This Sunday, our Religious School class worked on decorating our amazing Sukkah. Each year, it keeps getting better and better, thanks to our hard working volunteers. This year, we had students bring in photographs and/or draw pictures of someone special in their lives that they would like to invite into the Sukkah.
Here’s a picture of the kids in action, working hard to decorate the Sukkah….
Tzedek v’Shalom is collecting food for the Mitzvah Food Project on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Specifically, we are collecting:
Canned Beans Kosher; lower salt preferred
Canned Fruit Kosher; lower sugar preferred
Canned Vegetables Kosher; lower salt preferred, no carrots
Peanut Butter Kosher; lower salt preferred
Soup Kosher; lower salt preferred
Canned Fish (canned tuna, salmon, sardines, etc.)
(Please no bulk sizes)
Please bring your cans to services on Rosh Hashanah, Kol Nidre, Yom Kippur. There will be a box in the entrance way at Newtown Friends Meeting House.
Mazon:
It’s Yom Kippur. You and your family have just fasted for the day. Think about taking the money you would have spent on food for this day and make a donation to Mazon to help feed those who go hungry every day.
Mazon is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to preventing and alleviating hunger among people of all faiths and backgrounds. Since its founding in 1985, MAZON, which means “food” or “sustenance” in Hebrew, has been the only national Jewish organization dedicated exclusively to fighting hunger. MAZON practices and promotes a multi-faceted approach to hunger relief, recognizing the importance of responding to hungry peoples’ immediate need for nutrition and sustenance while also working to advance long-term solutions. This approach symbolizes our desire to embody twin Jewish ideals: tzedakah and tikkun olam.
You can make a donation three different ways:
Join us Sunday, September 18th at 10am at the Goodnoe Elementary School (in the modular classrooms) in Newtown PA for an interactive session on how to have a more meaningful Bar/Bat Mitzvah experience.
Rabbi Anna Boswell-Levy will be leading the discussion, where the following aspects of planning the Bar/Bat Mitzvah will be explored:
• The Physical – Planning the Logistics
• The Emotional – What are your feelings surrounding this lifecycle event?
• The Intellectual – How will you grow through this process?
• The Spiritual – Connections to Judaism – individually and through community
Join us Friday night, September 9th for a family friendly Kabbalat Shabbat and potluck at Newtown Friends Meetinghouse at 219 Court St, in Newtown, PA. Guests are welcome!
Please join our community for prayer, song, and introspection as we celebrate these holiest days of the Jewish year. We never charge tickets for the High Holidays, however, we do encourage you to make a donation, according to your ability.
Our vision for Tzedek v’Shalom for these holy days and beyond is that we welcome everyone into our community regardless of one’s background or finances. Especially during these difficult economic times, we think it is important that we take strength in our diversity and in the power of community.
If you are interested in learning more or joining us, please call the Tzedek v’Shalom main number at 215-860-0119 or contact Rabbi Anna Boswell-Levy directly at 215-287-5128 or rabbianna@gmail.com.
Note: For important parking information, click here.
Tzedek v’Shalom 5772 (2011) High Holiday Schedule
Saturday Sept 24: 7:30-10:30pm Selichot Observance and Movie Screening at the home of Diane and Arnie Gold – Havdalah and movie screening with discussion to follow
Sept 28-30: Rosh Hashanah Services*
Erev Rosh Hashanah: Wednesday, Sept 28, 6pm – 9pm
Family Service followed by Dairy Pot Luck Dinner
Rosh Hashanah Day 1: Thursday, Sept 29, 9:30am – 12:30pm
Children’s Service and Program at 11am
Tashlich immediately following services at Newtown Creek at the old Newtown Commons (we’ll have directions!)
Rosh Hashanah Day 2: Friday, Sept 30, 9:30am – 12:30pm
Tikkun Rosh Hashanah – Learning Sessions & Songs
Oct 7-8: Yom Kippur Services*
Kol Nidre: Friday, Oct 7, 6pm – 9pm – Please bring a tallit!
Yom Kippur: Saturday, Oct 8, Services 9:30am – 1:30pm
Children’s Service and Program at 11am
Afternoon Learning Sessions, Contemplative Prayer & Song, 1:45 – 4:45pm
Neilah/Concluding Service Followed by Break Fast: 5pm – 9pm
Bring your shofar!
*All services will be held at Newtown Friends Meeting House.
219 Court St. Newtown, PA 18940
For more information, please contact Membership Chair Linda Gold at (215) 860-0119 or lingold8@verizon.net.
Hi all. Don’t forget, our Religious School starts Sunday, September 11th at 9:30am at the Goodnoe School in Newtown. For those who wish to visit our school and observe, this will be a good day to do so!
To download our Religious School Enrollment form, visit our Religious School Page.
