הקשר HaKesher
TBT's Newsletter: The Connection
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Come be a part of our growing Reform synagogue.
All are welcome!
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EVENTS AND ACTIVITIES
All Events via Zoom Unless Otherwise Noted
February 11 - Friday Night Shabbat Lights
5:30: Tot shabbat
6:00: Erev Shabbat Service
6:45: Meaningful Conversation
February 19 - 7:00 pm - Havdallah with a Movie
February 25 - 5:30 pm - Pop-Up Shabbat (in Person)
CHEVRUTA
"The Chasidic Masters"
Via Zoom
Sundays 9:00 am - 10:15 am - 2/6, 2/13, 2/20, 2/27
MORAL COURAGE
A Learning and Practice Group
Via Zoom
Sundays 11:00 am - 12:30 pm - 2/13, 2/27
JEWISH WELLNESS INITIATIVE
Via Zoom
Fridays 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm - 2/4, 2/11, 2/18, 2/25
ON THE HORIZON
March 17 - Purim
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President's Message
Kerrie Zurovsky
In trying to be intentional with my personal goals this year, I have realized a new responsibility that I feel the need to act upon. After the shocking hostage situation in Congregation Beth Israel, I was heart-warmed by the few non-Jewish friends who reached out to me with words of comfort and support. However, I was also dismayed by those who did not mention it or who shrugged it off. I realized how important it is for us to not carry this burden of worry, fear or anger alone. Our non-Jewish friends should be there to stand beside us and help us navigate these frightening events. Incidents like the one in Colleyville, Texas are proof that we have a responsibility to share our concerns with the greater community so they may see our pain and offer their support. I am not suggesting that we shame anyone or criticize others for their possible lack of concern around the issues of antisemitism. I am offering the idea that it is up to us to educate our non-Jewish friends on our fear and our expectations, and to allow them the opportunity to offer their support once they understand it is needed.
We also have a responsibility to educate and protect our own congregants. Trainings that we have offered in the past are still relevant, and we will continue to offer these valuable classes in an effort to provide key knowledge, just like the Colleyville hostages used to plan and execute their escape. I hope everyone takes the opportunity to engage in these when offered next. The Rabbi and fellow hostages at Congregation Beth Israel used their knowledge from years of security trainings, and this has been hailed as a key reason they are here with us today.
This is not a pleasant subject, certainly not one we wish to have to discuss. But being prepared and having the ability to protect our Jewish community is a mitzvah. It is our responsibility to understand the times we live in, to expand our knowledge, to utilize trainings, and then to go about our lives feeling safe and secure in the understanding that we have prepared ourselves, that we have power and that we are not passive in this process. I believe we have many more allies than those who wish us harm, and surrounded by others who love us and wish to protect us is a great place to be.
B'virkat Shalom,
Kerrie
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Divrei Tikvah
From Rabbi Johanna Hershenson
How a Buddhist monk taught me how to be a better daughter, wife and mother, and rabbi......
As a young rabbi, I discovered Deer Park Monastery in the Buddhist order of Thich Nhat Hanh not far from where I was living and working in Southern California. Thay, as his students referred to him, was a Vietnamese monk who travelled to the United States during the Vietnam War. He believed that if he spoke with Americans about the pain and suffering in Vietnam, they would force the government to end the war. Thay and Martin Luther King, Jr., met in the day and linked Buddhist principles of nonviolence to the activism emerging against the war and for civil rights. While Thay lived most of his life in exile from Vietnam in Plum Village a monestary in France, he established and visited monasteries in the United States.
Non-Buddhists were invited to retreat at Deer Park for a few days or a few weeks amongst the nuns and monks. The expense was modest in exchange for participation in the monastery chores and needs. In addition to sitting meditations and teachings and walking meditations one would have various assignments to help out in the kitchen or the bookstore, maybe housekeeping or gardening. The work was always lovely and the monks and nuns were joyful. It was always a pleasure and it reminded me of helping my grandparents on the farm when I was a child. Weed the garden. Pick enough greens for that night’s dinner salad, just the carrots or peppers or onions or tomatoes we’d use that night.
In the late 1990’s during my second or third visit to the monastery, I learned that Thich Nhat Hanh would be visiting. I could not believe how easy it was and how inexpensive to attend that special retreat.
