The New Shul in Time Out Kids!

In case you missed it, The New Shul is in this month's cover story in Time Out New York Kids!


The story is about 19 things to do with your kids to entertain them while you are out of energy. One of the 19 is to "feed your soul" - three religious organizations are listed and The New Shul is one of them. This article was written by member Marisa Cohen.

Here's a bit of it:

Feed your soul Ever wonder why so many families are suddenly finding religion? Well, yes, there’s that whole getting-closer-to-God thing. But there’s also the fact that at many local churches and synagogues, the kids get whisked away to be entertained and spiritually enlightened at Tot Shabbat or Sunday school. Meanwhile, parents sit in the pews peacefully worshiping (or napping; take your pick). A few to try: The New Shul (272 W 10th St between Greenwich and Washington Sts; 212-284-6773, newshul.org)...

Click here to read the article online.

Rabbi's Corner

BILLARY & BARACK, MITT & JOHN: WHAT WOULD MOSES DO?

By Rabbi Niles E. Goldstein

The South Carolina primary is now over, and turnout was terrific, and has been, all year. That's the good news. The bad news is that the last couple of weeks have brought to the surface some of the uglier and unprofessional dimensions in American politics. It's gotten personal and mean--on both sides. We have seen would-be presidents, brimming over with ambition, using and abusing race, gender, even personal worth as weapons in their increasingly bitter fight to win over our hearts and minds.

What would Moses do? A leader who was well aware of his own faults and failings and all-too-human character, he would probably have done today to our presidential hopefuls what he did to the Israelite elders and chieftans as they too battled each other and jockeyed for position as political, military, and spiritual leaders in their own time and place. He would have sat them down and set them straight. He would have reminded them about The Big Picture, about their sacred tasks, about how petty their personal ambitions and power struggles really were. He would have referred to God's Covenant at Sinai and its ultimate promise of hope and redemption for all of humankind.

Moses would have likely said that, though they were each an image of the divine, they were also nothing more than dust and ashes. And then he would have waited and watched to see if his dressing down actually sunk in. Would humility triumph over hubris? Will it in our own era?

Lisa Kron's "2.5 Minute Ride"

From Melanie Sylvan:

I am thrilled to invite members of The New Shul to see the beautiful play that I have ad the pleasure of producing.

Please join us on Saturday, February 2nd for New Shul night!

Come see this "affecting revival" and then join us for some drinks after the show!

Lisa Kron's "2.5 Minute Ride"

The Obie Award-winning play returns to New York for the first time since its triumphant turn at the Public Theatre in 1999.

Starring Nicole Golden
Directed by Matt M. Morrow

See the play The New York Sun calls an "Exhilarating Ride."

How do you document a life?

Brooklyn, Sandusky and Auschwitz collide in one oman's hilarious and poignant journey on the roller coaster that is family.

Drom all your pre-conceived notions of a one-person play: hop in a speeding car through Eastern Europe, cram into a caravan to a Midwestern amusement park, and jump on the L train to the Canarsie Jewish Center for the most romantic wedding ever. Told with laughter and love, this uniquely American Story stars Nicole Golden as Lisa, with direction by Matt M. Morrow.

TICKETS NOW ON SALE!
Purchase your tickets online at www.smarttix.com
or call 212-868-4444 (no fee for online or phone sales!)
$18 - General
$15 - Student/Senior

January 18th - February 9th, Wednesday - Saturday at 8pm.
Special Monday performances on January 28th and Febrary 4th at 7pm.

Altered Stages
212 West 29th Street (7th/8th)
Second Floor

Associate Producer: Melanie Sylvan/Electric Pear Productions

AIDS Walk New York w/Downtown Kehillah

From: Julia Gordon, Coordinator, Downtown Kehillah

We need YOU to join Downtown Kehillah for this year's AIDS Walk New York!


To learn more about our involvement or to register through me, please email me at Julia_Gordon@14streety.org or call me at (212) 780-0800 extension 276. I can tell you all about our team activities; give you registration cards to add friends and relatives to our team; and answer any questions you might have .

Online registration is also available at the AIDS Walk website: www.aidswalk.net. Click to AIDS Walk New York and go to "REGISTER". Remember to indicate that you are a part of the Downtown Kehillah. You can download your sponsor form to print out immediately and receive your Walker Kit from the AIDS Walk office. Encourage your family members and friends to register online to walk with our team. The more participants we have, the stronger and more successful our team will be!

Please join our team today and walk on Sunday, May 18th 2008 - it's an important cause and an inspiring day.

Thank you in advance for your support!

Best,
Julia

Julia Gordon
Coordinator, Downtown Kehillah
Julia_Gordon@14streety.org
344 East 14th Street
New York, NY 10003
(212) 780-0800, Ext. 276

Follow This Link to visit my personal web page and help me in my efforts to support AIDS Walk New York

Tu B'shevat Teaching and Discussion

With our Tu B'shevat Jam tomorrow night - (NEW LOCATION - 12th West 12th St. at 7pm) - I thought that I would post one of the teachings that I'll be sharing with the community. Hopefully, by sharing a text with everyone on here, we can start thinking about some of the themes of the holiday and begin a dialogue both on the blog and together tomorrow night.

