A Message from our Senior Rabbi,
Rabbi Carnie Shalom Rose
A Time for Every Purpose under Heaven:
The End of Zoom on Shabbat & Holy Days
Shalom Chaverim!
As we have already communicated, we are most excited to begin the process of reopening our Shul in July. We are deeply proud of the creative and innovative ways in which we were able to keep our Kehillah close and connected despite the need to distance ourselves socially. One of the main tools we employed during this crisis was Zoom. It has surely served us in good stead and will continue to be employed for weekday Minyanim, classes, and other gatherings. However, as of Friday Night, July 2 and Shabbat July 3, we will be retiring the use of Zoom on Shabbat and Holy Days. This will include our weekly Torah for Today class with Rabbi Neal, which will now be held live at 10:00 am in the Guller Chapel. Recall that, as your Rabbi, I sanctioned the use of Zoom on sacred occasions only as a matter of Shaat Hadechak – a time of unforeseen emergency. Thank God, this era has now come to an end and with it, the need for the utilization of Zoom technology for Shabbes & Yom Tov. We will, of course, continue our longstanding tradition of making Services available on our Live Stream and Facebook Pages accessible to those who are unable to join us in person. Again, Zoom will continue to be used for weekday services and events, but the time has come to recapture the profound sense of Kedushah, sanctity and holiness of the Shabbat and Holy Days, found in making these occasions times for Shevut, rest and respite, from the overuse of technology, and begin to gather in person as a Holy Community, Kehillah Kedoshah.
Please be on the lookout for more detailed information in future Ennouncements and as always, if you have questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me at 314-576-9990 x105 or RavRoseBA@bnaiamoona.com. We can't wait to see you – IN SHUL!
With love, Reb Carnie
Special D'var Torah From Rabbi Neal Rose
- Parshat Korach-
This week’s Torah reading, Parashat Korach, is one chapter in a long litany of unhappy stories about our ancestor’s rebellion against Moses and God. As a therapist and counselor, I have wondered why these people were constantly rebelling against their leaders.
The founder of Chasidism, Rabbi Israel Baal Shem Tov (1698-1760), himself a counselor and healer, provides an important insight into this matter.
Rabbi Israel points out that in the course of the forty years that our ancestors lived in the desert, they were constantly moving from place to place. Imagine how difficult that must have been for people who had to pitch their tents in one place on Monday, and then break camp several days later. I suspect that even the best of us would be quite cranky under these difficult circumstances.
The Baal Shem was an itinerant healer and preacher. He moved from town to town providing cures for the body and remedies for the pains of the soul. One of his major teachings was that life is best understood as a journey. He taught that like our desert ancestors, we human begins move from one stage to another. Like those who came before us, we all navigate life’s challenges – sometimes in a positive fashion, but often in an imperfect manner. He emphasized that we are each blessed with inner strength and creativity that allows us to learn from our mistakes and move on to the next phase of our development.
A similar approach to this notion of life as a spiritual journey was articulated by the mid twentieth century psychoanalyst, Erik Erikson (1902-1994). Erikson taught that life is composed of a series of stages and that each stage has goals to be achieved. He also noted that at each stage, one struggles with both outer challenges and inner conflicts.
Erikson and the Baal Shem would have recognized the wisdom in each other’s teachings since each, in their own way, sought to encourage people to meet the challenges inherent in the complexity of existence. Each understood that, as we journey, we sometimes move straight ahead while at other times, we may stumble and fall.
These individuals dedicated their lives to helping people find the strength to move forward and to overcome the many obstacles that stood in the way of becoming truly human.
This Shabbat we welcome Mazie Jacobs to the Bimah for her Bat Mitzvah. Mazie is the daughter of Morrison & Jennifer Jacobs and sister to Adli Jacobs and granddaughter of Morley & Bev Jacobs and Zenon & Johanna Lisakowski.
When we have Congregants participating in Services from their homes via Zoom on Friday and Saturday Evenings, we recognize that the audio may be difficult to hear on our Livestream or Facebook Live. To insure you hear all of our wonderful participants, we highly encourage you to join our services via Zoom. The links to join in on Zoom are provided in the schedule below.
If you need help connecting to our services or classes via Zoom, please contact Liessa Alperin atliessa@bnaiamoona.com. Todah Rabbah!
Friday, June 11
Friday Evening Services with Cantor Sharon Nathanson in the Guller Chapel: 6:00 pm
Our B’nai Amoona’s Minyan Program consists of our amazing, dedicated Minyannaires who assure warm and welcoming ongoing daily Minyanim, morning and evening. These services support those in our community who have lost loved ones and may be feeling lonely and isolated. Our BA virtual Minyanim are a constant source of strength and comfort for those who wish to recite the Kaddish. Moreover, our Minyanim are a wonderful opportunity for spiritual uplift, social connection, community building, and the ability to fulfill one's daily Chiyuv, duty, to thank God for all that we have. This combination of Kehillah and Kibbitzing allows up to remain spiritually connected despite being socially distant. All are warmly welcomed! Please join us!
