HAYDEN PHOTO

The Treasurer’s Two Cents

It has been wonderful to see many of you as you renew your membership for 2020 – 2021.  To date, 48 of you have renewed, we are still waiting for about 24 more of you.  As you know, we need all of you to keep an active, fulfilling Jewish community, which is available to all of us at any time during the year.  Betty Shiffman, our membership chair, will be contacting you to please renew your membership. 

Thanks to all of you, the Congregation is doing reasonably well so far this year.   We should have adequate funds to add the required 5% of dues to each the Cemetery and Shibko fund at year end.  In addition, we will have a reasonable cash reserve going into 2021. We continue to have maintenance, utilities, and salary expenses even though we can’t have functions at the synagogue just yet.  We are all longing to be able to return to in-person services, events and activities.

As always, I am here to serve you.  Please contact me with any questions and I will do my best to respond.  

Robin Hayden, Treasurer

Hayden365@yahoo.com

David

David’s Corner – September 28, 2020

Sukkot 2020

Even before this year’s pandemic, Lakeside attendance for Sukkot has been light.  Some of this is understandable.  By the end of Yom Kippur, the High Holidays have left many of us in an enervated state.  Too much shul already! 

But it is a little sad. The commandment to sit in your sukkah and have a meal as you look up into the starry night is one of the best commandments HaShem has come up with.
 
The Israelites had spent a lifetime wandering around the arid desert, kvetching, and eating the tasteless mana to sustain themselves.  When the Israelites complained about not having any meat, HaShem responded by making them sick to their stomachs as they gobbled down the first meat they had tasted in quite some time.

With the return to Canaan, the land of milk and honey, the Israelites now had a home and a fuller diet.  Sukkot celebrates the harvest and tacked to our sukkah are various fruits and vegetables, over which we say blessings. Plus, having atoned for missing the mark during Yom Kippur, in our purified state we sigh with deep contentment as we eat in our sukkah.

We cannot enjoy our sukkah this year, of course, for health reasons, but that needn’t stop our celebration of the harvest altogether.  Erev Sukkot, the first night of Sukkot, falls on this Friday, when we can augment our usual brief Shabbat service with a celebration of the harvest. 

When you shop this week, pick up a fruit or vegetable and bring it to the Friday Zoom service.  Bring especially those fruits and vegetables that are indigenous to Mexico.  Then we can say blessings over them in gratitude to God, who, despite everything, makes the harvest possible.
membership

Reset, Renew, and Prepare for 5782

Dear Members and Friends of the Lake Chapala Jewish Congregation:

This year, as the High Holy Days approach and we prepare to celebrate the start of 5782, we know we will be unable to physically gather. This is sad and disappointing. We rely on these important Jewish holidays to reset, renew and prepare for the year ahead. And while we may still be able to worship and share together the holiness of these special days, we realize it can only be through a shared virtual experience.

However, the changed experience this year shouldn’t dampen our expectations or enthusiasm for Jewish life in our community.  Here, through the Lake Chapala Jewish Congregation, we continue to have regular Friday night and Saturday morning worship, as well as Torah study via Zoom.  In addition, plans are underway for various religious-related virtual guest-lecturers, discussion groups, and so on regarding issues of concern to Jews here and all over the world, with opportunities for online participation.  Plans are underway, as well, for several non-religious activities to bring some fun into our somewhat cloistered lives—challah-baking, games, and other collaborative online activities to help us keep our connections and fellowship strong.  Please check your email for weekly updates through our bulletin, El Shofar.

As the new year approaches, so does our recommitment to supporting our only synagogue in the area.  As is clear from news around the world, we know that we are not alone in being isolated from each other, unable to attend in-person worship services and events we’ve become accustomed to.  However, in order to have a vital and viable place of worship and social gathering center on the other side of this global catastrophe, the expenses of regular upkeep remain.  These expenses include the following, (among others):

Salaries
Regular maintenance of the building and gardens
Utilities
Cemetery maintenance

In addition to continuing expenses, we cannot foresee many–if any–opportunities for fundraising in the near future, which we’ve always depended upon to supplement membership dues and donations. So, as you can see, we are more dependent than ever on our membership to help us get through this difficult coming year. We must maintain our financial solvency and be ready to welcome all of our community once again when the crisis has passed.