It is the Jewish way to live from holiday to holiday, leapfrogging from one celebratory mode to the other. So after Purim we immediately look to Passover and all the plans to make for that holiday – the cleaning, the shopping, the inviting…
Life is easier when you feel ready for the next big thing, and anticipating what is to come helps us feel more in control over the direction of our lives. But so often something comes to remind us just how little control we do have. There, right in that moment when you…
…place the ring on her finger,
…receive a letter beginning with “We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted…,”
…hold in your hands the keys to the car, the keys to independence,
…lose a game to your child where you were not trying to let them win,
…hold a Torah and recite the Shema as a Bat Mitzvah, or as a newly-minted Jew,
Or when you…
…see the place once occupied by someone of importance to you, empty,
…hear the words “Baruch Dayan ha’Emet” – blessed is the true Judge,
…make the Thanksgiving or Passover dish that your mother or grandmother had always made,
…experience the first time that your body simply will not allow you to do what it has allowed you to do for your whole life,
These are all liminal moments, happy and sad, moments in life when we become very aware that we are on the threshold of change. Our lives are full of them, whether we are conscious of them or not. I believe that Judaism helps us to become more aware of them, so that we can appreciate these moments of transition and turn them into opportunities for transformation.
This may sound awfully like a Holy Holiday sermon topic, and it is. We’re at the six month marker from the next High Holiday season, which in itself is another kind of Jewish New Year. We are at the beginning of the cycle of months. Nissan, the month of Passover, begins on April 5th, and is considered the first month of the Jewish year. (Tishrei, the month of the Rosh Hashanah and Days of Awe, is the seventh month.)
Why so many New Years? Perhaps it is because Judaism relishes each holiday, mile markers, new month, new month, and birthday as signaling the possibility for change. Change is good, even when it hurts. It’s these liminal moments that help us realize the precious urgency of life, pushing us out of our comfort places and into new growth. The Jewish lifecycle and year-cycle celebrates the liminal moment, big and small: the beginning and ending of Shabbat, every sunset and sunrise, the first buds of spring, and first cries of new life.
Pesach is the liminal holiday par excellence. During Pesach, especially those first nights of seder, we are no longer oppressed, but we also haven’t loosed the bonds of slavery completely either. We search for questions as we grope for our new selves and an undetermined future. We are encouraged to be neither slaves nor free people, but to feel ourselves as in between as possible.
This Pesach, I hope we all experience the profundity and sense of human vulnerability that come when we choose to linger in the liminal space. Maybe you’ll write about it or make a ritual out of it, perhaps you’ll say a blessing like the Shehechiyanu. Because it is a blessing to be fully human: to be in a state of not knowing, to not always feel in control of our lives, to feel the need to reach out in some way.
And as a result, may we find ourselves changed, renewed, and transformed.
Biv’racha – with blessing,
Rabbi Anna
TvS is extending an invitation to the public to join us for our Annual 2nd Night Community Passover Seder on Tuesday, April 19. This traditional Jewish celebration combines sharing of a multi-course meal with a retelling of the Jewish people’s exodus from slavery in Egypt under the guidance of Moses.
“On this special evening, we will openly explore what it means to be free, especially when so many other peoples are struggling for and wrestling with newfound freedoms today,” explains Rabbi Anna Boswell-Levy. “In the spirit of this special holiday, and in accordance with Jewish customs, we invite those seeking a place to celebrate Passover to join us. This promises to be a great evening with plenty of time to get to know one another and share a delicious, festive meal together.”
The 2nd Night Seder will be held at the Newtown Friends Meeting House on Court Street in Newtown, PA from 5:30-8:30pm. In addition, special guest Pastor Laura Ingersol of God’s Love Lutheran Church in Newtown will share her thoughts on the challenges of freedom and liberation. If you would like to attend, or for more information, please contact Elana Braz at elanabraz@verizon.net or 215-750-0836.
Does Judaism believe in the afterlife? Unequivocally, the answer is yes! Unfortunately, in the contemporary Jewish community, people are often unaware of traditional Jewish wisdom on the afterlife journey of the soul.
Come and join us with guest speaker Simcha Raphael for a fascinating program on this topic:
JEWISH VIEWS OF THE AFTERLIFE: IMPLICATIONS AND APPLICATIONS, Simcha Raphael, PhD
12:00pm, Saturday, April 2 – Newtown Friends Meeting House, 219 Court St., Newtown PA
Sponsored by Tzedek v’Shalom
Please RSVP to Diane Gold at agoldn1@aol.com, or call Joel Bacher at 215-860-3565.
In this presentation, we shall explore Judaism’s teachings on life after death, particularly in Kabbalistic Judaism.
The program will begin at 1pm following a light lunch at noon. Please feel free to join us for a morning meditation at 9:30am and a service at 10am as well.
Simcha Raphael, Ph.D. is Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Religion Department of Temple University, a Rabbinic Intern of the Jewish Hospice Network of JFCS, and in a private practice as a transpersonal psychotherapist and spiritual director, affiliated with Mt. Airy Counseling Center.
Join us for Purim Shpiel Night with Tzedek v’Shalom!
When: Saturday, March 19th at 7pm
Where: Newtown Friends Meeting House, 219 Court St., Newtown, PA.
Purim is coming soon, and Tzedek v’Shalom will be celebrating it in our own silly, marvelous way. We welcome the public to come as our guests and enjoy our always entertaining and lively festival of shpiels. We have a full program of skits and singing that your whole family is sure to enjoy.
