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The Berkshire Women’s Rosh Chodesh group will be meeting again at 8pm on Sunday 7 August at Noya’s home. Hila will lead – a practical and learning discussion of tzitzit! Hw to tie them in knots……. Monday 1st to Friday 5th August 2016 Oxford Kaytana 2016 is a summer scheme for children aged 5-14 years, organised by the community and led by youth leaders, experienced staff and junior assistants. The Oxford Kaytana is specifically designed to cater for young people from Jewish families in the greater Oxford area, for both those connected with the Oxford Jewish Community and friends. Our goal is to strengthen the Jewish roots and Jewish experience of youngsters from age 5 upwards, both as participants and as young leaders in the summer scheme. Oxford Kaytana offers a week of excitement, Jewish learning, pride and fun in a warm, friendly, caring environment. This year there will also be a leadership training course all week for those in school years 9 and 10; 1st - 5th August Contact connections@ojc-online.org for an application form, KOSHER FOOD NEWS Just Kosher (justkosher.co.ouk) will be delivering food to Reading on Sundays 31 July and 14 August. Please let Rebbetzin Shira know if you require only a small number of items.
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The Berkshire Women’s Rosh Chodesh group will be meeting again at 8pm on Wednesday 6 July at the home of Hannah. Hadassah will lead some text based study on ethical decision making and should we always follow a majority? Topical post Brexit! Email Rebbetzin Shira for more information or for directions. Monday 1st to Friday 5th August 2016 Oxford Kaytana 2016 is a summer scheme for children aged 5-14 years, organised by the community and led by youth leaders, experienced staff and junior assistants. The Oxford Kaytana is specifically designed to cater for young people from Jewish families in the greater Oxford area, for both those connected with the Oxford Jewish Community and friends. Our goal is to strengthen the Jewish roots and Jewish experience of youngsters from age 5 upwards, both as participants and as young leaders in the summer scheme. Oxford Kaytana offers a week of excitement, Jewish learning, pride and fun in a warm, friendly, caring environment. This year there will also be a leadership training course all week for those in school years 9 and 10; 1st - 5th August Contact connections@ojc-online.org for an application form, JCoB Shul Friday night services continue to be held each week at 7:30pm. We will be having an Oneg Shabbat this Friday 1 July and can still squeeze a couple of more people in if you let us know asap. We will hold a formal Shabbat morning services again on Saturdays 9 July and 23 July. On all other weeks, you are also welcome to join us for JCoB-I, a chance to daven more informally including reading and discussing the weekly parshah. 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, standard 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 (justkosher.co.ouk) will be delivering food to Reading on Sundays 3 and 17 July. Please let Rebbetzin Shira know if you require only a small number of items. Orlando shooting As published in the Jewish News http://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/torah-for-today-this-week-the-orlando-shooting/ On several occasions now, young men of a Muslim background have entered leisure locations and shot large numbers of people. This is an activity encouraged by terrorist organizations like ISIS and Hamas, and the victims have been Jews, partying young Westerners and in the most recent event mainly partying gay men. The irony of a self-hating repressed gay Muslim killing gay Americans at a gay bar he used frequently cannot be lost on us. Can there be something to say from a Torah perspective on this matter? I believe that the reason that some Muslim extremists can rationalise such murder is that they have little and only recent experience (as a religious grouping) of living in any numbers outside Muslim countries. We Jews have two and a half millennia. When Pirkei Avot tell us to pray for the peace of the country, when the Gemara tells us that dina d'medina dina, the law of the land is the law, we understand that we have to respect the law of the country and to maintain it. I am certain that there is Islamic jurisprudence to equal this but it is not as deeply ingrained through practice. That comes with time. As for their being gay - a shrill fascist might ask whether I as an Orthodox rabbi shouldn't rejoice in the demise of sinners What a thought! We're not so far from