5101 US-42 • LOUISVILLE, KY 40241 • (502) 423-1818

Tot Shabbat

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Thank you everyone for coming out to a special Tot Shabbat at The Temple!  We had so much fun!

Shabbat Services at The Temple
Shabbat (the Sabbath) is a key part of Jewish life; it is observed as a day of rest and spiritual rejuvenation. Shabbat takes place from nightfall on Friday to nightfall on Saturday. In the home and synagogue, blessings are made and candles are lit to welcome Shabbat and signify the start of the festival. The Kiddush prayer is recited to represent the holiness of the day. Blessings are made over wine and challah. (See information on Shabbat services with our new Guide to Jewish Services.)REGULARRegular Shabbat services are held using Mishkan T’filah: A Reform Siddur – the newest prayer book of Reform Judaism. Music for the regular service ranges from pianist and soloist, or our volunteer choir – Shir Chadash. Our services feature many songs – familiar ones and some that may be new to you.

FAMILY

Family Services are held during the school year when our Religious School classes take turns leading services. These “Family Services” are usually held on the second Friday of the month and take place after a Family Shabbat Dinner. Led by the older students, only one service is held for the entire congregation. Twice a year, usually at the beginning and end of the school year, we hold a more relaxed and informal “Blue Jean Shabbat”. We also have several Tot Shabbat services.

CLASSICAL

Classical Services are held on special occasions throughout the year, celebrating our History as a founding congregation of American Reform Judaism, Founders’ Day, Isaac Mayer Wise’s birthday, and Bernheim Shabbat. They are led from the Sinai Edition of the old Union Prayer Book. Music from the Classical Age of Reform Judaism, is performed by The Temple professional choir.

SPECIAL

Special Shabbat Services are held throughout the year. Just a few of these services include: Brotherhood and Sisterhood Shabbats, Martin Luther King Jr. Shabbat, Interfaith Shabbat, and a Yom Hashoah Shabbat service led by the Grade 6 class. These services often have a special guest who speaks in place of a sermon by one of our rabbis.

Saturday Morning Shabbat Services are always held at 10:30 am, after Torah Study which begins at 9:00 am. On many Saturdays of the year, a Bar or Bat Mitzvah student leads the Shabbat service and a kiddish luncheon for everyone takes place following the service. On those occasions, there is usually a special table – the Rebbe’s Tisch – where congregants can continue studying the weekly Torah portion with the rabbi.

Several times a year when there is no Bar or Bat Mitzvah, The Temple Brotherhood celebrates the opening or closing of a Book of the Bible by having their choir perform at the Shabbat Service, and then hosting an oneg afterwards that features their handmade Sinai Matzo, gravlax, and Heaven Hill bourbon.

Friday Evening Shabbat Services usually take place in the Waller Chapel and are offered in several different styles of worship. During the fall, winter, and spring – between Rosh Hashanah and Shavuot – Erev Shabbat Services begin at 7:00 pm and last for about one hour. During the summer, Erev Shabbat Services begin at 6:30 pm.

B’reishit (Genesis 1:1-6:8)

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This Week’s Torah Portion: B’reishit (Genesis 1:1-6:8)

The Big Bet which Begins each Torah scroll with the word B’reishit is clearly not an accident. God really seemed to want to make a point of beginning the Torah with the letter Bet. This assumes, of course, that God wrote that first letter, with a quill pen and a deep brown ink upon a parchment scroll, just as scribes have done in writing that first word of Torah again and again for thousands of years.

There is a mystical midrash, a legend of our people, which teaches us that God considered beginning the Torah with the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet which is Alef. God decided against the Alef because Alef is the beginning of the word Aror, which means “curse”, whereas Bet is the beginning of the word B’rachah, which means, blessing.

May each of us write our works upon this earth for blessing and not for curse, and may we together become repairers of the breach – builders of a better world.

B’reishit Summary:
God creates the world and everything in it in six days and rests on the seventh. (1:1-2:3)
Adam and Eve are placed in the Garden of Eden, where they eat the forbidden fruit and are subsequently exiled. (2:15-3:24)
Adam and Eve have two sons, Cain and Abel. Cain kills his brother, Abel. (4:1-24)
Adam and Eve have another child named Seth. The Torah lists the ten generations from Adam to Noah. (4:25-5:32)
God regrets having created human beings and decides to destroy everything on earth, but Noah finds favor with God. (6:5-6:8)

Annual Peace by Piece Concert 2019

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What a great crowd at our annual interfaith concert, Peace by Piece Concert. Thank you to all that attended.

Each year, the Peace by Piece concert expands, bringing more and more people together in song.  Made possible by the Rabbi Gaylia R. Rooks Fund for Music.  Many members look for meaningful ways to honor a special occasion (birthday, anniversary, birth, etc.), express personal thanks (Rabbi, friends, family) or to memorialize a friend or loved one. Temple Funds are established to financially support a specific initiative or type of program.  You can offer a simple yet impactful opportunity to do so while supporting The Temple.

