The Jewish Center - The Modern Orthodox Center for Jewish Life and Learning 131 W. 86th Street, New York, NY 10024 • www.jewishcenter.org • 212-724-2700

The Jewish Center SHABBAT BULLETIN

DECEMBER 1, 2018 • 23 KISLEV 5779 • PARSHAT VAYESHEV

WOMEN’S TEHILLIM GROUP: Monday, December 3, 7:15PM

Contact Joyce Weitz for more info. at 212-877-1176

Sunday Dec. 2 7:45AM Daf Yomi 8:30AM Shacharit 4:15PM Minchah

Monday Dec. 3- Thursday Dec. 6 7/8AM Shacharit 7:45AM Daf Yomi 4:15PM Minchah

Friday Dec. 7 7/8AM Shacharit 7:45AM Daf Yomi 4:10PM Candle-lighting 4:15PM Minchah

DAILY SERVICE TIMES CHANUKAH ALL WEEK!

MAZAL TOV Naomi Colton on the birth of a granddaughter Naama

Mazal Arnon Chevra Daf Yomi on their completion of Mesechet Menachot this past Wednesday! Chulin has already begun, all are invited

to join

CONDOLENCES Esty Jacobs on the passing of her mother Judith Freidman Klein

THANK YOU TO OUR USHERS

Rona Kellman and Andrew Ackerman

Thank you to our CSS members whose efforts help maintain a safe shul for our community.

COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS SHABBAT SCHEDULE

EREV SHABBAT 4:12PM Candle-lighting 4:20PM Minchah 5:00PM Young Leadership Kabbalat Shabbat (5th floor) 5:30 Dinner and Conversation with Mr. Nathan Lewin (for those who pre-registered) SHABBAT 7:45AM Hashkama Israel Silverstein Morning Midrash with Rabbi Dovid Zirkind 9:00AM Shacharit 9:15AM Hashkama Shiur with Ora Weinbach, Understanding Amos: A deeper look into the Haftorah and ourselves 9:12AM Sof Zman Kriat Shema 9:30AM Young Leadership 10:00AM Youth Groups 11:15 Public Lecture with Mr. Nathan Lewin, A Religious Jew in Washington: Opportunities and Experiences 12:15PM Early Minchah (4th floor, Beit Midrash) 2:45PM Bikkur Cholim/Bikkur in the Home (meet at 730 Columbus Ave.) 4:00PM Minchah Daf Yomi Muktzah 101 with Rabbi Dovid Zirkind Seudah Shlishit Speaker, Rabbi Noach Goldstein, Hearing the Candles Sing: The Relationship Between Hallel and Hadlakat Neirot 5:12PM Shabbat Concludes THANK YOU TO OUR KIDDUSH SPONSORS: Community Kiddush: Rachel Wolf, Kira and Julia in honor of Mr. President Andrew Borodach, who celebrated his 50th birthday this week. Love, Rachel, Kira and Julia Brauna & Marvin Fortgang in commemoration of the Yahrtzeit of Marvin's father, Max Fortgang

Seudah Shlishit Sponsor: Tova Friedman in memory of Tova's sister, Bracha Graber and in honor of the Israel Friedman Daf Yomi siyum of Mesechet Menachot

Welcome Scholar In Residence Mr. Nathan Lewin Friday Night Dinner Conversation: The Future of Religious Liberty in America: The Supreme Court and the Jewish Community. Shabbat Morning Public Lecture: A Religious Jew in Washington: Opportunities and Experiences. Thank you to our sponsors: Rachel Wolf & Andrew Borodach, Vivian & Daniel Chill, Evelyn & Moshe Fruchter, Naomi Goldman, Susan Kensky & Sam Goldman, Steve & Esther Graber, The Honorable Alvin Hellerstein, Fran & Rabbi Jonah Kupietzky, Rachel Lurie, Chani & Mark Segall, Adina & Philip Wagman, Cindy & Jay Worenklein Thank you to our host committee: Dana Federbush & Eddie Karan, Naomi Goldman, Alex & Miriam Gutwein Klein, Mindy & Ami Horowitz, Rona & Andrew Steinerman

Youth Department Family Dinner Shabbat December 7th Minchah at 4:15PM Dinner at 5:30PM See insert for more details. To register visit jewishcenter.org

Teen Boys vs. Clergy Basketball Game December 15 Sponsorship opportunities available. For details and registration visit jewishcenter.org Questions? Email Sarah@jewishcenter.org

Cooper Hewitt Guided Tour Tablescapes: Designs for Dining

Explore the beautiful textiles of Marguerite Mergentime. A guided tour by her granddaughter Virginia Bayer-Hirt

December 2, 2018 at 11:00AM 2 East 91st Street.

