Shomrei Torah Religious School

Being Jewish is more than a religion and a culture. For most of us, being Jewish is integral to being part of the Jewish community, the kehillah. So many of our rituals and practices are based on communal activities, from the emphasis on Jewish study to worshipping together in a minyan, a group of ten or more. In the coming year, we will focus on the concept of kehillah.

Our STARS teachers and madrikhim are committed to making their classrooms a kehillah where we care about one another. We are all classmates and respect and care about each other. Our school exists within the larger community of our synagogue. At each Bar and Bat Mitzvah a member of the Board presents a gift to the student emphasizing that the entire CST community has shared in their Jewish upbringing. It takes a kehillah to raise a Jewish child.

There are many ways we make our place a caring community. The Communities in Conversation (CIC) program fosters the sharing and openness that is the basis for a vibrant kehillah. STaRS will also have some CIC sessions so parents can discuss what is meaningful to them.

Sometimes it is small changes that bring people together. This year STaRS is considering having a caf� on Saturday afternoons where coffee and a nosh will be available. If you are interested in helping make this happen, please call/email the STaRS office. Another way to build kehillah is by volunteering. Not only does this make you a part of the program but it brings people together to work on a shared activity. For this new year, 5770, set a goal to be an active member of our Jewish community.

�How good and pleasant it is for brothers and sisters to dwell together.� Psalms 133:1

A recent parasha, Torah portion, has the theme of blessings (and curses). The non-Jewish prophet, Balaam, praises the Israelites with the words �How lovely are your tents, O Jacob, Your dwellings, O Israel! Like palm-groves that stretch out, Like gardens beside the water�� It can be difficult to change our way of thinking. How often do we take the time to step back and appreciate, �count our blessings�?

Judaism is rich with specific blessings that give us the chance to stop, appreciate and be thankful for the ordinary as well as the beautiful. From the schecheyanu to the prayer for blessing our children, we have many opportunities to look inwardly, at those around us, and at our world and then express our appreciation. At STARS Shabbat dinners our families often say a blessing for their children and a few private words to them about something their child did that week that made their parents very proud.

As a congregation we all share in the education of our children. From the dues we pay to help support our school to our collective pride at each Bar/Bat Mitzvah, we are their extended family. The STARS teachers, especially, view our children as blessings. This view makes them especially aware of each child as an important part of their class community. We are appreciative of the teachers and see them, too, as a blessing.

On our last Saturday, May 2, the building overflowed with activity as well as a palpable sense of community. Parents came with their children and all were engaged in different ways: listening or participating in singing led by our music teacher, Susie Miller; involved in the Chairs auction which raised $1,230 for the STARS scholarship fund; or schmoozing and noshing.

In addition, we held a parent learning session, led by Meredith Cahn, our Rabbinic Intern. The topic was on ways to be Jewish during the summer and beyond. Here are some of the suggestions:

1. Shomrei Torah is open all summer long � don�t be a stranger

2. Practice Jewish rituals at home � light Shabbat candles and include blessing your children, say the bedtime Shema with your child; include a prayer when you awaken (traditionally the Modeh Ani); use a tzedakah box

3. Invest life with Jewish meaning � talk as a family about tzedakah; choose where to give; schedule Tikkun olam projects and talk about this Jewish value.

4. Do specific Jewish activities � Jewish film festival, movie nights at home, reading lists, the Jewish museum in the city, etc.

In May and June many families celebrate Mother�s Day and/or Father�s Day. Although they are not in the Jewish calendar as holidays, the honor and respect of parents, and those who take on the role of parents, are of the utmost importance.

In Torah, the Ten Commandments are found in Exodus and include the fifth commandment, �Honor your father and your mother.� The commandments are repeated in Leviticus, although slightly different, and it says, �You shall each revere your mother and your father.� The first four commandments deal with the people�s relationship to God; the next six deal with each person�s relationship to others, the basics of human society. According to the sages, the fifth commandment is the transition between the two categories. Tradition views honoring one�s parents as one aspect of the honor due to God. Parents are working with God in the miracle of creation when a child is born. They then mold their children through education. Therefore they are deserving of honor and reverence.

One other area worthy of mention is that one text states father first and the other mother. It is clear that the order does not matter and, notably, the mother is equal in honor and reverence. Notable also is the window in Shalom Hall that shows a family with the inscription �kavod av v�em,� honor father and mother. It is part of our Shabbat service called the Ten Obligations without Measure.

Honor and reverence can be difficult to maintain. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel grappled with this with his daughter. He realized that in order for his daughter to grow up wanting to revere him he would need to live a life worthy of her reverence. Heschel wrote, �My message to parents is: Every day ask yourselves the question: What is there about me that deserves the reverence of my child?�

Clearly, the obligation is twoway; we need to both honor our parents and be worthy of the honoring that our children are commanded to perform.