What a great crowd at our annual interfaith concert, Peace by Piece Concert. Thank you to all that attended.

Each year, the Peace by Piece concert expands, bringing more and more people together in song.  Made possible by the Rabbi Gaylia R. Rooks Fund for Music.  Many members look for meaningful ways to honor a special occasion (birthday, anniversary, birth, etc.), express personal thanks (Rabbi, friends, family) or to memorialize a friend or loved one. Temple Funds are established to financially support a specific initiative or type of program.  You can offer a simple yet impactful opportunity to do so while supporting The Temple.

Sukkot (Holidays Exodus 33:12–34:26)

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This Week’s Torah Portion: Shabbat Chol HaMo-eid Sukkot (Holidays Exodus 33:12–34:26)

Why do we build a Sukkah? That is a great question, we argued about the right answer for about 200 years and did not come to a conclusion.

One answer is that the Sukkah represents the memory of the Divine presence leading our ancestors when they wandered in the desert for 40 years. “God went before them in a pillar of cloud by day, to guide them along the way,” (Exodus 13:21). When we enter the Sukkah we feel for a moment the presence of the Divine guiding us on our life journeys as we wander through our desert. May you have a Joyous Sukkot, please come and visit the temple Sukkah.

Sukkot Summary:
On the Shabbat during Sukkot, we are reminded of the age-old desire to know God. Moses implores God to let him see God. While God will not allow Moses to see God’s face, God tells Moses, “I will make My goodness pass before you…” Perhaps we experience the divine presence through the goodness we create in the world. The Torah then sets forth the thirteen attributes of God, among them that God is compassionate, gracious, slow to anger and abounding in kindness. By emulating these very attributes, we create the goodness which allows us to know God.

Simchat Torah with Rabbi David

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Simchat Torah with Rabbi David for our preschool.

Simchat Torah, Hebrew for “rejoicing in the Torah”, celebrates the completion of the annual reading of the Torah. Simchat Torah is a joyous festival, in which we affirm our view of the Torah as a tree of life. At The Temple we welcome our first grade students with a service of Consecration, the Torah scrolls are taken from the ark and carried or danced around the synagogue in a special family oriented service that is shared by all.

The Temple Trager ECEC fosters a learning environment.  We encourage intellectual, social-emotional, spiritual and physical experiences for ages 6 weeks – Kindergarten. The Temple Trager Early Childhood Education Center (ECEC) is a Liberal Jewish Preschool. It presents a broad-based curriculum within the context of moral and ethical values. Our students study the Jewish holidays as they arise throughout the year such as Simchat Torah with Rabbi David. At the Temple Trager ECEC, we learn about their Biblical and historical basis as well as the songs, foods, symbols and games associated with each.

Simchat Torah with Rabbi David for our preschool.

Simchat Torah, Hebrew for “rejoicing in the Torah”, celebrates the completion of the annual reading of the Torah. Simchat Torah is a joyous festival, in which we affirm our view of the Torah as a tree of life. At The Temple we welcome our first grade students with a service of Consecration, the Torah scrolls are taken from the ark and carried or danced around the synagogue in a special family oriented service that is shared by all.

The Temple Trager ECEC fosters a learning environment.  We encourage intellectual, social-emotional, spiritual and physical experiences for ages 6 weeks – Kindergarten. The Temple Trager Early Childhood Education Center (ECEC) is a Liberal Jewish Preschool. It presents a broad-based curriculum within the context of moral and ethical values. Our students study the Jewish holidays as they arise throughout the year such as Simchat Torah with Rabbi David. At the Temple Trager ECEC, we learn about their Biblical and historical basis as well as the songs, foods, symbols and games associated with each.

Haazinu (Deuteronomy 32:1–52)

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This Week’s Torah Portion: Haazinu (Deuteronomy 32:1–52)

In Haazinu (Listen), Moses explains how the history of the relationship between Adonai our God and Israel began. It is a different version/source, and a different story than the ones we read before. In this version, God did not choose us; God won us in a lottery. We are not the chosen people of God, but the people that won Adonai our God in a lottery. There are many nations in the world according to this version, and each has their own God, our lot is Adonai, and their lot is different.

This Week’s Torah Portion: Haazinu (Deuteronomy 32:1–52)

In Haazinu (Listen), Moses explains how the history of the relationship between Adonai our God and Israel began. It is a different version/source, and a different story than the ones we read before. In this version, God did not choose us; God won us in a lottery. We are not the chosen people of God, but the people that won Adonai our God in a lottery. There are many nations in the world according to this version, and each has their own God, our lot is Adonai, and their lot is different.

