A joyous community of Jewish women engaged in prayer,
study, and spiritual growth
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Our next service will be Saturday, February 3
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February - The Month of Love
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February is usually all about Valentine's Day and President's Day weekend.
Because of the quirks of the Jewish lunar calendar, Purim begins on Wednesday night, Feb. 28th. This does not happen often, but actually fits into this month’s theme.
February is the month of love!
Valentine's Day, developed from a feast day honoring a saint, is now a time to celebrate love. President's Day, with its long weekend, reflects the "love" we have for our early leaders, and the "love" our country has for its citizens by giving many people an extra day off from work! And Purim? It is about love too! An older king falls in love with his new queen, the beautiful Esther.
Related to Lev Eisha,
Lev means heart, and our name is defined as the “Heart of a Woman.”
Hearts, of course, are associated with love. The Hebrew word for love is a
hava, and it is both a verb and a noun. As a verb, its root,
ahav, means “to give." True
ahava, true love, is more concerned about giving than receiving. Being the center of someone's attention isn't love. And love isn't about getting some feeling or fix.
Ahava is about giving devotion and time, being constant, loyal and reliable.
Share the love with friends and family this Shabbat and join us for
Ahava!
We hope to see you on Saturday, February 3.
We will begin at 8:15 am with a light breakfast and teaching by Rabbi August on "The Exodus: How it Happened and Why it Matters," from Richard Friedman's new 2017 book. Friedman, a premier Bible scholar, is known for his popular text
Who Wrote the Bible? Just a few weeks into the Torah reading of the Exodus narrative, this timely topic explores the
historical authenticity of the Bible narrative, the archeological evidence, or lack thereof, and asks us to contemplate what the Passover story means to us.
Join the conversation! Did the Exodus really happen? Does it matter? Where do you stand?
Services begin at 9:30 am, led by Rabbi August and Cantorial Soloist Cindy Paley. Be sure to stay for a delicious kiddush luncheon after services, sponsored by Suzanne Buckholtz in honor of her birthday and Levi's birthday; by Myrna Kayton, Barbara Axelband and Sarah Barash in honor of their birthdays.
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We very much appreciate those Lev Eisha sisters who make it possible to cater our breakfasts and monthly Kiddush luncheons. Please consider celebrating your simcha with Lev Eisha. Sponsors are still needed for May and June.
Contact our catering chairperson, Lynn Beliak at
catering@leveisha.org
and send in your payment
BEFORE the 20th of the month
. You can mail a check to us at
10736 Jefferson Blvd. #706, Culver City, CA 90230
or pay online
HERE.
Forms are available on
the Lev table in the foyer, or on the upstairs
kiddush tables. Lynn hopes to hear from you soon.
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Welcome to Our New Members
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We welcome these renewing members, who have joined us this month:
Barbara Axelband
Pearl Councelbaum
Nancy Weiss
Holly Zucker
If you haven't renewed your membership for our Chai year, there are 3 ways you can join us: 1) visit the website,
leveisha.org and join online; 2) return the membership application that was mailed to you last summer; or 3) pick up an application on either our membership table or on the kiddush tables.
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Thank you to the following generous donors:
- Shirley Belinfante
- Beverly Mushinsky - in honor of Joan Spiegel
- Connie Robin - "Thank all of you who make your services joyous! I moved here from Oceanside, CT this year. Linda Fleischman has brought me several times. I hope to see you in 2018."
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Here are some ladies you might recognize from 10 years ago:
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Joyce Krauthammer, Rabbi August, and Cindy Paley
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Past Presidents Olivia Goodkin and Elaine Craig Segal
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Robin Winston and mom, Myrna Kayton
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Shop on Amazon and Support Lev Eisha!
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AmazonSmile is a website operated by Amazon with the same products, prices, and shopping features as
Amazon.com
. You use the same account on Amazon.com and AmazonSmile. Your shopping cart, Wish List, wedding or baby registry, and other account settings are also the same. The difference is that when you shop on AmazonSmile, the AmazonSmile Foundation will donate 0.5% of the purchase price of eligible products to the charitable organization of your choice.
AmazonSmile is a simple and automatic way for you to support Lev every time you shop, at no cost to you.
To sign up, visit
https://smile.amazon.com/
. You will be prompted to select Lev Eisha from a list of eligible organizations. Amazon will remember your selection, and then every eligible purchase you make at
AmazonSmile
will result in a donation. You only have to sign up once.
