March 2017 Ruach - Congregation Beth Shalom · PDF fileLauren Fellows Front Office ......
If you can't read please download the document
Transcript of March 2017 Ruach - Congregation Beth Shalom · PDF fileLauren Fellows Front Office ......
INSIDE THIS ISSUE:
Updates and Committee Updates R1-4
Youth Updates R5
Shomrei Atid R
PURIM! R8-9
Pesach Guide P1-5
Adult Education R12-13
Bnai Mitzvah R14
Anniversaries, and Birthdays R15
Events in Members Lives R15-16
Contributions R17-18
Service Schedules and Calendars R19-21
Tzedakah Form R22
March 2017 Adar-Nisan 5777 Volume 49, Issue 6
Ruach Congregation Beth Shalom
6800 35th Ave NE
Seattle, WA 98115
206.524.0075
MESSAGE FROM RABBI BORODIN
Ive been thinking alot about the phrase Aseh lecha Rav,
Make for yourself a rabbi/teacher. This phrase comes from
Pirkei Avot, in two different places: 1:6 and 1:16. We learn
in the first text:
, , ,
: Yehoshua ben Perahiah said: Accept upon yourself a
rav/master-teacher for yourself; acquire a haver - a
colleague/friend/study partner; when you assess people, tip
the balance in their favor (or more literally, see them with
the attribute of merit, or more practically, bias yourself to
see the positive aspects of a person)
Are these three different pieces of advice of what we should
be doing? Or one compound piece of advice where the two
later statements are connected to the first statement. While
this text is usually read as three separate pieces of advice, I
think they are deeply interconnected, perhaps suggesting an
application or the intended or possible outcome of the first
phrase.
Here are three different interconnected readings of the text:
1. Perhaps the latter two statements are a description of
what a true rav does: he/she becomes a chaver (a
friend and study partner) to others and is generous in
their assessment of others, seeing each person
meritoriously.
2. Or maybe it is telling us what can or should happen to
us when we accept upon ourselves a rav. By accepting
someone as our rav, we then acquire a haver (someone
from who we should learn and debate to keep growing
our learning) and are empowered to see people
generously.
3. Or perhaps this is advice on how to treat the person
chosen to be our rav, accepting him or her as our haver,
and viewing them positively, even if it is not who we
may individually have wanted for this position.
I have been thinking alot about this mishna recently for two
very different reasons.
The first, not surprisingly, is connected to our search for an
assistant rabbi - looking to this text as a source of guidance
for us in our search and the process of making someone our
rabbi. Who should we choose to our rabbi - what qualities
should they embody? How should we behave in connection
to them?
(A quick disclaimer: I write this article after we brought our
first assistant rabbi candidate to Seattle, but before we are
allowed to invite graduating students out to visit our
community so I dont yet know who will be our finalists.
Though by the time this ruah article arrives in the mail at
your home, we may have already had a second candidate
come to visit and likely will have identified who will be our
finalists).
So how have we been figuring this out at as a community?
We have ongoing strategic assessments of our CBS
community, programs and the staff positions, and have
identified key target areas that will be a priority for this new
position and have advertised this new position reflecting
these identified key portfolios. The three areas identified to
be of top priority (though not descriptive of the full breadth
of their role) for our new assistant rabbi are:
1. Rabbinic resource and presence in our schools (ECC,
religious school, prozdor, high school programs) and
youth groups and family services.
2. Be part of our rabbinic team providing pastoral and life
cycle support (so we can have a rabbi available 365 days
a year and increase the number of people we can
connect with.)
3. Develop new initiatives and reach out to groups that are
currently underserved here at CBS. We have not further
defined these groups as it will depend in part on the
skills and passions of our new assistant rabbi. (You will
see that this year in the search process, each candidate
is being asked to pick one thing of their choice to lead as
a chance for us to learn what different skills and
interests they could bring to CBS).
(Continued on page 2)
https://www.pinterest.com/malkamania/judaica/
R2
President
Michael Madwed
President Elect
Norbert Sorg
Past President
Andrew Cohen
Vice-President
Jennifer Cohen
Treasurer
Scott Cohen
Secretary
Rochelle Roseman
Religious School Committee
Chair
Joshua Newman
Members at Large:
Erin Benzikry
Carolyn Bernhard
Joani Diskin Saran
Debra Gussin
Mark Igra
Philip Nurick
Dov Pinker
Hannah Pressman
John Schochet
Scott Starr
David Tarshes
Aharon tenBroek
CBS 2016-2017 Board of Directors
Deadlines:
Articles / Announcements
are due in synagogue office
by the 10th of each month
for the following months
newsletter.
206-524-0075 CBS phone
206-525-5095 CBS fax
Rabbi Jill Borodin [email protected]
Rabbi Adam Rubin [email protected]
Carol Benedick Executive Director [email protected]
Rachel Wachtel Education & Youth Director
Leah Lemchen Director of Early Childhood Center [email protected]
Rabbi Sarah Rubin Program Director [email protected]
Marjie Cogan Communications Coordinator [email protected]
Heidi Piel Lifecycle Coordinator
Marci Greenberg
Bnai Mitzvah Coordinator
Lauren Fellows
Front Office Coordinator
Emma Shusterman Bookkeeper [email protected]
Louis Friedkin Comptroller
Tamara Fernandez Asst to the Director of the ECC
Sydney Allrud Education Assistant
Rimma Lobas Service Assistant
Christina Young Building Mantainance
Luis Martinez/Cameron Decker Custodial Attendant
Synagogue office address: 6800 - 35th Ave NE Seattle, WA 98115 website: www.bethshalomseattle.org
Rabbis Message continued
In addition to these three core areas, there are a number
of other expectations and pre-requirements of the job
including being knowledgeable and a good teacher, being
a committed Zionist, interacting well with our youth,
good at relationship building, strong religious personal
practice and observance, committed to our values of
diversity and inclusion, having good follow through,
responsive to feedback, committed to learning, good
team member and much more.
And thinking about the question of what we are looking
for (and I lose much, much sleep over this question), the
most important quality for me is being a mentsch. We
have been blessed to have a true mentsch with us in
Rabbi Rubin, and that is our top priority for who we are
considering next for this position.
The second reason I have been thinking about this
mishna is connected to wrestling, in our rapidly changing
political landscape, with the question of moral leadership
- how should a rabbi express themselves as a moral
leader today? What does it mean to be a rabbi today?
Today there is an unprecedented need for moral
leadership, and faith leaders and communities have a
critical role to play in this vacuum of moral leadership.
But what should they say and do? And how does one
speak and act in a way that both promotes our values
and allows for the richness that comes from the
respectful exchange of different opinions and nurturing a
diverse community. I struggle with the question of how
much should a rabbi speak out with specific ideas and
how much should he/she cultivate these sensibilities
through different means such as teaching and modeling?
What should be condoned? Allowed? Forbidden? And
when should we focus on listening?
I personally feel called this year in my rabbinate to speak
out and be active in new ways, building relationships,
listening, engaging civically in new and heightened ways
- though I continuously wrestle with how and when to do
it, and trying to not shirk my responsibility. It weighs
heavily on me the honor and responsibility that you have
accepted me as your rabbi. And with this role, I ponder
what it means to be truly a rabbi, and have been trying
to practice the advice of Yehoshua ben Perahiah: accept
upon yourself a rav. With the accepting of being a