Haazinu Summary:
Moses sings his last song, a love poem to God and a chastisement of the people, who are not worthy of Adonai. (32:1–6)
The poem recounts the blessings that God has bestowed on the Israelites, the wicked deeds they have committed, and the punishments that God then inflicted upon them. (32:7–43)
God tells Moses to begin his ascent of Mount Nebo, from where he will see the Land of Israel from a distance but will not be allowed to enter it. (32:45–52)

High Holy Day Your Way 2019

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While we are continued with our Hugim and Babysitting for infants to Grade 3, we have created a new morning program for 4-6 grade called High Holy Day Your Way. Led by Benji Berlow, Rabbinic Assistant, this interactive program makes children the center of the program.  They were able to create, learn, and experience the High Holy Days.

As Fall approaches, Jews throughout the world prepare for a unique ten-day period of prayer, self-examination, fasting, and repentance. It is time for the Yamim Noraim, the Days of Awe, the High Holy Days: Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur. These holidays are preceded by a month of reflection: the Hebrew month of Elul. During this time, morning worship includes special penitential prayers and concludes with the blowing of the shofar as a reminder of the approaching season of atonement.  High Holy Day services at The Temple are led from Mishkan Hanefesh, the new Machzor of Reform Judaism, Creative Children’s Services feature storybook themes, and Classical Services are led from the Sinai Edition of the Old Union Prayer book.

While we are continued with our Hugim and Babysitting for infants to Grade 3, we have created a new morning program for 4-6 grade called High Holy Day Your Way. Led by Benji Berlow, Rabbinic Assistant, this interactive program makes children the center of the program.  They were able to create, learn, and experience the High Holy Days.

As Fall approaches, Jews throughout the world prepare for a unique ten-day period of prayer, self-examination, fasting, and repentance. It is time for the Yamim Noraim, the Days of Awe, the High Holy Days: Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur. These holidays are preceded by a month of reflection: the Hebrew month of Elul. During this time, morning worship includes special penitential prayers and concludes with the blowing of the shofar as a reminder of the approaching season of atonement.  High Holy Day services at The Temple are led from Mishkan Hanefesh, the new Machzor of Reform Judaism, Creative Children’s Services feature storybook themes, and Classical Services are led from the Sinai Edition of the Old Union Prayer book.

Vayeilech (Deuteronomy 31:1–30)

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This Week’s Torah Portion: Vayeilech (Deuteronomy 31:1–30)

Moses the greatest leader, prophet, law giver we ever had dies. He dies without reaching the Promised Land. Moses’ death teaches us a great lesson, we do not get to fulfil everything we wish and aim for. Even Moses the greatest of all dies without getting to his promised land. A Life worth living, a great legacy is when you still have goals you want to achieve, when you still yearn for more.

This Week’s Torah Portion: Vayeilech (Deuteronomy 31:1–30)

Moses the greatest leader, prophet, law giver we ever had dies. He dies without reaching the Promised Land. Moses’ death teaches us a great lesson, we do not get to fulfil everything we wish and aim for. Even Moses the greatest of all dies without getting to his promised land. A Life worth living, a great legacy is when you still have goals you want to achieve, when you still yearn for more.

Vayeilech Summary:
Moses prepares the people for his death and announces that Joshua will succeed him. (31:1–8)
Moses instructs the priests and the elders regarding the importance of reading the Torah. (31:9–13)
God informs Moses that upon his death, the people will commit idolatry and “many evils and troubles shall befall them.” God tells Moses to teach the people a poem that will “be My witness.” (31:14–30)

Shanah Tovah

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Shanah Tovah!  Thank you everyone for coming to Rosh Hashanah services.  Everyone had a BLAST hearing the shofar call in the New Year.  See you all for Kol Nidre Services on Tuesday, October 8.
Shanah tovah Shofar

So, Shanah Tovah! Rosh HaShanah
Rosh HaShanah (literally, “Head of the Year”) is the Jewish New Year, a time of prayer, self-reflection, and repentance. We review our actions during the past year. We look for ways to improve ourselves, our communities, and our world in the year to come. Additionally, the holiday marks the beginning of a 10-day period, known as the Yamim Nora-im (“Days of Awe” or “High Holidays”). This ushers in wish Rosh HaShanah and culminates with Yom Kippur (the “Day of Atonement”). Moreover, Jews say Shanah Tovah. Rosh HaShanah is widely observed by Jews throughout the world, often with prayer and reflection in a synagogue. There also are several holiday rituals observed at home. Rosh HaShanah is celebrated on the first day of the Hebrew month of Tishrei, which – because of differences in the solar and lunar calendar – corresponds to September or October on the Gregorian or secular calendar. Customs associated with the holiday include sounding the shofar, eating a round challah, and tasting apples and honey to represent a sweet New Year. Finally, Shanah Tovah. Happy New Year.