Throughout the year, one of the areas that we have covered on the blog (and in our New Shul discussions) is what role our science and technological advances have influenced, and are influencing, our faith. Rabbi Niles challenged us, during the High Holidays, to hold the opposite point of view in our mind (if we were atheists, to imagine that there is a God; or if we were believers, to imagine that that there is no God). What struck me about that discussion, was that this was a community that was willing to challenge their own beliefs in an intellectually honest fashion.

Tu B'shevat has been understood in our tradition, literally, as the New Year for the Trees. And, in turn, has been rightly celebrated as an affirmation of Judaism's deep rooted concern for our world and our environment. Therefore, our Jam tomorrow night will be a joyous simcha to this wonderful world that God has created.

However, one of the teachings that I will be presenting, puts forth a nuanced understanding of humankind's relationship to our environment by asking whether or not it is our place to interfere with God’s creation. This teaching seems to me to be particularly poignant on the heels of the Rabbis challenge to us and our discussion of faith and science.

This Midrash, (found in Midrash Tanhuma, Tazaria 7), details a discussion between the Roman General Turanus Rufus the Wicked and Rabbi Akiva. In their argument, Rufus attempts to get Rabbi Akiva to admit that there is nothing greater than God’s creation and that humankind should not meddle with it.

I'd be curious to hear from you (either on the blog or tomorrow night), what do you think of this Midrash? What does it teach us about our role within God's world?

Feel free to use the comment section below to get this conversation started.

- Dan

Midrash Tanhuma, Tazaria 7:

Turanus Rufus the wicked asked R. Akiva: “Whose works are superior? Those of the Holy One or those of flesh and blood?”

He replied: “Those of flesh and blood are superior.”

Turanus Rufus the wicked said to him: “Look at the heavens and the earth; can you make them?”

R. Akiva said to him: “Do not speak to me of that which is beyond human beings, who have no control over them; but speak about things which are to be found among men.”

[Turanus Rufus] said to him: “Why are you circumcised?”

He said to him: “I knew you were going to ask me that; therefore at the outset I told you that the works of flesh and blood are superior to those of the Holy One.”

R. Akiva brought him sheaves of wheat and white bread, and said to him: “These are the works of the Holy One, and these are the works of flesh and blood. Are the latter not superior?” He then brought him bundles of flax and garments from Beit She’an, and said to him: “These are the works of the Holy One, and these are made by man. Are the latter not superior?”

Turanus Rufus said to him: “If he [God] desires circumcision, why does a person not exit his mother’s womb circumcised?”

R. Akiva said to him: “And why does he exit with his umbilical cord attached? Does his mother not sever it?” And why is he not born circumcised? Because the Holy One only gave us the commandments in order to refine us through them, and so said David, “[Every] word of God is refined.”

Tu B'shevat Jam - New Location!

NEW LOCATION!

Join us at The First Presbyterian Church
at 12 West 12th St. (at 5th Avenue)
on Friday, January 25th at 7pm

For our Tu B'shevat Jam:

Celebrate nature with music and poetry, food and wine.

Tu B'shevat is an ancient Jewish pilgrimage festival that celebrates nature itself. Explore our diverse relationships with the environment through the themes of creation's majesty, our abuse of it, how we can repair it, and its power to renew and transform.

Experience (and participate in) live music and poetry performed by the talented members and friends of The New Shul. Feast on special foods and wine, and feed your soul on this Sabbath of celebration.

This is a free event!

Next 6 @ 6: Feb. 7th at dell'anima

On Thursday, Feb. 7th at 6pm, at dell'anima, join Rabbi Niles Goldstein and Rabbinic Intern Dan Ain for our next 6 @ 6.

dell'anima

38 8th Avenue
between Jane and West 12th

Come for scrumptious Italian food and wine and engaging conversations!

The first 6 people get a free drink!

6 @ 6 is a new program in The New Shul's Adult Education Series, Eitz Hada'at. Gather with Rabbi Goldstein and Dan Ain, New Shul Rabbinic Intern, at 6pm at 6 different bars, over the course of the year, for casual and provocative discussions on topics of Jewish interest. Come with an open mind, a free spirit, and some cash to buy your favorite drinks and eats!

Sex and the Synagogue

Here's a little piece I came across that is going to be in next week's Newsweek called "Sex and the Synagogue." It's about JDate and Rabbi's who are picking up the tab for their congregants.

The story left me feeling a bit unsettled, though not sure exactly why...

Let me know what you think:

The rise of interfaith marriage is a sensitive issue among American Jews, and now two powerful forces in the religion are teaming up to do something about it: rabbis and JDate, the top matchmaking Web site for Jewish singles. For the first time in its 10-year history, the site is offering a bulk rate to rabbis who want to buy membership accounts for their congregants. According to Gail Laguna, JDate's vice president of communications, singles who sign up through their congregation get a slight discount on the site's $149 six-month subscription fee. "This is a way for us to break down the walls of the synagogue," said Rabbi Michael Cahana, who leads the Congregation Beth Israel in Portland, Ore. "We should use all the technological tools that are available to us."

