Temple Beth Shalom Donates Winter Hats to Israeli Soldiers

In December, Temple Beth Shalom joyfully donated over 200 winter hats to sailors serving in the Israeli Navy.  Recently, we received the following letter of thanks along with a great photograph of the sailors aboard the Israeli Naval Ship Keshet.

Also below (after the break) are copies of the letter that Rabbi Perlman sent to the crew of the Keshet and the letter that our community received in return from Major Steven Gordon.

Currently, Temple Beth Shalom is working on another wonderful project to support Israeli soldiers.  This time, dozens of members of our community are hand-knitting caps that our own TBS community members will hand-deliver when we travel to Israel in December 2014 as part of our “TBS Israel Adventure.”  For information on how to knit or support this important effort, please contact Margie Glou (mglou@comcast.net).   

Bucket Filling and Chesed

This fall, the teachers of the Children’s Center have been on a journey of learning in the course, “Teaching and Parenting Through a Jewish Lens.” Last week’s stop on our journey, allowed us to explore the concepts of chesed (love and kindness) and tzdaka (justice and charity).

Ronit, our teacher, eloquently connected our current curriculum of bucket filling to chesed. In the story, “Have you Filled a Bucket Today?” it is written, “All day long everyone in the whole wide world walks around carrying an invisible bucket.” Ronit explained that what we fill these buckets with is in fact, chesed. Together we explored many texts and interpretations regarding chesed. One interpretation that particularly rung true of bucket filling was, “The challenge of activism is to ignite the divine spark present in the human spirit (Rabbi Avi Weiss, Spiritual Activism.”

As a room of educators, we discussed this idea of doing chesed and igniting the divine spark in each child. In the Kohavim class, we are thinking a lot about how when you fill someone’s bucket your bucket is also filled. When you do chesed, it ignites this spark within you. The spark is in everybody, but it needs to be ignited. As educators, we are striving to understand each of your children and support them to ignite their own spark. As we left the wonderful day of teacher learning, many of us were inspired by the natural connection between bucket filling and Jewish values. We are eager to expand on our bucket filling curriculum by connecting it the chesed, as well as igniting the spark in each child.

-Jesse Feigenbaum, Children's Center Teacher

The Eighth Commandment: A Personal Reflection by Mindy Pasco-Anderson

Image credit is artfeeds.org, a program dedicated to inspiring children through art. Their slogan is "Love Naively. Give Generously. Be Foolishly Compassionate."

Ed. Note: With this eighth post in our series, we are heading into the home stretch as we approach the holiday of Shavuot. Today's post by Mindy Pasco-Anderson tackles the topic of stealing. Join us by adding your feedback to this or any of our posts so far.

This Commandment #8 is a bold, broad directive. What is it, you ask, that you should not steal? Anything that is not yours is my answer. Nothing material, nor a claim to good deeds done by others, another's time or energy, relationships, money, people, pets, ...the list goes on.

The commandment tells us in a very succinct and direct way what NOT to do...

But there’s another, more subtle implied message – something that the physical laws of nature tells us must be there – the complement to the commandment. There is, I believe an implied message of what TO DO. I would define the opposite of stealing as giving or sharing. So, to makes things right in the universe, I believe that we must find ways, big ways and small ways to give back. The HOW is not important, and is as customizable as the giver, their abilities and the perceived need. The WHY, however is unquestionable.

I like this kind of thinking. I like thinking that each and every positive thought and deed helps to keep the world in check. In fact, with so much current world negativity, I think that we all have to work harder to maintain the balance. So simple and yet so powerful.

So, you shall not steal – indeed, you shall be a contributor. Live your life with care and compassion.

--Mindy Pasco-Anderson