Saratoga Serves up a Multi-Faith Mitzvah Week

Join with the Saratoga Communities of Faith for a week full of service opportunities. You can see a full listing of the projects going on on the SaratogaServes.org website. There’s ways to help with the rotating shelter, blood drive, clothing drive, helping seniors, helping children and more.

Some projects have already started. All projects are open to all, not just Saratoga residents. We strongly encourage you to a find project this week that speeks to you and lend a helping hand. It will be rewarding for you as well as the population you’re helping. Not to mention a great opportunity to meet others in our community.

The project at Congregation Beth David is a week from today.

Sunday Friends: The Working Alternative to Charity
Come join us for an afternoon of creativity and community. We will assemble Dia De Los Ninos (Children’s Day) art project kits and make samples of finished projects for the organization Sunday Friends in San Jose
March 22, 1 to 4
Congregation Beth David
19700 Prospect Road

A message from our Rabbi’s about it.

A Special Message from Rabbis Pressman and Schonbrun

The Faith Communities of Saratoga, through the Ministerial Association, are sponsoring a week of service to the community. You might call it a communal mitzvah week. Our component is a family crafts project on Sunday the 22nd. We encourage you to take part in one of these service opportunities. They are open to all, not just residents of Saratoga. For additional details visit www.saratogaserves.org.

Shabbat Shalom!

The website also lists all of Saratoga Faith Communities and already has information about the Interfaith Thanksgiving Service, which will be held at Congregation Beth David this year.

Food for the Body, Food for the Soul: 3rd Annual South Bay Jewish Community Night of Learning

Food for the Body, Food for the Soul

Third Annual South Bay Jewish Community Night of Learning

Saturday, February 21st from 7:00pm-10:30pm

Join South Bay scholars, rabbis, and educators for the third annual South Bay Community Night of Learning. With over 20 presentations to choose from and over 2 hours of study, discussion, and schmoozing, this year’s Community Night of Learning is sure to be the biggest and best yet. Havdallah will kick the evening off at 7:00pm. The first classes begin at 7:25pm.

Refreshments served. Free child care available with reservation (space limited). This event is FREE to the public. Location: Addison-Penzak Jewish Community Center (14855 Oka Road, Los Gatos). For more information, call 408.357.7413 or email: CJLL [at] svjcc.org.

See the listing of classes and community teachers, which include Rabbi Pressman and Rabbi Schonbrun of Congregation Beth David.

United Synagogue Stands With Israel

The news from Israel and Gaza has been on many of our minds this week. Below is a statement released by United Synagogue about the current situation, As this secular New Year begins, we hope and pray for a day in which there will be peace between Israel and all of her neighbors.

Rabbi Daniel Pressman and Rabbi Aaron Schonbrun

United Synagogue Stands With Israel

DECEMBER 2008 – The United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism supports Israel in its response to the unremitting violence directed toward its citizens from Gaza.

Although United Synagogue’s leaders realize that many Palestinian lives are at risk and grieve for them, and acknowledge with great sadness that some already have been lost, we see no other way for Israel to protect its citizens, who have been the targets of unremitting savage violence directed at them by Hamas. We feel great sadness for the people of Gaza, who have been betrayed by Hamas, which has brought them nothing but violence, starvation, and misery. Israel is doing what it must do — no civilized country can leave its citizens unprotected. The great irony of this attack coming from Gaza, from which Israel has tried to disengage since 2005, should not be lost on any observer.

We are heartened by the response of the United States, coming both from President George W. Bush’s administration and from President-elect Barack Obama. We pray that the violence soon will end and that the people of this battered region finally will find peace.

Contribute an Idea to a Book about Synagogues

From the Co-Star blog ( CBD’s Rabbi Schonbrun is a graduate of the STAR PEER program)

December 4, 2008 – ז’ כסלו תשס”ט by:

I’m writing a book to be published by The Alban Institute entitled Tools for Shuls: A Guide to Makeover Your Synagogue. While the book has the title “synagogue” in it, anyone who works in churches and other non-profit organizations, and cares about subjects, including:

• Being a talent scout for new congregational volunteers
• Expanding and deepening your volunteer leadership base
• Assessing your progress on achieving your mission
• Facilitating change by rocking the boat just enough
• Digital dreaming–using technology to extend the reach of synagogues.

will hopefully find the book of interest.

