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Chabad of Port Washington Email: [email protected] Voice: 516-767-8672 www.ChabadPW.org
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This Shabbat we read the story of the great flood. G‑d said to Noah: "Enter the Ark so that you and your family will be spared."
Every story or idea in Torah has practical relevance to each of us, at times understood on a spiritual and psychological level. What does the ark and the great flood mean to you and me in our daily lives?
The raging flood waters are analogous to the ongoing challenge of making a living. No one is spared these challenges. At times they're so tough, they seem to "drown" out our focus and peace of mind in life.
The solution: "Enter into the ark!" "Ark" in hebrew is "Teivah" - which also means "word". When we begin each day with "words" of prayer and some Torah study, it'll protect us from the drowning affects of our financial challenges.
There's only one caveat: For this "ark" trick to work, we need to "enter into it". The quantity of time we spend in prayer and study is secondary. What's most important is that while doing so, we're totally "in it", with nothing else distracting our thoughts.
Try it. A few minutes of focused prayer and then some thought provoking torah study each morning. Your day will be a different one. The flood of daily life will seem more like a cruise... A little bumpy at times, but generally - a pleasure!
Shabbat Shalom!
See you at Shul,
Rabbi Shalom M. Paltiel
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Membership Shabbat Dinner | Friday, Oct 19
Services: 6:00 PM | Shabbat Dinner: 6:30 PM
Chabad Members are invited to join us in celebrating Shabbat with our community and have the opportunity of meeting and getting to know other members in the Chabad of Port Washington family.
Click here for more info and to RSVP online. |
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Hebrew School Junior Congregation
Shabbat, October 20 | 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM
Hebrew School students and families will join once a month for Hebrew School Family Shabbat, Junior congregation. An interactive service with singing, stories, lessons and participation, as well as meaningful and fun activities and discussions. |
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3 New JLI Courses for 2012-2013
Choose one or come to all 3 courses being offered this coming year at Chabad.
Click here for more info and to register. |
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Community Trip to Israel - February 2013!
Sunday, February 17 - Monday, February 25
Chabad of Port Washington is joining together with Chabad of the Upper East Side for a Mission to Israel. You won't want to miss this trip, the first for our Chabad, which will be offered in FIVE STAR fashion.
Click here for more info and to RSVP. |
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Why Segregate Men and Women in Synagogue?By: Rabbi Aron Moss | Sydney, Australia
Question: I have an issue with the mechitzah, the separation of men and women in synagogue. Why do we stand divided in the house of G‑d? If men can't keep their eyes on the prayer book that is their problem. Why do we have to sit apart?
Answer: The separation of men and women goes all the way back to the ancient Temple in Jerusalem. The sages of old noticed that all the men wanted the air conditioning on high, while the women complained that it was like a freezer in there. After much debate it was decided to separate men and women into different sections of the Temple and adjust the temperature accordingly.
While some archeologists dispute the above theory, it does have an element of truth to it. Men and women were separated in the Temple because they live in different spiritual climates. There is a clear divide between male and female spirituality, and each deserves to be nurtured in its own setting.
As a rabbi who often stands facing both the men and women, I have observed the vastly different energy on the two sides of the shul. While it can't be said for individuals, as a group it seems women are more comfortable with prayer than men. The men's side is more fidgety and agitated, the women's side more serene. The men pray quicker than the women, who tend to take their time saying the prayers. And when I give a sermon I get much more direct feedback from the women's side than the men's. The animated facial expressions on one side speak far louder than the sea of blank stares on the other...
CONTINUE>>
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B"H
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Board of Directors
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Adam Katz, Esq., President
Frank Arnold*
Martin H. Brownstein, M.D.*
Howard Fensterman, Esq.
M. Allan Hyman, Esq.
Sara E. Paltiel
Rabbi Shalom M. Paltiel
Alan Rosenzweig
Alan Salzbank
Michael Samuel
Felix Sater
*Emeritus
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Shabbat Times
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| Shabbat Candle Lighting: |
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Friday, Oct 19
5:50 pm
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| Shabbat Ends: |
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Shabbat, Oct 20
6:48 pm
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Daily Thought
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Higher Lower
The higher something is, the lower it falls. So too, the loftiest revelations are to be found in the lowest places.