Rosh Hashanna, when Jews are reminded that there is no human being who has not sinned. Moreover, these are human beings made in God's image. What gives any random religious zealot the right to kill in the name of His law? We are none of us on the spiritual level of Pinchas. It should be remarked that we too have our crazies. How very different is the man who killed those poor people in Orlando from the jewish zealot who killed Shira Banki in August 2015? We note that there are a million times more Muslims in the world and in the USA they have access to rifles. Our own community does not make it easy to be openly gay. We are not all welcoming to our lgbtqi friends. Our Orthodox religious rules mean we cannot accommodate aspects of modern life like gay marriage - but that should not stop us from reaching out. On this matter, none of us should be smug or complacent. Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Zvi Rabbi Zvi’s two minute torah on Beha’alotecha can be found on http://youtu.be/yF9iYoErObE SOCIAL
The Berkshire Women’s Rosh Chodesh group will be meeting again at 8pm on Wednesday 6 July at the home of Hannah Rudenski. Hadassah will lead. Topic: Independence Day! US style. Thanks to everyone who attended our Lag Ba’Omer Barbeque and to the JC for including such a lovely picture. http://www.thejc.com/galleries/out-and-about/out-and-about-june-2016?img=10#gallery Oxford Jewish Community will be holding its Kaytana camp again this summer for children aged 5-13. For details see http://www.ojc-online.org/index.php/social-cultural/annual-events/kaytana JCoB Shul Thanks to everyone who helped to make our first anniversary Shavuot so special. WE promise that the nachos sauce feast will now be an annual event in Reading! Friday night services continue to be held each week at 7:30pm. We will hold a formal Shabbat morning services again on Saturdays 2 July and 23 July. On all other weeks, you are also welcome to join us for JCoB-I, a chance to daven more informally including reading and discussing the weekly parshah. 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, standard 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 (justkosher.co.ouk) will be delivering food to Reading on Sundays 3 and 17 July. Please let Rebbetzin Shira know if you require only a small number of items. Blessings (on Shabbat Naso 5776) We hear it regularly in Shul, more frequently if we were Sephardi, and daily if we are living in Israel. It is a part not only of Jewish but also of Christian worship. The priestly blessing, in this week's Torah portion Naso, is a progression of primes, both mathematically and spiritually satisfying. The flow of words, conveyed through millennia of tradition, channelled through the fingers of the cohanim spread under their tallitot, take us back to the very beginning of Jewish worship in the Temple. When the Torah tells us that this is how we are to bless the children of Israel, this roots the tradition of the priesthood blessing some 3500 years ago. In fact, the oldest Jewish text artefact is a silver amulet discovered in a grave in Ketef Himnom in Israel with the priestly blessing engraved upon it. It is no accident that the words of three, five and seven. The progressive increase in the number of words implies an ever increasing and fuller blessing. Prime numbers have a magical aura, and starting at three (the male number) move through five (the divine number) to seven (the number of creation). The Priestly Blessing was delivered at the end of the Temple Service. This is why it was picked up by Christianity, whose ritual grew after the development of a separate church. Christians use it at the end of the service in imitation of its Temple use. Today we Jews conclude our Amidah prayer and our grace after meals with the blessing. We also use this formula in our Shabbat rituals at home as a blessing for children, as well as at weddings. If you do one Jewish thing in your life as a parent, blessing your children is the deepest most connected thing you could do. If your Shabbat ritual does not yet include the blessing of your children you are missing out on a rare treat, which links you with the Jewish past and the oldest elements of our ritual and ties you through your children to the future. Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Zvi Rabbi Jeremy Rosen’s article on the Devil and the Jews can be found on http://jeremyrosen.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/the-devil-and-jews.html The Jewish community of Berkshire enjoyed a barbecue on Lag BaOmer last Thursday to mark the first anniversary of the community’s existence.