Torah is living Judaism and Pesach is a perfect example. The holiday is based on the events of Exodus; yet we are told to remember that we were once slaves in Egypt and think of ourselves as being set free. At the Seder we re-enact parts of the Exodus story as living Judaism.

Each year we attend a Seder and follow the order of the service. Even though it is the same holiday, it is never the same from one year to the next. We may be with some different guests, the questions asked can be different and we bring new perspectives on the relevancy of the themes of freedom, being a stranger or the plagues. What makes the Seder come alive is our ability to see the themes and other aspects of the Seder as symbols or concepts that relate to our current 21st century lives.

The Seder plate has foods that are symbols of the story. You may wish to �shake up� your table by adding some new foods:

Potatoes

The Religious Action Center (RAC) of the Reform Movement suggests using a potato, which is placed next to the parsley, as a reminder of the amazing exodus of Jews from Ethiopia to Israel. When they arrived in Israel they were so malnourished that the doctors fed them just potatoes and rice until their systems could take more food.

Commemorate this at your Seder by dipping cooked pieces of potatoes in salt water and having someone read a brief description of Operation Solomon or this explanation.

Oranges

Many families have begun adding an orange to the Seder plate as a way of acknowledging the role of women in Jewish life. Another new tradition is to have each guest take a segment of the orange and acknowledge those who have been marginalized including lesbian and gay community members as well as widows.

Miriam�s Cup

This new tradition honors Miriam�s important role in the deliverance from slavery as well as her help throughout the journey in Sinai. Place an empty cup next to Elijah�s and have each guest pour in a bit of their water, symbolizing Miriam�s life-giving well that followed the wandering Israelites. This custom symbolically recognizes that women are equally integral to the continued survival of the Jewish community. With a social action lens, we see the pouring of each person�s water as a symbol of everyone�s individual responsibility to respond to issues of social injustice, and that together we can make a positive difference. (from RAC Pesach: A Season for Justice).

Your Own Symbol

Discuss with your family what freedoms we have that we are thankful for and then choose a food or object that will symbolize this freedom and add to the Seder plate.

New symbols challenge the Seder attendees to ask questions. The Four Questions are really suggestions. It is the asking of questions that shows intellectual curiosity. One idea is to go around the table asking everyone to share a personal question about Pesach or the Exodus. After that, reply to a few by pooling everyone�s collective knowledge.

Avivah Zornberg, noted Torah scholar who will be visiting CST on April 27, stated that �Torah is a living text, endlessly relevant to the present, not just the past�. Challenge yourself and others to look for relevance and come to hear Dr. Zornberg guide us on April 27. Hag Pesach Sameach.

What a beautiful and holy time it was on February 1st, when our school participated in writing our new Torah! The children were excited and a little awed by the experience as they were escorted to the hand washing station to say the b�racha. Next they solemnly waited on the bima for their turn with our sofer, Rabbi Menachem Youlus.

Parents glowed and were even tearful as their child stood with Rabbi Menachem and carefully held the quill to write their letter. Thanks to their teachers, they were well prepared. They were asked to think of a special wish or prayer. Many quietly or silently chanted the shema and most had already thought of their personal request. Rabbi Menachem commented on how �in the moment� they were and some told him their wishes. One student said �I prayed for an end to cancer,� another �I hope that my brother and I are nicer to each other.� Several prayed for a puppy but included another prayer (as per their teachers� coaching!) which mentioned an end to problems in the world such as �no more hunger,� �an end to war,� �people of all races getting along,� �peace in Israel,� and many more that were never said aloud.

Each child became a �sofer� while writing. They had the intentionality and focus that is required of a sofer and for that brief time they performed the 613th mitzvah. When I previously asked the children what they think Torah is, some said that it is the stories of our ancestors and others mentioned the connection through the generations.

Before the program began, Rabbi George told a midrash (story) to the parents and children. God was looking for a people that would be willing to take God�s laws and follow them. When Adonai asked the Israelites what they would do to guarantee their part of the agreement, they offered their children as guarantors. This tale teaches two essential truths: that our children are our future and that it is our responsibility to make sure the Torah is passed � l�dor v�dor � from one generation to the next. STaRS students and families clearly understand.

On February 1, and again on April 1, Rabbi Menachem Youlus will work with each of the STaRS students to write a letter in the Torah that we are creating. Rabbi Youlus is a scribe, sofer, who is an artist and has learned the rules that must be followed to make certain that the Torah is holy.

