CHAILITES
December 30, 2020
Wishing Our TBC Family a Happy and Healthy New Year
TBC Events Through January 7, 2021


For events that require registration:

Once you click on the registration link, you will be taken to a webpage where you will enter your name and email address. Once you submit this information, you will receive a CONFIRMATION EMAIL that includes the LINK you will use to join the program and the PASSWORD that you will need to enter after clicking the link to join.

**YOU MUST SAVE THE CONFIRMATION EMAILS THAT YOU RECEIVE. THEY ARE THE ONLY PLACES WHERE THE LINKS AND PASSWORDS WILL APPEAR.**
Shabbat Shalom From our Homes to Yours
THIS Friday January 1

This week we have a slightly revised pre-recorded Shabbat service available for you to watch online. If you weren’t able to watch it last week, we hope you will try it this Shabbat and we know you will love to see your fellow congregants chant Torah from their homes. This week we also included the Mi Shebereich and Yahrzeit lists. It’s only 30 minutes and is called: “TBC: Shabbat Shalom From our Homes to Yours” Shabbat service.

With thanks to the many talented members of our community who graciously agreed to video record themselves doing one of the prayers from our Shabbat liturgy, we bring you a truly communal Shabbat experience which you can enjoy on your own time. Please tune in to welcome Shabbat on January 1st with fellow members of your TBC family!! Many thanks to all who contributed recordings!

Click here to view the service -- no registration is required. Shabbat Shalom from our homes to yours!
Cantor Dunkerley is on Vacation
December 24 Through January 4

The Cantor is taking a much needed rest. She will be on vacation from December 24 through January 4, 2021. If you have a need during this time, please reach out to Denise in the Temple Office (203) 544-8695 or via email or contact June Mara.
TBC Book Group
Tuesday, January 5 - 7:30 pm

The next TBC Book Group will meet via Zoom on Tuesday, January 5 at 7:30 pm. We will be reading Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times by Jonathan Sacks. If you'd like to listen to a lecture by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks in which he discusses the book, please click here.
Tot Shabbat
Friday, January 8 - 5:00 pm

Please join Cantor Harriet at 5pm for an amazing Tot Shabbat experience! Children ages 5 or 6 and younger along with their families are invited to welcome Shabbat together with singing, dancing, special guests and even some challah and soup making! Get ready for a fun and participatory 20-25 minutes of music, learning and laughs as we greet Shabbat together!
 
Then, stick around if you like or, if you didn't make Tot Shabbat, please join us at 6:30 pm for our Shabbat Family Service! A fun, participatory family-friendly Shabbat service with prayers, liturgy and music put together especially with children ages 7-17 in mind, and suitable for all! Please join Cantor Harriet as we welcome Shabbat together. Remember to bring a smile and your favorite dancing shoes! Click here to register
TBC Sisterhood Presents
Dana Mack, Author of
 All Things That Deserve to Perish
Discussing Her Novel of Wilhelmine Germany
Monday - January 11, 7:30 pm

Dana Mack, known to many of our congregants as Dana Prinz, is proud to announce the publication of her first work of fiction, All Things That Deserve To Perish: A Novel of Wilhelmine Germany. Ms. Mack is the author of two non-fiction books: The Assault on Parenthood: How Our Culture Undermines the Family (Simon & Schuster) and The Book of Marriage: The Wisest Answers to the Toughest Questions (Eerdmanns). An historian, journalist and musician, Ms. Mack's articles on music, history, culture, family issues, and education have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Commentary Magazine, the Christian Science Monitor, the New Criterion, the Washington Post, USA Today, and many other publications.

All Things That Deserve To Perish is the first of two historical novels which trace the life of an intermarried Jewish woman in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

You can purchase the book on Amazon, by clicking here. To participate in the discussion, click here.
 
Bioethics During COVID
Tuesday - January 12, 7:30 pm

The Adult Education Committee is bringing this very important and relevant lecture to TBC.

With COVID continuing to rage, many bioethical issues that once seemed hypothetical are very real now.

When we run out of vital supplies, space or equipment, what criteria may we ethically use to distribute scarce resources? What do our sacred texts tell us about such decisions? Do we assign higher value to some lives? When we don’t have enough, do we use an algorithm based on medical criteria alone? Do we use a simple lottery?

Rabbi Gary Gerson and Dr. Carol Gerson will review some of the approaches we might use to guide us when faced with crisis decisions. We will debate which of these criteria we think are ethical, and look at how Jewish sources would have us address ethically difficult decisions.

Dr. Carol Gerson is a retired pediatric otolaryngologist and an active mohelet with a doctorate in bioethics. She is a faculty member of the medical schools of Northwestern and
Tulane universities.

