Upcoming Events

Board Meeting—Monday January 14th 7:00pm

Movie Night—Saturday January 19th 7:00pm

Service/Tu Bishvat Seder—Friday January 25th 6:00pm

New Member Service and Kids Tu Bishvat Seder—Saturday

January 26th (Services begin at 9:00am Kids seder at 10:45)

Within the Redwoods

They carry the cries of seals

and hold the cormorants

and the sea fog

within them.

If I am very quiet

and enter their deep silence

they will speak.

Like the owl who warns

in its silent eyes

they will see me

and they will let me be with them

because all their lives are old and young

as they fall with the wind

and renew their being.

They are always still

and always becoming

and speak among themselves

and you may listen.

Hear O Israel

Hear eternities

as they fall with the wind

and grow with fire

and return and listen.

© Carol Snyder Halberstadt

T B I M e m b e r C a r o l Halberstadt is a poet and environmental activist. I wanted to share one of her poems with you in anticipation of Tu Bishvat, the 15th day of the month of Shevat, that celebrates the New Year for Trees (this year, Friday night, Jan. 25-Saturday night Jan. 26).

Trees have fairly remarkable qualities, and Carol’s poem points to one of the reasons we celebrate the New Year for Trees at the time of the full moon of winter. She writes of trees, ”because all their lives are old and young” and “They are always still/and always becoming.” Tu Bishvat is a holiday that makes us aware of the hidden movement and change that is happening below the surface, beneath our conscious awareness. The winter rains of the land of Israel help prepare the way for the renewal of spring, and like trees, we too can renew ourselves, even as we are physically growing older.

Rather than celebrating the New Year for Trees at a time when

(Continued on page 3)

Connecting to the Tree of LifeConnecting to the Tree of LifeConnecting to the Tree of LifeConnecting to the Tree of Life Tu Bishvat 5773Tu Bishvat 5773Tu Bishvat 5773Tu Bishvat 5773 By: Rabbi Tracy NathanBy: Rabbi Tracy NathanBy: Rabbi Tracy NathanBy: Rabbi Tracy Nathan

Rabbi: Tracy Nathan

Cantor: Ellen Band

President: Merrill Griff

Vice President: Jim Baron

Secretary: Genevieve Fosa

Treasurer: Ed Kaufman

Membership Co-Chairs:

Diana Korzenik

and Ellen Macklin

Editor: Andrea Baron

Address

25 Harvard Street

P. O. Box 540182

Waltham, MA 02454

office@tbiwaltham.org

www.tbiwaltham.org

(781) 894-5146

Office Hours

Monday - Friday

9:30am - 12:30pm

VOLUME 28 ISSUE 4

JANUARY 2013

TEVET - SHEVAT 5773

Temple Talk

TEMPLE BETH ISRAEL

Marks Remark’s 2

Donations 3

Upcoming Events 4

Tu Bishvat Seder 7

Upcoming Programs 7

Yahrzeits 6

Calendar 5

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

V OLUME 28 ISSUE 4 P AGE 2

If you walk in to Temple Beth Israel on a Shabbat morning, you're likely to notice something you haven't seen for a long time: children. Several families with school-age children have joined our community. Our monthly Shabbat children’s service has become a multigenerational event, as parents and grandparents participate in the service before joining the congregation for Adon Olam and lunch. If you walk in to Temple Beth Israel for our monthly Shabbat evening service, you'll notice a mix of newer and longtime members, guests, and friends, coming together to end the week with spirited singing, a teaching or story from Rabbi Nathan, a home cooked meal, and good conversation.

If you walk in to Temple Beth Israel during the week, you'll join a warm group of early risers at morning minyan. Even when there are not ten, we take comfort in Morris Hollender's wisdom: "We may not have had a minyan, but we had services."

What do you notice when you walk into Temple Beth Israel? Maybe it's a familiar place because you're returning to the congregation where your parents or grandparents were founders or longtime members. Or perhaps you are new but you have been so warmly welcomed, it feels as if you have been here for a long time.

Our membership is growing, and the number of people joining us for Shabbat has doubled over the past two years. We need your support as 2012 ends, to continue to expand our programs and keep our dues low so that anyone - no matter their income - can join our community. Please consider making a year-end contribution to Temple Beth Israel to keep your synagogue strong. (And if you're reading this in January, showing your financial support to TBI is a great way to start 2013!)

Here are some opportunities for sponsorship during the coming year:

$ 75 will co-sponsor one Shabbat Kiddush lunch. $ 100 will underwrite the cost of one Shabbat morning children's program. $ 150 will sponsor one Shabbat Kiddush lunch. $ 200 will partially subsidize an educational program or speaker. $ 300 will cover the cost of new prayer books to use in a house of mourning. $ 500 will help underwrite the cost of running family and kids' services for next year's High Holidays. $ 500 will partially underwrite the cost of a Klezmer concert with Hankus Netsky.

Please make your donation for one or more of these purposes, or in any another amount. Thank you, Merrill Griff, President Mark Frydenberg Ritual Committee Co-Chair

Marks Remark’s: Marks Remark’s: Marks Remark’s: Marks Remark’s: Walk in to Temple Beth Israel:Walk in to Temple Beth Israel:Walk in to Temple Beth Israel:Walk in to Temple Beth Israel: A Year End Appeal A Year End Appeal A Year End Appeal A Year End Appeal

BY: Mark Frydenberg

V OLUME 28 ISSUE 4 P AGE 3

the trees are full of leaves and flowers, we celebrate in the winter, when many trees are at their barest. As Dorothy Wordsworth, the English diarist, author, and poet and sister of William Wordsworth wrote, “ O, thought I! what a beautiful thing God has made Winter to be by stripping the trees, and letting us see their shapes and forms.” Tu Bishvat helps us appreciate trees in their barest beauty and guides us toward awareness of the “becoming” that is happening, although invisible to the naked eye.

Carol’s poem invites us to “hear eternities,” and this, too, is one of the aspirations for our Tu Bishvat observances. When we listen, and when we eat at our Tu Bishvat seders with heightened awareness, we can potentially gain a vision of ourselves as connected intimately with creation and the Divine Creator.

In “Blessings and Banyans; or The Other Other Tree of Life,”* a beautiful entry on a blog on sustainability from a Jewish perspective, Andrey Kentor points out how certain trees can help us understand our relationship with the Divine source of all life. She explores the word “bracha” or blessing, and how it may be connected with the word for the agricultural technique of layering, “l’havrich.” Layering is when the extremity of a plant is bent back into the ground and buried. As she describes it, above ground the plants appear to be distinct and unconnected plants, but below the earth, they share roots. Kentor relates this image to the Tree of LIfe, in that “the strong roots of God run beneath us, birth us, and sustain us, regardless of how separate we may seem.”

For Kentor, the idea of bracha is that we see ourselves as truly rooted to the Divine source of Life and all that flows from that relationship. She writes of the Banyan, which naturally produces “new” trees through a similar method. Another tree that uses this system of roots connected beneath the earth is the Pando Aspen Tree Grove in Utah, considered by some to be the world’s largest organism.

The Tu Bishvat seder we have at TBI is always a joyful and wonderful sensory experience. But I hope it also leads us to this vision of our connection with eternity and the Divine Tree of Life and moves us then to act on behalf of our earth, our fellow creatures, the trees, and ourselves, as we face and address the most serious environmental and humanitarian crisis of our time, for climate change is here and no longer in the distant future.

Please join us for our annual Tu Bishvat Seder on Friday, January 25th, immediately following Kabbalat Shabbat Services for Shabbat Shirah/Parashat Beshalach.

