
‘Son of Saul’ Offers a Truly Original Depiction of the Holocaust.
In this searing drama, a concentration camp inmate tasked with burning the dead discovers the body of his young son, and must choose between participating in the clandestine uprising being planned among the prisoners, or securing a proper Jewish burial.
HADASSAH
We invite everyone to join us for a business meeting on Wednesday, November 16 at 10:30 in the Sisterhood Activity Room and stay for the Rabbi’s Brown Bag luncheon immediately following at 12 noon.
Please continue to collect your loose change in your Hadassah tzedakah boxes. We will be collecting those at a luncheon meeting in December. This is tentatively scheduled to be held at Bangkok Thai. Details will be announced later.
We hope everyone has a very Happy Thanksgiving surrounded by loved ones. If you are at the Temple, as a gesture toward those less fortunate, please consider bringing some canned goods for the collection barrel located in the coat closet. The need for assistance is especially great at this time of year.
See you around the Temple
Nancy Rosenberg
Imagining Myself: Righteous Gentiles During the Holocaust
Thursday, November 10
7:00 pm at USC Upstate at Tukey Auditorium 800 University Way, Spartanburg, SC
An Interfaith Conversation, Guests Welcome
Friday, November 11
9:00 am at Converse College, Kuhn Room 108 580 East Main Street, Spartanburg, SC
A Consultation with Students & Staff
Friday, November 11 12:00 pm at Wofford College
429 North Church Street, Spartanburg, SC
A Life of Responsibility: The Holocaust as Inspiration
Friday, November 11 7:30 pm at Temple B’nai Israel
146 Heywood Avenue, Spartanburg, SC
Sabbath Tisch: Two Rabbis, a Catholic Priest, & a Methodist Minister Talk About
a Few Verses from the Bible
Saturday, November 12 11:30 am at Temple B’nai Israel
146 Heywood Avenue, Spartanburg, SC RSVP to the Temple 582-2001
Did you hear the one about the Rabbi and the Pope?
Catholics and Jews, A New Era!
Saturday, November 12
3:00 pm at St. Paul’s the Apostle Catholic Church 161 North Dean Street, Spartanburg, SC
Jewish Origins of Preaching: Crawling Into the Text
Sunday, November 13
9:00 am at Central United Methodist Church 233 North Church Street, Spartanburg, SC
The American Dream
Sunday, November 13
11:00 am at the Unitarian Universalist Church
210 Henry Place Spartanburg, SC
Join Us for An Interfaith Meeting of Hearts and Minds with Rabbi Abie Ingber November 10-13, 2016
Rabbi Abie Ingber is the Director of Community Engagement at Xavier University, the leading Catholic university in Cincinnati, Ohio. He has lectured widely on the concerns of oppressed peoples. He is the son of a woman who escaped from Nazi-occupied Poland on Christmas Eve due to the kindness of a Christian official. He has devoted himself to being an advocate for those suffering around the world, specifically in the Darfur region.
In the fall of 2012, he logged 24,734 miles in two trips serving as the keynote lecturer at the Cameroon Muslim Student Union annual conference and at the new Museum of Dialogue of Cultures in Kielce, Poland. Rabbi Abie co-created the 2005 award-winning exhibit, A Blessing to One Another: Pope John Paul II and the Jewish People, which has toured over eighteen American cities.
The Rabbi’s Brown Bag Lunch Wednesday, November 16, 2016 at 12:00 pm The Advice of Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav
Nachman of Breslov (Hebrew: ,)מברסלב נחמן(April 4, 1772 – October 16, 1810), was the founder of the Breslov Hasidic movement.
Rebbe Nachman, a great-grandson of the Baal Shem Tov, breathed new life into the Ha- sidic movement by combining the esoteric secrets of Judaism (the Kabbalah) with in- depth Torah scholarship. He attracted thousands of followers during his lifetime, and his influence continues until today through many Hasidic movements such as Breslov Hasid- ism. Rebbe Nachman’s religious philosophy revolved around closeness to God and speaking to God in normal conversation “as you would with a best friend.” The concept of hitbodedut (an unstructured, spontaneous and individualized form
of prayer and meditation) is central to his thinking.
“It is very good to pour out your thoughts before God like a child pleading before his fa- ther. God calls us His children, as it is written (Deuteronomy 14:1), “You are children to God.” Therefore, it is good to express your thoughts and troubles to God like a child complaining and pestering his father.”
Join us Wednesday, November 16th any time between 7 – 9am at Select for
the monthly Breakfast Schmooze.
11/2, 11/9, 11/16. 11/30 with classes at 3, 4, and 5:00.
No Hebrew school on 11/23.