Shabbat Shalom (Lech L'Cha) 1. From the Rabbi As I wrote in last week’s message, this Sunday, 1st November, is the interfaith panel on prayer. A Rabbi, a Priest and an Imam walk into a Synagogue … 8.00 pm at NLS. I do hope you will be able to join us. Then, next Sunday, 8th November we have another huge treat. Reb Zalman Schachter Shalomi will be speaking at New London Synagogue. 2-4:30pm. I want to share two peeks into the life and work of our guest. Reb Zalman’s PhD thesis was written on spiritual counselling in Hasidism, and in particular the interview between Rebbe and Chasid known as the Yehidut. In his book-length treatment of the subject Reb Zalman relays the following story. Once two children, the sons of R. Shmuel Schneersohn of Lubavitch were playing at the game of rebbe and hasid. R. Zalman Aaron, then seven years old, was playing rebbe, while his younger brother, R. Shalom Dovber, then 5 years old, played hasid. The younger brother girded his loins with a prayer sash and knocked softly at the door, and when asked to enter approached his brother [to ask what he should do having] not recited the blessing after eating an apple. R. Zalman Aaron replied, ‘For the next forty days you are to recite a blessing out of a prayer manual after eating any food.’ ‘You did not do it right’ his younger brother reproached him, ‘How can you say this?’ R. Zalman Aaron argued. ‘I myself watched Daddy through the keyhole when a hasid asked him the same question and I gave you his reply.’ ‘I too watch Daddy,’ R. Shalom Dovber replied, ‘But you don’t do it right. Daddy always sighs before he answers.’ [And so it was] R. Shalom Dovber who later became rebbe, and not his older brother.’ In 1990 Reb Zalman was one of a series of Jewish teachers who were invited to share insights into the nature of exilic survival with the Dalia Lama in Dharamsala. The story of their journey is recorded in the book, The Jew in the Lotus. In one extract the Buddist monks are sharing the extra-ordinarily drawn technical training they and their predecessors have undertaken for centuries. ‘Zalman told them in response, ‘First of all, I’m the last of the Mohicans from our end. I still have memories from before the Holocaust of what spirituality was about and you guys are the last from yours. And you’re looking ahead, you’re getting old, so the urgency to hand over what you have received, without change, to make sure it is authentically absorbed, I can understand in full. But the other side is it still takes too long because our technology outstrips our spiritual and moral development, we need to hurry it up. We can’t take twenty years to do the sutras. We have to break it out for people.’ So Zalman, with characteristic chutzpah suggested that his fellows do some research and development exploring … transpersonal psychology and planetary consciousness. ‘At that point Zalman’s translator told him, ‘We don’t need this stuff, Buddhist practice doesn’t need to be psychological or ecological.’ But Zalman, who’d taught psychology at Temple University disagreed.’ The Monks and the Rabbi disagreed until Zalman remembered and recounted a story of how he once taken a group of people to meet the Lubavitcher Rebbe who when asked what he did responded, ‘“I [won’t] talk about myself, I’ll talk for what my master was for me. He was for me the geologist of the soul. There are great treasures in the soul: there’s faith, there’s love there’s awe, there’s wisdom, all these treasures you can dig – but if you don’t know where to where to dig you dig up mud – Freud – or you dig up stones – Adler. But if you want to get to the gold, which is the awe before God, and the silver, which is the love and the diamonds which are the faith, then you have to find the geologist of the soul who tells you where to dig.” The rebbe added, “but the digging you have to do yourself.”’ So this is our invitation to come and hear Reb Zalman, last of the Mohicans, geologist of the soul and a man who knows the value of a good sigh. Shabbat Shalom, 2. November/December Newsletter. The latest Newsletter will be sent out in the next few days. As always it is readable on the website, to download the latest edition click here. 3. The Week Ahead The Kabbalat Shabbat service this evening begins at 6.30 pm in the New London Hall. For the next three months we will hold our Friday evening services in the Hall to create a more intimate atmosphere and it will also be much warmer in the winter. Seating arrangements will remain as they are in the shul and we welcome your feedback. Tomorrow morning