Some 500 or 800 individuals came to Deer Park Monastery for that visit. The monastery could only extend lodging to 75-100 people. The overwhelming majority of us camped in designated areas on the property. We walked in silence behind Thay early each morning. Then we sat in silence with him. We would break for morning chores in silence until breakfast. After breakfast Thay would teach. More sitting in silence. Lunch and afternoon intentional identity group conversations about the morning teachings. I went to a group for Jews. I never revealed that I was a rabbi. I practiced listening and refrained from stepping in to teach or redirect or correct.
The first day we were together, Thay gave instructions to the gathered community. He drew attention to the fact that the nuns and monks would not be able to meet the needs of such a large group. Each of us would be assigned tasks to contribute to the wellbeing of the whole. He told us, giggling, that some of us might like our jobs and others might not at first. We might be inclined to wonder how or why we got assigned cleaning porta-pottys rather than foraging or gardening or working in the bookstore. He cautioned us, that the liver does not build up jealousy against the heart because the heart’s job appears more desirable or fun or flashy. As all the organs contribute to the health of the body, all the chores we would do contribute to the health of our community.
Thay then posed what was for me, personally, a paradigm shifting question and answer:
If, say, I come into the kitchen and you are there chopping carrots and I say to you dear brother, dear sister, what are you doing? And you say to me in response, Thay I am chopping carrots. This is the wrong answer. What is the right answer? I am loving my community.
Holy cow! I as a young mother at the time thought I am not simply pumping milk out of my breasts with a medieval torture device…I am loving my daughter. I am not simply responding to emails and phone calls that never end…I am loving the community I serve.
One evening, Thay announced we would be waking early the next morning to hike up a nearby mountain and witness the rising of the sun, in silence together. The experience of climbing a mountain with hundreds of people in mindful silence is profound. There are moments of nonverbal communication that are funny and precious. There is a mesmerizing quality of footsteps falling into synchronicity with one another. Our pace was modulated by our mindfulness walking practice, three or four alternating paces to an inhale and the same to the exhale. It was rhythmic despite an encounter with aggressive bees in one portion of the horde of silent hikers. We reached the peak in time for the sunrise. I remember hearing a flute, against the rules, and so spontaneous and beautiful it must have been pre-planned. Or, was it? Who cares. It was beautiful.
Later that day Thay taught about impermanence. He used an ear of corn as a visual teaching device. He challenged us to consider the ear of corn, a single kernel, the plant that bears it, the sun and rain that nourish it. We may plant some of the kernels so that we will have corn in the future. One cannot say that the plant that grows from a kernel is the same as that kernel. Nor can one say that it is different. The seed turns into the plant. Sunlight becomes the sugars the plant needs for nourishment through photosynthesis. Clouds are contained in the kernel and the plant that relies on water. The new ear of corn is not the plant from which it came. Nor can one say it is not.
So it is with us, which was Thay’s next teaching point. We may strive to individuate from our parents but we cannot. We are not our parents but neither are we not our parents. Thay encouraged students to embrace their families and cultures and faiths of origin.
At first I did not appreciate this teaching. It triggered anger from deep within me. I did not come to this retreat to face my relationship with my parents and all their baggage. Truth is, I was still running from acknowledging any manner in which I might be anything like either of my parents. I was in my late twenties/early thirties. Developmentally on schedule, but a rather painful realization unfolded as I listened to the stories of others in my Jewish discussion group. For me, family hurts came up. I noticed that in others, but in this particular smaller identity interest group, a whole lot of Jewish organizational life hurt emerged.
I heard stories of rabbis and/or synagogues turning Jews away in times of need because they could not afford membership. I heard disconnect between the intentions of Jewish rituals and the way so many thoughtful Jews experienced them as oppressive and burdensome. I became acutely aware of the fact that as a rabbi and student of Jewish literature, there is a great deal of beauty that some Jews have no idea exists.
Throughout the retreat, I noticed I was translating Thay’s teachings into Jewish—drawing connections in rabbinic literature and medieval Jewish philosophy. I was flooded with excitement as I began revisiting what was familiar with a newly found openness. What might I notice is right there, that I had not noticed before?
Before long I found Jewish teachers who helped me navigate Jewish mysticism, Chasidic devotional practices and inclusive if populist ethos, and ultimately Mussar, Jewish character development exploration and practice. These sources were not part of rabbinical training in the Reform seminary until very recently. While many of my colleagues found their way to these literary treasures through Jewish journeys, I did not.
