Mishenichnas Adar, marbim b’simcha!
Purim has always been a challenging time for me. I love the holiday with all of its craziness. I love the costumes, the shpiels and the scotch. I love hamantashen, mishloach manot and giving to the needy.
However, I have a personality flaw that makes it hard for me to fully participate in the holiday. You see, I am rarely, if ever, intentionally funny. To be sure, I am unintentionally funny quite often. But I don’t have what it takes to prepare and deliver a joke or a shpiel that will make people laugh. (Evidence of this is that my first draft of this month’s article examined the parallels between the current wave of anti-semitic incidents and the Purim story. Food for thought, definitely, but not at all funny.)
So this Purim, I am asking for your help. As we embark on this season of joy, please help me, personally, and the library minyan, more generally, by creating some Purim schtick. You can prepare a joke to be told during announcements, a mini Purim play, a shpiel targeting our revered rabbis (or anyone else), or a song with funny lyrics. We will have plenty of opportunities to be entertained by those of you who do not suffer from my affliction. Now, more than any other time in my life, we need a day or two to laugh and be joyful. So, if you can, please help us achieve that goal.
The Megillah reading will take place Saturday night, March 11th, at 7:00 p.m. Stan Goldstein is coordinating megillah leyners, so please speak to him if you can and want to leyn. The Purim seudah will take place Sunday at 10:30 a.m. and is spearheaded by Jerry Krautman. Please see Jerry if you would like to help with the seudah.
— Sandra Lepson
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Jewish World Watch Walk on Sunday, April 30 |
We are a people that knows the pain of genocide. We are a people that knows the pain of the world turning a deaf ear and a blind eye. Over a decade ago, Rabbi Harold Schulweis (z”l) helped found an organization, Jewish World Watch, to shed a light on and amplify the voices of those in our world that are experiencing genocide. Currently the focus is on Sudan, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. We also know that there are other peoples, such as the Yezidis, who are being decimated.
JWW has held a walk in Los Angeles for a decade. This year the 11th such walk will be on April 30th, and they’ve added a run option. When I’ve participated (most years) in the past, I’ve chosen to run it this year. I encourage each of you to join me and run the walk, or walk the walk.
Dianne Shershow has been a dedicated Team TBA captain throughout. Please go directly to the website www.walktoendgenocide.org/la and sign up with Team Temple Beth Am. If you can’t be at the walk on April 30, you can be a virtual walker. If you can’t do that, please consider sponsoring Team Temple Beth Am or one of our team members. Your financial support will go a long way to keeping this issue in the public eye and providing hope to those who are suffering starvation and abuse.
Remember, as Jews we are told that we "can’t stand idly by”. Thank you!
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A Special Opportunity to Learn from the Scholar in our Midst on March 4 |
The Library Minyan will welcome Prof. Daniel Stein Kokin for his post-Kiddush lecture on 4 March. All are encouraged to attend this talk, which is open to the TBA community. The lecture is entitled "From Los Angeles to Berlin and Back: One Jew's Reflections on Six Years in Germany and Europe."
Prof. Kokin will reflect upon some key episodes relevant to Jewish life in Germany as he has experienced them while living in Berlin (e.g., the circumcision debate, the refugee crisis, etc.). He will speak about Jewish space in today's Berlin, his experience teaching Jewish Studies at a German Protestant Theology faculty, and the town of Greifswald, where he teaches. Prof. Kokin and his colleagues recently published a book about the synagogue that was set up in Greifswald in the early 18th-century to teach Christian theology students about Judaism.
Prof. Kokin recently delivered a lecture on “Rome in the Jewish Imagination” at the UCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies, where he currently serves as Viterbi Visiting Assistant Professor of Mediterranean Jewish Studies. For more information, please click here.
— Anita Happel |
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Purim with the Library Minyan |
Megillah reading Saturday night March 11 will be at 7:00 pm, with the reading following Ma’ariv.
After that, help make sandwiches and pack survival kits for the homeless. (See below.)
The next day, come for shpiel and come for schnapps as we celebrate the mitzvah of the Purim seudah!
Date: Sunday, March 12, 2017
Time: 10:30 a.m. (brunch!)
Place: Temple Beth Am
Co-sponsored by the Library Minyan and TBA
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Annual Purim Survival Kit Project: Join in! |
Join in the opportunity to fulfill the Purim mitzvah of "Matanot L'Evyonim" by assembling survival kits for the homeless and making sack lunches. (Note that no peanut butter will be used). Just come to the Ballroom right after the Megillah reading to join the fun.
On the following day — Sunday, March 12 — you will have the opportunity to give out the kits personally to the homeless or to bring them to organizations that provide social services.
Contact Dianne Shershow, dfshersh@aol.com or 323-314-3549 to sign up for one or both of these projects or if you have any questions.
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Join us on March 18 after a tasty co-sponsored kiddush to discuss The People and the Books by Adam Kirsch. Chapters on the Spanish Golden Age, the Zohar, and Hero of Alexandria are already requested, so pick one of the other chapters if you would like to start off the discussion on it. Or just read one of the above and come to participate.
The book summarizes key issues and viewpoints from 14 great books and authors from Deuteronomy to Sholem Aleichem. Contact Carl Sunshine at carl@fastmail.net for more info.
— Carl Sunshine
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March 4 — Daniel Stein Kokin post-kiddush talk
March 11 — Megillah reading & packing Purim Survival Kits
March 12 — Purim Seudah & distribute Purim Survival Kits
March 18 — Torah Club & Book Discussion after co-sponsored kiddush
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VISIT US ONLINE
VISIT US ON SHABBAT
Mishna study 9:20
Tefillot begin 9:45
Temple Beth Am
Dorff-Nelson Chapel
1039 S. La Cienega Blvd, 90035
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