Shabbat Shalom (Vayeishev)

1. From the Rabbi 

Two giants of twentieth century Jewish studies have passed away in the last week, both Rabbinical graduates of the Jewish Theological Seminary where I trained.

Professor Yosef Yerushalmi z’tl was held the Chair in Jewish History at Columbia University and made major contributions in a variety of historical periods including the history of the Jews of Spain and Portugal. He will, however, be most remembered for his shortest work, Zachor. This 100 page masterpiece attempts to examine the relative power of historical fact and communal memory. It’s an extraordinary work to find issuing from the pen of fully fledged academic historian for Yerushalmi is deeply sceptical about the ultimate value of historical fact when compared to memory. It is memory, he says, which serves as the bulwark not only of Jewish identity but of communal endeavour in general. It’s a perspective that would have been close to the heart of our founder Rabbi who also knew that the power that drives our commitment to Jewish life lies beyond the raw historical data and lives, instead, almost mythically, in the subsumed communal memories of the Jewish people.

Professor Yochanan Muffs z’tl was Emeritus Professor of Bible and Jewish Thought at the Jewish Theological Seminary. When I arrived as a student at JTS tales were told of how, filled with passion for his text Yochanan (he was always called Yochanan) would begin writing something across a classroom boards and be swept along until his Hebrew would stretch across half the wall. I never got to meet that Yochanan. Instead I met a physical shadow, struck down by Parkinsons, but so alive in his mind. For a year a fellow student and I would sit in his office with an unpublished masterpiece and we would try together to engage in study. Yochanan would often manage five or six coherent sentences over the hour, but those sentences have haunted me and transformed my reading of Bible more than any other Bible teacher I have encountered. I understand that Yochanan and Rabbi Jacobs were friends (if anyone has stories, please let me know). I recommend Yochanan’s a newly published work of popular scholarship On The Personhood of God warmly. In it he makes the case for accepting the anthropomorphic nature of the Jewish (or at least the Biblical) God. We shouldn’t be ashamed of God’s outstretched arm and flared nostril, instead we should read and celebrate the Bible on its own terms, full of passion, pathos and vitality.

So this Chanukah, when I light my Chanukah candles, aside from remembering heroes of past millennia I’ll be committing myself to keep the memories and the messages of these most recently deceased mighty heroes alive.

Shabbat Shalom

Jeremy Gordon

2. The Week Ahead

The Kabbalat Shabbat service this evening begins at 6.30 pm. Tomorrow morning, Shacharit will be at 9.15 am in the synagogue. This week we celebrate the aufruf of Sam Leifer who is marrying Abigail Manning next week in Leeds. Mazal tov to both families. Sue and Tony Leifer invite you to join them for a celebratory Kiddush in the New London Hall following the service.

On Sunday, Shacharit will be at 9.15 am in the Bet Midrash. As it is Chanukah, we have Hallel and Torah reading, so the service will take a little longer than usual. The Cheder is not meeting this morning as this afternoon is the Chanukah Party.

On Sunday afternoon from 2.00 - 5.00 pm, please come to our community wide Chanukah Party. 
The programme will include Games,  Candle Lighting, Singing and Crafts for all ages, and of course a truly scrumptious tea with latkes and doughnuts. The children of the Cheder will be performing a play at 2.30 pm, and anyone who has been to one of the excellent productions by our Headteacher, Suzannah Alexander, know we are in for a treat.

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

On Friday morning our Rosh Chodesh Tevet Service will be at at 7.30 am followed by breakfast.

Friday 18th December, Minyan Chadash invites you to join them to celebrate the last night of Chanukah. There will be a Kabbalat Shabbat service at 6:30pm followed by a Shabbat/Chanukah dinner for all the community. The cost is £18 (students/children £12 non-members £20) Please book soon by phoning the office no later than Wednesday 16th December.

