September 8 - Parashat Ki Tavo

David Bassous - Rabbi
Ray Morris - President

Visit our Website at http://etzahaim.org for the latest news

Friday

  • Selichot 6.00am
  • Shacharit: 6:30am
  • Shir Hashirim: 6:45pm
  • Mincha: 7:00pm
  • Candle lighting 7:00pm

Shabbat - Parashat Ki Tavo

Full Range of Children's Groups: 9:45am - 11:30am

  • Boys 6 and up in the Library.
  • Girls 6 and up upstairs left classroom.
  • Children 3 - 5 upstairs right classroom.
  • Parasha with Rabbi Ben Hakakian: 8:00am
  • Shacharit: 8:45am
  • Latest Shema: 9:01am
  • Kiddush is sponsored in memory of Esther Tucker by many generous individuals and families.
  • To sponsor a Kiddush, go to our kiddush sponsorship webpage.
  • Tehillim group for women: 4:55pm
  • Class with Rabbi Bassous on Rabbis, Poets and Philosophers who authored our piyutim for the High Holidays: 5:40pm
  • Mincha: 6:40pm
  • Seuda Shelishit after Mincha sponsored by Julia
  • Topic: Siyum of Masechet Chagiga and Moed Kattan
  • Come and learn some classic Shabbat songs for your Shabbat Table.
  • Arvit and Shabbat Ends: 8:00pm

Sunday

  • Selichot 7.45am
  • Shacharit: 8:30am
  • Women's Class: 10:00am - Rambam Hilchot De'ot. New Members Welcome!
  • Shulchan Aruch 6.25 pm
  • Mincha and Arvit: 6:55pm
  • Special Program: 8:00pm Traveling in India and the United Arab Emerates by Dr. Nat Reiss
  • Rav Kook's Orot Teshuvah class will not be meeting this week due to the special program.

Monday - Thursday

  • Selichot 6:00am
  • Shacharit: 6:30am
  • Mishna a Day: 7:30am
  • Halacha a Day: 6:25pm
  • Mincha & Arvit: 6:55pm
  • Mondays: Jewish Meditation 8:00 pm
  • Tuesdays: Talmud Berachot 8:00 pm

Next Week – Friday

  • Selichot 6:00am
  • Shacharit: 6:30am
  • Shir Hashirim: 6:30pm
  • Mincha: 6:48pm
  • Candle lighting 6:48pm

Classes

  • Parasha and Halacha with Rabbi Ben Hakakian: Shabbat 8:00am
  • Nach: Shabbat: 5:40pm
  • Woman's Class: Hilchot De'ot of Rambam: Sunday 10:00am
  • Mishna-a-Day: Monday to Friday 7:30am
  • Halacha-a-Day: Monday - Thursday 6:50pm
  • Eye to the Infinite: Monday 8:00pm
  • Talmud Berachot - Chapter 3: Tuesday 8:00pm
  • Rav Kook's Orot Teshuvah: Sunday 9:00pm

Weekly Bulletin

Please send in your High Holiday Seat Reservation Form Today

Help Houston Recover from Harvey

The Jewish community in Houston, Texas, has once again found itself in the cross-hairs of a devastating storm that has already flooded many neighborhoods and will likely cause much more damage in the next 24-48 hours.

As the extent of the damage becomes clear, it is obvious that this community will need significant financial help in order to rebuild. Our community has answered the call before, and as Rosh Hashana approaches, we must answer the call again.

The OU and the RCA are collecting funds to help the Jewish community in Houston recover. 100% of the proceeds will go towards the Houston Jewish Community.

Donate at https://www.ou.org/giving/houston-relief-fund/

Terrorism Awareness Seminar

Congregation Etz Ahaim: Sunday, September 10, 2017 at 1:00pm - 5:00pm Minimum age: 15

This seminar is designed to provide you with exposure to key elements of situational awareness, disaster preparedness, terrorist/criminal surveillance detection, available resources and improvised explosive device (IED) recognition. Training will enhance and reinforce your knowledge, skills, and abilities related to preventing, protecting against, responding to, and recovering from terrorist threats and incidents.

The seminar will address specific counter-terrorism awareness and prevention techniques that can help reduce vulnerability and mitigate the risk of domestic terrorist attacks, as well as, criminal activity.

It is very important that all Etz Ahaim congregants attend. Admission is FREE.

Traveling in India and the United Arab Emirates

Congregation Etz Ahaim presents: Traveling in India and the United Arab Emirates on Sunday, September 10 from 8:00 to 10:0 pm. In this profusely illustrated talk, Dr. Nathan Reiss will discuss a three week trip through southern India and the United Arab Emirates. He is particularly interested in the cultures of the two countries, and for evidence of their Jewish connections, past and present.