It took a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, to send me back to my own tradition with fresh eyes. It was Thay who reminded me that Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel taught that radical amazement is what happens when you pay enough attention to notice for the first time—every time.
Mindfulness practice is right there in Jewish ritual life, even though we don’t call it that. We greet each new day with gratitude that we woke up, could stretch our limbs, and that the earth sustained our weight when we stepped out of bed. We speak of commandments—what are commandments but disciplined practices that draw our minds to God or natural beauty or loving relationships and deep connections? Our holidays track the seasons of the year grounding us to increasing and decreasing sunlight, warmth and cold, rain in its season is our prayer. Dietary restrictions make us think about what we eat. We take a day off from tinkering and bettering and controlling to accept what is already without our effort.
Thay taught me to notice and accept what is, and most importantly to treasure and experience the wonder of breath, a constant reminder that we are always coming and going, whether we are coming or going.
Thank you, Thay, for being my teacher, directly and through the Buddhist monastics and lay practitioners in your order. You and yours always welcomed me and nourished me, a stranger in your home but never a stranger. I became a better person, a better wife and mother, a better friend, and a better rabbi under your influence.
B'virkat Shalom
Rabbi's office hours are by appointment.
Click here to schedule a Zoom meeting.
Click here to schedule an in-person meeting at "Chemple" at FPC..
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Friday Night Shabbat Lights
The Joys of Humble Pie
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Friday, February 11
5:30 pm
Zoom
Join Rabbi Johanna for a virtual Friday Night Shabbat Lights service.
5:30: Tot shabbat
6:00: Erev Shabbat Service
6:45: Meaningful Conversation about the D’Var Torah
See the weekly Happenings for more details, including the Zoom link.
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Saturday, February 19
7:00 pm
Zoom
Ever tell a joke or laugh at a joke and realize some people privy to the humor don’t find it funny? We have different thresholds for what is okay to joke about and what isn’t, what is funny and what isn’t. Many of us like to laugh and find it cathartic to laugh at ourselves.
Join Rabbi Johanna for a fun Havdallah movie night watching The Last Laugh, a documentary film exploring the question among Jewish comedians, Are we allowed to make jokes about the Holocaust?
See the weekly Happenings for more information, including Zoom information.
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Flash Mob Kabbalat Shabbat
A Winter Pop-Up
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Friday, February 25
5:30 PM
Outdoors
Join Rabbi Johanna and your TBT friends for an outdoor pop-up Shabbat. Starting at 5:30, we’ll engage in a 5-10 minute Kabbalat Shabbat service followed by schmoozing. Celebrate the joy of a fleeting gathering.
We will recite blessings for challah and wine, but we won’t be serving any food or drink for the group to consume. Whoever answers Rabbi Johanna’s Jewish trivia question will take the challah home for Shabbat dinner.
Please bring a mask and bundle up nice and warm.
See the weekly Happenings for more information.
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Mark your calendars! Temple Beth Tikvah will be celebrating Passover on Saturday, April 16.
Due to the ever-changing nature of COVID, we will communicate plans for the celebration closer to April.
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Jewish Wellness Initiative: Monogamy not Monotony: Relationship Check-Up |
Every Friday
Next meeting: Friday, February 4
12:00 - 1:30 pm
Zoom
We feel better in life when we feel understood. Many of us in Temple Beth Tikvah share personal and familial challenges, but we tend to navigate them alone. How do we in Temple Beth Tikvah discover one another through our shared concerns or worries? Enter the Jewish Wellness Initiative.
For the month of February, we will be exploring the topic, “Monogamy not Monotony: Relationship Check-Up”. For monthly themes throughout the year, please click here.
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Learning with Rabbi Johanna
Self-Directed Online Learning
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Are you interested in learning more about Judaism at your own pace? Our Rabbi has launched “Learning with Rabbi Johanna”— a self-directed online learning space to supplement limited, COVID-safe gatherings, available to all at the touch of a button. Adult ed on your schedule.
For some of us, COVID has presented real difficulty with participating in programs and services. This self-directed, online learning is a supplement to provide space and access for adult learning.
The kind of content you can expect to find in the self-directed learning inventory is what you’d find in TBT’s Jewish Wellness Initiative, the Jewish Discovery course, the Learners’ Minyan, the Rhythms in Jewish Living class, and the Moral Courage Learning & Practice Group. Each class will have its own blog, where content will be posted regularly.
