Community News
High Holidays at Morris Yacht Club
City Island, New York
TBE is delighted to announce that we'll be at the spacious and beautiful Morris Yacht Club for Rosh Hashanah, Kol Nidre and Yom Kippur. Ample parking will be available at the Morris, with accessible bathrooms for all.
For members and friends unable to be onsite, a digital option will be available.
Everyone will be 100% online for Erev Rosh Hashanah's
seder-style celebration (from the comfort of home, avoiding Labor Day traffic) and Shabbat Shuvah (between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur).
Please
REGISTER HERE, add your names to the Book of Remembrance (due by Sept 1), and find sponsorship/tzedakah opportunities. Please
check this page for the most current info, and get ready for our Days of Awe 5782. Here we go!
We will also be selling delicious, locally-produced artisanal small batch
honey for the holidays. Please place your orders now, at $15 a jar, to sweeten your new year.
We will also need
help setting up at the Morris on Sept. 6 at 9 AM, hoping to finish by 11 AM. Please write to yourshulbythesea@gmail.com to volunteer. If you can move a chair, we need you.
Schedule for the High Holy Days 5782
(Plan ahead for parking and traffic: services will start on time.)
Fri., Aug. 6, 7:30pm Shabbat launching Elul TBE & Zoom
Sat., Aug. 28, 8:30pm Havdalah and Selichot TBE & Zoom
Mon., Sep. 6, 7:00pm Erev Rosh Hashanah & Seder Zoom
Tue., Sep. 7, 10:00am Rosh Hashanah 1 & Tashlich Morris & Zoom
Wed., Sep. 8, 10:00am Rosh Hashanah 2 Morris & Zoom
Fri., Sep. 10, 7:30pm Shabbat Shuvah Zoom
Wed., Sep. 15, 6:30pm Kol Nidre Morris & Zoom
Thu., Sep. 16, 10:00am Yom Kippur (to Break Fast) Morris & Zoom
August Snapshot
Hello, wonderful Shul by the Sea community! We hope this newsletter finds you well. July brought our amazing Shabbat by the Sea--so good to be together, and such perfect weather! Thanks to all who worked behind and in front of the scenes to make the event a smashing success. Morris is such a wonderful venue, we look forward to our High Holidays there.
All TBE offerings continue online. The schedule on TBE's website is current for August: look under "Upcoming Events" on the right side, or "Calendar" on the top of the website.
The Zoom link and code for each event, class, program or service is listed on the website. Zoom links are listed here also. As before, each day's Zoom code is the same from month to month.
Please note these dates for August:
- New Year for the Animals/Rosh Chodesh Elul Kabbalat Shabbat - Aug 6 will be led by R. David, in shul, for vaccinated people. Please send a photo of your vaccination card to yourshulbythesea@gmail.com or bring it with you. Well-behaved pets are welcome; pets of blessed memory or who live far away can have their photos featured--please send photos to R. David today.
- Torah study continues: Please join your fellow congregants for a lively Torah Soul Spa on Saturday mornings from 10:00-11:30am. No previous experience required. Zoom only. R. David will return to lead this on Oct. 2, when we start Genesis for the new cycle. Until then, the students will be the teachers.
- Lights and Flicks: Join our Saturday night movie series, curated by Barbara Gold. Movies are screen immediately after Havdalah, which begins at 7:30 pm. This month's offering is the 1927 version of The Jazz Singer with Al Jolson on August 14th. Themes of immigration, assimilation...how does it hit now?
- Our embodied spirituality classes continue: Yoga with Daniella on Monday; Meditation with Tenzin on Tuesday; Feldenkrais with Rachel R. on Tuesday; Qi Gong/T'ai Chi with Avra on Wednesday; and Meditation with Barbara on some Fridays (August 6 and 20): All are going full steam ahead for August. What a roster of talented spiritual mind-body practitioners we have!
- Two new course offerings for the ramp up to High Holidays: See details below and sign up! You can join now as we head to the finish line.
- Selichot, our "warm up" prayer service for the High Holidays, will be on Saturday, August 28, starting at 8:30 pm on zoom only. Please join us for a heart-opening launch to the High Holidays.
