Friday Letter

MIDDLE SCHOOL NEWS

Candle Lighting - 6:56 pm

Havdalah - 8:00 pm

Parashat Shmini

COMING EVENTS

Friday, March 28 - Friday, April 11

Island Harvest Coin Campaign  

Tuesday, April 1

8^th Grade Freedom Seder with the Immaculate Conception Middle School

Friday, April 4

3:45 p.m. Dismissal Begins

Sunday, April 6

Rosh Chodesh Nisan

Friday, April 18 - Sunday, April 27

Pesach/School Closed

MISHLOACH MANOT THANK YOU

FROM MICHELLE BERMAN

I hope you all had a fun filled, happy and safe Purim.  Once again our mishloach manot fundraiser was a great success.  Thank you to everyone who participated in the program.

Many people helped make it the success it was and I would like to take a moment to thank them.  Thank you to Deanna Stecker for helping to redesign the form.  Thank you to Kathleen Neibling, Lisa Eisner and Denise Bellitti and Lois DeBlasio for all their administrative help.  Thank you to Amanda Berman and Nathan Schoeffler for being such efficient couriers.  Thank you to Patricia Schoeffler for all your help in reviewing the forms and sorting out the queries.

Thank you to Jan and Eric Rogers for helping with the candy from MetroCandy.

Thank you to Noushin Ebrani for getting the boxes of tea for us.

Thank you to all the people who helped with transporting all the goodies to school.

Finally thank you to all the wonderful volunteers who helped pack and deliver all the bags:-  Maureen Dominguez, Michele DiRuggiero, Hildy Herzfeld, Jodie and Ben Fineman, Yona Vishnia, Ruth Deane, Patricia Schoeffler, Bonnie Kardisch, Geri Jurysta, Fran Mendelowitz, Dalia Lisker, Beth Lerman, Aida Projain, Danna Truglio, Inbal Agajan, Lori Kantorowitz, Manda Kristal, Amy Epstein and Lorraine Nachbar.  And a special thanks to Rabbi Herrnson for helping with the packaging of the hammentashen.

Additional thanks go to Jerry Schuster and Gene Wess for helping with the unloading of all the goods at the elementary school, and for overseeing the garbage disposal. Finally, thank you to Greg Avery, Frankie Barnett and Mike Walsh for unloading the parcels and anticipating our needs at the middle and high schools.

Thank you,

Michelle Berman

BAR MITZVAH TZEDAKAH PROJECT

Our 7^th grade student, Daniel Meyerson, is conducting a raffle fundraiser to benefit Meir Panim. Meir Panim is the leading charity conduit in Israel today. The organization dispenses vital food and social services to the needy via 30 relief centers. These include free restaurants, meals on wheels, children's lunches, furniture and appliance distribution warehouses, after-school youth clubs, vocational training, occupational rehabilitation, and food credit cards. Please see informational flier below.

SSDS CALENDAR

The school calendar is currently being drafted. To have your child/ren's photos featured in our calendar, and to help raise funds for the PA's programs and services, please submit materials to Ruth Deane by Friday, May 30th (please see form below).  

SAVE-THE-DATES

Thursday, April 10 @ 7:00 pm: Fiddler on the Roof, Jr. - Jericho Campus

Sunday, April 13 @ 7:30 pm: Fiddler on the Roof, Jr. - Jericho Campus

Thursday, May 1 @ 3:00 pm: Sunrise Day Camp Walkathon - Glen Cove Campus

Monday, May 12 @ 7:00 pm: Israel at 60 - Cradle of Aviation Museum, Garden City

Wednesday, May 21 @ 7:30 pm: 1^st Annual Volunteer Appreciation Celebration and Schechter's 40^th Anniversary Celebration, Midway Jewish Center

Sunday, June 1: Salute to Israel Parade

TRANSPORTATION NEWS

The deadline for submission of the District Transportation Application is Tuesday, April 1st. We have transportation applications for the following districts: Bellmore-Merrick, East Meadow, East Williston, Farmingdale, Garden City, Glen Cove, Great Neck, Herricks, Manhasset, North Shore, Plainview-Old Bethpage, Oyster Bay-East Norwich, Port Washington, Sewanhaka, Westbury and West Hempstead. If your home district is not listed above, parents should reach out to their district to request an application. We will update you if we receive additional applications from other school districts (please see link to transportation forms below). 

