Newspapers / The Charlotte Jewish News … / Aug. 1, 2015, edition 1 / Page 7
Part of The Charlotte Jewish News (Charlotte, N.C.) / About this page
This page has errors
The date, title, or page description is wrong
This page has harmful content
This page contains sensitive or offensive material
The Charlotte Jewish News - August 2015 - Page 7 The Month of Elul - Inventory Season Elul, the last month of the Jew ish year, is a time to review the past and look at where you’ve eome in life. It’s a preparation for the upeoming “Days of Awe” — Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur — when we resolve to do better this year than last. This the month of Elul begins on Sunday, August 16, with Rosh Chodesh on the 15th and 16th. There are many beautiful eustoms that are observed during Elul whieh are designed to get us in toueh with the theme of this month. The theme of Elul is return to your essential self — a.k.a. Teshuva — helped along by prayer and eharity. “The King is in the field,” is assoeiated with this month, whieh refers to God being in the field with us and willing to embraee eaeh of us just the way we are. It also means that the Godly spark within eaeh of us is mueh more aeeessible, as long as we seareh for it. Some key eustoms for the month of Elul: * Eaeh day (exeept Shabbat), a shofar is blown after the morning serviees. It's a wake-up eall to spiritually prepare for Rosh Hashanah. * When writing a letter, we sign off, “May you be inseribed and sealed for a good year.” * We add Chapter 27 of Psalms to the morning and afternoon daily prayers. * The Baal Shem Tov began a eustom of saying three additional ehapters of Psalms, sequentially, eaeh day from the first of Elul until Yom Kippur — when the re mainder of Psalms is eompleted. * We inerease our deeds of eharity, kindness, and friendship towards others. * This is a good time to have your tefillin and mezuzot in- speeted by a seribe to ensure that they are still in good eondition. Selichot Seliehot are prayers to God that ask forgiveness. Sephardie Jews reeite speeial Seliehot early every morning of Elul (exeept for Shab bat). Ashkenazie Jews begin these Seliehot shortly after midnight on the Sunday morning before Rosh Hashanah — unless this start date doesn’t allow for a minimum of four days of Seliehot, in whieh ease, they start Seliehot on the Sunday morning before that. This year we will begin Seliehot at Ohr Ha- Torah on Saturday, September 5, a little past mid-night. Seliehot are then reeited daily before the morn ing prayers (exeept on Shabbat) until Rosh Hashanah. Many eon- tinue reeiting Seliehot until Yom Kippur. ^ New Board at Ohr HaTorah Congregation Ohr HaTorah has eleeted Barry Klemons as its new president. Brad Rabinowitz is now viee president, and the board has added three new members to its ranks: Ellen Engelhard!, Erie Lemer, and Fred Shporer. They join Philip Stark (immediate past president), Dave Cantor, Nadine Oudmayer, and Penny Lipsitz who serve with them on Ohr Ha- Torah’s board. The foeus of the new term will be the expansion of the synagogue with a new women’s Mikvah that will be eompleted in August and the planning of a new sanetuary and soeial hall that will be added to the existing building on Sardis Road. Congregation Ohr HaTorah is dedieated to providing every Jew regardless of baekground, philos ophy or level of eommitment, an open door environment for strengthening and enhaneing Jew ish family life. Ohr HaTorah serves individuals and families looking for an anehor and non- judgmental, aeeepting, personal ized Jewish experienee. Ohr HaTorah is truly a home away from home for everyone who walks through its doors. Ohr HaTorah’s vision is to raise Jewish awareness in our eom- munity by bringing Jewish edueational opportunities to the Greater Charlotte Jewish eom- munity with programs like the JLI (Jewish Learning Institute), Shab- batons, international speakers and loeal programs like the publie menorah lightings at SouthPark. Clongregation M^ToraK apfcfjtcl cj LubdvircA o^NoriJiCaTcNFici Ohr HaTorah has daily worship serviees eaeh morning and evening. For more information please visit www.ehabadne.org. Or eall us at 704-366-3984.