Friday Letter

Friday Letter Archive | Friday Letter Alerts

MIDDLE SCHOOL NEWS

Candle Lighting - 6:55 pm

Havdalah - 7:59 pm

Parashat Vayikra

A PENNY FOR YOUR SEARCH!

Search the web with Yahoo-powered GoodSearch.com and they will donate a penny to Schechter each time you search! Also, shop at more than 600 GoodShop.com merchants, including Amazon, Best Buy, Macy's, Toys R US, to name a few, and up to 37% of the purchase price will go to Schechter! GoodSearch.com is a new Yahoo-powered search engine that donates half its advertising revenue to the charities its users designate. Just select our school by selecting "Schechter" from the list as the organization you want to support. Spread the word!

COMING EVENTS

Tuesday, March 31

Board of Directors meeting

Tuesday, March 31 - Friday, April 3

Basketball Tournament in honor of Sean Riley (z''l)

Wednesday, April 1

Transportation forms due at your respective school district transportation office. Please scroll below for further details.
METNY's Proud to be Jewish Contest submissions are due. Please scroll below for further details.

Wednesday, April 1 - Tuesday, April 14

Shop Loop Couture and 15% of all sales will be donated to Schechter. Loop Couture is located in the Woodbury Common Shopping Center, 8285 Jericho Turnpike, Tel: 516-502-2100

YASHER KOACH

Continuing its mission to promote community service within the Glen Cove area and beyond, The High School Kesher Club once again sponsored a highly successful "Mitzvah Madness" day. This year, middle school students joined the entire high school in such worthy efforts as making cards and bracelets for patients at Schneider's Children's Hospital; adding decorative fringes to fleece blankets and sorting donated clothes, books, and shoes for Big Brothers Big Sisters and Dress for Success; and making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the Glen Cove Soup Kitchen (part of the Interfaith Nutrition Network). Co-Presidents Melissa Stern and Carly Rubenfeld spent months planning the event. We are proud of their dedication and the hard work of all Kesher members.

ANNUAL ISLAND HARVEST COIN CAMPAIGN

Our annual Island Harvest Coin Campaign is underway until the last week of March. Please send in your coins to be deposited in the coin buckets located in our Social Studies classrooms. Thank you for your generosity!

ANNUAL BENEFIT DINNER DANCE

This year we will honor Sheri and Ira Balsam, Manda and Leonard Kristal, and Marvin and Harriet Rosen at Light The Way Dinner Dance: Illuminate The Path For Our Children to be held on May 12, 2009 at East Meadow Jewish Center. Please click on the links below for all the details, including an Introductory Letter and Registration Form with all the information needed to sell journal ads, reserve seats, solicit prizes for the silent auction & raffles, buy raffle tickets, and underwriting opportunities. We look forward to your participation. If there are any questions, call Yvette Bergman at 516-656-5500 ext. 1220 or Elaine Dalfen ext. 1219.

MITZVAH PROJECT

Our 6^th grade student, Maxine Tannenbaum, is conducting a mitzvah project in advance of her becoming a bat mitzvah. The theme of her mitzvah project is "...Veahavta l'reyacha kamocha -- You shall love your neighbor as yourself ..."

Maxine's initiative is twofold: A box has been set up in the school entrance for your donation of canned goods, boxed food items and hygiene products. This is an ideal way to dispose of your chametz. Secondly, Maxine will be running a car wash on Sunday, May 3, 2009 in the parking lot of Congregation Ohav Sholom (please see link to informational fliers below). Thank you for your participation.

MARK-THE-DATES

Birkat HaChama - Wednesday, April 8 (Please refer to Rabbi Aaron Frank's Dvar Torah below)

Pessach Break - Wednesday, April 8 - Friday, April 17, 2009

8th Grade Freedom Seder - Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Friday Dismissal @ 3:45 pm - Friday, April 24, 2009

Salute to Israel Parade - Sunday, May 31, 2009

First Day of School for 2009 - 2010 - Wednesday, September 9, 2009

USEFUL INFORMATION

The Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth (CTY) Talent Search is a great way to assess bright students' academic abilities. As part of the Talent Search, high performing students take an above-grade level test that reveals more about their academic talents than in-grade level tests.

All students who participate and test receive a recognition certificate, invitations to academic conferences, and a report that provides statistical data on the performance of their gifted peers who also tested through the Talent Search.

CTY is hosting weekly webinars (web seminars) on the benefits and programs that we offer students. Please visit our website for a list of CTY webinar topics and dates.

CTY's Talent Search is still open and accepting students this year. Students are encouraged to apply online or use CTY's school online order form to request applications.

You can email questions directly to CTY at ctyinfo@jhu.edu, or call CTY at 1-800-548-1180.

CTY is accredited for grades 5 through 12 by the Commission on Secondary Schools of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. For more information about CTY's programs, visit the CTY web site at cty.jhu.edu.

CONTEST!!!

Your artwork could win you an iPod!

METNY's 2009 Proud To Be Jewish Contest

Submit your work today!

Contest is open to all students in grades 3 through 12

This Year's Themes:

Grades 3-5: "What Tikkun Olam Means To Me"
Grades 6-8: "What Does Going Green Mean For My School/Synagogue?"
Grades 9-12: "Why Going Green Is A Jewish Value"

- Submissions can be essays, poems, prose, or flat artwork

- Written entries should be no more than 2 standard pages in length

- Artwork submissions should be no more than 8.5" x 11"

- One submission per student please

Everyone who enters will receive a Certificate of Participation

and one winner from each age group will win an iPod Shuffle!

