President’s Message

Did you know that some people consider there to be seven books of the Torah?  During one of the Rabbi’s recent Shabbat sermons, we learned that there is a portion in Numbers (Bamidbar) that is set off from the rest of the section with the letter Nun (one on each side, inverted like parentheses).  There are only a few lines in this section, and the midrash says that this would have been the final book if Israel had not committed the multitude of rebellious acts in the Sinai leading up to and around the time when Moses received the 10 commandments.  While there is a proper name for this book-that-did-not-happen, I have come to think of it as the Book of What Could Have Been. (more…)

Over the past year, the Temple Beth Sholom community has experienced a number of untimely deaths. Each of these people was an active member of our community in their own unique way, and each contributed to my personal life story and collective experience in some fashion. I think you, as members of this same community, know what I am talking about, understand the sentiment, and feel the same sense of loss. (more…)

It’s hard to believe that spring is finally here!  As we begin to prepare our yard and gardens for the new plantings, it is also time for us to get outside and enjoy the weather.  On one recent day, I had the opportunity to get out into the woods for a nice hike with my boys and their friends from Troop 41. Their mission that day was to navigate their way in small groups from Naugatuck State Forest to Brooksvale Park armed with a topographical map and their compasses. How they got from the start to the finish was up to each group of Scouts, with the adults along to make sure everything was safe, but not to comment on their routes. (more…)

A few weeks ago, we read from the parsha T’tsavveh in the book of Exodus.   In this parsha, we learn about the high priest Aaron’s sacred garments and “accessories.” For those of you unfamiliar with the passage, the Torah scrolls in our ark are dressed like Aaron with a robe and sash, a crown, and a breastplate. (more…)

Communities are funny. They can argue and bicker like family one day and rally together to support a cause the next. They can self-destruct and be on the verge of extinction due to internal arguments, and then surge to incredible strength when threatened from the outside. On the national level, this resurgence to nationalism is certainly a well-known phenomenon. But what happens on the micro-level of our small community at Temple Beth Sholom, where we work hard to prevent internal strife? How do we create a surge of togetherness without first going through a destructive phase? What is our rallying call? What is your rallying call? (more…)

I have been thinking a lot recently about gratitude. Gratitude, gratefulness, thankfulness; whatever you want to call it, it seems that there is not enough of it in our society. The in-your-face consumerism that surrounds us creates a constant feeling of inferiority. You have an LCD television? You need an LED. You have high definition cable service? You need 3D. It is simply an unending cycle of needless waste that leads us from one store to the next and warps our sense of reality. (more…)

The other day, a friend posted a link to a management guru’s website. Those of you who have ever looked for these sorts of websites before know that there are lots of them around, and each typically has some particular slant or hook. This particular site was no different, and their focus was on personal productivity and effectiveness with a bias towards inner satisfaction and renewal. Two things on the site immediately caught my eye. (more…)

Have you ever walked into services on a Friday night or Saturday morning and noticed the odd arrangement of seating? People seem to be spread out willy-nilly around the sanctuary with a few small clusters here and there. The front row is empty unless there is a Bar or Bat Mitzvah; there are some families, some singles, some couples in a seemingly random pattern, and a bunch of children in the back row. But if you were to take a mental picture (photography is not allowed on Shabbat, so we have to make do with our minds) and come back the following week, you would find that it is not so random and that people are generally in the same places. These are our assigned seats. (more…)

Shalom Bayit means literally, peace at home. And, while the Talmudic scholars may tell us that it refers to marital harmony, the Scolnic scholars will all tell us that it refers to Temple harmony. For the past 28 years, Rabbi Scolnic has been counseling us in the importance of keeping the peace, maintaining positive relationships, and releasing personal grudges. While this advice has not always been popular, it works. I know it is not always easy to hear someone tell you to “let it go” when you feel slighted or wronged; but keeping the peace can be more important than personal pride. (more…)

In our drive to squeeze maximum efficiency out of every aspect of our modern lives, we have inadvertently developed a new level of laziness. I am referring to, of course, the ever prevalent “app” (short for applications because we can’t be bothered to waste time speaking whole words anymore) that many of us use on our smart phones or tablets. We have apps for games so we do not have to interact with other people, apps to find our way to places so we do not have to get out a real paper map or plan ahead, apps for picking restaurants, apps for condensed news, and of course apps to manage our apps. One of my favorites is a conversion app that I use for work. Now I never have to remember how many BTU’s in a gallon of oil (I am sure everyone has this number on the tip of their tongues) or how many liters in a gallon. (more…)