We urge all of our current and past members to renew your membership to bolster not only our operating funds but to show solidarity with each other in this troubling time.  Also, if you’ve considered membership but haven’t yet done it, please reconsider and be a part of our vital community. You may also choose to honor loved ones through donations in their names or adding the names of loved ones who have passed on to our yahrzeit board. Our current membership dues remain unchanged from last year: 6000 pesos person.  However, we never turn anyone away because of financial hardship. Please contact me (shiffmanky@gmail.com) or Robin Hayden, our treasurer ( hayden365@yahoo.com) to discuss any such issue.

We look forward to a rapid end to the virus that encompasses our world. But be assured that with your support, we will do everything within our power to keep the light of the NerTamid glowing in our hearts, in our sanctuary and in our community.

Respectfully,

Betty Shiffman
Membership Chair,
Lake Chapala Jewish Congregation

Membership Enrollment Form

How to Renew 

new year

High Holy Days Services

Your Board of Directors continue to put your health and safety as priority in this global pandemic. Therefore, we will be offering short HHD services led by David Rosett.

In addition to our own offerings, LCJC is providing links to four outstanding synagogues, Reconstructionist, Reform and Conservative, which will be having more extensive services.

Services hosted by David Rosett:

Ne’ilah (English)
Monday September 28, 2020. 17:00
Meeting ID:  845 4639 8791
Password:  727982

Chag Sameach!  I am including the following two texts, each one for the services I am leading in English:  one for the first night of Erev Rosh Hashanah, and the other for Ne’ilah, the last service on Yom Kippur. (See David Rosett’s Services above.)  I will be using the scroll function on Zoom, but if you prefer to have your own copy, you may print these out and read along.  (It may be easier on the eyes.) One text is 12 pages and the other 13 pages, so you won’t have to fidget for very long!  Thanks to OneShul for providing the template.

Click below to go to Newsletter for downloads and links to three outstanding synagogues, Reconstructionist, Reform and Conservative, which will be having more extensive services.

Click Here

Reconstructionist Congregation Bet Haverim in Atlanta, Georgia

https://www.congregationbethaverim.org/2020-high-holy-days-schedule.html

Conservative Park Avenue Synagogue In NYC

https://pasyn.org/high-holidays

Reform Central Synagogue in NYC

hhd.centralsynagogue.org

From our sister Congregation B’er Chayim Temple in Cumberland Maryland

On Zoom- Meeting id is 899 9050 9627 and the password is Shalom.

Our schedule for the high holidays is as follows:
(All times are EST)

Sunday, September 27  Erev Yom Kippur  7-9
Monday, September 28  Yom Kippur  10-1
Monday, September 28  Afternoon Service  3-7
Monday, September 28  Yizkor  apprx. 5

Friday, October 2  Erev Sukkot  7:30
Saturday, October 3  Shabbat Service  10

Friday, October 9  Shimini Atzerret & Simchat Torah 7:30

*The sign on for the holidays will be the same as Friday nights.

David

David’s Corner – September 14, 2020

Rosh Hashana 1st and 2nd Days: Genesis 22:1-24

Seven months ago we felt we were in great shape.   Synagogue was a place we looked forward to being and all we had to do was show up.

Then the unexpected happened.  A pandemic reared its ugly head and we lost our bearings.  Synagogue?  It has existed on a computer screen where people talk to each other through a rough app called zoom.  We can see and hear one another, but it pales in terms of what we had before.  

Should we just give up?  That would be the expected thing, right?

But wait a minute. Think of Sarah.  Her deepest wish was to have her own child.  Now at a late menopausal age, when it would seem impossible for this to occur, she is told by HaShem that she will indeed have a child.  She laughs her head off and, as a result, her newborn son gains a name:  Itzhak.

A little too cheerful for your taste?  The very next portion, which we read on the second day, has unexpected happenings to the fourth degree.  First of all, out of the blue, HaShem tells Abraham to take his son up the mountain and sacrifice him.  Secondly, Abraham, with heavy heart, agrees.  And thirdly, what of Yitzhak?  Does he resist?  He does not.  So there we all are expecting the worst.  

But it doesn’t happen.  HaShem sends an angel (who else?) to tell Abraham to cease and desist.  All of a sudden a ram appears and so for the fourth time in this story, the unexpected happens:  Abraham gains a special status from HaShem for himself and for his descendants.  

And we’re worried about Zoom working or not?  Here’s something unexpected:  we have expanded services from our usual one to seven, and in two languages.  Not only that, but some of the services  are here in the Chapala-Guadalajara area and at least three are in the United States. Enjoy!   L’shana tova!

