Weekly E-News 5784
April 26 - May 2, 2024

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There will be a light kiddush this week with matzvah & cookies.

Please consider sponsoring a kiddush, in whole or in part, to celebrate a special achievement or celebration. You may also donate to the kiddush fund in any amount at any time.
Contact the office for more details.

Another way to help with our kiddushes is by donating kosher items for the pantry. Currently, our most urgent needs are salad dressing, Coca-Cola products, white tuna, and garbanzo beans.
Only kosher items can be accepted!

AA Annual Gala - Sunday, June 9th, 5:30.
Week-at-a-Glance
Class Updates
Motti's class on the history and culture of Israel will meet on Wednesday,
May 8, 10:30,
at AA.
Opportunities at AA
We're still looking for new members of the Fundraising Committee. This committee is charged with ensuring the long-term financial health of the synagogue. Planning events is not necessarily the goal! Please contact Adam if interested.
Special Shabbat Services
4/26 - 8PM - Special Passover Dessert & Drash at the Parsonage

5/3 - 6PM - Shabbat PJ Service at the Synagogue

Please add to your calendar!
Rabbi's Message

Happy Passover everyone! I hope that you enjoyed your Seders, that you have been enjoying your matzah, and have that special post-holiday feeling that I know I get every year when I look back on two successful Seders. But, despite how it may feel, the holiday is not over. Passover keeps going for another 6 days following our two days of Seders. From the very first time Passover is commanded, we are told it is a seven day holiday (which becomes eight in the Diaspora). God commands Moshe “שִׁבְעַת יָמִים מַצּוֹת תֹּאכֵלוּ” “Seven days you shall eat Matzah,” וּבַיּוֹם הָרִאשׁוֹן מִקְרָא־קֹדֶשׁ וּבַיּוֹם הַשְּׁבִיעִי מִקְרָא־קֹדֶשׁ יִהְיֶה לָכֶם “And on the first day and on the seventh day you shall have a holiday.” Why is Passover seven/eight days long? And why do we have to eat Matzah throughout all of it?

There is a rabbinic tradition, explained by Ibn Ezra in his commentary on this verse, that the Israelites took seven days to get to the Red Sea, and that the miracle of the splitting of the sea happened on what is the seventh day of Passover. “They ate matzah for seven days,” he writes, “until Pharoah was drowned at the Red Sea.” In commemoration of our ancestors eating their matzah, we continue to have our holiday of Passover and eat our Matzah, until we pass the point where the Egyptians were defeated and the Israelites safely on the other side of the sea.

There is something really beautiful in this. The night of the Seder we talk about our freedom from Egypt. We celebrate the dramatic moment where Pharaoh, after 10 plagues, finally let the Israelites go. But freedom does not happen overnight. It takes time. It is a process. It is a journey. We don’t stop eating Matzah after the Seder because we are immediately “free.” Instead, we continue to eat Matzah over the next week, symbolizing that our journey to freedom is not yet complete.

Passover, of course, is not just about when we were slaves in Egypt. We begin our Seder by inviting “all who are hungry, come and eat”—we know that it is not just our ancestors, or ourselves that we have to worry about, but about those who are still trapped, or who still struggle for freedom. Maimonides instructs us that if we do not celebrate the holiday by giving some charity or food to the poor, we are not celebrating the holiday but “celebrating the stomach.” Passover comes to remind us of the responsibility we also have towards others. But the seven days of eating Matzah reminds us that we cannot solve those problems overnight. Freedom is not reached in a day. Rather, it is a process. A process we must remain committed to until we have helped others cross their Red Sea, and continue down their path to freedom.

Moadim L’Simcha, and Shabbat Shalom!


Rabbi Gelman
The first night of Passover, Monday April 22nd, is getting closer! We have lots of exciting events and programs coming up.

Friday, April 26 8 PM: A special Passover Dessert and Drash at Rabbi Gelman's parsonage!

Saturday, April 27 9:45 AM: Shabbat Chol-Ha'Moed Passover services.

Monday, April 29 9:45 AM: Passover morning services.