  • If you have an outstanding balance with Etz Ahaim, please send in your payment to help the Synagogue. Your help is appreciated

  • If you are the last person to leave the building (except on Shabbat and Chaggim) make sure all the lights are out

  • If you are celebrating a simcha or want to remember a loved one, sponsoring a kiddush is one of the best ways to mark the occasion. To sponsor a Shabbat Kiddush, please go to our Kiddush Sponsorship Page on our website and fill out the on line form. We'll get in contact with you as soon as possible. To sponsor a seuda or a Sunday morning breakfast, call the shul at 732-247-3839.

Bikur Cholim of Congregation Etz Ahaim

  • Our Congregation has its own Bikur Cholim Committee. If you know of a congregant who is in the hospital or a nursing home and would like a visit, please let us know. If there is a Home-bound congregant who is in need of a visit or assistance, we can help. We may also be able to make contact with a Jewish Agency which may be able to provide additional services. Please call Rose Reiss at 732-828-7415.
  • Nursing Home Visitation: Seeking volunteers to visit Mollie Reuben, Shirley Cohen, and others at the Regency nursing home on DeMott Lane in Somerset. For more info or an updated list of residents requesting visitors, please call or email Rahel Baruh at 732-672-4673
  • Transportation Committee: Drivers and coordinators needed. Coordinate rides to and from medical appointments - match requests with an available driver. Each coordinator serves for two weeks at a time. To volunteer to coordinate or to drive, please call Bikur Cholim hotline at 732-572-7181 or fill out the volunteer form.

The congregation extends get-well wishes to:

  • Viktorya Koen
  • Avishai ben Esther
  • Galina bat Riva
  • Joey Cenci (Yoseph Michael ben Yael Rut)
  • Linda Balavram (Emuna bat Sarah)
  • Stuart Balavram (Shammai ben Yitzchak)
  • Nancy Reich
  • Yehudah Reich
  • Benny Mayo
  • Mary Belsky
  • Esther Arouh
  • Lilas Saltiel
  • Donna Bardy
  • Mary Naar
  • Lita Greenberg
  • Bradley Greenberg
  • Marcelo Schor
  • Perla bat Leah
  • Leora bat Matana

Community News

Mission to Houston

Please join Rabbi Steven Miodownik of Congregation Ahavas Achim, AA President Jeremy Renna, and other community members as we participate in cleanup and rebuilding efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. This important chesed opportunity during the Aseret Yemei Teshuvah will be an expression of support from Highland Park/Edison during this very difficult time.

The mission leaves New Jersey on Sunday, September 24 and returns Tuesday night. You will spend two nights at the home of a Jewish Community Member.

The cost is $199 per person and does not include meals or ground transportation.

For more information or to register, contact Ken Strassman

Park Mikvah

Park Mikvah is now providing towels and robes.

Hours

  • Sunday - Thursday 9:00pm to 11:00pm
  • Friday Nights: By appointment only. Leave a message at 732-249-2411 or via the website.
  • Motzai Shabbat
    • September 9: 9:30pm - 11:30pm
    • September 16, 23, 30: 9:00pm - 11:00pm
    • September 20-22: By Appointment Only
    • September 29: Closed for Yom Kippur

We appreciate your patience and financial support. Please continue to check our website and hotline at 732-249-2411 for updates

Have you participated in this incredible mitzvah campaign yet? Please go to www.parkmikvah.org/donate to help raise the remaining funds!

HP/Edison Connects Annual Women's Melave Malka

Highland Park/Edison Connects invites all women to their Annual "Kick-Off the (school) Year" Potluck Melave Malka, taking place on Motzei Shabbat, September 16 at 8:45pm at 22 Celler Road, Edison NJ. Whether you have recently moved in and are looking to meet people, or whether you have been here a while and want to reconnect with old friends and make new ones while welcoming everyone who has recently moved into our town, they encourage you to come and bring a dish! For questions or to RSVP please email Rachelle Stern. More information to follow in the coming weeks!

Highland Park/Edison Connects was formed with the goal of connecting the community and increasing the sense of achdut as well as the flow of communication and information between the various Orthodox shuls, schools, institutions, and organizations.

Tiferes DVD for Women

The next Tiferes DVD for women will be shown Motzei Shabbat, Motzei Shabbat, September 9 at 9:30pm prompt at the Siegel house.

Weekly teleconferences with topics such as shalom bayit and parenting are available to Tiferes members. Current teleconferences: Raise-the-Bar Parenting with Simi Yellen; Of Home and Heart with Dr. Jerry Lob; Summer Parenting with Ruth Lynn; Shalom Bayis—The Changing Picture with Debbi Selengut. For more information, please contact Aviva Siegel

Raritan Valley Hadassah Welcome Back Brunch

Join Raritan Valley Hadassah on Sunday, September 10 from 11:00am through 1:00pm at the Lena & David T. Wilentz Senior Residence Building on the Wilf Campus, 360 Demott Lane, Somerset, for a delicious kosher brunch and a special program to welcome back Hadassah Members, Associates and guests.