Virtual Morning Services and Minyanim Sunday - Morning Minyan will take place virtually at 9:00 am
Monday - Friday Morning Minyan will take place virtually at 7:00 am
via Zoom, Livestream and FB Live
Virtual Evening Services and Minyanim
Sunday - Thursday Evening Minyan will take place virtually at 6:15 pm
via Zoom,Livestream and FB Live
Shalom! Registration for in-person Shabbat Morning Services is now open to the congregation when there is NO Bar or Bat Mitzvah taking place. We are, at the recommendation of our physicians, currently permitting up to 150 people in our Sanctuary and those spots are reserved initially for the family and friends of the Bar or Bat Mitzvah. If we should have space available on a particular Shabbat morning and after confirming with the Bat/Bar family, we will post that information via our website and registration will be available for members of the B’nai Amoona family.
In addition, we are now permitting up to 75 participants in-person for our Friday Night and Saturday afternoon services in the Guller Chapel. Because of Bar and Pre Bar and Bat Mitzvah Participations, we will be following the same process as Shabbat Morning Services; the family will be given the option of inviting 50 guests to attend and then will let us know how many openings they have. We will then post that information for registration on our website.
Currently, we have B’nai Mitzvah scheduled each Shabbat morning through June, but we are taking reservations for upcoming Friday Night and Saturday Afternoon/Evening Services. We anticipate more services being open and available for registration. Please watch for your emails as various Services open up. As always, we encourage everyone to join our Services virtually, on Facebook Live and Livestream, if you are not able to join us live in Shul!
Todah Rabbah for your understanding and support as we inch ever closer to our new normal!
You may now register for in-person Services on the following dates:
Congregation B'nai Amoona's
"Lehrhaus" - Adult Education Institute
Please click the button below for a list of our Adult Education Opportunities including class schedules, descriptions, registration information, and Zoom links. Please note our newest classes.
Please join us next Friday for Afternoon/Evening Services at 6:00 pm for Masorti Shabbat. We will be joined by American Jewish University's Distinguished Professor in Philosophy, Dr. Elliot Dorff.
About Dr. Rabbi Elliot Dorff:
Rabbi Dorff is Chair of the Conservative Movement's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards and served on the editorial committee of Etz Hayim, the new Torah commentary for the Conservative Movement. He has chaired four scholarly organizations: the Academy of Jewish Philosophy, the Jewish Law Association, the Society of Jewish Ethics, and the Academy of Judaic, Christian, and Islamic Studies. He was elected Honorary President of the Jewish Law Association for the term of 2012-2016. In Spring 1993, he served on the Ethics Committee of Hillary Rodham Clinton's Health Care Task Force. In March 1997 and May 1999, he testified on behalf of the Jewish tradition on the subjects of human cloning and stem cell research before the President's National Bioethics Advisory Commission. In 1999 and 2000 he was part of the Surgeon General’s commission to draft a Call to Action for Responsible Sexual Behavior; and from 2000 to 2002 he served on the National Human Resources Protections Advisory Commission, charged with reviewing and revising the federal guidelines for protecting human subjects in research projects. Rabbi Dorff is also a member of an advisory committee for the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History on the social, ethical, and religious implications of their exhibits. He is also a member of the Ethics Advisory Committee for the state of California on stem cell research.
He has been an officer of the FaithTrust Institute, a national organization that produces seminars and educational materials to help people avoid or extricate themselves from domestic violence. For eight years he was also been a member of the Board of Directors of the Jewish Federation Council of Los Angeles, chairing its committee on serving the vulnerable.
We also invite you to join us for...
Please join us next Saturday during Evening Services at 7:30 pm for Juneteenth Shabbat. We honor the ending of slavery in America while also realizing there is still work to be done to truly be a nation free of racism and discrimination.
Interested in participating in Juneteenth Shabbat? Contact Liessa Alperin at liessa@bnaiamoona.com or call 314-576-9990 x116.
*In the spirit of representation and racial equity, we request that interested participants be black Jews or Jews of color.
In Our Community
WE MOURN THE PASSING OF...
Fern Klamen Rosenberg; beloved wife of Hyman P. Rosenberg (Z"L); wonderful mother of Marsha (Ernie) Demba, Philip (Z"L) and (Jacqui) Rosenberg, and Diane (Toby) Gerber; grandmother “Momo” of seven including Liessa (Mark) Alperin, and Dan (Beth) Demba; great-grandmother to six including Ellye, Micah, and Maddie; sister of Harold (Z"L) (Helen Z"L) Klamen and Marvin (Z"L) and (Mimi) Klamen; sister-in-law to Paul (Z"L), Maury (Z"L), and Jean. Fern adored her family. Cherished daughter of Leah (Z"L) and Charles (Z"L) Klamen.
Jewish tradition teaches “Kol Yisrael Arevim Zeh Bazeh,” meaning that we are all
responsible for each other (B.Talmud Shevuot 39a).
Our B'nai Amoona Klei Kodesh is proud to join other local Jewish spiritual leaders in issuingTHIS STATEMENTin favor of receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, continuing to wear a mask and practice social distancing as recommended by the CDC and other medical and other public health authorities.
As more people receive the Covid-19 vaccine, we encourage you to download and print the prayers below. We recommend you say them when you receive your vaccination.
