Shalom from TBD Religious School

Shabbat newsletter compiled by
Gal Kessler Rohs, Education Director
Tu BiShvat, the holiday of the trees, was celebrated this past week in Israel. This weekend Americans commemorate President’s Day. Because Israel is our spiritual homeland, her presidents are important to us as well. What a perfect opportunity this is to highlight the garden of Beit HaNassi, the official residence of the President of Israel located in the nation’s capital Jerusalem.

Adjacent to the residence is the Presidential Peace Garden stretching over some two-thirds of an acre. In 2009 the garden was restored by the National Jewish Fund with newly planted flora of the land of Israel. The garden features olive, cypress, and pine trees as well as endangered wildflower species. In that same year,  Pope Benedict XVI  and  President Shimon Peres z"l  also inaugurated a new tradition in honor of peace, to have world leaders visiting Beit Hanassi add their flora to the peace garden, so that world peace will symbolically take root. 
Pope Benedict’s tree is adjacent to  President Barak Obama’ s Magnolia tree. As Obama then explained to Peres, “The tree is a gift for a man who has planted the seeds of progress, the seeds of security, the seeds of peace - all the seeds that have helped not only Israel grow but also the relationship between our two nations grow." The American tree was grown from a set of seeds from the original Jackson Magnolia alongside the Rose Garden on the South Lawn of the White House. It was planted in the 1830s by  President Andrew Jackson . It is the oldest known presidential tree on the grounds of the White House.

The newest addition to the peace garden is an old English Oak tree planted last month by Britain’s heir to the throne,  Prince Charles , together with  President Rubi Rivlin Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis  said at the planting ceremony to both leaders,“The tree represents the laudable aspirations that the two of you have for high-quality, sustainable development throughout the world. And may the planting of this tree now inspire the sowing of seeds towards a durable peace, here in Israel and throughout the Middle East.”

May we too grow endeavors of presidential seeds of peace, hope, and love.

Shabbat Shalom, 
- Gal Kessler Rohs , Education Director
We are volunteering at Union Station
this Sunday Funday
Wanna join Barbara in doing something good? We'll be preparing breakfast for the hungry and homeless at  Union Station Homeless Services  this Sunday. Call us: 626 287 9994, or mail office@templebd.com and we'll add you onto our volunteer pool!

About Union Station, from the website :
Nearly 50 years ago, a group of compassionate community members wanted to make a difference. Together, they founded Union Station Homeless Services. Today, volunteers continue to be essential to our life-saving work.Whether you volunteer in our kitchens to prepare meals; at our apartments to provide a workshop, story time, or craft event; or in our offices to help with administrative projects, you will be a valuable member of our family when you volunteer at Union Station Homeless Services.
Volunteer opportunities are varied, and we do our best to match volunteers with a position that suits their interests and skills.
This week's Parashat Yitro / פרשת יתרו
dictates the Biblical 10 Commandments ✏️ 🖍 🖊 📖
Parashat Yitro / פרשת יתרו is the 17th weekly Torah portion in the annual Jewish cycle of Torah reading found in Exodus 18:1 - 20:23. The parashah is the shortest of the weekly Torah portions in the Book of Exodus (although not the shortest in the Torah), and is made up of 4,022 Hebrew letters, 1,105 Hebrew words, and 75 verses. 

In the sixth reading (עליה, aliyah) of the portion, Gd came down on the top of Mount Sinai, and called Moses up. Gd again commanded Moses to warn the people not to break through. Gd then spoke the Ten Commandments:

1 "I the Lord am your Gd."
2 "You shall have no other gods besides Me. You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, or any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them.”
3 "You shall not swear falsely by the name of the Lord your Gd."
4 "Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy."
5 "Honor your father and your mother."
6 "You shall not murder."
7 "You shall not commit adultery."
8 "You shall not steal."
9 "You shall not bear false witness."
10 "You shall not covet . . . anything that is your neighbor's."