Anyone can subscribe so that you get emails whenever Rabbi Johanna adds new articles, videos, or other content!
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Moral Courage: A Learning & Practice Group |
Sundays, twice a month
11:00 am - 12:30 pm
Zoom
Looking for a non-judgmental place to explore difficult and controversial topics with your community? TBT’s Moral Courage Group is here for you.
As a course, a study group, and a support group all in one, the Moral Courage: A Learning & Practice Group explores race, gender, ethnicity, identity, and beyond from the perspective of Jewish wisdom and teaching. Facilitators Rabbi Johanna Hershenson and Lauralei Garrity welcome TBT members of all ages and backgrounds to join the on-going conversation.
The Moral Courage Group will be meeting next on Sunday, February 13 & 27. Please note that we have slightly adjusted our meeting time to begin at 11:00 am, rather than 10:30.
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Chevruta: Weekly Torah Study through the Lens of Musar Masters |
Sundays at 9:00 am - 10:15 am
July 11 - Summer of 2022
Zoom
Each week, Rabbi Johanna leads our Chevruta in an exploration of the Torah portion through the lens of the Musar Masters. Come, let's study together!
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TBT Board Notes
Next Board Meeting: Monday, February 14, 11:00 am to 1:00 pm.
Due to COVID-19, all board meetings are being held via Zoom. If you would like to attend, contact Lauralei Garrity at lauralei.garrity@gmail.com.
If you would like to read minutes of previous board meetings, you can request a copy from Board Secretary, Lester Dober at les36dob@gmail.com
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Membership News
Sheila Luber, Chair Membership Engagement
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Did you know that TBT has welcomed nearly 20 new member households into our community since this whole COVID business began? Beautiful Central Oregon draws folks from all over the country, and many Jewish newcomers, in addition to established residents, contact us to learn about Temple Beth Tikvah and the Jewish Community Religious School.
Lay leaders on the Membership Engagement Committee are often their first contact. As TBT ambassadors, we help grow, engage and sustain membership in our synagogue. We’d love to expand our team to more fully represent the makeup of our community by adding a few new volunteers. If you’re a parent with young children, a 20 or 30-something (single or married), an interfaith partner or an empty nester— we’d love you to join us. It’s a chance to support TBT, dip your toes into volunteerism, and make new friends while contributing to the greater good.
Want to know more? Please email me at sheilarl@me.com to arrange a chat. I’m happy to discuss what we do in more detail and explore how you can participate. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a long-time member or newly joined, your time and talents are always appreciated.
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March Newsletter Deadline: February 24th
This newsletter is emailed to both members and non-members each month. If you have something you want to include in the newsletter, please e-mail it to Eileen Katz: eileentam@aol.com by the 24th of each month for the following month's publication. As always, you will continue to receive "e-minders" before important events take place.
Shalom,
Eileen
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PJ Library
Parents and Grandparents Can Sign up for Free Jewish Children’s Books
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PJ Library sends free, award-winning books that celebrate Jewish values and culture to families with children from birth through 12 years old.
PJ Library has recently expanded from just young-reader books to middle-grade. PJ Our Way is for kids ages 9-12. This new offering is kid-driven--they choose their own books, creating a totally tailored experience based on their own interests and reading level. Kids can also take polls and quizzes, participate in monthly interviews and challenges, post their own reviews, and comment on blog posts.
Click here to check it out for yourself and learn more.
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The Essentials of Jewish Ethics |
You are invited to join Rabbi Yossi Feintuch of Congregation Shalom Bayit for a six-part Continuous Jewish Education series:
The Essentials of Jewish Ethics.
The next sessions will be held on Wednesdays, 2/2, 2/9, 3/2, 3/9, and 3/30 from 7:00 - 8:30 pm via Zoom.
The purpose of this series is to explore the vast code of Jewish ethics and how they apply to our day-to-day actions. Jewish tradition teaches that ethical behavior (Derech Eretz) is central to being Jewish, and in fact, that observance (or performance) of religious ritual is meaningless without an underlying ethical code of conduct. How do we treat human and nonhuman beings? How do we exercise fairness, gratefulness, humility, kindness, sacred giving (Tzetzakah) and forgiveness in everyday life? What does it mean to live an ethical existence?
Rabbi Yossi has a wealth of experience on this topic, which he taught at the college level.
All are welcome! You don’t have to be a member of Shalom Bayit. You don’t even have to be Jewish! Each session stands independently of the others. Topics will be announced beforehand. No outside reading is required. Come prepared to listen, learn and discuss together!
