Jewish Reconstructionist Federation

We Were Strangers TooJRF Supports Immigration Reform

The Jewish Reconstructionist Federation continues to work with a coalition of Jewish and interfaith organizations towards comprehensive reform of the immigration system in the United States. Our key partner in this endeavor is HIAS (The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, see http://wewerestrangerstoo.wordpress.com/).  read more »

The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 (S.3307) passed the House of Representatives Thursday December 2, 2010.
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/12/03/2742001/groups-praise-child-nutrition-law-with-qualms.

For Passover, the JCPA along with MAZON: A Jewish Response to Hunger, is once again offering a phenomenal mobilizing event through which JRF communities, congregations from every Jewish stream and local JCRCs can engage community members in meaningful anti-poverty advocacy: The Child Nutrition Seder
.  read more »

Rabbi Alan Lew, a leader in the budding Jewish meditation movement, will be visiting Ann Arbor from April 4-6, 2008. All are invited to partake in this weekend of pre-Passover spiritual preparation. The weekend will include several talks, text study, and experiential components to take place at several Jewish venues around Ann Arbor, MI.Alan Lew 2/08

Erev Shabbat will begin with a Shabbat Dinner at 6 pm, followed by Shabbat Services including a sermon by Rabbi Lew. On Shabbat morning services will be based on a traditional model but will include considerably less text, and considerably more chanting and silence. Saturday afternoon themes of discussion will be “The Four Cups of Freedom; Four Aspects of Spiritual Liberation,” and “Leave-Taking; The Biblical Pre-Requisite to Spiritual Liberation.” The afternoon program will conclude at Beth Israel Congregation with a seudah sh’lisheet (third meal).

Sunday morning will be devoted to a meditation workshop based on his most recent book, Be Still And Get Going. "It will be an examination of Yetziat Mitzraim (the Exodus from Egypt)," says Lew, "the seminal moment of Biblical leave-taking, and the extraordinary Five-Step program for transformation that we find there."

Rabbi Alan Lew served many years as the spiritual leader of Congregation Beth Sholom in San Francisco, where he is currently the emeritus rabbi. He is also the founding director of Makor Or, a center for Jewish meditation adjacent to Beth Sholom. He has published several books, travels and lectures extensively, and has won numerous awards.

The cost for the whole weekend is $36. For more information, please contact Devon Fitzig at 665-4744 or dfitzig@templebethemeth.org, or see the attached flyer.

Vote for RachelOur own Rachel Robbins, currently working at JRF as an administrative assistant, has entered Public Radio Talent Quest with her story of finding wheat free matzah.

It's a fun, funny and insightful story.

To listen and vote, you will need to
1. Register at: http://www.publicradioquest.com

2. Go to this link and listen and vote for me: http://www.publicradioquest.com/node/2096

Go Rachel. You are awesome!

View the video.

Fun 25-second video showing a technique for picking up a piece of bread as part of the search for leaven (chametz or cho’metz in Yiddish pronunciation) that takes place on the night before the first seder.  read more »

The Mishna in Pesachim 1:1 instructs that a house be searched by the light of a candle on the 14th of Nisan. The Mishnah seems to discourage obsessive cleaning as it instructs, "No place to which hametz has not been brought need be inspected."

Shabbat UnpluggedHappy Passover Everyone!

Two new recordings are now available in the resources section of this site. The first is for Hassal Siddur Pesach, the concluding prayer of the Hagaddah. The second is a recording of the Kiddush (prayer sanctifying the beginning of the holiday). Enjoy!

• Hassal Siddur Pesach
• Passover Kiddush

Rabbi Leah Richman: Spiritual Leader of Oheb Zedeck Synagogue in Pottstown, PA.The Song of Songs, sometimes called or The Song of Solomon, is one of the five scrolls read on various holidays throughout the year. It is designated as the scroll we read for the holiday of Pesach. The entire book is a series of love songs in poetic form.  read more »

This book is unique in the books of the Bible in that not only does it not mention G-d, it also doesn't deal with religious themes explicitly. While the book of Esther also fails to mention G-d, the spirit of nationalism and the Jewish people pervades that book in a way which is lacking here.

Image from Searching the Leaven: by Shai Gluskin. See the leaven searching video.Read the article.

In this article I argue that the tension between law and rebellion, between status quo and the desire to bring redemption now, is played out richly and artfully in the liturgy of the Passover Seder.

Specific references to the text are explained in this light.

Read the article.

Study the symbols of the Passover seder plate with Reconstructionist Rabbinical College President Rabbi Dan Ehrenkrantz. A 30-minute audio file and companion PDF text are downloadable from the RRC's web site.

Kosher for Passover Coke: by Mark H. AnbinderThis week's portion is Tzav and it falls on Shabbat Hagadol (The Big Shabbath), when it is traditional to talk about Pesah (Passover), rather than the parashat hashavua (the portion of the week). In this case, however, the week's reading relates to the coming hag (holiday), although not necessarily in an obvious way. The title is taken from the imperative form of the Hebrew verb, 'to command,' which has the same root as the noun for command, mitzvah, and is the first distinguishing word in the parashah.