Sixth Street Community Synagogue Chumash Drive

To start the year off in the strongest way possible, we will collectively study the complete Chumash, the Five Books of Moses, over the next two months. We will be hosting a special Hanuka party celebrating the completion of the chumash on Monday Dec 14, at 7PM

Everyone is encouraged to“pledge” a parasha, or, one of the 7 aliyot (seven sub-divisions) of each parasha. Even one or two pasukim (verses) will help. Simply take the time to read your selected portion, with any of the classic commentaries. This can be done completely in English, and there are many online sources to help.

What to pledge? Consider starting with the parasha corresponding to your  Hebrew birthday. If you don’t know it, go to www.HebCal.com.

Send  an email to Rabbi@EastVillageShul.com, and tell us your pledge. We will be in touch to help support you and send you links. You can also call the shul office, 212-473-3665, and someone will call you back to help get you started.

Want a partner? Call 1-800-STUDY42, and you will be given a study partner, free of charge, to study with you at your convenience.

The Sway Machinery returns to Sixth Street for a special Fundraiser!
December 12th.

More info to come!

Wailing Wall of 6th St:

The Jazz Rabbi’s Monday Night Invitational starts Nov 30
preceded by Rabbi Wall’s Kosher Living class at 7PM

Please join Jazz Rabbi Greg Wall and his band, “Later Prophets” as they kick off a new Monday night music series at 9PM on Monday, Nov. 30 at the Sixth Street Community Synagogue.

The band is: saxophonist/composer Greg Wall, pianist Shai Bachar, drummer Aaron Alexander and bassist Dave Richards. They’ll be performing music from their recent Tzadik releases as well as new material from an upcoming CD.

or … “There is no other place like this place any place near this place, so this must be the place!”

Parashat Vayeitzei

Having grown up in the days just before the information revolution, I remember living life according to the calendar of the three television networks. A movie like “The Wizard of Oz” was only available during the time of the year the network holding the rights chose to air it, and the annual prime-time broadcast was a major event in my house.
As I got older, and more familiar with the film (although nowhere nearly as familiar as my own children who have watched it on video hundreds of times!), and after my father finally broke down and bought a color TV, I noticed that the Land of Oz is in living color, in contrast with the sepia toned Kansas scenes.

In this week’s sidra , Jacob (Yaakov) has a technicolor encounter with the divine. Unlike the rather cut and dry prophetic moments of his father and grandfather (although no less powerful!) Yaakov needs to be in a dream state to process the vivid imagery about the ladder reaching into the next world, and the swirling energies simultaneously ascending and descending.

Yaakov had to be lying down for this, because G-d’s promise to increase his offspring like the dust of the earth does not reference the seemingly unreachable stars of the heavens, but to the very ground he is sleeping on. Yaakov is charged with bringing down the lofty spiritual ideas of his father and grandfather to the physical world he is part of, as well as elevating the physical world upward towards the spiritual.

The result is a transcendental moment, a merging of the upper and lower worlds, and the result is the experience of HaMakom -The Place, a point where G-d is experienced in the physical world. This establishment of The Place becomes a node or access point to the divine. It is no surprise the Yaakov calls this Place, the physical house of G-d the “Shaar HaShamayim”, the gate of heaven.

By integrating traditional ritual into our day to day life we  constantly have the opportunity to experience HaMakom.
Nowhere is this more evident than in our own homes on Shabbat  (and here at 6th St. Community Synagogue, your “Home Away From Home”-ed.) and our Shabbat table becomes our “Shaar Shamayim” (come to our next TGIF dinner on Dec 25 and experience ours!-ed.), and this becomes, for a fleeting moment, the holiest spot on earth. We spend the rest of our weekdays trying to recapture it but it is futile. Only Shabbat can give us that feeling.

Now just click your heels three times and say, “There’s no place like home…..”

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Greg

Parasha Toldot

In this week’s parasha G-D promises Yitzchak, ” I will make your descendants [as numerous] as the stars of the heavens…” (Gen 26:4).

Sound familiar? The same promise was made to Abraham previously, and later G-d will promise Yak “Your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth….”( Gen 28:14), implying many,many descendants.

But their partners: Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and later Channa (mother of the famous prophet Samuel) were all “akarot”-barren women.
Why?
Perhaps a return to the story of creation can shed some light on the matter..

“This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, on the day when G-d made earth and heaven. All the plants of the field were not yet on the earth, and all the herbal vegetation of the field had not yet sprouted, for G-d had not brought rain upon the earth, and there was [yet] no man to work the soil.” (Gen 2:6-7)

The talmud quotes Rav Asi as saying the grass was just below the surface, and only when man was created to pray for rain did the grass and vegetation emerge . This teaches that G-d desires prayer (Chulin 60b)

Our foreparents were all challenged in the reproductive arena, and our tradition teaches us that it was the relationship with G-d through prayer which brought about the fulfillment of G-d’s promise of a legacy. This is the divine plan, a partnership between heaven and earth.

If G-d wants our prayers, and our prayers are essential for the divine plan, why is prayer so difficult for us? I am constantly amazed at the large percentage of synagogue attendees who are unable to pray, or feel so alienated by the process. Yet, this is a basic necessity for having our spiritual needs met.

With a little preparation and some practice a meaningful prayer experience   is within reach for everyone. It is not necessary to pray in Hebrew. It is better in most cases to pray in a language you know well until you can understand the meaning of the prayers. Choose quality over quantity… Learn the structure of the service…find a siddur (prayerbook) that feels “right” for you. Seem like a daunting task? It’s not - anyone can learn to have a meaningful prayer experience.
But-
This week we will make it much easier for you. We are starting an exploratory service, for men and women, which will provide a safe place to move through the basics of Jewish prayer at a comfortable pace, with total comprehension, and plenty of time for asking tough questions.
We will offer this service several times a month. Give it a try- even if you are a synagogue veteran- we can all benefit from a leisurely in depth look into the prayers, and forge our own one to one relationship with our creator.
May all our prayers be answered….

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Greg

Shabbat Chayai Sarah

This week’s parasha gives an interesting excursion into a seemingly complicated business transaction. Although the Torah, in parashat Lech L’cha, documents a promise that G-d made to Avraham, to bestow upon him an inheritance of the land of Israel, we find in parasha Chayai Sarah that Avraham needs to purchase a burial plot from Ephron the Hittite. He does not attempt to pull a divine trump card out of his hand, or assemble his troops and overrun the province.

Rather, Avraham first engages the working class residents of the hamlet of Chait (Bnai Chait), impressing them with his willingness to live among them. Although the Torah does not divulge the nature of his interaction, it must have been extremely positive, and indicitive of the traits of kindess and leadership that traditionally describe him. The Bnai Chait address him as “A Prince of G- d among us”. After first establishing the relationship with his neighbors Avraham then negotiates with the local executive Ephron, and keeps the upper hand by not wanting to accept any gift of land,and be beholden to anybody,  preferring to pay top shekel instead.

The result was an enhancement of Avraham’s name, and a respect for his family and followers. The promise G-d made to Avraham at their first encounter in parashat Lech L’cha, “I will bless you, and make your name great, and you will be a blessing”, seems indeed to have come true. The trigger was the proactive nature of Avraham, and I think that is a major message of this story. Our creator has many gifts and rewards for each of us, but it is up to us to put the divine plan into action by taking the first step, and doing whatever we can do to take care of business on our ends while leaving a positive impression to others, thus making our own names great in the process.

Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Greg

Kashrut, the act of ‘keeping kosher’ is one of the quintessential components of Jewish practice. It can be very challenging to navigate through our secular society without a firm grounding  in what constitutes kosher food and cooking. We will debunk myths and learn what is really essential to make informed decisions about what we put in our mouths.

What goes into the making of a Kosher Kitchen ?” This question is heard more and more often today. Whether you are a novice or a learned student of Torah Laws, the answer is becoming more and more complicated as new food products and methods of preparation are introduced into our modern kitchens. Thus, many people are stymied in their pursuit of the Kosher Kitchen . This can cost the average kitchen owner needless expense if food or utensils are rendered not kosher simply because knowledge that was available was not applied in the first place. Even those who have a basic knowledge are unsure of its applications.

Most information going into the making of a Kosher kitchen has been handed down by word of mouth, generation, by generation. Some people have purchased books. Even those who have a basic knowledge are sometimes unsure of its applications or do not know the reasons why some things are done.

Our goal is to teach you to identify the problems before they happen and to instruct you how to solve them as they arise. Set forth in an entertaining way, you will be taken through the steps of setting up a Kosher Kitchen from the very basics to the modern day issues.

Classes are Mondays at 7pm in Community’s Community Room. Followed by a concert at 9PM by Rabbi Wall and his band. RSVP here!

Shabbat Vayera

Rabbi Greg