*http://pitaronpark.wordpress.com/2008/06/26/blessings-and-banyans-or-the-other-other-tree-of-life/

(Continued from page 1)

Connecting to the Tree of Life Connecting to the Tree of Life Connecting to the Tree of Life Connecting to the Tree of Life Tu Bishvat 5773Tu Bishvat 5773Tu Bishvat 5773Tu Bishvat 5773 (Continued from page 1)

Donations

Ben and Erika Cohen

Lillian Etkind and Family, in memory of her husband Irving Etkind.

Leonard and Esther Meiselman, in memory of his mother, Fanny.

Herb and Nessie Baron, in memory of Howard Kaplan.

Memoriams

We all had a great time dancing and singing at the Hanukkah Klezmer

concert on December 9th.

Saturday Kiddush Sponsors Dec 22– Judith and George Isaac

Dec 29 - Mark Frydenberg

P AGE 4

SPONSOR A SHABBAT KIDDUSH

LUNCH

Sponsor a Kiddush lunch on a Saturday in honor of a

special occasion or in memory of a loved one. Let us

know the date. The donation is $125 per date.

Beth Israel Cemetery Beginning on November 1, 2012 the Beth Israel Cemetery in Waltham is now being managed and run by the Menorah Cemetery Management Corporation.

The price of graves remains the same. Single graves are priced at $2,000 for Temple members and $2,350 for non-members.

The director of Menorah Cemetery Management Corporation, Jay Trilling, can be reached at (857)636-9440 or (617)630-9192. Please contact Jay to purchase graves or for any concern about the cemetery.

Herb Baron

Cemetery Chairman

New Member Shabbat Service

Join us on Saturday, January 26th for our Shabbat Service and Kiddush lunch in honor of our new Temple members.

If you would like to participate in this service please contact the Temple office.

Celebrate the New Year for Trees!

Tu Bishvat Seder for Kids

Saturday, January 26 10:45 am

Led by Rabbi Scott Slarskey

Join us for tastings of fruit and nuts and white and red grape juice, and learn

about the meaning of Tu Bishvat.

Movie Night Join us on Saturday night January 19th at 7:00pm for a movie and popcorn. We will be

showing "We Love You Rosa".

Twelve-year-old Nissim (Gabi Otterman) is prepared to obey ancient Jewish law and marry his deceased brother's widow, the childless and much older Rosa (Michal Bat-Adam). Rosa refuses, but when Nissim returns years later, she starts to see him in a new light. Set in 19th-century Jerusalem, this fanciful drama is based on director Moshé Mizrahi's mother's

true story. Moshe Tal stars as the grown-up Nissim.

Knock Knock! Who’s there? Orange. Orange who? Orange you glad we’re having a Tu Bishvat Seder!?

On the 6th night of Hanukkah at City Hall, Rabbi Tracy Nathan lights the

candles.

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If not specified, Minyan—Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday is at 7:00am and on Saturday and Sunday at 9:00am.

If you would like to make a donation in memory of a loved one listed above please send it along with a brief note of who you would like remembered to the Temple Office.

Plaque Loc. Name Yahrzeit Date

Edythe Simon 24-Jan Shevat 13

6-4 Ilona Viltschek 25-Jan Shevat 14

1-3 Rose Leavy 25-Jan Shevat 14

4-4 Samuel Cutler 25-Jan Shevat 14

4-4 Dinzie Cutler 26-Jan Shevat 15

3-2 Sarah Fischer 27-Jan Shevat 16

1-1 Ida Chansky 27-Jan Shevat 16

Harry Cohen 28-Jan Shevat 17

Morton Ginsburg 29-Jan Shevat 18

4-1 Joseph Milesky 30-Jan Shevat 19

2-2 Harry Kritzman 30-Jan Shevat 19

4-1 Jacob Rosenfield 30-Jan Shevat 19

1-3 Sadie Krinsky 30-Jan Shevat 19

2-2 Monroe M. Frankel 1-Feb Shevat 21

6-3 Saul Cohen 1-Feb Shevat 21

3-2 Dora Dame 2-Feb Shevat 22

4-4 Morris Freedman 2-Feb Shevat 22

1-3 Gussie Kniznik 3-Feb Shevat 23

Sam Bogan 3-Feb Shevat 23

3-4 Samuel Wolk 4-Feb Shevat 24

Jacob Koocher 4-Feb Shevat 24

2-2 Solomon Harris 5-Feb Shevat 25

Ida Kulin 5-Feb Shevat 25

William Becker 6-Feb Shevat 26

5-2 Maurry Furman 6-Feb Shevat 26

1-3 Sarah Milesky 7-Feb Shevat 27

1-4 Sylvia Weinstein 7-Feb Shevat 27

1-2 Sarah Mindel Freedman 7-Feb Shevat 27

2-3 Louis Nochemsohn 7-Feb Shevat 27

5-1 Irving Norman 7-Feb Shevat 27

4-2 Florence Lipkin 7-Feb Shevat 27

5-3 Dorothy Ullian 7-Feb Shevat 27

5-1 Mildred Rothbart 9-Feb Shevat 29

January Yahrzeits

TEMPLE TALK P AGE 6

Plaque Loc. Name Yahrzeit Date

6-1 Irving Etkind 1-Jan Tevet 19

1-4 Harris Posner 1-Jan Tevet 19

Abraham Alper 1-Jan Tevet 19

4-2 Eva Wolf 1-Jan Tevet 19

5-4 Harold Levison 2-Jan Tevet 20

3-4 Aaron Tushin 4-Jan Tevet 22

1-3 Joseph Pill 4-Jan Tevet 22

4-3 Newell Goldberg 4-Jan Tevet 22

5-1 Frank Rosenburg 5-Jan Tevet 23

4-2 Harry Levison 6-Jan Tevet 24

6-1 Abraham Kennen 6-Jan Tevet 24

2-4 Nathan and Rae Sudhalter 6-Jan Tevet 24

5-3 Sarah Rachel Greene 6-Jan Tevet 24

1-1 Samuel Cron 6-Jan Tevet 24

Nathan Goldstein 7-Jan Tevet 25

2-4 Rose Tatelman 8-Jan Tevet 26

3-1 Dr. H Myer Bloomenthal 11-Jan Tevet 29

4-2 Sidney Tushin 13-Jan Shevat 02

1-3 Esther Kniznik 14-Jan Shevat 03

6-4 Sadie Shay 15-Jan Shevat 04

5-2 Pearl Portnov 15-Jan Shevat 04

6-3 Lillian Wigod Stroum 16-Jan Shevat 05

5-4 Anita Kaitz 16-Jan Shevat 05

5-1 Clara Loewy Lustig 16-Jan Shevat 05

3-1 Esther Weiner 17-Jan Shevat 06

5-1 Richard Lustig 17-Jan Shevat 06

5-1 Louis Perlmuter 17-Jan Shevat 06

4-1 Julius Handel 18-Jan Shevat 07

3-1 Benjamin Freeman 19-Jan Shevat 08

5-2 Sylvia Kurtzman 19-Jan Shevat 08

4-4 Samuel Seskin 19-Jan Shevat 08

6-3 Rubin Elkins 20-Jan Shevat 09

6-4 Sarah Kennen 20-Jan Shevat 09

Sophie Koocher 20-Jan Shevat 09

4-3 Joshua Mikels Webb 21-Jan Shevat 10

Julius Bootin 22-Jan Shevat 11

2-3 Beril Novick 23-Jan Shevat 12

1-3 Louis Kniznik 24-Jan Shevat 13

1-2 Morris Katz 24-Jan Shevat 13

3-2 Molly Hauser 24-Jan Shevat 13

Bessie Goldberg 24-Jan Shevat 13

Tu Bishvat Seder Friday, January 25, 2012

6:00pm* Kabbalat Shabbat Service~7:00pm Seder and Dinner

*please note the earlier start time*

Join us for a seder from the mystical tradition celebrating the New Year for Trees. We will move through four worlds through the mindful eating of fruits and nuts and the drinking of the fruit of the vine, hoping to emerge awake and inspired toward a renewed

commitment toward stewardship of our earth.