Rabbi Gary Gerson served as Senior Rabbi of Oak Park Temple B’nai Abraham Zion in the
Chicago suburbs from 1979 to 2009. As Rabbi Emeritus, he teaches courses in Jewish
text, Kabbalah, Jewish thought, and comparative religion. A Fulbright scholar, Rabbi
Gerson holds master’s degrees in religion and psychology, rabbinic ordination, a
doctorate in ministry, and certification as a family therapist from the Philadelphia Child
Guidance Clinic.

All are welcome. Click here to register for this extraordinary event. To make a donation click here.
Mitzvah Hero Awards
January 31 at 4 pm

Honoring our very own Steve West-Rosenthal!
The Weekly Torah Portion
Va-y'chi
[Jacob] Lived
Genesis 47:28–50:26

  • Jacob blesses his grandchildren Ephraim and Manasseh. (48:1-20)
  • Jacob's twelve sons gather around his deathbed, and each receives an evaluation and a prediction of his future. (49:1-33)
  • Joseph mourns his father's death and has Jacob embalmed. Jacob is buried in Hebron in the cave of the field of the Machpelah in the land of Canaan. (50:1-14)
  • Joseph assures his concerned brothers that he has forgiven them and promises to care for them and their families. (50:15-21)
  • Just before he dies, Joseph tells his brothers that God will return them to the Land that God promised to the patriarchs. The Children of Israel promise Joseph that they will take his bones with them when they leave Egypt. (50:22-26) Click here to learn more
Join with TBC to Support Wi-ACT's
Cystic Fibrosis Initiative!

Temple B'nai Chaim members have participated each year in Wilton Interfaith Action Committee's Rise Against Hunger meal packing event to provide food to hungry children around the world.

This year Wi-ACT has had to change its focus because of the pandemic. Instead Wi-ACT is requesting donations of gift cards for food and also for holiday gifts for local families in the tri-state area with children suffering from Cystic Fibrosis. We'd love to see TBC family members engaged in this work, including having children write notes to recipients and prepare decorative envelopes to hold the gift cards. We believe this experience will engage children in ways similar to the meal-packaging event and underscore the significance of working to meet the needs of others whatever the challenges. Click here for more information!
Deductible Year End Contributions

Did you know that you can deduct up to $300 in charitable contributions on your federal income tax return, even if you do not itemize your contributions? To make a contribution to Temple B'nai Chaim, please click here.
Yahrzeit Memorial Plaques at TBC

During this challenging time, we know that many of us are thinking of loved ones who have passed away. We invite you to commemorate the lives and blessings of your loved ones with a memorial plaque. A special service of dedication for the entire community will be scheduled at TBC when that again becomes possible. Ordering information is available here.
Upcoming Events and Save the Dates! 
Dorothy Day Hospitality House
Wednesday, January 6, 2:00 pm
Sisterhood Cooking Class: Parent & Child Challah (Zoom)
Sunday, January 10, 5:00 pm
Sisterhood Sponsored Donna Mack Discussion of All Things That Deserve to Perish, click here to participate
Monday, January 11, 7:30 pm
Adult Ed Program - Jewish Bioethics During COVID, Click here to register
Tuesday, January 12, 7:30 pm
See the TBC Calendar for more upcoming events
✓ Check out the TBC Event Planning Guidelines
Yahrzeits, January 1 - 7
  Zeicher tzaddik livrachah! 

Friday, January 1, 2021
Lillian Unger, aunt of Sandy Tepper

Saturday, January 2, 2021
Brenda Lewson, mother of David Lewson

Sunday, January 3, 2021
Isador Goldberg, grandfather of Lloyd Goldberg
Yetta Goldberg, grandmother of Lloyd Goldberg
Moses Levin, great uncle of Robert Bolton

Monday, January 4, 2021
Bob Baxter, stepfather of Simon Curtis
Rose Graf Greenwald, remembered by Sharon and Ken Sobel

Wednesday, January 6, 2021
Edith Stern, mother of Susan Farber

It is traditional to light a memorial candle on the eve of the yahrzeit at home and to recite Kaddish when lighting the yahrzeit candle. It is also a custom to make donations in memory of loved ones around the time.
For Virtual Shabbat

If you would like to read the list of those we are remembering and/or those on the Mi Sheberach list when you view the virtual Shabbbat, From Our Homes to Yours, those lists appear below.

We are in a period of Shloshim for Helen Erlich, mother of Senia Feiner.

We ask for healing and peace for:

Arlene Schofield
Seth Schwartz
Evelyn Friedman
Greg Kelner
Debra Leiter
Paul Esposito
Luke Schwartz
Wendy Nadel
Dayna Arnowitz
Beverly Peterman
Help Support TBC
Contact Us

If you have TBC community news you'd like to share, please send the information to chailites@templebnaichaim.org!

Mailing Address: P.O. Box 305, Georgetown, CT 06829
Phone: 203 544-8695    
Location: 82 Portland Avenue, Wilton CT 06897 (Directions)

Cantor/Educator: Cantor Harriet Dunkerley 
President: June Mara   Office Manager/Facility Use: Denise Seccurra