News and Announcements
Berkshire Community Cheder welcomes new and existing students to its second year since moving to JCoB Central. We are starting a new Hebrew reading class this year, so this is a great time for your child to discover the joy of Jewish learning. This week the children enjoyed listening to the shofar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kPX0Wct0zo. To find out how your child can begin his or her Jewish learning journey, email cheder@jcob.org. Mazal tov to Yardena and Alan Cutsforth on the birth of a grandson Oscar James Gold, Oz ben Avraham, born to their daughter Angel and Allan Gold. We wish long life to Reuven (Uvi) Farchi on the loss of his grandfather. SOCIAL Andrea Sinclair invites everyone to a MacMillan Coffee Morning. These wonderful nurses have touched so many of our lives and our loved ones in their hour of need. Wednesday 21 September, 10am. Coffee, cakes and a Bring and Buy. Contact JCoB for location details. JCoB Shul For a schedule of services, please subscribe to our newsletter! Friday night services are earlier now every week as the days get shorter. The Oneg Shabbat has been rescheduled to 16 September. Book your place with Rebbetzin Shira We will hold a formal Shabbat morning services again on Saturday 24 September. On other weeks, all are welcome to join us for JCoB-I, a chance to daven more informally including reading and discussing the weekly parshah. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur We are excited to be offering services for a second year at JCoB Central led by Rabbi Zvi and Gavriel (our wonderful ba’al shacharit). Full details are in the calendar above. Last year’s services were inspiring and uplifting beyond all expectations. All community members are welcome to attend and there is no charge or need for tickets. Please contact Rebbetzin Shira if you wish to book a yom tov meal. Note to RHC Members: Again this year, Rabbi Zvi offered his free assistance to RHC so that kosher services could take place at Goldsmid Road to bring the whole community together for yom tov. As we go to press, no answer has been received. Succot Succot services will take place again this year, and we are excited again to host Rabbi Ariel Abel and his family over the festival. We will again obtain Lulav and Etrog sets for the community. This year, we have been offered student sets for only £16.50! (only for students). Standard sets are £20 / £25 and as usual extra nice etrogim are always available at a premium. If you wish to order a lulav and Etrog or other succot supplies such as schach, email contact@jcob.org by the morning after Yom Kippur at the latest. Thanks to a generous donation, there is currently no charge for children, students or low income adults attending meals at JCoB Central. For working adults, suggested donations are: Dinners £15 Fancy lunches £10. Light lunches £5. We welcome your sponsorship so that we can continue to offer hospitality. KOSHER FOOD NEWS Just Kosher will be delivering food to Reading on Sundays 25 September and 9 October. If you need only a few items or urgently need challot or other essentials, contact Rebbetzin Shira New Directions (On Rosh Hashanah 5777) There is a saying oft attributed to Einstein that the definition of an idiot is someone who does the same experiment over and over again, expecting a new result each time. People often post this comment on social media when they come across a troll who repeats the same tired old argument, but never seems to learn anything from the interchange. We human beings are creatures of habit. We love doing things the same way and get into ruts of ritual. It is uncomfortable to do something new, to strike out in directions which are different to what we are used to. Our comfort depends, to some extent, on the surroundings and actions which we are used to. Inertia, more than anything, is responsible for lack of innovation. The argument that “it’s always been done that way” is seductive, because it smacks of tradition. At Rosh Hashanah however, we are asked to break our bad habits, and to strike out in new directions. We are encouraged to become entrepreneurial in a personal sense, by overcoming the stasis and the poor choices we tend to make in our lives due to that inertia. On Rosh Hashanah we are told to wake up to the opportunities we have in our lives, and to try to make a difference; to ourselves, and to the rest of the world. This is what we mean by Teshuva – a Hebrew word which means “turning”. Some consider it to be turning back to God or back to our true selves, but in the sense that I am speaking about it really means, turning off the beaten track. This is that time of the year when we can get out of the rut we often wear ourselves into, and start to make a real difference to ourselves, our families, our community and our country. We start with ourselves, but this is an ongoing project. Here at JCoB we have taken a new path. We are reaching out to many young Jewish adults, and offering a different model of Orthodox Judaism for Berkshire Jewry. We offer inclusion, unity, friendship, hospitality and a thumping good musical environment for our prayers. As a community we support each other and invest in our future success. A year ago we held our first High Holyday services here at JCoB Central. We weren’t quite sure what we were letting ourselves in for. We put up the marquee, and prayed that we would make minyan over the