Teacher Steve Bermann and his students created their own 10 commandments for their class. This image depicts some fun commandments like “having fun at school”, “having two birthdays”, and “using iPads at school’. Well, we do indeed comply to these! 
Shabbaton is coming up
and enrollment is underway ☀️   🍊   🧒🏻   👦🏼   🖍
We at religious school expose your children to Jewishly relevant experiences for a mere 3 hours on Sundays, 27 sessions a year. That’s really not much. In fact, it is very little. That’s why we encourage further Judaic exposure through temple life and beyond. We believe the latter to include Jewish summer camps. This includes sleep-away camps, like Shabbaton and Camp Mountain Chai,  since this is a frame where campers are without parents, living an exclusive Jewish life, making new friends with a diverse group of children, all in light of Jewish values. The fun and diverse experiences are lifelong remembered as the positive Judaic experiences we wish to perpetuate to our children, ledor vador.

More about camps, Shabbaton, and how to perpetuate Judaism beyond our 27 Sunday sessions throughout the year in our religious school eblast here .
upcoming Presidents Day, and Tu BiShvat that passed
makes us think of Rivlin Grapes 🍇🍇🍇🍇🍇🍇🍇
As we think about the culmination of Tu Bishvat and shift gears towards Presidents Day, we found this image to be a good transition! President  Reuven Rivlin , the president of Israel  with a new grape species named "Rivlin" after his Late wife, First Lady  Nechama Rivlin

"The bunch of ‘Rivlin’ grapes you see is made up of dozens of single grapes. Each is hard on the outside, yet soft and sweet on the inside. Each grape holds within it the sweetness of good deed in a person’s life.And the whole bunch represents Nechama. Together, they represent modesty, dignity and beauty. There is also a closing of a circle here. Nehama, a Bachelor of Science in Biotechnology and Zoology, with a teaching certificate in Natural Sciences, worked for many years at the  Hebrew University Of Jerusalem, Givat Ram  at the  Institute of Life Sciences . Her love of nature and its conservation were and will continue to be a part of her heritage."

To read more, click here .
Coming up
at TBD and featured dates to note:
Sunday, Feb 16th, No Religious School, President's Day, TBD at Union Station 
Tuesday, Feb 18th, at 7.30pm, Adult education with Rabbi Lachtman focusing on the book When Difficult Relatives Happen to Good People
Sunday, Feb 23 at 9.30am, Adult Bagel Breakfast, 9.30am "Estate Planning" with Gavin Wasserman, 9.30am, Debby Singer presenting PJ Library
1:00 TBD Book Club is " Out of the Shadow, " by Rose Cohen
Friday, Feb 28th at 6pm: Ulpan Shabbat including dinner
Sunday, March 1 Religious School
Thursday, March 5th, at 10am: National Webinar on education and thriving (Contact Gal for more info)
Thursday, March 6-8th, Shabbaton (For 3-9th graders)
Sunday, March 8th: Purim at TBD, Lindy Bornstein making food enrichment.
9:30am- 12pm: Hamantaschen sale in the temple lobby
Friday, March 13th at 6pm: Purim carnival at TBD
Sunday, March 15th Religious School, TBD at Union Station
Sunday, March 22nd Religious School
Friday, March 27th at 6pm: Ulpan Shabbat including dinner (topic: Passover)
Sunday, March 29th at 9.30am, Adult Bagel Breakfast
Friday, April 3rd at 6pm: Ulpan Shabbat including dinner (topic: Passover)
Sunday, April 5th Religious School (topic: Passover, Model Seder)
Sunday, April 12th, No School, Passover Break
Sunday, April 19th Religious School (topic: Holocaust for Upper Grades), TBD at Union Station 
Sunday, April 26th Religious School (topic: Israel Day)
Friday, May 1st at 6pm: Ulpan Shabbat including dinner
Sunday, May 3rd Religious School
Sunday, May 10th, No School, Mothers' Day
Friday, May 15th at 6pm: Ulpan Shabbat including dinner (topic: Shavuot)
Sunday, May 17th: Last Day of Religious School, family lunch, TBD at Union Station 
Friday, June 5th at 6pm: Ulpan Shabbat including dinner
Sunday, June 21st: TBD at Union Station
Shabbat Shalom, with a Camp Mountain Chai
One, two, three, four- tree!