Have You Entered Yet?

Submit your entries to your Solomon Schechter

principal by April 1st to be considered

The Proud To Be Jewish Contest is sponsored by the Metropolitan New York Region of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism (METNY)

TRANSPORTATION NEWS

The deadline for submission of the District Transportation Application is Wednesday, April 1st. Thus far, we have transportation applications for the following districts: East Meadow (3 pages), East Williston (2 pages), Farmingdale (1 page), Garden City (1 page), Glen Cove, (1 page), Half-Hollow Hills (1 page), Herricks (1 page), Jericho (1 page), Levittown (1 page), Massapequa (2 pages), North Shore (1 page), Oyster Bay-East Norwich (2 pages), Plainview-Old Bethpage (1 page), Port Washington (2 pages), Sewanhaka (1 page), Syosset (1 page), West Hempstead (3 pages). If your home district is not listed above, parents should reach out to their district transportation office to request an application. We will update you if we receive additional applications from other school districts (please see link to transportation forms below).

FRIDAY LETTER

A note from Rabbi Schwartz regarding the Dvar Torah this week:

The following Dvar Torah was written by Rabbi Aaron Frank, Lower School Principal of the Beth T'filoh Dahan Community School in the Baltimore area. The Dvar Torah will appear in the weekly e-mail sent to parents at the Beth T'filoh School. I thought it would be interesting for parents to read words of Torah written by a colleague and to get a sense of what is on the mind of other Rabbis. I e-mailed Rabbi Frank, who was my Rosh Edah at Camp Ramah in the Berkshires in 1991 and who has been a close friend and mentor to me ever since. I plan to write a Dvar Torah for the Beth T'filoh School after Pesach. I believe these words connect directly to the program held at the elementary school this past Tuesday and to several other programs and projects we are working on at Schechter.

Just when you thought there was nothing new under the sun

Reflections of the Sun and Its Blessing

By Rabbi Aaron Frank

As Jews, we certainly know how to mark time. From the daily prayers to Shabbat and Holidays, we mark time through our rituals and connection to Hashem. The rhythm of the year is set. While we certainly try to infuse new meaning into our routine, the predictability and the constancy of our yearly cycle gives us comfort. No matter what happens in our personal lives, or in the lives of those we love, Pesach will come, Shabbat will come and, as the Hebrew song states, "the days and the years go by and the tune remains the same". (Hayamim cholfim shana overet)

But some rituals are not a part of the usual routine. Such is the case with a ritual that occurs only once every 28 years and will take place this April 8. It is called the blessing of the sun, Birkat HaChama. Many are asking and thinking about where they were the last time this blessing was said. Honestly, I have no recollection of the blessing or this event.

The blessing comes from the Talmud. "Our Rabbis taught: One who sees the sun at its turning point, the moon in its power, the planets in their orbits, and the zodiacal constellation in their order, should say: BLESSED BE HE WHO HAS done THE WORK OF CREATION. And when does this happen? Abaye said: Every twenty-eight years when the cycle begins again and the Nissan (Spring) equinox falls in Saturn on the evening of Tuesday, going into Wednesday." (Brachot 59b)

According to this, every 28 years we renew our understanding of the sun's pivotal role in creation. So, in honor of this event, I have been reflecting (pardon the pun) on some of the interesting lessons from the sun.

It partners with the moon to complete the lessons of life. -- I have quoted before the concept that the Jewish people count the month with the moon because the moon reflects who we are. As Rabbi Avi Weiss points out, "The Zohar insists that the moon reflects the very essence of the Jewish people. It wanes, diminishes and vanishes. To the one who views the moon for the first time, it would appear as if all is lost. But the power of the moon is that it reemerges, it resurfaces." So too, with us. The moon gives us hope in the difficult times that life can become full again. It also humbles us in times of plenty that difficulties inevitably arise.

But the Jewish calendar is not only a lunar calendar. It is lunisolar calendar. The moon cannot go about it alone. The sun represents the constants in our lives. If the moon reflects the essence of the Jewish people, the sun reflects the essence of G-d--- the constant power that is the source of strength, sustenance and energy and light for the world.

The important balance of the sun. - While many of us grew up with the image of the Coppertone model of health, we now live in a society that knows that the sun can be dangerous. From SPF's to polarized lenses, the industry for avoiding the sun has boomed over the years. This deflection from the sun teaches us about spirituality as well. When Moses has his most intimate encounter with the Divine, he asks Hashem to see his face. Hashem still draws the line and states, "no human can see my face and live." (Ex 33:20) While we value being in the glory of the sun and being in the outdoors is critical to our wellbeing, there are limits. So too with the religious life. On the one hand, Hashem wants us to understand the Divine ways. Yet, we must strive for a balance between the striving for ultimate understanding of Hashem, while knowing that we can never fully achieve it.

So, while Hashem is the Creator and Source behind every force in the world, the sun teaches us some important lessons that are similar to those that we learn from the Divine.

Shabbat shalom,

Rabbi Aaron Frank

Have a Shabbat shalom!

Allan Dalfen

Upper School Principal

PDF files

Light the Way Benefit Dinner Dance: Part II
Light the Way Benefit Dinner Dance: Part I
Transportation Forms
Maxine Tannenbaum's Mitzvah Project