Start the fall season meeting new and old friends, and learning about upcoming Hadassah events and programs. For questions, please contact Debbie Gerber at debbieadg@gmail.com or 732-688-4146. For rides, please contact Marcia Shiffman at 732-964-0079 or mshiffman@yahoo.com.

Please RSVP no later than next Friday, August 25. Send check of $20 per attendee, made out to Hadassah, to: Sara Goodman Hand, 311 Montgomery Street, Highland Park, NJ 08904. Include your name, email address and phone number.

Chicks with Sticks Knitting Group

The Raritan Valley Hadassah Chicks with Sticks Knitting Group will hold their fall meeting on Wednesday, October 18 from 1:00-3:00pm at the home of Phyllis Pollak, 209 N. 4th Avenue, Highland Park. In the interim, please stop by her home to pick up yarn or to drop off the caps/blankets that you have made. Please contact Phyllis at 732- 246-7366 or phypollak@yahoo.com if you have any questions or need to make drop-off/pick-up arrangements.

Raritan Valley Hadassah Mitzvah of Love Luncheon

Raritan Valley Hadassah cordially invites you to join them at their 2017 Centennial Celebration Mitzvah of Love Luncheon on Sunday, October 22 at 11:00am at Ohav Emeth. Raritan Valley is roaring along in their 100th year. Come along with them as they honor all their Past Presidents.

Your donation will help support Hadassah Hospital and all Hadassah’s good works. Couvert $50 per person plus an additional minimum $36 donation per couple/family. Include name of each person attending along with a phone and an email address. Please make checks payable to Hadassah and mail to: Honey Wisotsky, 54 N. 7 Ave, Highland Park, NJ

  1. For more information, please contact Honey at 732-572-3793 or honeywisotsky@outlook.com.

Engaging Israel: Jewish Values and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Raritan Valley Hadassah is proud to present Engaging Israel: Jewish Values and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Through video lectures, text study, and lively group discussion, they are pleased to bring the world-renowned curriculum of the Shalom Hartman Institute into the community this Fall. This series explores one of the most divisive issues affecting the Jewish people today: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Through the study of Jewish narratives about Israel and the unpacking of the complex meanings of peace in Jewish tradition, participants are invited to explore the ideas and values that animate different attitudes toward the conflict and how these values shape their own political understandings.

Though a shared political platform may not be attainable, this course strives to achieve a shared respect for our differences. Together you will engage in a new values-based discourse about Israel, including topics such as: Living with Difference, the Israel We Imagine, Jewish Narratives of Peace, Attitudes Towards the Land, Justice, Self-Preservation, Compromise, and the Idea of Jewish Exceptionalism.

Each session includes text study and discussion led by Barbara Spack including video lectures and interviews with leading Hartman scholars as homework. The sessions will run from 3:00-5:00pm on September 19, October 17, November 21, December 19, January 16, February 20, March 20 and April 17 at the JCC of Greater Middlesex County, 1775 Oak Tree Road, Edison. Cost including materials: $18. RSVP to Roselyn Bell at roselynbe@aol.com.

Lunch and Learn

The next Retirees Lunch and Learn will be held on Tuesday, September 12 at 12:00pm at Ohr Torah. "My grandparents became mega-stars," Michael Tilson Thomas remembers, "and found themselves smack in the public eye. Legions of crazed fans were obsessed with every detail of their work and their lives. It was a far cry from the simple Jewish family life in the Ukrainian villages of their origin." In The Thomashefskys, Tilson Thomas explores the lives of his grandparents, Boris and Bessie Thomashefsky, through a musical performance that features five performers and the New World Symphony orchestra.

D’var Torah by Henry Schanzer; introduction by Harriet Gersten. Cost: $10. RSVP by Sunday, September 10 to: Bella at blerner18@optonline.net or 732-317-1786, Mildred at 732-572-1712 or Marcia at ppheffer@verizon.net or 732-572-5998.

A Family's Plea for Help

Update - Thank you to all who have contributed to raise funds for a community member to attend a rehab program. This person has completed the first and most expensive part of the program, and is, thank G-d, doing well.

Even with the generous donations shared by community members, the family was forced to borrow thousands of dollars each month to pay $6,000 monthly for the program. They are struggling with significant accumulated debt, and our help is still needed. Please help this local family recover from extreme financial burden. They have generously supported our community in the past and never though they would need to ask for themselves.

Please visit the Chesed Fund and open up open up your hearts and help this local family with their expenses. They have been generous in the past in supporting our community and never thought they would need to ask for themselves.