The rabbis who negotiated the bulk rate are also picking up the tab. Since September, Rabbi Donald Weber of Temple Rodeph Torah in Marlboro, N.J., has paid out of his own pocket for 24 six-month subscriptions. Cahana and Rabbi Kenneth Emert of Temple Beth Rishon in Wyckoff, N.J., who purchased a dozen three-month memberships, anted up for single congregants using money from their synagogues' discretionary budget. "When I heard that another rabbi was putting his money where his mouth is, I did too," says Emert, whose offer includes just one stipulation: "No mothers, no grandmothers." Singles, in other words, have to sign up themselves. The financial aid is appreciated. If not for Emert, says 29-year-old public-interest lawyer Noah Mamber, "I would have had to choose between JDate and food."

Click here for the rest of the story.

6 @ 6 last night, service tonight, election craziness...

Well, last night's 6 @ 6 at Dublin6 certainly kicked off 2008 in a very New Shul-ish fashion.(am I allowed to use "New Shul" as an adjective?)

As always the conversation was as varied as it was lively. Issues discussed included: Zionism and anti-Zionism, conversion, orthodoxy, fundamentalism vs. progressive faith, seeing God, kashrut, magic and, of course, the election. My favorite part about the 6 @ 6 is that no matter what topic I think we're going to spend the most time talking about, there is some wonderful question or tangent that moves us into much richer and deeper territory.

Speaking of richer and deeper territory, tonight is our first Kabbalat Shabbat service of the year (6:30 @ VCS) and is dedicated to learners and seekers. Niles and I will be leading both the service - where we will explain some of our key Friday night prayers and practices - and a discussion about the nature of leadership: what are the qualities that we look for in our leaders? What are the qualities we should be looking for? With such a timely topic [this week's parasha - Bo - tells the story of Moses leading his people out of Egypt], I doubt it'll just be the two of us talking.

As for me, I've been having a hard time tearing myself away from the political "coverage" and "analysis" on the all "news" cable networks. For now, my working excuse is that it is all prep work for our Debate party on Thursday, Jan. 31st. Make sure to mark it down on your calendars now because you'll want to join us for what is likely to be the most important debate of the primary season. It will be our last chance to get a look at Sens. Clinton, Obama and Edwards before New Yorkers (and those in 19 other states) go to the polls five days later.

Finally, on a lighter note, here's a video from The Onion that a friend sent me because he knows of my interest in advancing technologies (and politics). You'll likely find it to be very funny or very scary. It was a little of both for me:

In The Know: Are We Giving The Robots That Run Our Society Too Much Power?

All the best for a peaceful shabbos,

Dan

Seedlings Concert

From Rabbi Joyce:

Seedlings Concert featuring Rabbi David Paskin

An Evening to Benefit the Academy for Jewish Religion

Featuring Rabbi David Paskin, the Rock and Roll Rabbi

Rabbi David Paskin

Sunday, January 13th, 7pm
@ Congregation Rodeph Sholom, 7 West 83rd St.
Tix $36; $18 for under 18
Click here for more information.

Rabbi's Corner

HOW TO BE AGENTS OF CHANGE

By Rabbi Niles E. Goldstein

Like many of you, I watched the double-bill primary debates in New Hampshire over this past weekend. One of the core messages that came up over and over again was that Americans today (from both parties) are looking for "change agents," and, by extension, a real change in the way American government works and acts. What some have pointed out--with great validity, in my view--is that it is one thing to verbally advocate change and quite another to actually step up and strive to achieve it. Talk is very cheap.

As a rabbi, I've heard for my entire rabbinate from American Jews that we need to "change" Judaism. Yet almost invariably, the people who advocate this inchoate concept of change most aggressively are the ones I never see. They talk the talk but don't walk the walk. So my message is simple and maybe a bit tough: Put up, or shut up. If you really, truly want change in our religious institutions then come to services, attend adult learning classes, become active in one of our committees. Please don't just drop off your kids in school and then wait for their bar or bat mitzvah dates. Do something yourself, and, in so doing, open your minds, expand your souls, and help support and transform your community--and your faith.

Happy '08, Iowa Caucus Tomorrow

Happy New Year!!

Now that we are in 2008, we can really begin to think about the Presidential Election.

With the Iowa Caucuses tomorrow and our New Shul Debate Party on the 31st, this website might be helpful in figuring out which candidate to support.

(click on the image!)

It's a pretty interesting exercise. Just answer a few questions on some hot-button issues and the website (developed by Minnesota Public Radio) will match you with the candidate whose positions are most like your own. You might be surprised which candidate you end up with.

Use the comment section below to tell us who you ended up with and whether or not you agree.

Look forward to seeing you on the 31st!
- Dan