David’s Corner – September 7, 2020

Nitzavim-Va-Lech (Deuteronomy 29:9-31:30)

HaShem works in mysterious ways…

Remember how in Ki Tavo, the last parasha, HaShem appeared to hit the Israelites with tough love?  By this I mean, if the Israelites did not obey all of HaShem’s commandments they would be destroyed by plague and disease and would be scattered to the ends of the earth, where they would lose all sense of HaShem atnd would worship only other Gods.  (Deut. 28:58-67)

In this week’s parasha, Nitzavim, HaShem, to use a phrase now popular in our time, “walks back” a bit what he had said earlier.  HaShem, instead of describing our fall as permanent, says we’ll be taken back in HaShem’s love if we return to worshipping the Lord our God.  Further, HaShem will “restore our fortunes.”   (Deut. 30:1-3). 

The key question for this week is why does HaShem amend what he has previously threatened?

One possible answer is that Moses, once again, and most likely for the last time, has persuaded HaShem to be more lenient.  

Another possible answer is that HaShem must realize that a permanent exile is a dead end.  Who would be left to worship HaShem?  What value would be all the remarkable commandments without someone to observe them?

We have, after all, established a covenant with HaShem.  And that covenant is so important, that even “the stranger within your camp” is to participate in the covenant ceremony.  (Deut. 29:9-11)

So it seems logical that HaShem decides to give wayward Israelites the opportunity to return to the covenant.  Moreover, part of that return can take place each and every year as part of the month of Ellul, when we grapple with how we have missed the mark and reflect on improving our connection with HaShem.

What do you think?  Write me at drosett676@gmail.com.

David’s Corner – El Shofar September

Ki Tavo (Deuteronomy 26:1 - 29:8)

As we are now well into the month Elul, our thoughts turn to our own lives, and how we have fallen short.  The parasha of Shoftim has been one we have turned to in lifting our expectations to do better, to be more just.  And we have not always been just, either in our relations with our close ones or with strangers.

So HaShem in this week’s parasha, Ki Tavo, challenges us in the extreme, with the toughest of love.  Beginning in Deuteronomy 28:58, HaShem pushes us to “observe faithfully  all the terms of  this Teaching that are written in this book.” (my emphasis) 

And if we fail?  Diseases and plagues will wipe us out.  “You will be a scant few, after having been as numerous as the stars in the skies, because you did not heed the command of the Lord our God.“ (28:62).  What is more, we will be scattered “from one end of the earth to the other,” (28:64) and will serve other Gods, which, in the long term, will make us despondent and useless.

It is tempting to view all this as a sort of prophecy of all that would befall the Jewish people over time.  Yet we know full well that it is next to impossible for even the most Orthodox Jews to observe all the commandments.  And truly, as more liberal Jews, we give pause to those commandments that discriminate against gender and gay people.   

So how are we to take on this harsh passage?  If we acknowledge that we are responsible for everything we do, perhaps the portion can serve as a goad, to at least wrestle with, if not totally obey the commandments laid out for us.  If we do this with sincerity and constancy, we serve both HaShem and the spirit of Elul.

What do you think?  Write me at drosett676@gmail.com

David’s Corner – August 24, 2020

Ki Tetsay. (Deutoronomy 21:10 - 25:19)

The parasha ends with the troublesome warning about Amalek.  The Israelites are to destroy the Amalekites for a surprise attack that killed off  the stragglers, the hungry and and the tired, during the march from Egypt.

Initially, this would seem straightforward enough. Amalek has acted in an unethical way on the field of battle and so the victims must be avenged.  The Israelites are instructed to “blot out the memory of Amalek from under Heaven.” (Deut. 25:19)

Over time, in the Jewish tradition, Amalek has become the symbol of murderous, genocidal anti-semites,  These include the villainous Haman in Esther, and Adolph Hitler.   On Purim, in fact, this warning about Amalek is read in synagogues.  The thought is that we are compelled to destroy those who would destroy us.

But there is a troubling question. Is it appropriate to completely destroy

a people out of self-defense, vengeance, or fear?  

Let’s take the Nazis.  The Nazis murdered millions of Europeans, including 6,000,000 Jews.  They used as a rationale the threat to their pure race posed by so called inferior races.  How to deal with this unspeakable evil?  When the Nazis were defeated in battle, their leaders were tried in the first war crimes tribunal at Nuremberg, and were hung.  In this way, the Nazi state was, and should have been, destroyed.  

But the defeated German people were not all murdered in a genocide.  Should they have been?  If so, would we ever have experienced how close Germany has become to the State of Israel?  Without forgiveness, how can there be redemption?

  What’s your reaction?  Write me at drosett676@gmail.com