Maui Jews News

The following piece originally appeared in Mauivision magazine. Shared here with permission from the author.

I invite you to come help us create the future of the Jewish Congregation of Maui. 

On August 15-18 we are hosting a visiting Rabbi for a series of events centered around Tu B’Av: the Jewish holiday of Love.  Rabbi Shalom Bochner will be visiting us from Congregation Beit Shalom of Modesto, CA.  Read more about Rabbi Shalom here.

This is the first of a series of visiting Rabbi events organized by the Rabbi Search Committee. Visiting Rabbi events are an opportunity to experience different leadership styles in our “home”, to see what inspires us and engages us in different ways.  The goal is to create a discussion about who will ultimately be a good fit to lead our diverse community into the future.

Join us for one or all of these Tu B’Av Shabbaton events:

Thursday August 15:  An informal vegetarian potluck at the home of Janine Holstein.  Meet Rabbi Shalom, sing soulful songs together, learn about Tu B’Av - the Jewish Holiday of Love.  

Friday August 16: An Evening of Nourishment for the Body and Soul .  Musical Kabbalat Shabbat followed by Shabbat Dinner and Tisch. (“tisch” is a traditional Hasidic festive Friday evening gathering to share song, words of wisdom, stories, and food)

Saturday August 17: 9:30 Shabbat Morning services.  Come experience a Shabbat morning service that will touch your soul.  Followed by Kiddush light lunch and Torah study that will engage your mind and your heart.

6:00 Family-friendly Shabbat Third Meal and Havdalah.  Stories and songs, food and fun for all ages.

If you want a voice in the future of JCM, please plan on joining us for at least one of these events.  If you want to experience what the future of JCM could look like, plan on joining us for all of them! 

After a lovely and spiritual prayer and blessing by  Sam Shnider and Alulani Hill and a State of the Shul address, our new board was announced...

Please join me in congratulating and thanking this next Board:

President: Sheri Levin McNerthney

Vice- President: Boris Gladshtein

Treasurer: Simon Vojdani

Secretary: Sarah Shaines

Directors:

Eve Bermna, DO

Janine Holstein

Happy Lefton

Marc Levine

Jessica Pearl Kwon

Mahalo for your service JCM... and many thanks to everyone who ran for office. Your dedication to our congreagation is truly inspirational!

Mahalo Rabbi, for all of your gifts of dedication, time, scholarship, leadership, dedication, fundraising, sacrifice, friendship, community, dedication, and too many other nouns ...did I mention dedication? Rabbi, look what you created, and nurtured, and grew! Mahalo.. 

Today is our first day without a Rabbi at Beit Shalom. It takes me back to when I first moved here, and we had lay-leaders conduct our holiest services, our lifecycle events, and everything in between. Is this an ideal situation for us? No, and yet, this is where we are- for now.

We are so fortunate to have Sam Shnider agree to be our Spiritual Director while we conduct a search for our next Rabbi. He has been working with Rabbi Glickman to make this transition as smooth as possible for the congregation and the greater Jewish community. We will continue to have services and celebrate holidays and have classes and anything else our community and congregation wants. 

Rabbi Glickman started this amazing synagogue (with lots of help) and he has tirelessly fought for its survival. Making sure that we never charged for services, anyone who wants to be a member should be a member, no matter your level of Judaism- you will be accepted... all these gifts will be maintained. We will take his legacy and nurture it and grow it... and he's not going away- he has a lifetime membership! 

The current board will continue to fight for the survival of Beit Shalom, and we invite you all to join us in a way that is meaningful to you. We wish Rabbi Glickman good health as he recovers on Maui, some time to enjoy all the wonders of Maui that he gave up when he became our leader, and great success in whatever he chooses to do next. 

As of Tuesday, April 9, 2019, the JCM kitchen has gone through a strict koshering process and has been converted for cooking meat in the kitchen for Passover. The kitchen doors will be locked, and there is no access. We have a few things upcoming prior to Passover, and our kosher kitchen will be strictly enforced. 

