Shabbat Shalom (Vayetzei)

1. From the Rabbi 

This Sunday, 10am – 4pm at the London Jewish Cultural Centre, a number of my Masorti colleagues will be engaging with evolution. It is part of the celebration of 150 years since the publication of Origin of the Species.

I’m sorry I won’t be able to be there (wedding season), not least since I love the book which changed the way I looked at the world when I first encountered it as a teen. I’ve always loved reading up on evolution; Richard Jay Gould, Steven Jones, Matt Ridley, even Richard Dawkins (well at least early Dawkins), have all helped me understand better life’s richness and my place among those with whom I share this planet.

And what of the furore? What of the Scopes Monkey Trial, the spat between the contemporary Richard Dawkins’ acolytes and the Creationists? I admit to feeling nonplussed. Of course if one takes a literalist interpretation of the Bible, then our holiest of texts can look foolish when compared to a twenty-first century scientific work, but Rabbinic Jews have never confused a love of and belief in Torah with a literalist blinkers.

This is Rav Kook, d. 1935 engaging with the question of why the Bible details creation as occurring over six days. 
‘Creation, by definition is outside our frame of thought. If time exists only as a mode of our thoughts, then the act of creation is necessarily non-temporal; 'above time.' [But] since creation does not take place in time we must ask why the Torah describes it as taking six days. The answer is that the Torah wishes to teach us a lesson in relative values. Everything has value only in relation to its spiritual content.’ (cited in Slifkin, Challenge of Creation).

Or how about this, from Maimonides explaining why so much early Rabbinic astronomy is revealed as errant when viewed from the perspective of his time.
‘Don’t ask me to reconcile all that they [the Sages] have said on astronomy with the facts as they are. The sciences at that time were deficient, and their statements on these matters are not based on prophetic tradition but on what was available to them at that time.’ (Guide to the Perplexed II, 14)

Rabbinic Judaism reads neither the Torah nor the Talmud as a scientific textbook. Proving the Bible falls short as a matter of scientific record is akin to proving Pele’s failings as a concert pianist or Elgar’s lack of composure on the football pitch. We ought instead to be grappling with the truths we learn from science and seeking to test them ethically and morally. How can we use what we know about genetics to eradicate Tay-Sachs, how can we encourage use of selective breeding to increase yield and minimise disease, where are the limits in terms of the sorts of interventions into animal and human genomes that we should limit, even if we could manipulate human lives in ever more dramatic ways…

The conference on Sunday will engage with issues around heresy, time, tradition, revelation and education. The keynote lecture will be given by Prof Geoffrey Cantor of Leeds University author of Jewish Tradition and the Challenge of Darwinism. It should be an excellent event.

For more information http://tinyurl.com/evolconf

Shabbat shalom,

Jeremy Gordon    

2. Learning at New London - This coming Monday evening at 8.00 pm

This week, Chazan Jacqui Chernett will be teaching V'hu Rachum which opens the weekday evening service and appears in many other parts of the siddur. There will be musical examples and we hope you will join us.   Jacqui is a Jewish musicologist and educator. Her MPhil thesis was devoted to Ashkenazi biblical chant and she teaches, writes and lectures on Jewish religious issues and in particular liturgical studies. She received cantorial ordination in 2006 from the Academy for Jewish Religion, a pluralist Rabbinical and Cantorial School in New York. She is the first woman in the UK to be ordained as a Cantor and is the founder of the European Academy for Jewish Liturgy – EAJL - a multi-level, multi-national and multi-media teaching facility for inspired leaders of Synagogue prayer.

Siddur Sat-Nav, taught by Rina Wolfson, is the perfect tool for navigating your way through the Siddur. Using clear graphics and easy instructions, Siddur Sat-Nav will help you find your place in any Siddur and follow a service without getting lost en-route. We’ll start our journey of discovery by focusing on the services for Shabbat morning, occasionally stopping to admire some of the most important prayers in closer detail.

