Last week we entered the Hebrew month of Av. The first nine days of Av are the darkest time in the Jewish calendar when we mourn the destruction of the first and second temples in Jerusalem. Today on Tisha B’av we fast and grieve and read the lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah: “How has she fallen so alone? The city that was teeming with people has now become a widow.”
Hoping and Weeping
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Tagged Gaza, hope, Israel, Peace, Prayer, Tisha B'av, weeping
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A Prayer for Peace in Israel
God, our Strength and Protection, we pray for Israel. Watch over Israel, spread Your shelter of peace over the land and over all our brothers and sisters who live there. Shine your light upon Israel’s leaders, officers and advisers. Fill them with Your wisdom. Fill the men and women who defend Israel with wisdom and with Your holy light. Watch over them, God. Hear their prayers. Hear the prayers of innocent civilians in Gaza who share our longings for an end to this conflict. Bring peace, God. Let it rain down from the heavens like a mighty storm. Let it wash away all hatred and bloodshed. Peace, God, please, God. Amen.
Peace Peace
Rachel is crying for her children
She refuses to be comforted
From beyond the grave she cries
Through the centuries
Her tears flow
Hagar cries too
From beyond the grave and
Their tears intermingle
The tears of the mothers
Grieving over dead sons and daughters
Weeping over war
They try to shake us
Wake us
They see our promise
They prophesy our hope
From the place of eternity
Our mothers whisper
Peace Peace
Shalom Salaam
Can you hear it?
by Rabbi Naomi Levy
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Newton, MA
Rabbi Naomi Levy will be speaking at Temple Emanuel in Newton, MA this Shabbat. If you’re in the Boston area come to services this Shabbat morning 1/22 (services begin at 9:45 AM) and to a book talk on Hope Will Find You on Sunday morning 1/23 at 9:15 AM. Temple Emanuel 385 Ward Street
Newton, MA 02459
(617) 558-8100 http://www.templeemanuel.com/SisterhoodShabbat
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Sisterhood Shabbat
Title: Sisterhood Shabbat
Location: Temple Israel, 4901 Providence Road, Charlotte, NC 28226
Link out: Click here
Description: “A Michael Meiselman Legacy Event”
January 15, 2011 at 9:30am
Rabbi Naomi Levy will be our guest speaker at Sisterhood Shabbat Services.
Topic: ““Taking the First Step …How Seas Can Part Before Us”
January 16, 2011 at 10:00am
“When Life gets Confusing: Hope will Find You”
Join us for a complimentary breakfast and conversation with Rabbis Naomi Levy and Murray Ezring.
Start Time: 10:00
Date: 2011-01-16
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Two Mothers’ Journeys: With Rabbi Naomi Levy & Elaine Hall
Title: Two Mothers’ Journeys: With Rabbi Naomi Levy & Elaine Hall
Location: Storyopolis Book Store, 14945 Ventura Blvd. Sherman Oaks, CA
Link out: Click here
Description:
Two Mothers’ Journeys: A special reading and book signing with Rabbi Naomi Levy, author of Hope Will Find You and Elaine Hall, author of Now I See the Moon
Dessert Reception to follow.
RABBI NAOMI LEVY shares her journey and the wisdom she gained as the mother of a child with special needs in a book filled with invaluable lessons for living in the present and for opening the door to an extraordinary future.
…ELAINE HALL’S profound bond with children has been the defining force of her life and has led her to the successive miracles she documents with grace, humor and heart in her memoir that movingly describes raising a son with autism.
Moderated by: SALLY WEBER, Director of Jewish Community Programs & Director of Special Needs Programs Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles Dietary laws will be observed.
PLEASE RSVP TO RESERVE YOUR SPOT.
Both books will be available for purchase–portion of proceeds go to support HaMercaz.
To RSVP and for more information, HaMercaz: (866)287-8030, Hamercaz@jfsla.org or visit www.hamercaz.org
Program sponsored by HaMercaz, Jewish Federation and Jewish Family Service.
Start Time: 07:00
Date: 2011-01-11
End Time: 9:00
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Academy for Jewish Religion, California
Title: Academy for Jewish Religion, California
Location: Yitzhak Rabin Hillel Center for Jewish Life at UCLA, 574 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024
Link out: Click here
Description: The ACADEMY FOR JEWISH RELIGION, CALIFORNIA
invites the public to join us for a special program on
Rabbi Milton Steinberg’s book The Prophet’s Wife
“The greatest voice of the American pulpit reaches out to us from the past.