Shacharit is at 9.15 am in the Synagogue. and the sermon will be given by Reli Yisraeli, Shlichah – Emissary of the Jewish Agency for Israel - to the Assembly of Masorti Synagogues. Reli and her husband Yoel have recently moved and are now local to New London, we are delighted to welcome her to the neighbourhood. On Sunday Shacharit will be at 9.15 am in the Bet Midrash. The Cheder is on half term this week. Babes in the Wood will meet on Monday from 11.00 - 1.00 pm as usual. On Thursday evening (until December 2nd) at 7.30 pm "Listen to her Voice" - Biblical Women in Art and Judaism (in association with LISHMA and SPIRO ARK) This series will retell the lives of ten remarkable women – warriors, prophets, priests, queens, wives and mothers. The course will also become a journey into the role of women in modern Jewish faith. £60 for the course or £12 per individual session. To book email Spiro Ark - http://www.spiroark.org/events/528/listen-to-her-voice-biblical-women-in-art-and-judaism/ This Sunday at 10.30 am - “ALL CHANGE AT KINGS CROSS” A Walking Tour with Blue Badge Guide Rachel Kolsky. Explore the newly renovated St Pancras station and unlock the secrets to the surrounding area's history, including The gothic splendour of the old Midland Grand Hotel, a German Gymnasium, film locations, a canalside nature reserve, a state-of-the art music venue and the church with a memorial which inspired the telephone box all feature on this tour...something for everyone. Booking essential @ £10 per person (cheques payable to NLS) To reserve your place, please call the office 0207 328 1026 On Sunday evening, at 8.00 pm - Prayer: An Interfaith Panel "What takes place when a person prays? What is role of a fixed liturgy? Do we have to understand our prayers? Does God always listen?These questions and more will be addressed by a panel of religious leaders. 4. Dates for your diary... * NLS series on Prayer - history, theology & spirituality * Or These are a few of my Favourite Prayers Sunday 15 November 2009 - Mitzvah Day . You won't recognise the New London Hall: it will look like a cross between a warehouse, a sorting office and a loading bay, as we’re collecting, packing and dispatching various goods to organisations that help refugees and asylum seekers. As a people, we’ve known what it means to be displaced so this is close to our hearts. If you can donate new or second hand goods or give of your time, click here for more details Friday 20th to Sunday 22nd November - NLS trip to Paris - It is not too late for more people to join the trip, however you must now make your own arrangements for travel and accomodation. We are travelling by Eurostar - leaving 9.01 Friday and returning on the Sunday from Paris. We are staying at the hotel Eiffel Petit Louvre www.hotel-paris-petitlouvre.com close to the Eiffel Tower (Phone : 01 45 78 17 12) and also to the Adath Shalom Synagogue. When you have booked your trains and hotel please call the office so we can add you to the list, - there will be a small additional charge for the walking tour and for a gift for the Adath Shalom Community, our hosts. 5. BEYOND NLS... Tuesday 10 November, 7.30pm - The Friends of the Jewish Museum invite you to see the critically acclaimed ‘Mrs Klein’ at the Almeida Theatre in Islington. Tickets £40. For full details and to book go to - www.jewishmuseum.org.uk Exchange Programme for Children in Paris - As you may know we have a close relationship with the Masorti Adath Shalom synagogue in Paris, and in fact, have a group going there in November for a weekend. They are interested in setting up exchanges of children between families of our communities. If you are interested please email Stéphanie Lebaz-Benaroc - secretairegenerale@free.fr A Stroll with a difference - New North London Synagogue are organising a sponsored hike in Israel "from the sea to the sea" to raise money for their new shul building and the UJIA, led by Rabbi Wittenberg. It looks terrific fun. We have a special offer from NNLS that any sponsored funds by our members will go 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 between UJIA and NNLS who are organising the event and NLS. The minimum sponsorship figure to be raised for those who want to participate in the Israel Sea-to-Sea hike taking place from 14th – 19th March 2010 is £1,200. If you would like to join this trip, please email Pauline Bravo rabbispa@nnls-masorti.org.uk, as soon as possible. Participants boof their own flights. Shabbat Shalom Stephen Cotsen |
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