e-Megillah, September 26, 2024

Thursday September 26, 2024
Issue #687

Letter from Rabbi Ross

Dear TBS Friends and Family,

Join us this Friday night for our Shabbat Service with Deb Rogers. We will have a brief discussion about the new rounds of violence with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Here’s my weekend column for the newspaper:
Grieving during the “10 Days of Repentance”

The Jewish High Holidays begin next Wednesday evening, October 2. We call these days the “Aseret Yemei Teshuvah” – the “10 Days of Repentance”, which marks the time between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur,

These are usually complicated times for Jews as they navigate their role in their lives and try to assess where they have come up short. We begin with Rosh Hashanah prayers, feasts, and communal gatherings to welcome the New Year. At Yom Kippur, we conclude with a day of intense communal prayer, fasting for 25 hours, reciting communal apologies and confessions. Typically, we spend the days between Rosh hashanah and Yom Kippur, turning to our friends, family and colleagues and apologizing for our misdeeds. This year, however, will be different.

This year, the Jewish community will also commemorate the victims of the October 7 attacks on Israel. Our pain, sadness, and our brokenness will be front and center as we gather to mourn, grieve and remember. At Temple Beth Shalom Hudson, we will have a memorial service on Sunday, October 6. At Kent State, Hillel, Chabad, SSI and the Jewish Studies Department at KSU will come together on Monday, October 7 at 5 pm at the Kiva Auditorium for a communal memorial ceremony. Registration is needed.
How do we hold the spiritual significance of the “10 Days” alongside our tremendous grief for the dead and our ongoing anxiety for the hostages?
I begin with the idea that many of us are navigating trauma and brokenness over the war in Gaza, and now in Lebanon. We have wept over our family members who were slaughtered, raped and tortured by Hamas terrorists. Our anxiety over the fates of the remaining hostages is continuous. And our tears over the deaths of Palestinian children have been heartbreaking. I have wept over the traumas and pain experienced by both sides.
So I begin with tremendous gentleness. This is not the year to beat ourselves up over our misdeeds. This is a year for tremendous compassion: for ourselves, our communities, for those in pain. And I believe that practicing compassion is its own spiritual path. In the daily morning liturgy, we are reminded that “we are loved with an unending love.”
Only after bringing compassion to ourselves and to others, can we then discern how to navigate our missteps. We turn to a focus on discernment instead of judgmentalness. We then invite our souls in to join us for the integration of body, heart, mind and soul.
For many of us, returning to ourselves also means returning to our sacred communities. We long for the comfort and the warmth of being in a spiritual community at this time.
As we stand on the threshold of a new year:

• can we bring loving kindness to ourselves this year?
• can we believe that each of us was created lovingly in the image of the Divine?
• can we then bring that love and softness in our hearts to our friends and family?
• can we face our neighbors with openness and curiosity instead of fear and anger?

May we be blessed for a new year of more peace, of more wholeness, of more kindness. May our spiritual communities serve as spiritual anchors during these anxious times.

Special Torah Study & Bagel Brunch @ Hillel, Sat. 9/28
This date is homecoming at Kent State. We will have Torah Study at 10:00 a.m. as we study Nitzavim and the covenant renewal ceremony.

Dessert, Study Session & Selichot, Saturday, September 28 – 7:30 pm
The Selichot service begins the annual process of gathering as a community to pray for forgiveness.
Please join Rabbi Michael Ross and Deb Rogers Saturday night, September 28, at 7:30 pm, in the TBS Social Hall, for desserts and treats followed by an informal discussion of a few of the prayers recited during the High Holidays. We will also do some journaling.
In person and Zoom participation will be offered.
Rabbi Ross will follow the discussion with a short service beginning with the changing of
the Torahs’ mantles into their High Holy day white, preparing us for our own season of
transformation. Everyone is welcome.

Religious School News
We will host a special Rosh Hashanah Family Service Sunday, 10/6 at 10 am. The entire community is welcome!

October 7 Memorial Service, 11:15 am Sun 10/6
We will commemorate the yahrtzeit anniversary of the victims of October 7 in a special memorial service. After our Family Rosh Hashanah Service, our students will go down stairs while the adults will remain upstairs for our special memorial service.

Zoom link for Torah Study Classes:
This is the same link for each class.     TORAH STUDY LINK   
Meeting ID: 844 3145 6155, Passcode: tbstorah

Guest tickets are available for non-members who are interested in attending our High Holy Day services. To request tickets please contact Amy McCormick, ticket coordinator at her e-mail, amy81752@aol.com or her cell phone: 330-612-2019. In your e-mail or voice mail please leave your full name (first and last) as well as your phone number and e-mail so Amy can get back to you.

Selichot-A First Step Toward Repentance  
Saturday, September 28, 7:30 pm

On the road to repentance, we can begin with small steps by saying I’m sorry, s’lichah.             Our tradition provides the opportunity for us to do that with Selichot prayers. The Selichot service begins the annual process of gathering as a community to pray for forgiveness.