$16 members, $18 Non Members Visit jewishcenter.org to register.

BEIT MIDRASH UPDATE JEWISH CENTER UNIVERSITY FALL SEMESTER RUNS THROUGH DECEMBER

For more information visit our website or contact Rabbi Dovid Zirkind at dzirkind@jewishcenter.org The Jewish Center is going to be cleaning out the cubbies and shelves of the Beit Midrash this week. If you have any personal siddurim or property of any kind in the Beit Midrash please remove it so it does not get misplaced. Thank you! In addition, anyone who has borrowed books from the library, kindly return them soon so we can asses what needs to be replaced in the coming weeks.

TUESDAY Talmud Class Rabbi Noach Goldstein 7:45am–8:30am Nosh and Drash With Dr. Adena Berkowitz 10:00AM-11:00AM Tanach 101: Athens vs Jerusalem: War in Tanach and The Iliad Rabbi Noach Goldstein The Sadye and Henry Bayer Tanach Class 8:00 PM

WEDNESDAY An Introduction To The World of Mussar: The Writings of Rav Eliyahu Dessler Rabbi Dovid Zirkind Oct.10- Dec.12 at 11:00 am Talmud 101 Ora Weinbach, Community Educator October 24th, 31st and November 14th and 28th at 8:00pm

SHABBAT Muktzah 101 Rabbi Dovid Zirkind Shabbat Afternoons Between Minchah and Maariv in the main sanctuary

THE LAWS AND CUSTOMS OF CHANUKAH

Our clergy have prepared a helpful guide for the halachot and minhagim of the Chanukah season. The guide is available for download on our website and print copies are available in the lobby as well. If you have any specific questions, Rabbi Zirkind and Rabbi Goldstein look forward to discussing them with you. Chanukah Sameach!

Greetings from Yad Binyamin! The holiday season means something different here in Israel. Thanksgiving has not yet made it onto the official Israeli calendar, but somehow Black Friday has. Now everyone is busy planning their vacations as schools and businesses will be closed for most or all of Chanukah. I have been thinking about the unique intersection of history and halakha when it comes to the mitzvah of candle lighting. The Shulhan Arukh tells us that the appropriate place to perform the mitzvah is one handbreadth away from the front door, on the left side, opposite the mezuzah. Writing in 16thcentury Krakow and codifying hundreds of years of Ashkenazic tradition, the Rema adds a gloss. Because nowadays everyone lights inside, one needn’t be too particular about the proximity to the door. Even in locales where anti-Semitism isn’t the greatest concern, the practice of lighting indoors is the prevalent one in the diaspora. It may be perfectly safe and legal to light outdoors, but we generally prefer to think of our Jewish observance as a private affair. And yet here in Yad Binyamin, the practice is to light outdoors. It’s a Jewish neighborhood in a Jewish state. The culture of one’s home is the same culture one finds on the street. That old Ashkenazic impulse to turn inward simply has no place here. Chanukah is the celebration of the Jewish triumph over assimilation. It’s a triumph I notice everyday here in Israel by virtue of intermarriage’s complete absence from the public discourse. If Chanukah is about the certain continuity of the Jewish people even in uncertain times, there could be no better place to celebrate it than in the land of the Jewish future. The Rema would have wished you a lichtige Chanukah. Rachel and I will wish you a חנוכה שמח.

With warmest regards, Yosie Levine Rabbi

CHANUKAH MESSAGE FROM RABBI YOSIE LEVINE

TEEN WEEKEND EXTRAVAGANZA Friday Night December 14th Middle School Oneg (6th-8th grade) from 7:30-9:30PM at the home of Ezra Marcus, 225 W 86th St. Please be sure to RSVP in advance on The JC website! High School Oneg 7:45-10PM at the home of Josh Milstein, 100 W 89th Street. Shabbat December 15th Teen Minyan at 9:30AM on the 4th Floor of The JC followed by Teen Kiddush! Saturday Night December 15th Teen vs. Clergy Basketball Game at 7:00PM Visit jewishcenter.org for more information.

Questions? Email sarah@jewishcenter.org

YOUTH EVENTS

Thanksgiving Pack-A-Thon 2018 On Thanksgiving morning, members of The Jewish Center joined with over 300 volunteers from Shearith Israel, the West End Collegiate Church, the Church of Latter-day Saints, and Drisha to pack 3000 packages of food and winter apparel for New Yorkers in need, which will be distributed this week by the Met Council on Poverty. Child volunteers made great contributions to the decoration of the packages! We are thrilled to share that we have surpassed our $18,000 fundraising goal for the Pack-A-Thon, with a total of $18,103 raised. We couldn't have done it without the participation and support of every single one of you.