Cost: £6 per session.  Choose one of the two. (Next week in the Prayer series - Dec 7th - Al HaNissim - Rabbi Jeremy Gordon)
 
3. The Week Ahead

The Kabbalat Shabbat service this evening begins at 6.30 pm in the New London Hall. Tomorrow morning Shacharit is at 9.15 am in the Synagogue.  As Rabbi Gordon is in Rome this week, the sermon will be given by Gerald Rothman. Gerald and Elaina invite you to join them for a  Kiddush following the service,  to celebrate Gerald's birthday.

On Sunday, Shacharit will be at 9.15 am in the Bet Midrash. The Cheder meets at 9.45 am as usual.

On Sunday the Living with Darwin Seminar takes palce from 9.45 am to 4.15 pm at the London Jewish Cultural Centre. (see Rabbi's message above). To download the brochure and booking form click here 

Babes in the Wood will meet on Monday from 11.00 - 1.00 pm.

On Thursday evening  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/

Next Shabbat is a busy and festive one. On Friday night we celebrate the Bat Mitzvah of Samara Spencer-Hope and on Shabbat morning three S'machot (how lovely!) It is the 2nd Bar Mitzvah of Sam Graff who will read the Haftarah, the auf ruf of Tim Seaton who will be marrying Genevieve Burton on 13th December, and Samara Spencer-Hope will be completing her Bat Mitzvah by having an Aliyah with her dad Steven. Needless to say there will be a celebratory Kiddush following the service.

Next Sunday, 6th December, The Tombstone Consecration in loving memory of Ronnie Kosmin will take place at 11.30 am, at Cheshunt Cemetery.

4.  Dates for your diary

Sunday 13th December Come to our Community Wide Chanukah Party on from 2.00 pm to 5.00 pm. 
Games, Latkes, Candle Lighting, Cheder Play, Singing, Crafts for all ages - All Welcome".

Friday 18th December - Shabbat Dinner open to the whole community organised by Minyan Chadash

Sunday 10th January 2010 The Quest Winter Lecture will be given by Karen Armstrong, at 8.00 pm, title - The Case for God.

Sunday 31st January at New North London Synagogue- The next  EAJL Art of Shulmanship seminar will take place on and the programme has been set around the services for Pesach. There will be five tracks:

Kids in Shul led by Marc Shoffren
Siddur Sat Nav led by Rina Wolfson
P’sukei d’Zimra (same for Shabbat and Shalosh Regalim) led by Chazan Norman Cohen Falah
Hallel led by Chazan Stephen Cotsen
Pesach services masterclass led by Chazan Jaclyn Chernett
These seminars provide a wonderful opportunity for lay members to learn new skills. Click here to download the Seminar Flyer 

March 5th to 7th, 2010 - Masorti Europe Conference  in London - Masorti Europe is pleased to announce that the next Masorti Europe Conference will be hosted by the New North London Synagogue, and the  theme will be "European Jewish Heritage". Delegates will be coming from Spain, France, Hungary, Czech Republic, Sweden, Germany and Holland as well as the UK.  If you would like to be involved on the organisational side or to have input into the programme for the weekend you are invited to contact Gill Caplin, Masorti Europe President, at gillian@caplin.demon.co.uk

5.  Mazal tov
..to Eleanor and Jason Blair on the birth of a baby boy (a little brother for Ruth), on Friday the 20th November.
..to Val Agostini and Rob Fishman who will be married this coming Sunday in Rome 

6. Bereavements - We are sad to announce the passing of..
Dr Raymond Gledhill.  The funeral took place on Sunday and the Shiva has now terminated.
Peter Banky, a Friend of New London. The funeral will be in Reigate, there will be no formal Shiva services.
Sheila Breslar, mother of Natalie Marshall. The funeral took place yesterday, Shiva prayers will take place at 8.00 pm on Saturday evening.
The mother of Suzanne Korn,  yesterday in Leeds.
Lady Miriam Finniston  on Wednesday. The funeral is provisionally booked for Tuesday, please contact the office on Monday when we should have confirmation.

We send our condolences and wish "long life" to the families.

Shabbat Shalom

Stephen Cotsen