In preparation, our students will be learning about Torah and what a sofer does. The Hebrew name for a scribe is Sofer S�TaM. The word S�TaM is an acronym made from the first letters of the three most important parchments that a sofer writes. The first is the S (samech) = Sefer Torah. This is the Torah scroll that we read in synagogue. The next letter, T (tav) = Tefillin. These are small leather boxes worn by some observant Jews while praying. Inside the boxes are handwritten parchments that include the shema. The last letter, M (mem)= Mezuzah. Inside each mezuzah is a parchment, written by a sofer, that contains part of the Shema.

Writing a Sefer Torah is holy work and there are rules to follow to make it kosher. One is that no base metals may be used in making or repairing the texts. These include such metals as iron, steel, copper, brass and bronze. These metals can be used to make weapons and nothing which is used for killing can be used in creating a Torah. Tools made of silver, gold ivory or fine wood are allowed. Even the yad, the pointer for reading from Torah, must follow these rules.

Another example of kosher practice is the parchment. It is made from the skin of a kosher animal. The hide can only be from an animal that was killed for food or died of natural causes. An animal cannot be killed just for its skin.

Just as important is who the sofer is. The sofer must be a person of good character and live a fully Jewish life. For example, the sofer will give tzedakah regularly. Just as important is focusing on the holiness of the work. Before the sofer writes he or she washes their hands and says a blessing. When the children write a letter, they will also wash and say a blessing. This reminds them of the holiness of what they are about to do.

Many people think that you cannot make a mistake when writing. This is not true and the sofer can correct any mistake made in any word except for God�s name.

The Year of Our Torah is a year of learning. Please join us for the many opportunities at CST to deepen our knowledge of Torah.

The month of Cheshvan, roughly the month of November, has been designated Jewish Book Month. The idea of a focus on Jewish books began in 1927 and quickly spread to communities around the country.

Judaism has always emphasized scholarship with Jewish texts as a core component. From Torah to Talmud and other books, we value writings that are ancient as well as new. Synagogue life provides many opportunities for exploring Jewish books: we have had book groups at CST, a book discussion at the Women�s Retreat and numerous authors as speakers. The Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) includes book reviews in its magazine �Reform Judaism� and recommends books for individuals and groups on its web site, www.urj.org, and includes links to study and discussion guides. Locally, the San Francisco Bureau of Jewish Education has multiple copies of books for lending to book groups.

A lending library has been part of the STARS program since its inception. Although children are at STARS just a few hours a week, by taking a book home they can continue their Jewish learning and connection. It is a great opportunity for parents to read to their child at bedtime both short stories as well as chapter books. These books can count towards their school reading requirements and also give both the parent and child an opportunity to talk about aspects of Judaism. Another great source of books for children in 4th grade and above is the magazine �Babaganewz.� Called Bababookz, it can be found at www.Babaganewz.com.

Jeanne Plattus, our volunteer library coordinator, is excited about a new program to build our library. It is a Birthday Program where a donation of $18 will be used to buy a book in honor of a child who will select the book from our list and be the first to check it out! We will also insert a donation sticker in the book with his or her name. We are looking for one or two volunteers to chair our Birthday Book Program and Jeanne will help with it as well.

As Ibn Tibbon, a 13th century French scholar said �Your books are your true treasures�. We are known as the People of the Book.

We ended the stars school year back in May with the blowing of the shofar. Perhaps it reminded us of our ancestral connection, or a spiritual link to the Temple. Maybe some of us heard it as a call to learning and a reminder to return. I believe that our teachers certainly heard that message as they are all returning to STaRS this fall.

To have all our faculty return is quite wonderful. They already know many of you and you have done your part to make them feel welcome and appreciated. I know that they are looking forward to this new year of 5769 and I want to introduce them, once again, and let you know their classes.

Susie Miller � Music
Denise Harrison � Kindergarten
Barbara Whitaker � First Grade
Yvonne Cobert � Second Grade
Norman Eisley � Third Grade
Meryl Fischer � Fourth Grade
Avi Starr-Glass � Fifth Grade
Sherry Knazan � Sixth Grade
Marcia Gladstone � Seventh Grade

In addition, Idan Amran and Sherry Fink will be Associate Teachers. Our B�nai Mitzvah staff is: Margo Miller, Elly Cohen and Marsha Gladstone, with Leira Satlof as the B�nai Mitzvah Coordinator. Sherry Knazan will continue as the madrikhim teacher and assist with family education programs. On Wednesdays, Laura Peterson, a member and STaRS parent, will be our shomer. Our School Assistant, Pam McCullen, joined our staff this past April.

The shofar sound can also be heard as a call back to Torah, the basic foundation of Judaism. Our teachers are busy learning ways to make the Year of Our Torah a year for our children to connect and understand that living Torah is living Judaism. Listen to the shofar and ask your children what they hear. This is our year to return to Torah.