Shir ShalomVT

Volume 1 | Issue 4

July 2022

Shir Shalom Celebrates 2022

Saturday, July 16th

at

Vermont Institute of Natural Science

The fun starts at 4 pm

Raptor Exhibits, Canopy Walk, Live Auction, Music, Great Food and Fellowship

Business casual attire and appropriate footwear encouraged.

This event is sold out, but proxy bids for the live auction are being accepted. Scroll down for more information.

Shabbat Worship with Blessings

July 15 ~ 7:00 pm

In person and via Zoom

Young Families Shabbat Potluck

July 22 ~ 5:30 pm

Winawer-Stein House

Silver Lake Shabbat Weekend

August 19-20 

We have reserved a limited number of campsites for this weekend which will be available on a first come, first serve basis. If you are interested in spending the night at the campground and enjoying all the fun that is planned, please RSVP to Leah Gawel with the number of people in your group.

Shir Shalom VT Annual Meeting

August 21 4:00 pm

Join us via Zoom for the annual meeting of the congregation. 

Shabbat Community Dinners

August 26   6:00 pm

Dinners will be held various homes, TBD

High Holy Days

5783/2022

September 26 - October 21

Download the High Holy Days Calendar

Yahrzeits

for July 7 - August 10

Barry August

Vivian Kogan Benn

Emanuel Blumberg

Kenneth Eugene Bonanno

Muriel Gray Daks

Linda Dentz

Rita Gottsegen

Myra Grosinger

Marilyn S. Grossman

Robert Grossman

Steven Halley

Elisabeth Kahn

Vivian Kogan Benn

Richard Laster

Robert Leonard

Donald Isaac Levy

Hilary Michaud

Matthew Aaron Rosen

Sophie Rosenberg

Chickie Rosenberg

Daniel Rosenberg

Lilo Schaeffer

Alys Schnabel

Bernard Shirman

Carl Singer

Hank Smith

Sylvia Calo Weinberg

Edward L. Zimmerman

Todah Rabah



Todah Rabah for all that you have given / Gifts of the heart since June 2022 / We could not have done it without you!

Click for list

From the Rabbi's Desk 

Sunday, July 10th marked ten years since I started at Shir Shalom. Sometimes it seems like a moment and sometimes it seems like I have been here forever. I have been blessed beyond blessing to have served this congregation and to have been welcomed into this beautiful congregational family. As a congregation we have grown significantly over the past ten years. So many of you have served as my counsel and guidance and I have had the gift of sharing in so many of your family simchas. We have blessed babies, sanctified marriages, celebrated many wonderful moments, and we have shared the gift of mourning our loved ones together. Our newest members have helped bring new wonder, new creativity, and many beautiful children to our community. For all these moments of connection, I offer gratitude to each of you and to the divine.

Of course, our work as a Jewish community is never done. Thirty-seven times we are commanded in the Torah to care for the widow, the stranger and the orphan. Over the past few weeks, the Shir Shalom Vermont community has begun creating a task force working to support a Ukrainian family, potentially bringing them to the U.S. This work is progressing and will be brought to the board at the July board meeting. We are working with HIAS (the Hebrew Immigration Aid Society), in an advisory capacity, to help us determine the best way to move forward. We are commanded to care for the stranger and will with your help, live our Torah.

If you would like to be a part of this work, please reach out to Andrea Felix andrea.w.felix@gmail.com or Mickey Elsberg. sme6@cornell.edu 

This is a moment of profound disruption in our nation. The witnessing of a shift in the ethos and commitment of the highest court in the land, working in tikkun olam, coming together where we care for the stranger is perhaps our deepest potential to our hope for a better world.

Sharing the wonder of our Shir Shalom community with those in need helps us to transform our anxiety, fear and deep disappointment into agency. We have so much to give, please come and be part of the work and part of the hope for a better world. MaTovu, (How good) is the blessing offered when a curse was expected.

Kol Tov and thank you all for your support, now and over the past ten years. Here’s to many, many more wonderful years to come.

Rabbi Ilene Harkavy Haigh

From the Education Corner

One of my earliest memories is of my sister tugging my mother’s necklace and hearing the staccato “bump bump” of pearls scatter across the sanctuary floor. Much to my chagrin, the Rabbi did not halt the service to “send us all home,” but instead, he merely looked up at my sobbing sister (or perhaps mother) and smiled.  I now realize that what I had assumed was a misplaced smile was actually his reaction to the joyful reminder of the presence of children at shul.  

Services was where I learned biology and Hebrew; it was osmosis! Similarly, my own children accompanied us to shul, and instead of counting knots on his dad’s tallis as I once did, Sam amused himself by skimming the TaNaKH for a word synonymous with donkey.  And while his understanding of the map of ancient Assyria and the narrative of Balaam grew, so did his Hebrew. His sister, Sophia, worked on her lagging math skills by “counting 5s” via the siddur pages, strategizing 5 layer cake procurement from the oneg, and practiced her aleph-bet.

In Jewish Education, pedagogy suggests that the brain creates stronger neural pathways when students have prior knowledge of a prayer before learning to decode it. In other words: what they learn in class “sticks” better when the kids already know the words “ishy” and can hum the tune. Wherever does one acquire these skills?  Services.  

A wise Rabbi once told me “don’t worry if you know the tunes, the words, the pages, or the meaning. Just come. The rest will follow.”  And so, I extend the same advice to you.  Join us, and bring your family. For the sound of children is holy noise. 

L’shalom,

Leah Gawel

Can't make it to worship in person? Join us via Zoom

https://zoom.us/j/7259482096 or by phone:

415-762-9988

Meeting ID: 725 948 2096

Not attending the Summer Fund Raiser? You can still bid on the amazing LIVE Auction items by proxy!

(click here to view what you could win!)

To place a bid by phone, call

Susan Brown 802-457-2455

or Susan Feinberg 802-457-3372

Phone bids will be accepted until 12 noon on Saturday, July 16.