Please join Rabbi Michael Ross Saturday night, September 28, at 7:30 pm, in the TBS Social Hall, for desserts and treats followed by an informal discussion of several moving prayers recited during services during the Ten Days of repentance from Rosh Hashanah through Yom Kippur. No preparation is necessary to participate. In person and Zoom participation will be offered.

Rabbi Ross will follow the discussion with a short service beginning with the changing of the Torahs’ mantles into their High Holy day white, preparing us for our own season of transformation. Everyone is welcome.

Donations to support Israel can be made at
Cleveland Federation: 

  ISRAEL EMERGENCY CAMPAIGN  

Temple Beth Shalom can now use Zeffy for donations, membership dues or other payments. On the Dues/Fees/Donations tab on tbshudson.org is the option Zeffy, which works like PayPal except Temple Beth Shalom does not pay a fee.  Dues/Fees/Donations Link 

TBSBrotherhood                                            meetings/events

Call for Ushers for High Holiday Services

Please reach out to Mike (mikemillercsi@roadrunner.com) if you can help.
We need a strong showing.

– Week of 9/22 – set-up the portable ramp in the back stairway
in time for Saturday, 9/28 Selichot service.
– Wed, Oct. 2 – arrive by 6:45 pm (4 ushers need)
– Thur, Oct. 3 – arrive by 9:30 am (3)
– Sun, Oct. 6 – arrive by 6:45 pm (3)
– Fri, Oct. 11 – arrive by 9:30 am (4)
– Sat, Oct. 12 – arrive by 9:30 am (4)
– Sat, Oct. 12 – arrive by 4:00 pm (1)

• Brotherhood Membership
Please contact treasurer Art Busch, ascyb34@yahoo.com with any questions.
Your financial support is much appreciated.

The Brotherhood performs much needed projects for TBS. Even if you cannot participate in Brotherhood, PLEASE CONSIDER MAKING A DONATION. This will help to complete the many projects planned for 2024 for TBS.
We meet throughout the year in the spirit of friendship and good humor. We sponsor social events, fundraisers and building beautification projects to support and enhance the TBS community. Contact: Mike Miller at: mikemillercsi@roadrunner.com
TBSSisterhood                                                    meetings/events

• Join the Sisterhood and support us with a dues donation. Please email me, Robin Rosen-Sharp (rrsdvm2@gmail.com) if you need a membership form and would like to mail your payment.
Otherwise you can use this PayPal link:     PAYPAL    

• Upcoming meetings and events are currently being planned and scheduled by the Sisterhood. Announcements will be posted as soon as they are available!
Thank you for your support!

Book Club!
Our friends from the First Congregational Church would like to have a book club with us! We plan on reading a book by Jonathan Sacks called “To Heal a Fractured World.” We are hoping to meet sometime in November. If interested in reading and joining a discussion, please email kimstrausser@gmail.com We will work out more details once we know who wants to participate.

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Temple Beth Shalom
Website Notes
• Past e-Megillahs can be found on Media/e-Megillah Newsletters page:
  E-MEGILLAH NEWSLETTERS   
You will need to use the password TBSHudson

You can view upcoming services and events on the Calendar page:
  CALENDAR PAGE  

We love to share news & announcements at TBS

   D E A T H S  I N  T H E   L A S T  Y E A R   

John Andro  •  Norman Taer  •  Mark Varney  •  Karen Touve

A monthly yahrzeit list of TBS family loved ones will now be published in the e-megillah
as well as read during Shabbat services.

   S E P T E M B E R    Y A H R Z E I T S   

Leslie David Alberty  •  Melanie Ann Andro  •  Elliott Blumberg
Audrey Brown  •  Thomas Brown  •  Sidney Busch  •  David Caplin
Panfil Costea  •  Louis Culiner  •  Edward  Harold Gardner
Louis Benjamin Goldner  •  Steve Hook  •  Udice Kohn
Ivan Scott Lefkowitz  •  Albert Long  •  Harry L Lublin
Zelda Lila Neuman  •  Michael Aaron Rapport
Frederick John Sharp Sr  •  Ruth Klein Terkel

If you have names to add, please send them with their yahrzeit date to:
Laurie Frankino, Ritual Chair, at lfrankino@gmail.com. 

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      T B S

• Fri. 9/27, 7:30 pm: Shabbat Service – with Deb Rogers
• Sat. 9/28, 9:30 am: Special Torah Study & Bagel Brunch @ HILLEL – in-person only
• Sat. 9/28, 7:30 pm: Dessert, Study Session & Selichot Service – in-person only
• Wed. 10/2, 7:30 pm: Erev Rosh Hashanah Services
• Thu. 10/3, 10:00 am: Rosh Hashanah Morning Services
• Sun. 10/6, 10 am: Family Rosh Hashanah Service
• Sun 10/6, 11:15: October 7 Memorial Service (adults upstairs w/ Rabbi, children downstairs w/ Jean Beasley)

For more information on temple services and other activities, please refer to the temple website: