Recount #BlogExodus 7th of Nisan

I am late coming to the blogging Exodus party but I started on the right day.  RECOUNT  is today's topic and let me tell you how we count the Omer at Lakeside Congregation.  First what is the Omer and why do we count in the first place and if you google you will find:

Counting of the Omer (Hebrew: ספירת העומר, Sefirat HaOmer, sometimes abbreviated as Sefira or the Omer) is an important verbal counting of each of the forty-nine days between the Jewish holidays of Passover and Shavuot as stated in the Hebrew Bible: Leviticus 23:15–16.

We count and RECOUNT from Pesach to Shavuot and at Lakeside we do this not with wheat but with products made from wheat, rice and other grains:  CEREAL boxes.   On every day of the Omer we put on our bimah the number of cereal boxes that correspond to that day.  By the end of the 49 days we have 1225 boxes of cereal which we donate to local food banks.

For the first time this year one of the food banks actually contacted me wondering if they could receive our cereal boxes.  They let me know how much they appreciate getting all of the cereal boxes for their clients. Cereal is not inexpensive and they thank us and I thank all of the families at Lakeside for bringing boxes of cereal all through the end of April, May and the beginning of June.  We appreciate all of the cereal boxes that congregants bring in and if you are in the neighborhood drop off a cereal box or two. 

Do you know what the Torah Portion is for this week?

Well, if you don't it's Pikudai, the last parasha from Exodus.   meaning "records of".  

These are the records of the Tabernacle, the Tabernacle of the Pact, which were drawn up at Moses' bidding--the work of the Levites under the direction of Ithamar son of Aaron the priest. - Exodus 38:21

In the near future at Lakeside we will be releasing commentary on the weekly Parasha, Torah portion.  We will be working on form and content but if you are ever  wondering either what the Torah portion is or what it is about here are a few of my favorite links to start you on your studies.  

My favorite video link which explains the Torah portion with an animated video is G-DCAST.COM Every week they have a 3-4 minute cartoon which give you a great overview of the parasha.

Whenever you google the name of the Torah portion the first sites to come up are usually very Orthodox sites.  If you want a more intellectual site from a Reform point of view I encourage you to check out the Union for Reform Judaism's site for Torah Study.  This site has many d'vrei Torah (Plural of d'var Torah, also known is a talk on topics relating to a section (parashah) of the Torah).  Here is the summary of this week’s Torah portion from the URJ site:

A statistical summary of the materials used for the Tabernacle and an account of producing the priestly vestments are recorded. Moses blesses the Israelites for the work they did. (38:21-39:42)

Upon God's instruction, Moses sets up the Mishkan and the priests are anointed and consecrated. (40:1-33)

A description is given of a cloud that covers the Mishkan by day and a fire that burns by night, indicating God's Presence therein. (40:33-38)

I help our students at Lakeside write their D’vrei Torah when they become B’nai Mitzvah.  I can always find an interesting topic in every pararsha for our students.  Some portions are easier to understand especially those in Genesis where there is an easier story line to follow. I help our students to find something they are passionate about in their portion and then tell us why their portion is still relevant in today’s world.  I hope we will open a dialogue as we begin our Lakeside Torah commentary.  Watch for it soon.  

My Dad is a veterinarian and this Sunday, 3-6, there will be a dog at T'filot

My Dad, Dr. Michaels

Yes and he just retired this year.  Whenever I tell people I meet that my Dad is a veterinarian they always get a smile on their face. They ask me what animals I had growing up, assuming we had a zoo in the back yard.  Growing up we did not have a menagerie at the house but we did have dogs, hamsters and when I was young a cat.  I worked for my Dad through High School and enjoyed working at the Fox Valley Animal Hospital.  I even thought about being a veterinarian until I found out it required quite a bit of science and math. In fact, my Dad's profession is why we moved to Crystal Lake, Illinois in 1960.  Let me just say not only was there not a synagogue near by but neither could we buy bagels, lox or anything remotely Jewish; but that's a story for another blog. 