Register Here We will send you the Zoom link prior to each session.
Reconstructing Judaism is committed to bringing Jewish ethical traditions into relevance in modern life. Read more about the Center for Jewish Ethics here.
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Temple Beth Tikvah gratefully acknowledges the following contributions:
- Jeanne Freeman & Burt Litman In Memory of Phillip Freeman
- Jerry & Phyllis Greenbach In Memory of Leslie Conley’s mother
- Marijane Krohn & Mel Siegel In Memory of Albert Wideman
- Terry Reynolds In Memory of Wolfe Nichols
- Kathy & Mark Schindel In Memory of Leslie Conley’s mother
- Chuck & Marilyn Shattuck In Memory of Helen Shattuck
- Lee & Merilee Silverstein In Memory of David Rifkin
- Lee & Merilee Silverstein In Memory of Albert Silverstein
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Ralph & Marcia Uri In Memory of Leslie Conley’s mother
Donations listed above were made to the Temple's general fund unless otherwise specified.
You may honor the lives and achievements of friends and relatives via a tribute with a donation to TBT. You can do this online by clicking here, or by sending a check and the name and address of the person being honored to TBT at P.O. Box 7472, Bend, OR, 97708.
Donations may be designated to a specific fund, including:
- General Fund
- Gary Reynolds Memorial Fund
- Youth Education Fund
- Music Fund
- Special Projects Fund
- TBT's Goodwill Fund
- Social Action/Tzedakah Fund
- or the Corrie Grudin Memorial Fund
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Temple Beth Tikvah
P.O Box 7472
Bend, OR 97708
541-388-8826
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Your secure online donation to
Temple Beth Tikvah
is greatly appreciated. Thank you for your generosity.
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Celebrations in February honor the following:
Birthdays:
February 1
February 5
February 6
- Jay Luber
- Elena Maidenberg
February 7
February 10
February 12
February 13
- Eileen Katz
- Eliana Canas Katz
February 16
- Julie Geveshausen
- Audrey Hynes
February 17
February 18
February 19
February 21
February 25
February 27
- Jennifer Schindel
- Bradley Slate
February 28
- Aya Rainier Salant Jambor
- Tracy Smith
Anniversaries:
February 14
- Roberta Spiro & Wendell Brown
February 19
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President:
Kerrie Zurovsky
Past President:
Sheila Luber
Vice President
Cere Fingerhut
Secretary:
Lester Dober
Treasurer:
Mark Schindel
Members-at-Large:
Jillian Frankl
Paul Spencer
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Budget & Finance
Chuck Shattuck
Membership
Sheila Luber
Program Oversight
Kathy Schindel
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Adult Learning
Mel Siegel
Bikur Cholim
Suzanne Schlosberg
Evie Lerner
Linda Brant
Calendar Keeper
Kathy Schindel
Chevra Kadisha
OPEN
Communications & Public Relations
Kathy Schindel
Sheila Luber
Fundraising
OPEN
Music
Julie Geveshausen
Newsletter
Eileen Katz
Onegs
Jan Freeman-Bauer
Program Coordinator
Lauralei Garrity
Religious Education
Melissa Wikler
Social Action
OPEN
Venue Logistics
Mark Schindel
Webmaster
Jeanne Freeman
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Your secure online donation to
Temple Beth Tikvah
is greatly appreciated. Thank you for your generosity.
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About Temple Beth Tikvah
For Jewish families, retirees and singles at every level of faith in Central Oregon, Temple Beth Tikvah provides a comforting embrace for the soul of your DNA. We are a dynamic Reform Jewish congregation with friendly, giving, active people drawn to Bend and Central Oregon because of the active lifestyle we find here.
We come together in different ways, inspired and informed by our common thread of Jewishness. Whether you were born Jewish, love someone who is Jewish or choose to be Jewish. Practice Judaism a little, a lot or not at all. TBT can serve as the heart of your vibrant, connected life.
We can be your primary source of friendship, purpose, spiritual and intellectual pursuit. Or a side note adding flavor and dimension how and when you want. Whichever you choose, TBT offers an inclusive, communal foundation on which to build your relationships, experiences and practice. From social activities to social action, worship to study, participation to leadership. It's your choice, in this community of yours.
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PO Box 7472
Bend, OR 97708
(541) 388-8826
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