Upcoming Programs ABBA-lutely Fabulous Purim All Ages Celebration This Saturday, March 23 at TBE 4:00 p.m. Family Carnival & Adult Cocktail Hour 5:30 p.m. Purim Shpiel & Megillah Reading followed by dinner, dancing, silent auction with simultaneous youth programs & childcare. Kids’ Carnival Wristbands $10 includes games, prizes and hot dog meal Adult Dinner $25 […]
Destructive and Self-Destructive This sedra, speaking about sacrifices, prohibits the eating of blood: Wherever you live, you must not eat the blood of any bird or animal. If anyone eats blood, that person must be cut off from his people. (Lev. 7:26–27) This is not just one prohibition among others. The ban on eating blood […]
Upcoming Programs Temple Beth El Presents Taus Lecture Series TOMORROW Wednesday, March 13 Lunch & Learn at Noon with Rabbi Ed Feinstein Being Jewish Today Pay in Advance for $25 No reservation is $30 at the Door Coffee Talk with Rabbi Kohn Wednesday, March 13 4:00-5:00 p.m. Starbucks, Promenade of the Peninsula […]
The Pursuit of Meaning The American Declaration of Independence speaks of the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Recently, following the pioneering work of Martin Seligman, founder of Positive Psychology, there have been hundreds of books published on happiness. Yet there is something more fundamental still to the sense of a […]
Friday, March 8, 2019 /1 Adar II, 5779 Parashat P’kudei Exodus 38:21-40:38 Dear Friends, “We show true love when we can rejoice in the good fortune of another even though it is an experience that we ourselves will never know.” So wrote Rabbi Harold Kushner, the esteemed Conservative Rabbi from Boston, who is noted for writing, […]
Upcoming Programs Social Action/Social Justice Opportunity TBE & San Pedro United Methodist Church have teamed up again to help with Family Promise A community-based approach to addressing homelessness, engaging both the local community and houses of faith in an effort to combat families experiencing homelessness Sunday, March 10 Monday, March 11 San Pedro United Methodist Church 580 […]
A special Shabbat Koleinu Service welcoming blind musician Charlie Kramer will be held on Friday, March 29, 7:30 pm Please join us for this special Shabbat Koleinu of spiritually uplifting kavanah and music as we welcome Charlie Kramer, noted professional song-leader and songwriter, who will help us create a handcrafted, spirit infused, musical Friday evening […]
On Jewish Character Pekudei has sometimes been called the accountant’s parsha, because that is how it begins, with the audited accounts of the money and materials donated to the Sanctuary. It is the Torah’s way of teaching us the need for financial transparency. But beneath the sometimes dry surface lie two extraordinary stories, one told […]
Friday, March 1, 2019 /24 Adar, 5779 Parashat Vayak’heil Exodus 35:1-38:20 Dear Friends, Prudence matters. There is an interesting, seeming juxtaposition of commandments at the opening of this week’s Torah portion – and in that apparent shifting of the order of commands, there is a meaningful lesson. Let’s take a look. We are reading from near […]
Anticipation of Spring Rabbi Douglas Kohn rabbikohn@bethelsp.org Dear Friends, It is March, which means that we are on the cusp of springtime. And, we have had a long, wet, windy winter—which may be great for our water table and snow pack—but we are ready for our patent sunshine and beautiful, crisp days, again. In the […]
