Notes from Cantor Avima

I asked our member Karen Kamenetsky to be my guest writer this issue. Please read her story and listen to her songs below.    

Songs are often gifts. They can spark joy, soothe pain, bring people together. The songs I wrote for my Chanukah album, “With This Flame” were gifts right from the start. The idea for the album came at a time when my Rheumatoid Arthritis was out of control. I had been...Read more...

Hanukkah or Chanukkah? Passover or Pesach? For that matter, Rosh Hashanah, Roshashanah  or Jewish New Year?

I have a bit of a pet peeve to air. It is time to take back the names of our own holidays. When did the name of our holiday, lose its most important sound... the "ch" of the first letter of the holiday... ? I mean just because non Jews have difficulty pronouncing the word, does that mean we should drop the most Jewish...Read more...

Sometimes we focus so much on what is happening inside our sanctuary that we might not notice the beautiful moments that happen outside our sanctuary. Yes, the sanctuary is truly the central focus of what brings us all together. Our Beit Knesset - our house of gathering, our Beit Tefillah, house of prayer is the reason we exist. But, what we do in our sanctuary is hopefully an inspiration for all the moments we spend outside of...Read more...

We are all familiar with the beautiful prayer for the State of Israel we recite weekly and I am sure many of us have started reciting it on a daily basis. However, there is another beautiful prayer that was composed by the late Chief Rabbi and Chief IDF Rabbi, Shlomo Goren, asking God to protect the soldiers of the IDF and strike down their enemies. The accompanying song features popular Israeli artist Gad Elbaz’s musical rendition of...Read more...

This year I set a goal for myself to read Hebrew literature in an effort to exercise my skills. We have many works of literature in our library to choose from from childrens books to short stories and a few novels. However, this last few days have found that facebook has provided me a lot of material. And it is not the kind of Hebrew  material I had planned to use to exercise my language skills. My feed has been flooded with...Read more...

Rosh haShanah and Yom Kippur differ from Sukkot. On the Jewish New Year’s festival and Yom Kippur we are judged. We confess. We resolve. We feel defensive, vulnerable and fragile.

On Sukkot, the harvest festival, we rejoice. Anyone who has gardened knows this feeling many times more. Not only is there a thrill in seeing your garden’s yield—purple eggplant, orange carrots, green lettuce, red cabbage—but fruit of a home-grown...Read more...

When one has only one brief Religious School lesson in which to teach about the High Holidays, the holiest days on our calendar, what to we teach? That is the challenge with which we were faced this year with the challenge imposed by this year's Jewish calendar. I had a 30 minute period...Read more...

Would you eat Latkes on Rosh Hashanah? You might, because, well, hey, latkes! But most of us might feel that eating latkes on Rosh Hashanah would just be weird. Why? Because the aroma and taste of latkes brings to mind all things Chanukah including the memories associated with Chanukah. How about eating matzah on Chanukah? More holiday confusion!! Our traditional melodies, called"nusach" calls for different melodies for different...Read more...

There is a beautiful passage that we recite in our morning prayers found on p.68 of our Sim Shalom Siddur.  It is a rabbinic teaching on lovingkindness, "chesed". This paragraph describes a conversation between the great Rabbis Yochanan Ben Zakkai and his disciple Rabbi Joshua as they  lamented the ruins of the Temple. Rabbi Joshua says "Alas for us! The place which atoned for the sins of the people Israel through the...Read more...

My morning spiritual practice begins with the recitation of the traditional words of gratitude that many of us learned as children: Modeh (modah) Ani. The 12 words can be found on p.61 of our siddur. "I am grateful to You, living, enduring Sovereign, for restoring my soul to me in compassion. You are faithful beyond measure." Saying those words and taking a few moments to actually list things for which I am grateful in a little journal...Read more...

Shalom, 

I will be attending the Coalition for the Advancement of Jewish Education  ( known as NEW CAJE) in Montclair this week. I am looking forward to several days of connecting with educational colleagues and attending workshops. Here are some of the titles of the workshops I will attend: "What's the "new normal" in our post-Covid world?", "Help, I need Guidance to Reimagine Jewish Learning in My School", "The Future...Read more...

