Solomon Schechter Day School of Nassau County
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Friday Letter

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MIDDLE SCHOOL NEWS

Parashat Ki Tisa

Shabbat Parah

Candle lighting - 5:32 pm

Havdalah - 6:32 pm

REMINDER

Transportation forms are due at your district office by Thursday, April 1, 2010.

COMING EVENTS

Sunday, March 7

Schechter Fine Arts Festival at the Glen Cove Campus. Gallery showing @ 1:30 pm, performances @ 2:00 pm.

Monday, March 8

Schechter Cares Program Series - Drug & Alcohol Presentation by Daytop Village of Huntington Station, 7 pm in the New Gym. Please see link below for recent Newsday article on the subject of substance abuse.

Wednesday, March 10

6th grade trip forms and deposit payment due in the middle school office.

Thursday, March 11

SSHSLI's premiere performance of OKLAHOMA! 7:30 pm at the Long Island Children's Museum (please see link below for ticket order form).

Friday, March 12

Second Trimester ends.

Motzei Shabbat, March 13

SSHSLI's performance of OKLAHOMA! 8:00 pm at the Long Island Children's Museum (please see link below for ticket order form).

Sunday, March 14

SSHSLI's performance of OKLAHOMA! 7:00 pm at the Long Island Children's Museum (please see link below for ticket order form).

Tuesday, March 16

Rosh Chodesh Nisan

Wednesday, March 17

Battle of the Classes - New Gym - 6:45 pm (please see link below for informational flier). Cost is $10 per student and includes a Battle of the Classes t-shirt.

Thursday, March 18

Blood Drive - please contact Mike Hirsch at 516-656-5500 x1221 or mhirsch@ssdsnassau.org to schedule your blood donation

Friday, March 19

Report cards mailed

Tuesday, March 23

Board of Directors meeting

Wednesday, March 24

Parent-Teacher Conferences by request from 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm

Monday, March 29 - Wednesday, April 7

Pesach - school closed

Thursday, April 8

School resumes - Gray Day

AFTER-SCHOOL ATHLETICS TRYOUTS

Please click here for the Sports Health Update Form (required for tryouts).

 

Boys' Baseball

Monday, March 15            4:00 - 5:30 @ Jericho

Wednesday, March 17*     4:00 - 5:30 @ Jericho

Girls' Softball

Monday, March 15            4:00 - 5:30 @ Jericho

Tuesday, March 16            4:00 - 5:30 @ Glen Cove (backfield)

Wednesday, March 17*     4:00 - 5:30 @ Jericho

* Return bus transportation will provided to the Glen Cove Campus in advance of Battle of the Classes.

HEALTH INFORMATION

  • Schechter parent, Dr. Randy Kiewe of CompleteCare Cardilogy, PLLC, will be speaking at 7 pm on Thursday, March 11 at the Women's Health Center about Women's Heart Disease @ 1554 Northern Boulevard, Manhasset, NY.

 

REGENTS INFORMATION

Following are the dates for the June Regents:

Friday, June 18 - 12:30 - Integrated Algebra

Tuesday, June 22 - 9:00 - Earth Science

Tuesday, June 22 - 12:30 - Hebrew

BOARD OF TRUSTEES NOMINATION FORM

Please see link below for the Board of Trustees Nomination Form for School Year 2010 - 2011.

SCHECHTER TUITION RAFFLE

Make a donation to our school and be automatically entered into the Tuition Raffle. Your donation may yield you up to $3,600 off your tuition payment (please see link below for informational flier).

FRIDAY LETTER

Parashat Ki Tisa

Dvar Torah by Rabbi Moshe Schwartz

The Man Who Couldn't Say No

 I've been listening to our High School students rehearsing for their forthcoming play "Oklahoma." There is a well known song from the musical whose words are "I'm just a girl who can't say no." This reminds me of the disturbing conduct of Aaron, brother of Moses in the Torah portion this week. While there is great debate amongst the sages about what exactly was the sin of Aaron (I wrote about the technicalities of the sin in my  Dvar Torah for this parasha last year), one has to wonder how Aaron could consent to such idolatrous behavior on the part of the Israelites without even taking a stand against it.

Many commentators argue that it was the very wonderful character trait of Aaron, namely being ohev shalom, loving peace, that caused him to become "a man who couldn't say no" -even to idolatry. Aaron allowed his love and pursuit of peace to become his greatest weakness, a passion that kept him from saying no at the most critical of moments for the Israelite nation.

This message is certainly relevant today. Our ancestral homeland, the State of Israel, struggles with whether to pursue peace at any price or whether such pursuit will only lead to further trouble. One could also argue that our current economic climate was caused by credit hungry consumers and lender happy banks who just couldn't say no. We also see this in the recent articles (led by The Jewish Week) who have brought to light the situation of parents who simply can't say no to one-day-a-week Hebrew School offered for nearly one-third the price of  established local synagogues. Some families will say yes to any easy, inexpensive and fast resolution. It often follows that these same families then say yes to end their formal Jewish education after the Bar/Bat Mitzvah.

The reasons we, as humans, can't say no are wide-ranging and well-known. When it comes to why parents can't say no to children, Ann Landers, once wrote "parents who try to win a popularity contest wind up with irresponsible, disrespectful kids who are problems to themselves and to everyone else. Children want discipline [to hear "no"] -even though they resist it."

 Aaron was a leader who couldn't say no. The result was a Golden Calf and a great disaster for the Children of Israel. May each of us have the strength to say "NO" when "NO" should be said and may each of us have the strength to say "YES" when our action will enrich ourselves and the community. This week, I join so many Schechter families and invite those who haven't done so already to say YES to Oklahoma.

Shabbat shalom,

Shabbat shalom,

Allan Dalfen, Upper School Principal

Rabbi Moshe Schwartz, Director of Jewish Life

PDF files

OKLAHOMA! Ticket Order Form
Battle of the Classes
Newsday Article
Board of Trustees Nomination Form
Tuition Raffle
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