From TBE's shared heart to your heart where you are, welcome to August – and thank you for loving Your Shul by the Sea.
Kabbalat Shabbat Schedule for August
Deep thanks to TBE's service leadership team – Bob Berent, Shari Berkowitz, Stu Goldstein, Leslie Lichtman-Berland and Monty Renov – for lifting us into Shabbat during their Friday night services.
Here's our Kabbalat Shabbat schedule (starting 7:30pm).
- Aug 6- Rabbi David - in shul IF VACCINATED (bring proof or submit in advance) and on zoom - well-behaved animals in attendance
- Aug 13 – Shari & Monty - on zoom only
- Aug 20 - Leslie & Stu - on zoom only
- Aug 27- Rabbi David - in shul IF VACCINATED (bring proof or submit in advance) and on zoom
Please join us for a wonderful start to Shabbat each week.
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From the Rabbi's Desk: Elul: in Between, Love and All
By Rabbi David
On July 15, I saw the first Christmas tree in a retail store. Not that Christmas decor is likely to sell much to this rabbi, but it jolted me. Its early appearance punctuated the topsy-turvy sense of this time – the off-kilter, "just plain weird" feel of so much nowadays.
I confess to feeling that way approaching these High Holy Days. They come "exactly on time" Jewishly, but oddly early in secular solar time. Aren't we just barely halfway into summer?
Usually the High Holy Days stretch into October. Some years, frost chills the sukkah and we wear scarves outside at Simchat Torah. This year's High Holy Days begin on Labor Day, and they'll be done before autumn.
It's just plain weird – and there's a lot of "just plain weird" to go around. Consider:
Pre-covid, most of us instinctively sensed the community's "feel." Over the last 16 months, some were very "present" digitally and emotionally. Some were less present. Some moved; some disappeared and are just now re-emerging. Others are new, from both near and far (welcome!), who've never been to TBE's physical home.
- By Rosh Hashanah, New York might be a beacon of safety from covid-19, or tip toward a new wave. Most likely, we'll be in between – still far safer than most, but watchful.
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By Rosh Hashanah, Western wildfires that darkened our skies with ash might be doused by welcome rains, or explode under another climate-change heat dome. Most likely, the fires will be in between – neither cataclysmic nor totally over.
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By Rosh Hashanah, the U.S. government might be resolved on reforms to health care, climate change, infrastructure, voting rights, the economy and more. Or, the government might be mired in toxic gridlock. Most likely, it'll be somewhere in between.
All of this in-between and "just plain weird" aligns with our Jewish spiritual calendar. The month of Elul, which begins this year in early August, itself is an in-between time. Elul stands between summer's height and the autumn ahead, between the year that was and the new year about to begin, between how we've been and how we're called to become.
Elul rouses us back to awareness with the first shofar blasts, the first echoes of ancient High Holy Day tunes, and the slow shift of sunlight. It's in-between and, yes, "just plain weird."
And amidst it all, Elul encodes love. Elul is a Hebrew acronym for Ani l'dodi v'dodi li / "I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine" (Song of Songs 6:3). Love is an emotion of unique depth, height and closeness. Elul emphasizes love's sense of emotional proximity to ourselves, each other and everything important in spiritual life.
It's chutzpah to claim that love can pair well with in-between and "just plain weird." After all, love seems easier when we feel safe and secure. Maybe that's exactly why Elul calls us back to love, our highest values and deepest care, precisely when so much feels tentative and tenuous.
It'll take daring. It'll take courage. It'll take resilience. It'll take strength. (Might strength be our High Holy Day theme?) But the effort is worthwhile: the planet needs it, our country needs it, our precious community needs it, and the ancient call to renew ourselves depends on it.
Summer Book Club with Rabbi David
This is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared
Join R. David for a summer journey into and through the High Holy Days using Alan Lew's bestselling masterpiece, This is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared (
available from Amazon).
We'll meet via zoom seven times between June 30 and September 12. Each session will cover one or two chapters keyed to the next step of the High Holy Day journey and its spiritual, liturgical and ritual themes.