“Our community started up by accident,” comments Rabbi Zvi Solomons. “I injured my knee and could not walk to shul for Shabbat. My daughter Ora was due to celebrate becoming Bat Mitzvah on Shavuot, and my wife was frantic when I had to go into hospital for an operation.” “I phoned the ward, and told them that he would have to stay until Tuesday if he wasn’t out on the Friday,” adds Rebbetzin Shira Solomons. “We had a lovely service in our garden.” Since then Rabbi and Rebbetzin Solomons have been able to maintain Jewish continuity in Reading, with a Cheder operating from their home, and regular services. “Our home is always full of people, and we enjoy having services here,” observes Rabbi Zvi, “ and we have found several young people and students in the area who enjoy the informality of our services.” “It has been a blessing in disguise,” reflects Shira. “Without the injury we had no reason to hold services at the house. Now we have regular minyanim, and between that and our web presence we get frequent inquiries about living in Reading. Rabbi Zvi and Rebbetzin Shira provide hospitality in Reading to every Jew who needs it, and are frequent visitors to the local hospitals. For more details contact 07828 742282 or www.JCoB.org SOCIAL
Lag Ba’Omer is coming! All are welcome to a Barbeque / bonfire featuring Rebbetzin Shira’s famous skewers as well as juicy sausages and other tasties. Subscribe to this newsletter to receive full information. The Berkshire Women’s Rosh Chodesh group will be meeting again at 8pm on Sunday 5 June. We will make cheesecake while we discuss ‘Would it have been better if we had all been non-meat eaters? For location information, please contact Rebbetzin Shira. SHABBAT / FESTIVAL EVENTS Shavuot! Enjoy a sunny Shavuot at JCoB Central. Shavuot Eve, from 8pm until midnight, join in some informal learning along with kiddush, hamotzi, dips, cheesecake and ice cream. Guest teachers TBC. Shavuot Day, enjoy a service in the garden, surrounded by roses and other summer flowers. Service 9:30am with the children’s flower procession at 10:30am followed by the ‘Ten Commandment Experience’. After the service, Rebbezin Shira then invites you to join in the traditional Mexican Shavuot Feast featuring nachos, refritos, guacamole, tortillas, salad, rice and of course cheese cake and ice cream. Adults £10. Free for children, students, and those on low incomes. Please book directly with Rebbetzin Shira. Lactose-free food will be available. 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, standard 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 (justkosher.co.ouk) will be delivering food to Reading on Sundays 22 May, 5 June and 19 June. Please let Rebbetzin Shira know if you require only a small number of items. CHOLIM We publish a list every week in our newsletter but to maintain privacy this is not included online. Festivals (on Shabbat Emor 5776) (As published in the Jewish News. http://www.jewishnews.co.uk/category/judaism/sedra/ ) This week we read the passage in Leviticus which deals with our Shabbat and festivals. Shabbat is our day of rest, and the festivals are intended as days of joy and rejoicing. We are not supposed to be sad on Shabbat. We are commanded to be happy on our festivals. Being currently engaged in counting the Omer, we recognize the importance of the chagim in our lives. They have to be at the right time of year, and this year are later than usual, due to the leap year which keeps the lunar cycle in line with the solar. Shabbat differs from the festivals in an essential manner. The Shabbat happens every week and can be kept track of very simply by counting to seven. It is the simplest of all our holy days, and the surest. There can be no dispute about when it arrives. It, and its interval, were set permanently by God. This is not so with festivals. They are proclaimed, and depend on an accurate mensuration of the calendar. In ancient times great care was taken to proclaim the New Moon at the correct time, and witnesses of the sliver of new moon-silver in the sky were cross-examined. Indeed, the date of Shavuot was the subject of dispute between us Rabbinites and the Sadducees and others. The Torah says we start counting "from the day after the Sabbath", the Rabbis understanding that this means the second day of Pesach and the Sadducees taking it as the day after Shabbat literally - making Shavuot always on a Sunday. The essence of this (debatable) human agency in declaring the dates of our festivals is embedded in Chapter 24, v4: אלה מועדי י-וה מקראי קדש אשר-תקראו אתם במועדם: These are the festivals of the Lord, called holy, those which you shall call in their seasons. For Shabbat, God took responsibility for the arrangements. For the Chagim, our festivals, we are given responsibility. Even if we make mistakes, if our calendar is inaccurate and we are a day or two out, merely by declaring the calendar, we create the date of the festivals. It's our big responsibility. Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Zvi Rabbi Jeremy Rosen’s article on Love Your Neighbour can be found on http://jeremyrosen.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/love-your-neighbor.html JCoB Schools
After a successful first year, JCoB Schools is now ready to book visits for Autumn 2016 and beyond. Thanks to Andrew Rex for this wonderful article on just one of our recent visits: http://enrichment.holmegrange.net/2016/04/27/celebrating-pesach/ SOCIAL The Berkshire Women’s Rosh Chodesh group will be meeting again at 5pm on Sunday 8 May. We will be meeting at Hadassah's home for a river side walk and a cup of tea - and Noya will lead the learning! Contact Rebbetzin Shira. for more information or directions. SHABBAT / FESTIVAL EVENTS Thanks to Liz and Mike Jacobs and to Michel Amar for sponsoring kiddushim over Pesach. Shabbat and morning services will be held again on 14 May. We appreciate your continued support in assuring an early minyan. 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, standard 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 Passover food to Reading on Sunday 8 May. |
Rabbi Zvi SolomonsThe only Orthodox Rabbi in Berkshire Archives
March 2019
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