Chaggim. This year we remember the warmth, the ruach (atmosphere) and the wonderful joy of celebrating together, culminating in a Ne’ilah so packed there was barely standing room in there. We are looking forward to doing this again, and at the same time hoping that in the coming year we and every Jew in Reading and the wider Thames Valley area can strike out in a new direction, can grow, and can enjoy the celebrations along with us. Wishing everyone Chag Sameach, and a K’tivah v’Chatima Tova – may you be inscribed for a happy and healthy New Year. Rabbi Zvi. Shofar for Ellul Ellul is the start of 40 days of Self-examination, when we blow the shofar before Rosh Hashannah. Rabbi Zvi will be blowing the shofar during this time, from different locations, and offering a short word of Torah to help us all on this spiritual mental pilgrimage. News and Announcements
Berkshire Community Cheder commences its new school year on 4 September. We will be starting a new Hebrew reading class this year, so this is a great time for your child to discover the joy of Jewish learning. For more information, contact us We wish long life to the Sassoon family on the loss of Richard’s father Victor Sassoon. We wish long life to Marlene Ross and children Stephen and Bernice on the loss of Marlene’s husband Tony Ross who passed away last week. SOCIAL The Berkshire Women’s Rosh Chodesh group will be meeting again at 8pm on Sunday 4 September at Judi’s home. Judi will show a film about photojournalist Ruth Gruber. Contact Rebbetzin Shira for more information or for directions. KOSHER FOOD NEWS Just Kosher (justkosher.co.ouk) will be delivering food to Reading on Sunday 4 September. If you need only a few items or urgently need challot or other essentials, contact Rebbetzin Shira. Doping in Sports As published in the Jewish News http://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/torah-for-today-this-week-doping-in-sports/ It is a Jew’s job to behave uprightly and honestly to the utmost of their ability. One should always be honest in one’s dealings and not seek to deceive others. The rabbis state that our yes should mean yes and our no should mean no. It is a misconception that the Torah tells us we are not allowed to lie in the Ten Commandments. That particular commandment is about court evidence. The prohibition on dishonesty is to be found later, in Leviticus 19:11. The rabbis tell us that dishonesty extends even to messing around with a person to get them to think something for a joke. The term for this is geneivat da’at – in English deception, or literally stealing their understanding. This is derived from Jacob’s deception of Laban, and Absalom his father David. The origin of the term is attributed to the Talmudic sage Samuel, who lived in Nehardea, who states in Chullin (94a): “It is forbidden to mislead people, even a non-Jew.” The Talmudic “even” is notable. Deception of anyone is prohibited. Indeed, in business situations the rabbis give examples of how straightforward we must be, to the extent that if we buy an item and discover another more valuable item to be concealed within it, we must return the more valuable item to its rightful owner. Among ourselves, we are only allowed to make a profit of one sixth over the cost of an item. Of course, cheating in exams falls under this prohibition, because you are lying about your qualifications. Recently another, more modern form of dishonesty has been uncovered: taking drugs in athletics. The whole Russian team appears to be suspect. The International Olympics Committee considered banning all the Russian competitors, which would have been a reasonable penalty. Unfortunately it changed its mind. This could have the result of throwing suspicion over many competitors, and has caused untold damage to the competitions in which they participate. The deception here is compounded by the health risks. Drugs are often used to disguise heavy use of steroids, which can take high tolls on health. We are forbidden from intentionally damaging ourselves. At one point, the gymnastic teams of Romania and Bulgaria took the disgusting step of getting young girl gymnasts pregnant to enhance their flexibility. The morality of such an act is utterly reprehensible, no matter how “scientifically” administered, not to mention the physical and psychological effects. The implications of cheating in sport are very serious, as the drugs may well seriously alter the result of the event, and this has bearing on the whole business of sport and on the practice of betting on the results. The greatest damage, though, of this most recent scandal appears to have been to athletics in general. The good name of the sport, the damage done to the name of Russian athletics and, of course, the suspicions raised against all the medallists over the past eight years, are all reasons why this dishonesty is utterly prohibited. Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Zvi Mazal Tov to all the students in the Berkshire Community Cheder on their achievements this year as we complete our first full year at JCoB Central. We celebrated the end of the year with our usual prize giving followed by baking challah and then cooling off.
We are excited this coming year to be welcoming yet one more new family as well as celebrating our first bar mitzvah! |
Rabbi Zvi SolomonsThe only Orthodox Rabbi in Berkshire Archives
March 2019
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