DATES OF REGENTS EXAMS

Earth Science - Friday afternoon - June 20 

Hebrew - Tuesday afternoon - June 24 

FRIDAY LETTER

Parashat Shmini

Shabbat Parah
Leviticus 9:1-11:47
March 29, 2008 / 22 Adar II 5768

This week's commentary was written by Rabbi Marc Wolf, senior director of Community Development, JTS.

In an email newsletter distributed by the Martin Marty Center Institute for the Advanced Study of Religion at the University of Chicago, Martin E. Marty, a prominent voice of religion in America, recently commented on a new book about the role of preachers in politics. He noted,

Preachers seldom have had it so good, or so bad, as they have it during the current campaign, as treated not so much by campaigners as by media commentators. So good? The commentators propagate the idea that preachers have enormous and spellbinding power. This implies that if a preacher says something, everyone will hear and, unless restrained, act upon what they heard, for good or evil. (Sightings, March 24, 2008)  

While it is true that the pulpit can provide a forum for religious leaders to put forward religiously charged views, Marty's comment speaks to the heart of an issue that runs much deeper than the political climate in the United States.

It is nearly three weeks since the attack on Mercaz Harav Yeshiva in Jerusalem. Eight students -mostly teenage boys-were gunned down as they studied Torah within what they thought were the protective walls of their yeshiva. In the wake of this terror, though, prominent religious leaders posted signs around Israel calling for retribution, using language that smacks of religious obligation: "Each and everyone is required to imagine what the enemy is plotting to do to us, and to match it measure for measure" (HaaretzDa'as Torah-a religious doctrine in the Orthodox world giving rabbis authority in matters well beyond the realm of what we would understand the Torah to address. Plastered on walls and posted without filter, their words incite a response that I cannot accept to be consistent with Judaism.

There is an incongruity here. Their response seems to fly in the face of what we are taught about living ethically and being guided by tradition. We exist to follow God's will and teach others the meaning of righteousness and compassion, but with this rash reaction we negate our very essence-everything we stand for, everything we preach, everything our ancestors have done.

There is a lesson to be learned in this week's parashah. After the consecration of the tabernacle and its first days of operation, two of Aaron's sons, Nadav and Avihu, bring an offering of "strange fire" before God and are killed in a gruesome, unexplainable firestorm. The commentators are very vocal on the potential sin that these two newly ordained priests committed, but the Torah itself is silent and offers no indictment. Baruch Levine, in the JPS Commentary, recognizes that when the text states that they "died before the Lord," it is not providing a rationale, but a locale: the physical place of their deaths (Lev. 10:2; 59).

Moses, in seeking to offer some words of consolation, approaches Aaron in his grief and states, "This is what the Lord meant when He said: ‘Through those near to Me I show Myself holy, and gain glory before all the people'" (Lev. 10:3). Without even breaking verse, the Torah records that Aaron is silent. There is nothing to say to adequately respond to this senseless violence; terror breeds shock, and when faced with such horror, we are rightfully dumbstruck. But that is not the last we hear from Aaron in the parashah.

Toward the end of our parashah, Moses inquires about the priestly duties. He questions Aaron about the goat of the sin offering, and learns that the priests did not follow their instructions:

Then Moses inquired about the goat of sin offering, and it had already been burned! He was angry with Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron's remaining sons, and said, "Why did you not eat the sin offering in the sacred area? For it is most holy, and He has given it to you to remove the guilt of the community and to make expiation for them before the Lord. (Lev. 10:16-17)

We learn earlier in Leviticus that the priestly class had the right to consume portions of the sacrifices brought before God; however, here we understand that it is not only a right, but an obligation. The remaining sons of Aaron seemingly fail in their duty to the people and to God, and Moses responds with chastisement. What we do not expect is what follows: Aaron's response to Moses. Incredulous, Aaron questions the effectiveness of his role as a religious leader. If Aaron engaged with the community and partook of the sacrifice as ordered, "would the Lord have approved?" (Lev. 10:19).

At this moment of anguish, how could Aaron and his sons possibly stand in the breach between the people and God? How could they occupy their position of authority? The priests, while continuing to fulfill their role, briefly distance themselves from the people, allowing grief to occupy their souls. Aaron recognizes that he and the other priests are not in the position to pastor to the people. They need their moment of grief. Without it, their response would be filled with anger and not motivated by their responsibility to their people.

Aaron and his sons come to teach us that religious leaders cannot allow anger to drive response. While a position of religious authority has both right and responsibility, one of its greatest responsibilities is to recognize the limits of that authority. Terror demands response. Response demands responsibility.