Among the many wonderful programs offered by the Jewish Federation of Greater MetroWest is the Diller Teen Fellowship program. 

Diller Teen Fellows is a premier leadership development program for Jewish 10th and 11th graders in Greater MetroWest NJ. The yearlong fellowship invites a select group of 20 teens to explore their Jewish identity and develop leadership skills towards social action and community...Read more...

I had an opportunity recently to visit the Weitzman National Museum of American Jewish History in Philadelphia. I would definitely recommend this museum which covers the America Jewish Experience from the Colonial period through our own day. The gift shop alone is worth a visit! (I do love gift shops and I love Judaica... so what is not to like?). I lived in Philadelphia while in art school in 1981 and the following year (after I quit art...Read more...

Pirkei Avot teaches us: "Al Tifrosh min hatzibbur", "Do not separate yourself from the community".

The name of our congregation is "Adath Shalom". The Hebrew word "Adath" means community (of). Some synagogue names begin with the word "Beit" or "Beth" meaning house (of). We are more than a "house". We are a community. 

This past shabbat was a demonstration of how joyful it can be to be among community. In fact, for me this...Read more...

One of the biggest challenges for Torah readers is mastering the reading of the Ten Commandments. If you look at some printed texts of the Torah which include trope symbols (te'amim), you might see what appear to be more than one trope symbol for each word in the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments appears in two places in the Torah. One is in the book of Exodus (chapter 20) and then again later in the book of Deuteronomy (chapter 5). I...Read more...

     May 7 was the last day of Religious School for this year. There are so many people to thank for our successful year. As I drove to school early in the morning I mentally planned my closing message. The word that continuously came to my mind was "B'yachad" - Together. This year could not have been successful without the guidance and help of so many. Our teachers, madrichim, parents, committee members, Pam in the...Read more...

I have been reading Torah for many, many years. For a long time it felt like an exercise in memorization since the vowels and the trope do not appear in the Torah. As you know, one prepares a Torah reading by using a book called a tikkun. The tikkun shows each column in the Torah in two ways: one without vowels and trope markings and one "dressed" with vowels and trope markings. The reader must not only prepare the correct...Read more...

Guest contributor: Rabbi Allen Darnov

     Adath Shalom can boast a host of Torah readers able to leyen (read) Torah on sabbaths and holidays.  These individuals have not only superb Hebrew skills, they have also mastered the “accents” or ta’amim attached to the Torah’s words which have crucial importance. Look at a line of Hebrew in the Bible: the signs that don’t appear to be vowels are musical...Read more...

    In the mid 1990's, I served a congregation in Westchester, NY. In those years the ground breaking Jewish singer/songwriter Debbie Friedman was leading Passover seders for women. These sedarim inspired many communities to create their own womens sedarim (seders). Haggadot were compiled incorporating women's themes. In 2000, the first edition of  "The Journey Continues"  Haggadah   was published by...Read more...

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     Last week I reflected on the beautiful moments we shared as a community almost two weeks ago.I am nearing the end of my first year at Adath Shalom. I have now observed a full cycle of Jewish holidays with this community.This is a good time to pause and  thank everyone for making my husband and myself feel so welcome here. Only a year ago, I looked out at the faces in the sanctuary and worried about how I would...Read more...

     While most people will look forward to the food of Passover:  the matzah ball soup, the brisket and the desserts, I look forward and backward to the music. I say "backward" because Pesach is filled with memories of seders past, especially those of my childhood. My husband has little patience for my insistence on singing every stanza of the long songs that end the seder. And, it is true that my father too...Read more...

     Purim is definitely in the air at Adath Shalom! It didn't just creep in quietly,  it announced itself with cheers, joy and song. As I write this we are still 8 days away from Purim, but we have already started celebrating.  Of course, a favorite theme of Purim songs is the food we eat.  After all, singing about traditional foods is almost as fun as eating them. One of my favorite...Read more...