Special Guests: Reverend Rob Mark and Becky W. Evans Rev. Rob Mark is Pastor of Boston’s Church of the Covenant and Assistant Chaplain at The Memorial Church at Harvard University, Rev. Mark also serves as co-coordinator of the national Eco-Stewards Program for the Presbyterian Church/U.S.A. Becky Evans is an award-winning environmental journalist and educator.

Menu Olives, Dates, Figs, Nuts, Clementines,

and other fruit and nuts.

Challah and Assorted Breads

Cold Citrus Soup with Lime, Orange, and Avocado

Salmon or Tofu with Orange-Ginger Glaze

Pilaf with Pomegranates and Raisins

String Beans with Almonds*

Fruit Sorbet, Fruit pastries,

Chocolate-dipped seasonal fruit

Sangria, Wine, Grape Juice, Fruit-flavored Seltzer

* We will have items without nuts for those with allergies.

$12/person; $30/family RSVP by Tuesday, January 22 to office@tbiwaltham.org or 781-894-5146

For more information or to sign up online, please visit www.tbiwaltham.org

The Show Must Go On$and I plan to be there! You are invited to join us on Sunday, February 3, 2013 at 4:00 PM for the matinee performance of The 39 Steps at the Arlington Friends of the Drama Theater*. The play is a Comedy/Parody set in the 1930s England and Scotland.

This play is a melodrama adapted from the 1915 novel by John Buchan and the 1935 film by Alfred Hitchcock. Origi-nally written to be performed by 2 actors, the first version of this play with 4 actors premiered in June 2005 at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds, England.

Join us on this, our first Temple Beth Israel Revitalization Committee Theater Party. We have ordered 20 tickets at $20.00 each to be delivered to the first 20 people who mail their payment per below to the Temple office. Car pools will be arranged.

We are considering the option to have dinner after the show at a local restaurant, (not included in the price). Check your choice below. *Theater is at 22 Academy Street, Arlington, MA. (off Mass Ave.)

_______________________________cut here_____________________________

Revitalization Theater Party - The 39 Steps - Make checks payable to Temple Beth Israel

Name(s)_____________________________________________________

Address_____________________________________________________

Email___________________________________________Phone:_______________________

Number of tickets @ $20.00_______ Total cost $______________ (Yes)___(No)___Count me/us in for dinner, too.

Temple Beth Israel Donation Form For your convenience, please use this form to make your donations and send to:

Temple Beth Israel, P O Box 540182, Waltham, MA 02454-0182

I have chosen the fund indicated at the right:

(Please use a separate form for each fund. Minimum donation: $10)

Attached is my check in the amount of: $____________________

The donation is being made

In Honor Of _________________________________________________

In Memory Of________________________________________________

Other_______________________________________________________

This donation is made by:

Name:____________________________________________________

Address:__________________________________________________

City/State/Zip______________________________________________

Please send acknowledgement to:

Name:____________________________________________________

Address:__________________________________________________

City/State/Zip______________________________________________

□ Kol Nidre Pledge

□ High Holiday Donation

□ General Fund

□ Rabbi’s Discretionary

Fund

□ Morris Hollender Music

Appreciation Fund

□ Carl Goldstein Memorial

Fund

□ Other, please specify:_______________

______________________

25 Harvard Street P.O. Box 540182

Waltham, MA 02454-0182

Temple Beth Israel

Phone: 781-894-5146

E-mail: office@tbiwaltham.org Website: www.tbiwaltham.org

January 2013 Bulletin

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