The discovery of a new work by Milton Steinberg is a gripping and wondrous event.”
— Rabbi David J. Wolpe, author of Why Faith Matters and Floating Takes Faith
A discussion with
Rabbi Daniel Bouskila, Director of the Sephardic Educational Center
and AJRCA Professor of Talmud
and
Rabbi Naomi Levy, Acclaimed author and spiritual leader of Nashuva,
a groundbreaking Jewish outreach congregation
Moderated by Monica Osborne, PhD
The late Milton Steinberg z”l is the author of As a Driven Leaf, first published in 1939 and still regarded as a major influence on contemporary Jewish life and thought. Steinberg died in 1950 while working on The Prophet’s Wife, which is now in print for the first time. Set against a backdrop of unrest in ancient Israel, the book is a stirring portrait of the biblical prophet Hosea, his passionate and free-spirited wife Gomer, and a people seduced by the lures of power and idolatry to betray their faith. Left unfinished by his death at age 46, the 440-page typewritten manuscript sat in the American Jewish Historical Society archives for over forty years before Behrman House began the process of finishing the work. Through trial and tribulation, it was artfully developed into an artistic and intellectual collaboration between Steinberg and a triumvirate of important contemporary writers—Rabbi Harold S. Kushner, Ari L. Goldman and Norma Rosen.
Sunday, January 9, 2011, 5:00 pm*
Academy for Jewish Religion, California
Spiegel Auditorium, 3rd Floor
Yitzhak Rabin Hillel Center for Jewish Life at UCLA
574 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024
There is no charge for this event.
*Please arrive early in order to park as we will start promptly at 5 pm.
Parking is available at UCLA Lot #2 (corner of Hilgard and Westholme).
Parking fee: $10
Start Time: 05:00
Date: 2011-01-09
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Skirball Cultural Center, Lecture
Title: Skirball Cultural Center, Lecture
Location: Skirball Cultural Center, 2701 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90049
Link out: Click here
Description: ADMISSION:
FREE; advance tickets recommended
How can I get my life off hold? When will my life really begin? To those struggling to move forward Rabbi Naomi Levy has often offered spiritual guidance. Yet when she learned that her daughter had a fatal degenerative disease, Levy’s own insights could not prevent her from unraveling. Be there as Levy reads from and discusses her new book, Hope Will Find You, in which she describes with humor and honesty how she survived this time of uncertainty and learned to stop waiting for life to begin. A natural and engaging storyteller, she fills the book with invaluable lessons for living in the present and opening the door to an extraordinary future. A book signing follows the program. Presented in association with Stephen S. Wise Temple.
Naomi Levy, author of the national bestseller To Begin Again and Talking to God, is the founder and leader of NASHUVA, the Jewish spiritual outreach movement. Named one of the fifty top rabbis in America by Newsweek magazine, she was in the first class of women to enter the Conservative rabbinical seminary.
Start Time: 02:00
Date: 2011-01-09
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Nashuva Freedom Shabbat, in Honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Title: Nashuva Freedom Shabbat, in Honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Location: Brentwood Presbyterian Church, 12000 San Vicente Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA
Link out: Click here
Description: This Shabbat we celebrate a new secular year, a new Hebrew month of Shevat which marks the very earliest budding of spring and prayers for nature’s renewal, and the fight for freedom, justice and equal rights for all people as we honor the great Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.
Rabbi Naomi Levy and the Nashuva band have set many of our …Hebrew prayers this Shabbat to freedom songs and spirituals. They will be leading us in a transformational Shabbat experience with music and prayers designed to lift us higher and higher.
Please take a moment now to think of your friends who may never have had a Jewish experience quite like Nashuva. People who may be turned off to Judaism, or who haven’t found their place in Judaism. Make the effort to personally invite them to join you at Nashuva this Freedom Shabbat.
Of course, please join us for an amazing Oneg after services! Please try to remember to wear white in honor of the simple holiness of Shabbat.
Start Date: 2011-01-07
Start Time: 18:45
End Date: 2011-01-7
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Happy Chanukah!
Chanuka Lessons:
1. Don’t give in to darkness, create light.
2. When you feel spent, remember a little oil goes a long way.
3. Life is as unpredictable as a dreidel. Enjoy the good, expect to face bumps, know they too will pass.
3. Miracles do happen, expect them, look for them ,recognize them.
4. Stand up and fight for what’s right.
5. We have the power to rebuild, to pick ourselves up and illuminate the world.
Happy Chanukah!
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