     One of the common misunderstandings I have encountered is the confusion about who or what is being "blessed" when we utter a b'rachah. When we recite  the  blessing before lighting candles, are we blessing the candles? When we recite the kiddush  are we blessing the wine? The simple answer is no. The word "barukh" is followed by "atah Ado---ai". The word "baruch" is modifying God. So, what...Read more...

     This coming shabbat will be a very special one at Adath Shalom. It is Shabbat Shirah, "The Sabbath of Song". Shabbat Shirah gets its name from the torah portion which features the poem sung by  Moses, Miriam  and the Israelites in celebration of   the miracle of the splitting of the Red Sea. This poem is actually a part of our daily liturgy. It is recited in its entirely in the preliminary...Read more...

Communal tefillah  (prayer) is about responding to  and interacting with whoever is leading the tefillot (Prayers).The person who leads the tefillah is called "sh'liach tzibbur" - the messenger of the congregation. (A female is called a "shlichat tzibbur"). I know, it is a bit of a mouthful, but you can also use the shortened contraction "SHATZ". What is the idea of a sh'liach tzibbur or messenger of the congregation? In...Read more...

     How many of you have ever followed a diet? There seem to be a few core habits that make diets work: consistency and flexibility. On the one hand, we have to commit to a daily regiment of eating or avoiding certain foods. On the other hand, we are encouraged to "change it up" and add new foods so we don't get bored . I would say the same concepts apply to prayer. The two main ingredients of Jewish prayer are "Kevah"...Read more...

     I have often heard that Chanukah music is not nearly as beautiful as Christmas music. Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel is fun... but it is not glorious or soul lifting. To those of you who are of the opinion that Christmas music is much more beautiful than anything we have have to offer... I humbly suggest that maybe you are not aware of the amazing repertoire that is out there. Yes, there are a lot of children's ditties, and,...Read more...

SHABBAT! A gift to yourself! Shabbat is a restful pause where we hold our hands up to the outside world, saying "give me some space to breathe... I will get back to you on that to do item on Sunday."  My week has always centered around SHABBAT. A Jew is always moving in time towards or away from Shabbat. My husband and I used to joke that on Sunday we already start planning for the next Shabbat! I have always been sad that so...Read more...

     ALL IN ONE WEEKEND AT ADATH SHALOM! On Thursday, there was an FBI alert requiring us to strengthen our security measures. Maybe some communities would have shut down, but we did not do anything of the sort. We strengthened our security and police presence and carried on.  We had so many amazing and rewarding activities all in one weekend. So mnay vounteers were involved in organizing each activity. We kicked off...Read more...

The Hebrew month of Cheshvan begins Wednesday, Oct. 26 and you will hear the sigh of relief from Jewish professionals around the world. The actual name of the month is Marcheshvan. Some say the prefix "mar" which means "bitter" in Hebrew refers to the fact that no Jewish holidays occur during this month, so therefore it is bitter.   However, the true etymology is that the name Marcheshvan is actually Akkadian. The original...Read more...

The Grand Finale to the month long chain of holidays is upon us. The seriousness of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur gives way to the joy of Shemini Atzeret and Simchat Torah. At the same time, we are treated to the spectacle of the leaves as they change color, are released from the branches of the trees and float down to the ground. I grew up in Massachusetts and I never tire of the very slow moving fireworks display  of the Fall....Read more...

Some of you may know that I am a weaver. I have dabbled a bit in knitting and crochet as well. I once read the following in a book about crochet: "Ripping out in crochet is a way of undoing something that's been done incorrectly, a technique I would find very useful in life." 

I typed out this quote and keep on a bulletin board. Anyone who has sewn, knitted or crocheted, or woven knows that ripping out and redoing a section is...Read more...

My father always said: "All Beginnings are Difficult". Of course he said it in Hebrew, "Kol Hatchalot Kashot".  I always hear that statement as advice reminding me to keep stepping forward even when I am forging a new path of some kind. This summer I had a new beginning as the Cantor and Director of the Religious School at Adath Shalom. I am sure many of you are being challenged by your own "new beginnings". This month the sound of...Read more...