Therefore, if you find yourself in a place seemingly devoid of anything spiritual-don't despair. The lower you are, the higher you can reach.
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| Parshah |
 Nephilim: Fallen Angels, Giants or Men?
Who or what exactly are the "benei elokim"? Who are the "nephilim"? How are they related to each other? And what does it all mean?
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| Spirituality |
 This Week's Skydive From Heaven
What I learned from a guy who fell to earth from the edge of outer space at the speed of sound.
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| Questions & Answers |
 How Do You Treat Animals?
I can't understand how "Do not eat the limb of a living animal" would be in the top seven most important things for all humanity to observe.
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| Women |
 Dear Therapist
I have gone from one therapist to another seeking assistance, while continuing desperately in my lonely quest to grope my way out of my emotional prison. Why didn't I remain with any of them?
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| Former Soviet Union |
 World's Largest Jewish Center Opens in Dnepropetrovsk
The world's largest Jewish community center opens to the public this Sunday with a 10-hour schedule of events, but the buzz around the new Menorah Center in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, is palpable following the private opening yesterday of its Jewish Memory and Holocaust Museum.
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| North America |
 Synagogues Think Pink in Fight Against Disease
Coinciding with a month of events nationwide shining a light on breast cancer, its toll on countless families, and the research being done to combat it, several hundred women in suburban New York are gathering at a local synagogue for the chance to honor relatives of friends affected by the disease.
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| Obituary |
 From Both Sides of Aisle, Arlen Specter Backed Jewish Causes
On the issues of religious freedom and Israel's right to self-defense, former Sen. Arlen Specter - who lost a long battle with non-Hodgkins lymphoma Sunday at the age of 82 - left little doubt as to his positions.
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| North America |
 California Community Center Commissioning First Torah
When Gina Mulligan of Folsom, Calif., found out that her community would be commissioning a Torah scroll of its own, she called her mother. And now her mother's got a plane ticket to visit the Sacramento suburb to see the big event for herself.
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Parshat Noach
G‑d instructs Noah-the only righteous man in a world consumed by violence and corruption-to build a large wooden teivah (" ark"), coated within and without with pitch. A great deluge, says G‑d, will wipe out all life from the face of the earth; but the ark will float upon the water, sheltering Noah and his family, and two members (male and female) of each animal species.
Rain falls for 40 days and nights, and the waters churn for 150 days more before calming and beginning to recede. The ark settles on Mount Ararat, and from its window Noah dispatches a raven, and then a series of doves, "to see if the waters were abated from the face of the earth." When the ground dries completely-exactly one solar year (365 days) after the onset of the Flood-G‑d commands Noah to exit the teivah and repopulate the earth.
Noah builds an altar and offers sacrifices to G‑d. G‑d swears never again to destroy all of mankind because of their deeds, and sets the rainbow as a testimony of His new covenant with man. G‑d also commands Noah regarding the sacredness of life: murder is deemed a capital offense, and while man is permitted to eat the meat of animals, he is forbidden to eat flesh or blood taken from a living animal.
Noah plants a vineyard and becomes drunk on its produce. Two of Noah's sons, Shem and Japheth, are blessed for covering up their father's nakedness, while his third son, Ham, is punished for taking advantage of his debasement.
The descendants of Noah remain a single people, with a single language and culture, for ten generations. Then they defy their Creator by building a great tower to symbolize their own invincibility; G‑d confuses their language so that "one does not comprehend the tongue of the other," causing them to abandon their project and disperse across the face of the earth, splitting into seventy nations.
The Parshah of Noach concludes with a chronology of the ten generations from Noah to Abram (later Abraham), and the latter's journey from his birthplace of Ur Casdim to Charan, on the way to the land of Canaan. |
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