Shabbat on Tap, Nov. 7th

Experience Shabbat where everybody knows your name.

Shabbat on Tap

It's Friday night and the weekend has begun. So has Shabbat, the original way to "kiss the week goodbye!" If discussing the big questions over a cold one sounds like your kind of spiritual experience (pun intended), join The New Shul's (Reform) Rabbi Niles Goldstein and (Conservative) Rabbi Dan Ain as they search for the Sabbath at a downtown bar in Manhattan. And the beer's on us!

To find out more call 212-284-6773

Where: Dublin6 (in the back room)
575 Hudson Street (between W11th & Bank)

When: Friday, November 7th @ 7pm

G-dcast - Genesis

Check out this new website - G-dcast - which will be putting up weekly parsha stories for the next year, starting with this week's parasha - Genesis (naturally).

Here's the video:

More about G-dcast:

G-dcast is an experiment. We're going to tell the story of the whole Torah, over the course of a year, through 54 cartoon parshas. (A parsha is a Torah portion, basically a chunk of the Old Testament.)

The core team is three people from different Jewish backgrounds. None of us are the same in our outlook. One of us grew up Reform, one of us Orthodox, and one of us on a mountaintop surrounded by non-Jews. We are all experts in different ways, but what brings us together is excitement about the array of voices out there in the Jewish world. We are inspired by all kinds of storytellers - teachers, rabbis, musicians, comedians, activists and the occasional regular schmuck with something good to say.

Seems like a pretty interesting project.

Look forward to hearing what New Shulers think.

Esther Perel Workshop - Friday @ The NY Open Center

Member Esther Perel will be having a workshop tonight, Friday the 24th, at 7pm at the New York Open Center, on 83 Spring St.

In this evening workshop, in an atmosphere free of judgment, we will learn about the importance of creating separateness and mystery between partners; how our emotional history is expressed in the physicality of sex; why more intimacy can lead to less sex; how to unlock erotic blocks and cultivate eroticism in our relationships; and how to keep sex alive after kids are born.

Click here for more information at the New York Open Center

And here's a piece written by Esther in the Huffington Post this week - Sex Needs Space

Sukkot Pics

Here are some pictures from our Sukkot event last Friday:

Decorating the Sukkah!

Special thanks to Steve and Nia Judelson for helping design and put up our sukkot!

The Rabbi's Book Club

From Rabbi Niles:

In this time of anxiety and stress, little is more important than rest--and restoration. I hope that you'll join me in this year's Rabbi's Book Club, where our focus will be on the Sabbath, and its ability to offer us just those things. We will be reading the classic work by Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, simply titled The Sabbath. Here is just one of its profound and poetic lines that we will explore and discuss: "The Sabbaths are our great cathedrals; and our Holy of Holies is a shrine that neither the Romans nor the Germans were able to burn."

The course will take place over three Wednesday evenings from 7-8:30 pm (10/22, 11/5, 11/19). Please feel free to register with the office at 212-284-6773 or info@newshul.org. It's only $18 for members, $36 for non-members. I hope to see you soon!

Yom Kippur - D'var Torah

Here is a portion of Maia Wechsler's thought provoking D'var Torah given during the afternoon service on Yom Kippur:

I undertook a very unscientific poll over the summer of a few friends at The New Shul, some of whom are here today, asking them what the liturgy meant to them, what place it held in their sense of their Jewishness. I knew I was not alone in this quest for greater clarity. The answers were poetic – everything you would expect from New Shulers. An ancient pipeline, a reminder, a connection to all Jews known and unknown, a bit of a mystery. It’s the sound of the prayers that connects me. I was so encouraged by the thoughtfulness because it reinforced for me that we each find our own way to the liturgy. I also began to accept that the things I have long felt -- are indeed a profound connection, whether I have recognized them as such or not. That I don’t have to be able to articulate a belief in God to know that these things are beyond the practical for me, that they are indeed spiritual. These include the instant and loving connection I feel to the sound of Hebrew prayers, the chanting, the singing, the visual beauty of the ark and the torahs inside, the Shabbat lights, the Chanukah lights, my reverence for our ancestors, my sense of connection to all Jews. How I feel such a deep sense of belonging to all this, to knowing it is there for me and that I urgently want to pass this on to my children. It’s almost as if I can now begin to give myself permission to feel more deeply, without judgment, without even having a way, at this point, to talk about it.

To read the entire D'var Torah - click here

Rosh Hashanah 5769

Shanah Tovah!

It was a very special experience being able to speak to all of you on Rosh Hashanah and I have been overwhelmed by the response that I have received.

Many have asked for a copy of the sermon, so I have prepared it as a document which can be accessed by clicking on this link -

Rabbi Ain's Sermon - Rosh Hashanah 5769

As we prepare for Friday Night's Shabbat Shuvah service at the Harris Lieberman Gallery (6:30pm - 89 Vandam Street), and of course for Yom Kippur next week, I eagerly look forward to continuing the conversation about the role that Shabbat can play in our lives, in this community and in this century.