Rosh Hashanah, Blessings, Blogs, and a new Web Site...

Welcome to 5772! In the spirit of the New Year, and in the spirit of taking stock of our lives at this important time of the year, there are many exciting and new things happening with TBS online which I thought I would highlight here.

First, we have launched our newly updated web page. You can still find us at www.tbsneedham.org but when you log in, you will notice that the site has a slightly new look and feel. The calendar of events is now firmly linked in to all of our subpages, and we have several exciting new features which will be debuting in the coming weeks (and, in fact, later in this email).

To access much of the customized content, we have moved away from the model of a single user password for the entire congregation. Instead, you will have an individual user identity and password. If you have not already registered for a username and password, please do so by clicking here, and following the instuctions below:

• Fill out the form to register for an Online username and password.


• Enter key information: First Name, Last Name, Password and confirmation, Email, and Display Name


• Enter required information on the Custom Tab: Timezone.


• Enter optional information: Address, Avatar / Profile photo, Tags tab (to indicate your interests or affiliations), Custom tab (for privacy settings), and Activity tab (settings for how you want to be notified about activities within the Community Area).

You will be sent an email with a confirmation that your account has been established once you have been approved. Login information is per user, so everyone in your family can (and should) create their own username on our new page.

Also on the new page (as you begin to explore) you will find that we have updated the section including the Rabbi's sermons to feature the two sermons delivered on Rosh Hashanah. Rabbi Todd's erev Rosh Hashanah sermon entitled "Opening our Eyes to Blessings" can be found here and the list of blessings mentioned in his sermon can be found here. Rabbi Jay's Rosh Hashanah sermon entitled "Israel: Seeking Hope, Inspiration, and Courage to Act" can be found here. After Yom Kippur, we will update their respective pages with copies of this year's sermons.

Another new feature of our relaunched website are two new blogs for our K-5 and 6-12 learning programs. Following the incredible success last year of our pre-school blog, we have launched two fully interactive blogs with posts from your children's teachers, pictures from the classrooms, information about learning and curriculum, and lots of opportunities for ongoing conversation. We welcome you to come view how exciting learning at TBS is! The Elementary Learning (grades K-5) blog can be found here and the Teen Programs blog (grades 6-12) can be found here. Please note you must be logged into the Temple web site to access these pages. (If you would like to have a family member who is not a member of the Temple [i.e. grandparent, aunt, uncle, etc.] be able to access the blog, please note that they can also register for a username and password using the instructions above although their access to the webpage as a whole may be limited).

As a final reminder and update, we are in the middle of our Annual Shofar Appeal. This is time of year when we reach out to you asking for your support as we begin the year ahead. A pledge card was sent home to all members, and if you prefer to make a contribution online feel free to click here (you will be able to use Paypal to make a contribution by credit card).

We hope you enjoy the start of the New Year as well as the new ways in which we are using technology at the Temple. May the year to come bring you and yours many blessings!

A Relay For Life Testimonial

In May 2004, my family and I took part in our very first Relay For Life of Needham, Dedham and Wellesley. Temple Beth Shalom had invited congregants to participate in this important community event, and I felt it would be a wonderful opportunity for my family to honor my mother, who was undergoing cancer treatment at the time, and to support others who were fighting the disease.

Having never attended a Relay, I was overwhelmed by the emotional impact of the experience. Watching my mom walk around the track during the ‘Survivor’s Lap’ was truly moving and inspirational. At dusk, along with other participants, we lit ‘luminarias,” paper sacks filled with sand and candles that stretched around the walking track. I remember getting the chills as I stood looking at the hundreds of luminarias, each one representing someone who had been lost to cancer, who was fighting the disease or who had survived the illness. I thought about the courageous five-year battle that my mother had been waging against cancer and felt grateful to be there with her, sharing in a very special event with our family, our temple and the local community.

The following year my family and I participated in the Relay again, only then we were walking in memory of my mother, who had lost her valiant fight against cancer. More than ever, I truly understood the devastation that cancer can cause, not only to those who battle this horrible disease but also to their loved ones.

In 2008, I joined the Relay For Life Planning Committee to honor my mother, to take a more active role in the fight against cancer and to inspire others to do the same. Unbelievably, that same year, my friend Adam May was diagnosed with prostate cancer and began intensive treatment. Adam and I formed our first Relay team that winter, and it was a life-changing experience for us both. With other friends, we proudly raised nearly $35,000 for the programs and services of the American Cancer Society. And at the Relay, we found healing, comfort and support from others who have faced cancer or who have lost a loved one to the disease. We’ve stayed actively involved in the Relay ever since.

This year, Adam and I wanted to share our passion for Relay with TBS in the hope of involving even more members of our community in this sacred effort. As Rabbi Markley explained in a Shabbat Shalom email a few months ago, “Our Rabbis reminded us of why our involvement in causes like this one is so very important:

For this reason Adam, the first human being, was created as a single person, to teach you that anyone who destroys one soul is described in Scripture as if he destroyed an entire world, and anyone who sustains one soul is described as if he sustained an entire world… (Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5)

Our efforts at this year’s Relay may, indeed, make possible the research, the learning, the wisdom, and the understanding that will save not just one, but hundreds and thousands of worlds in the years ahead.”

This year’s Relay will take place on May 14–15 at the Newman Elementary School in Needham. We invite you to register to join the TBS and Friends team, or if you prefer, to support us with a donation or the purchase of a luminaria. To do so, please visit www.bit.ly/TBSRelay.

Also, plan now to join us and other Relay participants for a special Havdallah service at on Saturday, May 14 at 8 pm, which will be led by Rabbi Markley. We’ll be meeting near the Newman tennis courts, on the side near the track.

For more details about the Relay For Life, please visit the TBS website at http://www.tbsneedham.org/social_action/social_action.php?page=15289.

I hope you'll join Adam, me, Rabbi Markley and other temple members and friends at the Relay on May 14.

-Sabra Sherry