We have a variety of attendees in our shul over these next few weeks, and we are committed to our Kosher for Passover kitchen at this time. 

Thank you for your cooperation in this matter, and we will report back when it has been turned back into a Dairy Kosher kitchen.

Mahalo to Cynthia Lebowitz for leading a reform-style service on Friday night this week. Services will begin at 6pm, and we look forward to a different service this week. Cynthia has been co-leading services recently, and we are grateful she will be able to lead this week. It has been fun to have some variety in our services these past months, and we are sorry for the short notice...if you have been waiting for a more reform service, don't miss this week. 

This week we begin Vayikra, the third book of the Torah, the book of Leviticus. Vayikra begins with a call, as Rashi explains:

AND HE CALLED UNTO MOSES — This implies that the Voice went on and reached his (Moses’s) ears only but all the other Israelites did not hear it).

The call is the moment of beckoning. There is a need for explanation here, because we have completed one book, and begun another. There is a pause, of indeterminate time, between the end of the book of Shemot (Exodus), when the pillar of cloud descends upon the sanctuary, and the revelations of this book, Vayikra(Leviticus). Moses could not enter the sanctuary because of the cloud (Exodus 40:35), so a call must precede his entry.

But the call is also the expression of affection, the sweet intimate call of love. It is the call of the Angel to Abraham to prevent the sacrifice of his child, "Abraham, Abraham" (Genesis 22:11), or the call to the sleeping child Samuel in Shiloh, "Samuel, Samuel" - the whispering voice to this young boy who has not yet discovered he is a prophet (I Samuel 3:1-10). It is a voice that is only heard to its intended one.

The Voice, however, is also the powerful booming voice: 

What does it mean by the Voice? It was the Voice that is so minutely described in Psalms, (29:4, 5) “The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The voice of the Lord breaketh the cedars. But if this be so (that it was a very powerful voice), why does Scripture state, “[and the Lord spoke to him] from the appointed tent” (מאהל מועד and does not state באהל מועד)? Because it intends to tell us that the Voice broke off and that it was heard only in the tent).

Thus, the voice has a double nature: inside the tent, it is omnipotent, thunderous; outside of the tent, it is not heard to anyone. It drops off. It reaches only Moses alone, as a still silent whisper, to awaken him and call him inwards. Once he enters the tent, it is the Voice of majesty, the Voice of the all powerful one. 

Is it only Moses who hears the Voice? The entire people look to Moses; but Moses's wish, his message, to Joshua his most prized student is "Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all God's people were prophets, and that the God would place his spirit upon them!" (Numbers 11:29). Moses wishes for everyone to hear the Voice. 

Because it is so. Some have a moment of experiencing the booming voice of the creator of the World, the Voice that breaketh cedars. But each one of us has a moment of the still small voice, the voice heard only from within, that utters our name to us, and calls to come forth, to act in the service of the most high. May we always be guided by that voice, and seek it out. 

Please join us for a special Shabbat luncheon on March 16 to honor Jenni Ezekiel as an Eishet Chayil/ Woman of Valor, and to say goodbye to her.  Jenni is moving to Oahu and this is our last Shabbat with her...for now.

This event is being sponsored by Gail Schell, but an RSVP would be appreciated so she knows how much food to prepare.  Please RSVP here.

Israel's first lunar landing mission is on its way to the moon!  The mission codename is "Beresheet", the first word of the Torah. This word is commonly translated into English as "In the Beginning" but kabbalistically has many deeper layers of meaning.

For more information on the mission, see Space Israel's website.

Leych b'shalom (go in peace), Beresheet! 

 We are sad to announce the passing of 

Greta Rosenberg

The community is invited to her funeral service

 Sunday, February 17, 2019

1:00 PM Sharp

Valley Isle Memorial Park Cemetery in Haiku

The Jewish section is in the top left corner of the Cemetary