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Lifting Our Hearts and Souls By Rabbi August
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Our annual women's weekend was inspiring and we are grateful to our co-chairs Linda Zweig and Barbara Brown, and their committee (Janis Cohen, Nancy Federman, Cindy Paley, plus all our volunteers for making our retreat a huge success.
Being on retreat creates parallel time. Although it was a Friday evening through Sunday morning, it was so much more than that. It was a true Shabbat: renewal, revitalizing and engaging in deep prayer, learning, dancing, and singing Jospel with Sharon. We are blessed to have Joy Krauthammer bring her Tibetan bowl, which allowed us to settle into ourselves with holy reflection, acceptance and love.
We had the afternoon to go even deeper into our inner lives with "Soul Collage" and walking the Labyrinth. It was fascinating to discover aspects of ourselves through pictures, visual art, and walking with Kavanah - intention.
The Saturday night concert by Nevenka lifted everyone even higher, and we concluded the weekend with a musical, mystical Tu B'shevat Seder. Thank you to Lynn and her volunteers for arranging the delicious foods.
This is our 18th (Chai) year, and we are still going strong. Our friendships deepen, our learning goes higher, our prayers led by Cindy, Robin and Sharon, touch our hearts and souls. Joy and Ruth add their music to our beautiful services.
I am blessed to have every one of you in my life, and encourage you to join us as often as you can to have these unique and meaningful moments in your life too!
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Couldn't Make It to Lev Last Month?
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If you missed Rabbi August's brilliant teaching last month, you can now listen to it online, in the comfort of your home, and share it with friends and family.
Thanks to modern technology, Rabbi August's sermons are now available on our website. Click
HERE
to listen
This new innovation, however, is costly; please consider making a donation of $100 to Lev Eisha so we can continue this innovative program. This is the cost for us to record and post her sermons. Donors will be acknowledged on our Lev Eisha website as well as in our monthly seat flyer and Newsletter.
Please help Lev Eisha reach out to our community! Online donations can be made
HERE
, or you can mail your check to:
Lev Eisha, 10736 Jefferson Blvd.,
#706, Culver City, CA 90230
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Word Art by Joy Krauthammer
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2017-2018 Board of Directors
Co-Presidents: Janis Cohen & Barbara Brown
Treasurer: Ruth Grossman
Secretary: Wendy Aleman
Membership: Robin Winston
Catering: Lynn Beliak
Ritual: Judy Fishman
Hospitality: Joan Spiegel
Newsletter: Rose Ziff
Outreach: Gail Heim
Women's Retreat: Linda Zweig
Member at Large: Carolyn Wispe Burns
Past President: Susie Yuré
Advisory Council
Rachelle Neshkes
Holly Zucker
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY
to the following friends who are celebrating February birthdays:
Barbara Axelband
Sarah Barash
Levi Buckholtz
Suzanne Bucholtz
Linda Fleischman
Sheryl Katzovitz
Shirley C. Munch
Cathy Novak
Rhonda Rubin
Kim Selfon
Holly Zucker
Do you have a February birthday and we didn't acknowledge it? Please send us your birth month and we will be glad to wish you a Happy Birthday!
Birthdays, weddings, graduations, Bat or Bar Mitzvot, births, special awards/honors, and exotic vacations are some of the simchas that are fun to share with our community.
This is also the place to ask our community to join you in prayers of healing for those who are ill or in memory of those who have passed away.
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Lev Eisha Shabbat Services are held at Beth Shir Shalom
1827 California Ave. Santa Monica, 90403
Directions:
To Beth Shir Shalom
Take the 405 Fwy North or South to the 10 Fwy Westbound.
Exit the 10 Fwy at Cloverfield/26th Street
Turn right onto Cloverfield.
Turn left at Colorado.
Turn right onto 20th Street. Continue straight, past Wilshire, one block, to California.
Turn left onto California Avenue. Go 1-1/2 blocks. Beth Shir Shalom will be on the right.
To parking lot
Follow above directions to get to 20th Street and turn right.
Turn right at Wilshire.
Parking lot will be on the right behind the V Lounge, across the street from the Veggie Grill. (See map below)
LOOK FOR THE PURPLE BALLOONS!
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