In the spirit of innovation and community, I’m building my book around this blog and I’ll be using your comments on my posts to shape it (if I use your idea, you will be credited in the book). So I’m really eager to hear from you! If you have clergy friends of other faiths or know of synagogue leaders who might be interested in this blog, please forward the link to them as well.

Each week, I’ll be posting on a different topic. The posts will actually be housed in a separate blog, appropriately called, Tools for Shuls (www.toolsforshuls.com). The title of each post will appear on the CO-STAR blog, with a link directly to Tools for Shuls. That way, in addition to reading thoughtful posts on CO-STAR, you’ll be able to easily get to Tools for Shuls. I’m excited to begin this new way of writing a book. And I’m even more excited to hear from you, as much of what I’ll be writing about flows from experiences in working with you in different initiatives.

So please click here to read and respond to my first post about how to best initiate change in synagogues–by reaching for “low hanging fruit” or by “reaching for the stars.”

Thanks for enriching this important discussion.

Rabbi Hayim Herring

A Conversation About Mitzvah

By Rabbi Aaron Schonbrun

Shalom everyone! Over these past High Holidays Rabbi Pressman and I spoke about the Conservative Movement’s initiative to start a conversation among our members about the role that “mitzvah” plays in our lives. While there is no question that striving to live a life of mitzvot has always been central to what it means to be a Jew, there is a great deal of question as to what the term “mitzvah” means, and what living a life of “mitzvah” actually looks like.

The basic question that underlies this entire discussion is this: What compels us, or keeps us from, “doing Jewish” in our lives; and what does it mean to live “Jewish” lives in the first place? As this is a forum for these types of discussions, I wanted to invite all of you to join in on this important conversation. The following are the questions that Chancellor Eisen created as a springboard for having this conversation:

Guiding Questions: What Mitzvoth Bind Us—and Why

From Dr. Arnold Eisen, Chancellor, Jewish Theological Seminary of America

Our relationship to mitzvah will likely be enhanced if we ask ourselves and one another these questions. Feel free to add any that you feel are important, but are not on the list.

1. What actions do you feel obliged to perform as a Jewish human being? Examples:

• Attendance at synagogue at Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur
• Giving tzedakah to Jewish or non-Jewish causes
• Fasting on Yom Kippur
• Taking action: Darfur, Israel, issues in your local community
• Support for Israel

2. Are these obligations—if you consider them such—of the same sort or a different sort than the following?

• Providing your children with the basic necessities and a good start on life
• Taking care of elderly parents
• Sharing household duties with your spouse or partner
• “Being there” for friends or siblings when they need you

3. What do you recognize as the source of authority of the mitzvot you perform? More than one answer may apply.

• God requires this of me
• Conscience tells me what a good human being should do
• Gratitude to God or for my life
• Obligation to carry on the tradition of my ancestors
• Obligation to care for the Jewish people, especially in the wake of the Holocaust
• Responsibilities to my community
• Love of this tradition
• “This is what Jews do”

4. Do you approach the Days of Awe with awe? With dread? With joy that it is this time of year once again, that you have the chance to hear these melodies chanted again? With gratitude that you get a chance to start over once again?

5. What mitzvot do you think are the ones most pressing for you personally to remember at this New Year? Which are most pressing for your community? Which are most pressing for our society as a whole?

For more details on the specifics of this issue, as well as both Rabbis’ personal take on this discussion, I invite you to look at the following websites:

• http://www.jtsa.edu/Conservative_Judaism/Mitzvah.xml
• http://www.beth-david.org/sermons.htm

I look forward to learning from your insights. If you have any questions, or comments, please feel free to e-mail me directly at: schonbrun[at]beth-david.org

Rabbi Aaron Schonbrun

“Ushpizin” Hang in the Hut

Many young adults came out last Monday to enjoy dinner in the Schonbruns’ sukkah. Thanks to Rabbi Schonbrun for cooking us the yummy kosher dinner. No one left hungry. It was great to celebrate the festival with old and new friends and the weather was very pleasant. It’s the 3rd year the Schonbrun’s have had the Young Adult Group as their guests for Hanging in the Hut and we truly appreciate it. We also collected a bunch of Toys for our Toy Drive, keep them coming.