Although my family does not have a dog (if you have not heard the story about when Lital prayed for a puppy after the Amidah you have not been to enough T'filah that I lead) we do have a cat, Tapuz (Hebrew for orange).  I also realize that many of my students love their pets and over the years I have seen many B'nai Mitzvah students who create Mitzvah projects having to do with their pets or shelter pets.

Tapuz

My favorite projects are when my students participate in therapy dog training or visits with their dogs.  This Sunday at Lakeside we are fortunate to have Julie Fixler and her dog Billy coming to visit us during our T'filah/Assembly time (10-10:30am)to talk about all the different ways in which therapy dogs can help out.  Want a preview?  Check out this video with Julie and Billy.  We will learn how we can be good community members when it comes to therapy dogs, people with disabilities and making a difference with our behavior.

Why I wear a tallit

I did not grow up wearing a tallit or a kippah.  In fact at my  home synagogue we had black kippot for the men and little doilies for the women to put on their heads.  Neither ritual item was really explained to us and why or why not we should wear one.  As I got older and then married Arthur, who always wore both kippah and tallit but I didn't think much of it.

When my kids were at Solomon Schechter Day school it was required that boys wear kippot all the time and girls were allowed to wear them.  Lital, my oldest and my daughter never wore a kippah at school but she decided to wear tallit and kippah when becoming a Bat Mitzvah.  I hope I had something to do with her wearing a tallit as I had begun to wear one when she was much younger than 13.  It was a Lakeside student who made me decide to wear a tallit.

When I was first Educational director I taught all of our Hebrew classes.  In Dalet one day as I was talking about the mitzvah (commandment) of wearing tallit and kippah and explaining to my students that my boys at school had to wear these items every day, a student (a madrich actually) asked: "Mrs. Ehrlich why don't you wear a tallit?  You told us it's a mitzvah, you have told us men and women are equal certainly in Reform Judaism, why don't you wear one?"  I remember being taken off guard.  It was many years ago and I replied that I had not grown up wearing a tallit and then deflected the question in my answer.  This madrich's question got me to think about my own mitzvot, about taking on a new ritual.  I had not grown up with women wearing tallit or kippah; I had seen some women read from the Torah but during the 1970's really just for B'not Mitzvah.

I also started thinking that if I did not start to wear a tallit how could I expect Lital to wear one when she became a Bat Mitzvah in September 2001?  That summer when I was on faculty at OSRUI where we lead t'filot every morning and help our campers lead in the evening, I started wearing a tallit.  No one said anything. At camp it was acceptable to wear a tallit or not.  No one said anything to me.  When I got back to Lakeside I started to wear a tallit for the High Holy days and slowly I added this new custom to whenever I pray.  I especially wear a tallit when I know there will be a Torah service. I don't always wear a tallit but I do have a small collection in my office.  At confirmation I always offer some of my tallitot to our girls and if you look at the pictures on the wall outside of my office you will see some of my tallitot. Enjoy and have a Shabbat Shalom.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious or happy to have students involved in the Arts.

Maddy Richter, Alex Leva and Brody LaForce in Highland Park High School's Mary Poppins

Wednesday morning I was fortunate enough to see a preview of Highland Park High School's Mary Poppins.  We have many students from Lakeside congregation and I try to attend my students' performances.  What a great production and a fun morning.  Our children in our public schools and our private schools have so many opportunities to be exposed to the arts, sports and almost any activity you can imagine.  I am glad that our students attend schools where this is valued.

Sari Lindner

I am always happy to have a spill over to Lakeside as well when it comes to music, drama or Hebrew.  Sari Lindner one of our Madrichot has been involved in  Marching band and other orchestra's at Deerfield High School.  Over the past few months she has learned guitar and played at our Tot Shabbat with our Children's Center families.  She is a welcome addition and we thank her as she begins her journey in Jewish music.

