Yizkor Appeal Print E-mail
On behalf of Congregation Shaare Tefillah, it’s members, board and officers, I want to thank Elisha Mayer for his shabbos shuva speech to kick off our Yom Kippur Appeal.  You can read the speech below.

Over the next few days we will proceed with our appeal, which raises funds to offset our budgetary needs not allocated in the membership rates.
We have seen remarkable growth over the last few years, and we expect it to continue. We hope to break ground this year on our building. The revised plans have been posted and will be voted on at our next General Membership Meeting. I thank all of those who have fulfilled their Building Fund dues over the last few months, and look forward to kicking off a great campaign.

This year we have added a option that enables you to give online, and accepts credit cards / paypal as well.

As you enter the new year, please have Shaare Tefillah in mind.
Mendy Schwartz

Congregation Shaare Tefillah of Teaneck
Rabbi Kenneth Schiowitz
Mendy Schwartz, President
http://www.ShaareTefillah.org

 

Yizkor Appeal


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On behalf of the Board I want to take just a few moments to speak about
community.

 

I often think of my life and my relationships with other people as a series of
concentric circles.

 

Starting from the outside circle and moving in, I experience increasingly
meaningful levels of interaction as I move closer to the center.

 

Perhaps my immediate family is in the innermost circle, then moving outward my
parents, my siblings, their wives, then their children. But after I’ve exhausted
blood relatives, I think next of my friends, my neighbors and many of the people
right here in this shul.

 

But what is it really that binds us? That binds us together?

 

Different than family relationships, friendships are created and maintained
through “moments of community.” -- Community expressed though
commitment to each other, to the Jewish People and to God.

 

In the Yom Kippur Viduy Confessional (Ashamnu) there is an odd formulation of
sins. We start of declaring the series of confessional sins that we committed
over the year -- we stole, we got angry, we lied, etc. And then in the 2nd to last
confessed sin, Tuh-ee-nu, we declare more generally that we moved away from
God.

 

But then the final confessed sin is Ti-ee-tanu, God moved away from us. This is
strange given that we are listing our sins. Why are we confessing for God’s
moving away from us? Is this our fault that God moved away?

 

I would like to suggest that our sin of Tuh-ee-nu (our moving away from God)
causes a direct result of God’s Ti-ee-tanu (God moving away from us). And it is
at this point, when we don’t challenge God to stay with us that we also sin in
allowing God to move away and not challenging God to come back to us to
maintain the relationship.

 

As many of us know, in relationships (spousal, sibling, parent-child) there are
moments of disagreement where the relationship is breached – and the result is
the parties feel further apart. And it is at this moment where both parties need to
commit to rebuild the relationship and not allow the breach to become permanent.

 

Now in this shul there are many ways to create a moment of community for
yourself.
Just look at our bulletin. It’s full of ways to create moments of community by
donating your time:

 

  • Help build our Sukkah
  • Host the Sukkah Hop
  • Set up the Lowell school for Yom Kippur
  • Prepare a meal for a family with a new baby at home
  • Hosting new and prospective families for a Shabbat meal

     

     

    Perhaps obviously I would include the week in and week out moments: Coming
    to shul on shabbos, on Friday night, on Sunday morning, active participation in
    tefillah, singing during Kedusha and Kabbalat Shabbat.

     

    These are moments that create a cohesive bond between all of us.

    And there are ways that we can build our community with financial commitments:

  • Sponsor a Kiddush
  • Sponsor a Shalosh Seudot
  • Participate in the upcoming Yizkor Appeal

     

     

    These are ways that we can build our community together.

     

    When I lived in Riverdale, I davened at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale. Every
    year at the Yizkor appeal, the Rabbi would announce that more than 50% of the
    shul’s income came from donations of $18 or less.
    I can’t tell anybody how much money to give. Nor can I tell anybody how much
    time to give to our shul.

     

    But I do want to encourage you to give. Make a commitment to give what you
    can – according to your ability – both of your time and your money. And I hope
    on this Shabbat Teshuva that in that zechut, we will all be written and sealed in
    the book of life in the coming year and that we have a year without Tuh-ee-nu
    and without Ti-ee-tanu.

    Shabbat Shalom

     

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