^ Temple Solel Finds Its Path in Fort Mill In Deeember of 2011, 14 peo ple gathered in a living room and determined to form their own syn agogue in Fort Mill to worship as Reform Jews. Our goal is to fol low the preeepts of Jewish values, foeusing on inelusion and inter faith families or relationships, in support of the eommandment of Tikkun Olam - Healing the World. Thus the eongregation of Temple Solel was formed, with the first serviee eelebrated in February 2012. Solel translates as “path way” or “pathfinder.” Sinee that time, this path we’ve taken has re sulted in work with more than 10 eharities, with eontributions fo- eused loeally, for the improve ment of our loeal eommunity. Our ehosen path has led us to working with: * The Children’s Attention Home, with ongoing member vis its, working with the ehildren there to support and share the vi sion of a stable life and working direetly in aeeordanee with the At tention Home’s mission to serviee abused, abandoned and negleeted ehildren in SC. * The Palmetto Sehool, Grades K-8, eontinuing to serve the ehil dren from the Attention Home. * Our “Seeond Friday” food drives for the Fort Mill Care Cen ter, eapped by the annual Yom Kippur eolleetion, whieh have al lowed us to eontribute over 2,200 pounds of food whieh is distrib uted direetly to the York County Community. * Posting a team for three eon- seeutive years to walk in the Crohns and Colitis fundraiser. * Assisting with food prepara tion for the annual Mother/Daugh ter luneheon at Unity Presbyterian Chureh, whieh raises thousands of dollars Temple Solel offers a religious edueation program as well, affili ated with the Institute of Southern Jewish Life (ISJL), led by a strong and talented direetor. Weekly elasses are offered starting from pre-sehool age. That sehool has shepherded three young people to full membership in the Jewish eommunity. Those young people eaeh developed their B’nai Mitzvot projeets, whieh ineluded eoat drives, library organization, and raising awareness of ehild- hood eaneer. Eaeh projeet eon- neeted the youth of our Temple to our mission of Soeial Aetion and improvement in a very personal way. Our Temple eontinues to grow. Starting with the original 14 founders, we now have 46 mem bers and have had two baby nam ing eeremonies to weleome our littlest members into the eovenant. Temple Solel engages and eon- neets with our eongregation on numerous levels: sponsoring a Havdalah Serviee with guest Rabbi Miri Gold, a key represen tative in the pluralist Reform movement in Israel, in addition to hosting a “Virtual Trip of Israel,” and edueational movie night of “Israel Inside - How a Small Country Makes a Big Differ- enee.” We use all modes of soeial media to keep our eommunity in formed about key events, eelebra- tions and movements. We have a user-friendly website eontaining ealendars of events, direetions to serviees, and key eontaet informa tion to enable members and inter ested parties to get involved in programs offered by Temple Solel. Our eommunity outreaeh eon tinues to explore numerous oudets as well. We hold serviees twiee a month, at St. Phillip Neri, with whom we enjoy a elose working relationship. Their hospitality and weleoming atmosphere fosters a nurturing environment for us. We join with Unity Presbyterian in Fort Mill, with the Men’s Break fast and the annual Mother/ Daughter luneheon. We are a reg ular eontributor to the Fort Mill Times “Words of Faith” eolumn, and we have partieipated in the Sun City Yard sales and the Baxter bake sale, as internal fundraisers. This past year we had a eommu nity Menorah lighting for Hanukkah, whieh we look to eon- tinue and expand. Our membership may be small, but we are strongly foeused in support of our Tikkun Olam proj eets, and our impaet is felt in our eommunity. As our organization matures, we eontinue to weleome all individuals who wish to wor ship God and improve the world in whieh we live. ^ TEMPLE SOr FT Temple Solel Serviee in Mareh 2015, led byEdie Yakutis, Ashley and Julia Fox. Kvell Don't Kvetch Protect your assets with diversification—Ask Andy about Income Producing Commercial Real Estate. If you want the comfort of broader asset allocation, commercial real estate can be a smart move. Let me put 25 years of successful Charlotte business experience to work for you to simplify the process. Contact me anytime on my personal cell—704-507-7707, or visit AndyDinkin.com. “Commercial Real Estate should pay its way" Buy/Sell Lease/Manage n>KKri« MECA Each Office is Independently Oi/vned and Operated AridyD inkin, com
The Charlotte Jewish News (Charlotte, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
Aug. 1, 2015, edition 1
7
Click "Submit" to request a review of this page. NCDHC staff will check .
0 / 75