We have many fun activities coming up at Lakeside and I am sure you will want to see our own Thespians in our 6th Purim Spiel on Wednesday March 23.  (Spiel at 6:00 pm and carnival at 4:30pm)

Raising a Mensch, Valentines Day and Winter doldrums

Valentine's Day always poses a conundrum at Religious School.  We do NOT celebrate Valentines day but as I always tell my students if my husband were to forget about it I would not be happy.  It is always a balancing act to  navigate between our Jewish chagim and our secular holidays.  I like that I have to think about both as I plan out my schedule. 

This Friday night at Lakeside we will be having our Tot Shabbat and we will be celebrating "I Heart Shabbat".  This gives us an opportunity to love Shabbat, be with our families and enjoy. I love the opportunity to work with our Children's Center and bring more families together to celebrate Shabbat. 

On Sunday at 10:30 am (after t'filah with me in the sanctuary)we will have multiple programs including  a wonderful program that will discuss how we can help our children and grandchildren to raise a mensch.  Lisa Kaplan will be here to discuss with us how we can listen to our children with an open ear, free range  parenting and she will be taking questions as well.  This is a wonderful opportunity to come in from the cold for services and a delicious lox and bagel brunch. 

As we look forward to next year we will also be meeting with our 2016-2017 B'nai Mitzvah class to discuss this meaningful life cycle simcha.  We know some families find different challenges as B'nai Mitzvah approaches and we hope to discuss and share our best experiences and even our worst experiences around B'nai Mitzvah. We will culminate with a Shabbat dinner on March 18th. 

I hope these activities will get you out of your winter doldrums.  It may be cold outside but it will be very warm here at Lakeside and I am sure in your homes. 

Blog Ideas: Got a good one let me know!

No one said blogging would be easy; I try to post at least once a week and then cross post in my Lakeside email blast, Machberet.  At this time every week I start asking "what should I write about?" Depending on the time of day I ask different circles of friends, co-workers and family.  My co-workers are very patient with me and give me all types of suggestions.  My family (read children) sometimes tell me that they should not be asked to do MY work.  Inevitably I do get suggestions for what to write.  I then cull out what I thinks fits best for the week and start to write.  Some weeks topics are easy especially seasonal, current events or a special event that may be coming up. It's January, Tu B'shevat is 2 weeks away so again this week I asked what should I blog and this is what I got:

SAD, Seasonal Affective Disorder:  I still may write disorder but I am not a doctor and could not really think of any feel good ending.  The only thing I came up with is to suggest a visit to Lakeside and to attend our services which I believe will leave you feeling good.

Gun Control:  I am all for Gun control and in fact we have sponsored many programs here on this very topic.  I am not sure what I could add to the conversation at this time.  I am very proud that the Reform movement has recently come out strongly for gun control.  I don't mind taking a stance but what new information or ideas can I add to this topic.  I may eventually find a niche to talk about Jewish lessons in Religious School which have to do with gun control.


The weather:  We live in Chicago what is there to say? It's cold, or it's not as cold as it was or it's snowing or it's not snowing.  Even in the summer this is not always a fun topic.  I could talk about global warming which I BELIEVE is happening but not sure I have enough to add on this topic.  The only time Educational directors talk about the weather is when everyone wants to know if we are CANCELING school because of it.

2016 Television Shows:  There are some new TV shows on this month but I don't have that much time to watch a new show.  I am also Not a fan of reality TV.  I know there are some great shows on Netflix, Amazon Prime and just on my DVR list.  It can be overwhelming trying to watch all the shows that are being talked about on line, in person or in our classrooms.  Should I watch TV so I can talk to my students, learn more about what's happening in the world or just watch Downton Abby over and over?

Politics is out.  No good can come from me doing a political blog.

I do enjoy sharing my thoughts in my blog and I think it is important to spread the word on special programs, Camp (OSRUI of course), simchas and other special events.  In all seriousness if you have a great idea for a blog post let me know.  I would love to hear from you.  In the meantime I will keep blogging away and hope to find just the right sweet spot of topics.  

Have ideas? Respond to this blog or email me at:
Educator@lakesidecongregation.org