November 28, 2003 D'var TorahDear BSO Congregant, Our service on Thanksgiving morning, November 27 will begin at 9:00 AM. Following the morning minyan, we will partake in our annual Thanksgiving Day Turkey Run & Walk. We have also scheduled a Minha service at 1:00 PM. Thanksgiving is probably the American holiday which is the most enjoyable for American Jews. There are at least three reasons for this: a. We are grateful for the blessings of this land, the most benevolent diaspora community in history; b. There is never a conflict between Shabbat or any other Jewish holy day and Thanksgiving; c. Giving thanks is a major part of the Jewish religion. It always feels natural to us. Jewish law teaches that it is obligatory for every Jew to offer 100
blessings each and every day. While not every blessing is a blessing
of I can tell you that it’s difficult to recite 100 blessings a day,
but it is
certainly possible. The traditional prayers recited daily by an observant Thanksgiving is something that should be obvious, and it probably is to most people, yet transferring the attitude of thanksgiving into real words and acts of kindness is quite difficult. As Jews we have our own holiday of thanksgiving, namely Sukkot, but even more than that, we have a program for promoting thanksgiving into our lives. In essence, reciting these blessings and taking the time to realize specific, concrete acts of gratitude translates not so much into thanksgiving as “thanks living.” Finally, there is an interesting set of circumstances around the concept
of
thanksgiving in Judaism which may or may not be coincidental. I have Furthermore, each of the Hebrew letters has a numerical equivalent (aleph = one, bet = two, gimel = three – this phenomenon is called gematria). The gematria for the Hebrew word “modim – thanks” (in the plural form) equals, you guessed it, one hundred (mem = 40, vav = 6, dalet = 4, yud = 10, final mem = 40, for a total of 100). Perhaps the lesson here is that as a Jew, giving thanks to God for all
the
blessings in our lives is not something which is limited to one day of
the Todah Rabbah – thank you very much. This coming Shabbat, November 28-29, 2003 - Kislev 4, 5764, we will read Parshat Toldot (annual cycle - Genesis 25:19 - 28:9; triennial cycle Genesis 27:28 - 28:9). The Haftarah is from Malakhi 1:1 - 2:7. Our service on Friday night, November 28 will begin at 4:30 PM. Candle lighting time is 4:27 PM. Our service on Shabbat morning, November 29 will begin at 9:00 AM. During this service we will hear from one of our members, Rob Goldberg. BSO's own Youth Committee Chair, Rob Goldberg, serves as Hillel's Vice President for Campus Strategic Services. In that capacity, Rob leads a team of professionals at Hillel who proactively serve and advance the agenda of campus Hillel Foundations. Rob travels extensively and is in daily contact with Jewish college students and Hillels throughout North America. We have invited BSO's college students, high school juniors and seniors to join Rob at services (just get here by 10:30 AM). He will share with us changes in the campus community and issues confronting Jewish students as well as invite our students to share their own stories of Jewish life on campus. Our Shabbat Minha service will begin at 12:30 PM. Ma-Ariv followed by Havdalah will begin at 5:10 PM. Our service on Sunday morning, November 30 will begin at 8:45 AM. Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Philip Pohl B'nai Shalom of Olney
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