Sessions will be 7:30pm on the following days:
• Wed. 8/4 (chapter 4, Elul)
• Wed. 8/25 (chapter 5, Selichot)
• Wed. 9/1 (chapter 6, Rosh Hashanah)
• Wed. 9/8 (chapter 7, the Ten Days of Repentance)
• Sun. 9/12 (rest of book, Yom Kippur)
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Ramp up into High Holidays: Lifting Higher
Lifting Higher: Weekly Teshuvah Practice for the High Holy Days July 18 – August 29
Join R. David and Shari Berkowitz for a weekly kabbalistic journey up the Tree of Life for seven weeks leading to Rosh Hashanah. Each week will be themed to the sefirot (just like the seven weeks of counting Omer, except in reverse), with inner practices to support preparation for the High Holy Days. FEEL FREE TO JOIN MID-STREAM, all are welcome.
Sundays 8:00-8:30 pm (with after-schmooze time)
July 18 – August 29
Zoom Links @TBEclick here for the August calendar in full
To access TBE's Zoom each day, click on that day's web link below. Or, you can go to Zoom enter the Meeting ID and Access Code manually.
To access by phone, dial Zoom's phone number (646.568.7788), then follow the prompts to enter the Meeting ID and Access Code.
SUNDAYS: CLICK HERE
Meeting ID: 317 145 140 • Code: 971260
MONDAYS: CLICK HERE
Meeting ID: 750 606 182 • Code: 855659
TUESDAYS: CLICK HERE
Meeting ID: 381 969 769 • Code: 097126
WEDNESDAYS: CLICK HERE
Meeting ID: 574 198 337 • Code: 753541
THURSDAYS: CLICK HERE
Meeting ID: 372 001 186 • Code: 132093
FRIDAYS: CLICK HERE
Meeting ID: 629 569 195 • Code: 175471
SATURDAYS: CLICK HERE
Meeting ID: 801 261 043 • Code: 374415
Healing List
TBE sends blessings of refuah shleimah (fullest healing possible) to these souls among and around us:
Anonymous (congregant)
Bob Berent (congregant)
Sue Camacho (friend of congregant)
Alana Fall (friend of congregant)
Audrey Giannakaris (sister of congregant)
Noah Jacob Gottlieb (friend of congregant)
Leslie Lichtman Berland (congregant)
Marla Lichtman (sister of congregant)
Tina Lichtman (sister of congregant)
Gary McGriff (friend of congregant)
Steve Roth (friend of congregants)
Ellen Ruth Topol (congregant)
Binyamina bat Zahava (child of congregant)
Lev Dovir miBeit Miriam (student of R. David)
Yonatan ben Hadas v’Aharon (friend of R. David)
Mashah Ahuvia bat Leah
R. Ora Simcha bat Dvorah
Esta Vittl bat Rivka v'Calmin (mother of congregant)
TBE keeps Healing List names for a month, subject to renewal. In case of a request for confidentiality, only clergy will know: names will be kept private.
To add/renew a name, or to seek Chesed Team support for personal needs arising from illness or other personal difficulty, email us (yourshulbythesea@gmail.com). For confidential requests, please contact R. David directly. Big thanks to Tenzin and Leslie for their work on this.
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Community News
Mazel tov! We wish a hearty Mazel Tov to Ellen Weinstein, who celebrated her Bat Mitzvah on July 25 in Manhattan. All the best on reaching this milestone!
Here is a haiku Ellen wrote about Shabbat by the Sea:
As the bright sun sets
Everyone prays, dances and sings
With the bridges lit
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CONFIDENTIAL FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE. R. David wants to know if you are having a financial crisis, as he applies for more funding from UJA for emergencies such as these. Please contact him directly via email at davidevanmarkus@gmail.com. All information is strictly confidential.
WRITE FOR US! We invite you to make free announcements – joyous occasions, memorials, tributes and more. We also invite you to send us pictures, poems and essays. Submissions are due on the 20th day of the month by email to the newsletter editor, Shari Berkowitz, at shariellen@gmail.com.
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GIVE YOURSELF AND DEVICES A REST. Please silence all of your communication devices before services, especially for Barechu, Shema, Amidah and Kaddish. Thank you for uplifting the kedushah (holiness) of our sacred times.