Next Shabbat we will be celebrating the auf ruf of John Krupnik-Kay who is marrying Vesna Kuzmanovska on 22nd December

3.  Dates for your diary

Sunday 10th January 2010 The Quest Winter Lecture will be given by Karen Armstrong, at 8.00 pm, title - The Case for God.
Karen Armstrong is one of the world's leading commentators on religious affairs. She spent seven years as a Roman Catholic nun in the 1960s, but then left her teaching order in 1969 to read English at St Anne's College, Oxford. In 1982, she became a full time writer and broadcaster. She is a best-selling author of over 15 books. An accomplished writer and passionate campaigner for religious liberty, Armstrong has addressed members of the United States Congress and the Senate and has participated in the World Economic Forum. 

In her new book, The Case for God, Karen Armstrong argues that historically atheism has rarely been a denial of the sacred itself but has nearly always rejected a particular conception of God. Tracing the history of faith from the Palaeolithic Age to the present, Armstrong shows that until recently there was no warfare between science and religion. Karen Armstrong suggests that if we draw creatively on the insights of the past, we can build a faith that speaks to the needs of our troubled and dangerously polarized world.
COST: Members £5; Non-members £7, price to include coffee and light refreshments.   All welcome

Sunday 17th January - An Interfaith Concert at New London featuring:

The Foguangshan Buddhist choir and their Dunhuang dance group
Gregorian Chants by Schola Anselmi (Church of St Anselm & St Cecaelia).
Zekr – Sufi Chant by MTO Sufi Society
The New London Synagogue Choir
Chazan Stephen Cotsen        Chazan Jacqui Chernett

Publicity will be out soon, meanwhile keep the date free, it should be a spectacular evening. 

Shabbat 30th January Communal Lunch for the whole community - Shabbat Shira is the Shabbat of Song. We will be celebrating with song, and Joseph Finlay will create an impromtu choir featuring everyone present.

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 

 4.  Our best wishes for a Refuah Sh'leimah go to Donald Crash who has had a hip replacement this week.

5.   Beyond NLS 

Sunday, 3 January 2010 8.00 – 10.00 p.m. 
INVITATION TO A PRIVATE AUDIENCE WITH world-class Moroccan musician, composer and Chazan GERARD EDERY
Gerard is an exciting and dynamic musician. He sings in fifteen languages and speaks five!  He lives in New York and travels the world with his music.  We are privileged that he has agreed to support EAJL with an intimate evening of Sephardi and other exotic music, at the home of Jacqui and Brian Chernett in Stanmore.  His CDs and books will be available at the event.   Please RSVP by 21 December 2009  to Jacky or Liz on info@eajl.org. Tickets: £20 per person to raise funds for EAJL - The European Academy for Jewish Liturgy, dedicated to inspiring leaders of Jewish prayer. This is a fundraising event for the new EAJL Scholarship Fund, set up to support students in need of expert training who have limited access to sufficient finance. An appeal will be made for donations. To learn more about Gerard Edery go to http://www.sefaradrecords.com

Jewish Journeys with Rabbi Chaim Weiner - Vilnius and Beyond - Choice of two dates: 22-25 April, 13-16 May 2010. (Thursday – Sunday)The main focus of the trip will be the school of Rabbi Elijah of Vilna – known as the Vilna Gaon. We will learn about the first generation of Chasidim, and the wars between those who supported and those who opposed the new movement. We will visit the Karaite town of Trakai and learn about the founding of the Mussar Movement in Kaunas (Kovno). We will also learn about the role that Vilna played in the emergence of the Jewish Socialist and Zionist Movements. This is a fascinating period of history which had huge ramifications for modern Jewish life. While it is impossible to travel in Eastern Europe without reflecting on the Holocaust, this will not primarily be a holocaust trip. The focus will be Jewish life in Lithuania before the holocaust. For full details email - jewishjourneys@supanet.com.
 
Shabbat Shalom

Stephen Cotsen