Honeyjar 0508 - Congregation Ohev Shalom

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The Honey Jar is published 10X/Yr
by Congregation Ohev Shalom
2 Chester Road
Wallingford, PA 19086
610-874-1465 ▪ Fax: 610-874-1466
www.ohev.net ▪ exec@ohev.net
Please send submissions to:
TheHoneyJar@hotmail.com, or
TheHoneyJar@ohev.net
Amy Larchuk, Editor
Mark M. Robbins, Rabbi
Louis Kaplan, Rabbi Emeritus
David Acker, Cantor
Doris Elofer, President
Michael Muderick, FSA, Exec.
Director
Joan Joseph, Educational Director
Affiliated with the United
Synagogue
of Conservative Judaism
Save the Dates:
Shabbat morning June 7:
Confirmation
Sunday evening June 8:
Tikkun Leyl Shavuot,
Shavuot evening of study
Shabbat/Shavuot
Morning, June 8-10:
Shavuot
The Honey Jar
Rabbi’s Corner
Will God Be in This Place Do You Care
It’s a heart-stopping experience
to feel God’s presence in a
moment. And it’s rare. Like a
dream, by the time we realize
the awesomeness of the
moment, its content has eluded
us.
Jacob our patriarch holds
onto to his dream – of angels
going up and down a ladder to
heaven -- from his moment of
awakening. He erects a
monument to God on the spot.
(It’s the first foundation stone,
tradition understands, for the
Great Temples of Jerusalem
centuries later.) Jacob imprints
this epiphanal moment on his
consciousness. And it affects his
conscience as a developing
leader and father figure.
Our Ohev Shalom
forebears built a monument like
Jacob -- our synagogue. We
continuously decorate it with
remembrances of these
forebears. We beautify its
insides. We plan its activities.
This being said, we feel
uninspired by our synagogue’s
mission – to manifest God’s
presence in our midst, through
prayer, study, and acts of
chesed. We prove that with our
feet. How often do we attend
to the moments that God is
most perceptible in our
synagogue Not very often, I
adduce.
Ask yourself a series of
questions.
1. “When is the last time I came
to a bar or bat mitzvah at
the synagogue as a
congregant, not as an
invitee” Take a step out of
your own life and invest the
community’s celebration
with your joy. Delight in a
child’s thrill at reading from
the Torah for the first time,
after a year of practice.
Honor them by listening to
their divrei torah, and you
will be taught. Bear witness
to the divine light
emanating from parent and
child as they exchange
words on the bimah.
2. “When is the last time I
stepped into the Ohev
library, let alone borrowed a
book” Plunge into a Jewish
book, and you become an
authentic participant – on
par with the great sages of
our tradition -- in the
millennia-old Jewish
dialogue about God, Israel,
the nations, Jewish ritual
and ethics.
3. “When is the last time I gave
my time, not just my money,
to our synagogue” Your
dollars are vital, don’t get me
wrong. Yet you must
uncover God’s presence to
others in a completely
different way -- delivering
challot, reading to
underprivileged youth,
visiting the burgeoning
number of homebound in
our community.
Contributing your insights to
discussion about our ritual
life, to the give and take of
an adult education lecture.
4. “Have I attended Shabbat
Echad, the Taste of Shabbat,
or a recent Synaplex”
Ignore them and it’s your