If you wish to make out a check instead of contributing online, please make it out to Congregation Ohav Emeth, in the memo write Rabbi's Charity Fund. On a separate note (NOT in memo) write that it is for the Rehab campaign"

Please note: Rabbi Kaufman and Rabbi Kaminetzky have reviewed this issue and the great need of the family and encourage all to help in this extremely worthy and lifesaving effort.

Raritan Valley Bikur Cholim

  • Volunteers: To visit a male patient at the AristaCare facility in South Plainfield. It is a 10 minute drive from our community. Also looking for a male to sit, schmooze and learn with a male patient at AristaCare. Family is willing to pay. For more information please contact Nitza Adler (732)819-9294

  • New Hospitality Room at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital! It is located on the main floor. Go through the main entrance and bear left towards the gift shop. Turn right through the double doors. Follow hall and turn right. The room is located opposite the surgical intensive care unit. You will find it fully stocked with food and any items that you might need. There is a microwave, urn, sink, table & chairs, as well as two reclining chairs. For inquiries, please call the helpline at 732-572-7181.

  • Mother’s Helpers: Bikur Cholim is looking for Mother's Helpers to help with a special need's five year old girl. Volunteers are needed for any time, Monday through Friday. We are looking for girls tenth grade and up. If you can help, even for a few hours, please call Mrs. Rivka Teresh directly at 347-598-9448.

  • Homebound Visitation: Seeking adults and 11th graders and older who would be interested in volunteering to visit homebound people in our community. For more info, please call Bikur Cholim at 732-572-7181.

  • Nursing Home Visitation: Seeking volunteers to visit at the Regency nursing home on DeMott Lane in Somerset. For more info, please call Rahel Baruh at 732-672-4673 or email rbaruh@yahoo.com

  • Transportation Committee: Drivers and coordinators needed. Coordinate rides to and from medical appointments - match requesters with an available driver. Each coordinator serves for two weeks at a time. To volunteer to coordinate or to drive, please call Bikur Cholim hotline at 732-572-7181 or fill out the volunteer form.

  • New Website: http://bikurcholimrv.com. The new website provides information regarding Bikur Cholim services, including how to access our local hospitals on Shabbat, how to borrow medical equipment, and how to get prescription medication on Shabbat.

Hatzolah Carnival

Join Hatzolah of Middlesex County for their 2nd annual carnival on Sunday, September 10 from 1:00-5:00pm. at 71 West Ethel Road, Piscataway. Bring your family for a fun filled afternoon while supporting Hatzolah. Enjoy raffles, petting zoo, prizes, face painting, delicious BBQ and more! Unlimited ride passes are available. All payment methods accepted. For more information, call 732-993-8654 or email Carnival@hatzolahmc.org.

Rabbi Yisroel Weiss Parsha Class for Men and Women: Wednesday night at 8:30pm at the home of Marsha Eiserman, 154 N. 10th Avenue, Highland Park. For more info, please call Marsha at 347-203-7906.

The Women's AMEN Group meets monthly on the Sundays following the Shabbos in which one blesses Rosh Chodesh, at 9:30 AM in a downstairs classroom at Congregation Ohr Torah. The group meets in the zechus of a refuah shelaimah for Menachem Mordechai ben Ophira and the other Cholim in the community.

Bikur Cholim OWLS (Overnight Women Labor Support): A complimentary service for maternity situations whereby volunteers will come to stay with your kids during the night. For more info on receiving this service or becoming a volunteer, please contact Rikki at 732-249-5116.

Donations of diapers, pull-ups, and wipes are currently being accepted for the new HP/Edison Diaper Gemach. Please email diapergemach@gmail.com for more information.

Rebbitzen Eichenstein’s classes for women: Tefillah class on Sunday, September 10 at 10:00 AM at the Aguda shule; No class on Monday, September 11. For more info, please contact Aviva at 732-572-4408 or siegelmom@optonline.net

The Edison/Highland Park gown Gemach, L'iluy Nishmas R' Yitzchok Ben Binyomin, is open for business! The Gemach houses a wide selection of gowns for children, pre-teen, teens and adults. Please note the Gemach is still looking for donation of gowns in very good condition. Tax deduction is given and pick up of the gowns can also be arranged. For more information and/or to schedule an appointment please call Sara Scott at 516-526-0941.

Collecting Sheitels: Keren Kol Kallah - established to provide orphan and destitute kallahs in Israel with essential needs. Donated custom sheitels, some brand-new, some gently worn, are sold to women in Israel who would not otherwise have the funds to buy a quality wig.

All the money raised at the sale goes towards a hachnasas kallah fund which helps needy brides in Eretz Yisrael. Sheitels can be dropped off by Aviva, 16 Edgemount Road, Edison. For more info, please see contact Aviva Siegel.