Thanksgiving Firehouse Visit 2018! Thank you to all those who joined!

Yosie Levine Rabbi

Dovid Zirkind Associate Rabbi

Noach Goldstein Assistant Rabbi

Chaim David Berson

Cantor

Ora Weinbach Community Educator

Eliezer Buechler William Fischman Rabbinic Intern

Aaron Strum

Executive Director

Batsheva Leibtag Director of

Programming and Communications

Sarah Cromwell Youth Director

OFFICERS Andrew Borodach

President

Mark Segall First Vice President

Len Berman Vice President

Aliza Herzberg Vice President

Michael Jacobs Vice President

Scott Black Treasurer

Daniel Solomons Assistant Treasurer

Naomi Goldman Secretary

LOCAL RESOURCES Yoetzet Halacha Shiffy Friedman

nycyoetzet@gmail.com 646-598-1080

Jewish Center Chevra Kadisha

212-724-2700 x555

UWS Mikvah 212-579-2011

Hatzoloh 212-230-1000

Eruv Status 212-724-2700 x4

Deep within the prisons of Egypt, Yosef was confronted by two fellow inmates, distraught over the implications of dreams they had experienced the previous night. Apparently, the baker and cupbearer were right to worry about their futures, as Yosef told them how their respective fates would be determined in just three days after their dreams. The Torah adds an additional layer to this drama in telling us that three days later was no ordinary day; rather, it was the birthday of Pharaoh himself. Historians and scholars of many fields are quick to point out that not only is this the only reference to a birthday celebration in the Chumash, but perhaps it is the earliest recorded birthday celebration in history. Later the Greeks would celebrate the birthday of the lunar goddess Artemis (the radiance of the moon being the origin of birthday candles); the Romans were the first to introduce birthday celebrations for civilians (men, but not yet women). Interesting to note during this season of the year is that ancient Christianity was opposed to the pagan practice of birthday celebrations, but that changed in the 4th Century, as December 25th became an important birthday celebration in their faith as well.

It is no surprise then, that Jewish tradition is ambivalent about the significance of yearly birthday celebrations. Bar and Bat Mitzvah celebrations are practiced as they mark not the day of birth itself but the emergence of religious obligation; some sources suggest significance of other milestones as well (20, 50 and 70), but hardly any mekorot support the notion that annual birthdays are cause for celebration. Contemporary rabbinic scholars have tended to support birthday celebrations, highlighting both their secular nature and the opportunity they provide for self-reflection and growth. Famous are the words attributed to Rabbi Nachman of Breslov: “The day you were born was the day Hashem decided the world could not exist without you.” While it is not entirely clear what role Pharaoh’s birthday played in the story of Yosef, it is obvious to the reader that, for the man who baked Pharaoh’s cakes, the day did not end well. Perhaps, if only once each year, it is a moment to pause and appreciate the history of our practices and the opportunity to make them as meaningful as ever. Some of our traditions, no matter how unlikely they were to emerge, can be the vehicle to finding happiness and purpose in living a more driven and successful life.

Happy Birthday Pharaoh! Parshat Vayeishev 5779 Rabbi Dovid Zirkind

ISRAEL UPDATE November 30, 2018

California Fire Rescuers Drink Water Pulled from Air An emergency response vehicle (ERV) carrying an innovative Israeli machine that pulls drinking water out of ambient air is on its way to California to provide hydration to police and firefighters dealing with the aftermath of two massive wildfires that have taken at least 87 lives. According to ISRAEL21c, the vehicle and the GEN-350 atmospheric water generator were sent by Watergen USA, the American subsidiary of the Israeli company that invented the system. “The chairman of our company in Israel believes very strongly in humanitarian efforts to assist those who have lost everything in California,” said Yehuda Kaploun, president of Watergen USA. Watergen USA CEO Ed Russo said aid workers can serve for longer periods of time if they have adequate drinking water, and the GEN-350 reduces the number of plastic bottles needed on scene. The 800-kilogram (1,763-pound) Watergen GEN-350 can produce up to 156 gallons (600 liters) of water per day from the ambient air. The unit has an internal water-treatment system and needs no infrastructure to operate except electricity, which is supplied from a generator and charging stations on the ERV. Our synagogue partners with AIPAC, America’s pro-Israel lobby, in educating our community on issues affecting the U.S.-Israel relationship. We encourage you to learn more by contacting AIPAC at (202) 639-5200 or by visiting www.aipac.org.

AIPAC Policy Conference 2019 Sunday March 24-26, 2019 in Washington, DC Registration for the conference costs $599, but if you purchase a ticket through The Jewish Center, you will pay $399, a $200 discount. Contact the Jewish Center office for more information and to purchase your ticket. Limited tickets available.