SHABBATON IS THIS SATURDAY!!!!

Register online at http://2010shabbaton.eventbrite.com.

This Friday night's service is at 7:30 pm. Last week was our monthly early service at 6 pm. The early service is on the 4th Friday of each month, and we always feel sorry when people show up at 7:30 and the service is over! If you'd like a helpful reminder phone call when we have an early service, please let us know. If you're willing to help our membership committee with these calls, it's a great way to get involved, too!

Saturday morning at 9 am we'll gather for breakfast as we kick off our full day Shabbaton! This is a required session for all Block Family Religious School students, and takes the place of both Sunday and Wednesday classes this coming week. Shabbaton has something for Temple Israel members of all ages, including a different kind of Shabbat morning service, engaging workshops that will challenge mind and body, wonderful food throughout the day, a "STorah Telling" performance based on our Torah portion, havdallah to end Shabbat together, and so much more! This is a special event, and is free for all Temple members. Join us for as much of the day as you can. I look forward to celebrating Shabbat with you, praying, studying, and socializing.

Don't forget that every Wednesday morning we have minyan at 7:15 am. Watch the sun come up through the windows of the beautiful Gibbs Family Chapel as we pray and sing together!

Lunch and Learn continues every Wednesday from 12 - 1 pm. Drop in any time or join us every week for our ongoing study of Shir Hashirim, the Song of Songs. Copies of the text we use are available in the Spinning Driedel.

If you haven't seen our great Block Family Religious School fundraisers, you won't want to miss out on the great Passover candy from Aunt Sadie's, and the personalized Haggadah's for everyone at your seder table. Our students are eager to help you celebrate Passover as you help our school!

This Shabbat we celebrate Tu B'shevat, the "new year of the trees," as well as Shabbat Shirah, the Shabbat of Song, so named for the song of the sea, contained in this  week's Torah portion, B'shalach. In Shirat Hayam, the song of the sea, which you'll hear me chant on Saturday according to the special melody unique to this Torah portion, God is called, "ish milchamah," literally, a man of war. Our liturgy contains blessings for peace in every service. Our standard greeting is synonymous with the word.  How, then, do we reconcile this image of God presented at the formative event in our history? God is called by many names in our tradition. Each of these names expresses one facet of our attempt to understand the nature of God. Each is given to us according to the situation and our needs. Our tradition also teaches that we are created in the image of God, and so, as we examine the many names of God, we learn something about ourselves, our nature, and the way we should behave in order to attempt to emulate God. When we refer to God as "ish milchamah," does this tell us to make war? I think it gives us permission; in fact compels us, to stand up for ourselves and our beliefs. It teaches us that, as Jews, and as human beings created in the image of God, we have an obligation to speak and to act against injustice. I pray that, in this way, we can turn war to peace and create ourselves in another image of God.

Shabbat Shalom

Tanya Greenblatt
Cantor