Tuesday, April 30 9:45 AM: Passover morning services and Yizkor.

If you are attending any of our Passover morning services, please fill out the service interest form so we can get an accurate sense of how many of our congregants will be attending morning services and if we will have a minyan.

Chag Sameach!


Rabbi Gelman
Service Leader Sign Up

Are you interested in leading services? Reading Torah? You can sign up on our service leader sign up sheet! If you are interested in learning how to read Torah or lead services, contact Rabbi Gelman at rabbi@agudath-achim.com.
In Person Service Times:
Tuesday: 7:30 AM
Wednesday: 8:00 AM
Every Friday: 8:00 AM
1st Friday: 6:00 PM at Synagogue
3rd Friday: 8:00 PM at Parsonage
Shabbat: 9:45 AM
This Shabbat: 


Birthdays

April 26th
Beth Bosman

April 30th
Carolyn Cohen

May 2nd
Ed Cohen
Douglas Goldstein
Mitzvah Grams

If you'd like to wish AA members Happy Birthday or Happy Anniversary, the Sisterhood will be glad to send cards for you!
The cost is just $.75 for individual names or $50.00/ 6 months for all members with a date to celebrate.

For more information or to enroll, call Natalie Hyman at 518-265-6777 or email her at njhyman@aol.com.
Yahrzeits

April 26th - May 3rd

Thursday night/Friday, April 26 - 18 Nissan
Jack Kamine - uncle of Roberta Kamine-Haysman

Friday night/Saturday, April 27 - 19 Nissan
Mark Berry - brother of Jean Weitz
Fernande Djian - mother of Monique Mayo
Tilda Mann - sister-in-law of Linda Sacks
Morris Neidich - grandfather of Linda Hoffman

Saturday night/Sunday, April 28 - 20 Nissan
Rebecca Paderewsky - grandmother of Steve Arkin & Beth Bosman

Sunday night/Monday, April 29 - 21 Nissan
Abraham Javetz - grandfather of Leslie Walcoff,
Nanci Aronstein, & Jonathan Javetz
Michael Krissman - father-in-law of Sally Krissman

Monday night/ Tuesday, April 30 - 22 Nissan
Florence Haysman - mother of Melvin Haysman
Henry Hess - grandfather of Daniel Skidmore-Hess

Tuesday night/Wednesday, May 1 - 23 Nissan
Julius Waldman - grandfather of David Rosenthal

Wednesday night/Thursday, May 2 - 24 Nissan
Edythe Metzger - mother of Buddy Metzger
Esther Silver - mother of Sharon Galin
Samuel Ullman - grandfather of Susan Slotin,
father-in-law of Harriet Ullman
Nettie Wilf - grandmother of Linda Sacks

Thursday night/Friday, May 3 - 25 Nissan
Dena Bodziner - mother of Richard Bodziner
William Fisher - father of Paul Fisher
Thelma Landesman - mother of Louise Harkavy,
grandmother of Kelly Gordon
Rachel Marcus - mother of Helen Rosengart

Commemoration of the Yahrzeit begins the evening of the first noted date.

Community Events
Please join us for a community-wide remembrance program for all faiths and ages at the Jewish Educational Alliance including memorial prayers, songs and awards for the Sherry Dolgoff Holocaust Art & Writing Contest.

KEYNOTE SPEAKER Frank Baker: “The Miraculous Holocaust Story of Bluma and Felix Goldberg”

Mr. Baker currently serves on the Columbia Holocaust Education Commission. For more than 25 years he has taught "media-literacy,” a skill he says too many young people don't possess. He is the author of four books on the subject. In 2019, his lifelong work was recognized and honored with the UNESCO Global Alliance Partnership for Media & Information Literacy. His latest book,We Survived The Holocaust, is a very personal one for him.  
Please make all efforts to attend. 
Donor Dues Program
Rabbi Samuel Gelman
Adam Fins, President
Motti Locker, Executive Director

Congregation Agudath Achim | office@agudath-achim.com | 912-352-4737 | www.agudath-achim.com