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Friday LetterFriday Letter Archive | Friday Letter AlertsMIDDLE SCHOOL NEWS Parashat Tzav Shabbat HaGadol Candle Lighting - 6:54 pm Havdalah - 7:58 pm *** REMINDER *** Transportation forms are due at your district office by Thursday, April 1, 2010. COMING EVENTS Monday, March 29 - Wednesday, April 7
Thursday, April 8
Monday, April 12
Wednesday, April 14
Thursday, April 15
Monday, April 19
Tuesday, April 20
Wednesday, April 21
MAZAL TOV & YASHER KOACH Doug Hoch Long Island Science and Engineering Fair (LISEF) Over this past summer, Doug Hoch, one of our eleventh grade students, and his research partner, Kyle O'Neil, performed research as part of the Garcia Program which was held on the Stony Brook University Campus. They conducted experiments and wrote a paper, entitled The Synthesis and Characterization of a Nanocomposite Blend with Ideal Mechanical and Biodegradable Properties, which was submitted to the Long Island Science and Engineering Fair, or LISEF. In terms of submissions, LISEF required a research paper, (their paper was 20 pages in length), a detailed abstract, and several other specific forms regarding the technicality of their research. Additionally, students were required to bring poster boards of specific dimensions as visual displays of their work as well as several of the required forms. The first round of the fair, held on February 9, entailed students waiting at their assigned location at their poster boards for designated judges to come and listen to a presentation of no more than 7 minutes (although the judges were lenient in terms of timing), and then responding to the judges questions, to clarify and explain any aspect related to their projects. Each project was judged twice in terms of the LISEF rubric, but additional judges walked around and asked questions and listened to presentations if they were interested in the project even though their judging did not affect in any way whether or not the project advanced to the next round. The second round of the fair was held on Monday, March 22, at the Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury, and was essentially a repeat of the first day, but this time, instead of over 500 projects to be judged there were slightly more than a hundred and each project was judged three times. Doug's project received two awards. The first was a "special award" given by the United States Army for an "Outstanding Science Project" and the second was an Honorable Mention for a group project in the overall LISEF competition. Congratulations to Doug for his good work and achievement in science. AFTER-SCHOOL ATHLETICS SCHEDULE
SYLVIE MOSCOVITZ'S BAT MITZVAH PROJECT Dear family and friends, I am collecting donations for UJA-Federation for my Bat Mitzvah project. I volunteered at JASA (Jewish Association for Services for the Aged) Long Beach Senior Center at Temple Beth El on Wednesday, February 17th, 2010. I brought my 2 cats, Dori and Becky to visit the senior citizens at JASA . The senior citizens greatly enjoyed holding, petting and playing with Becky and Dori. I also helped serve the senior citizens lunch and then helped to pack up kosher meals on wheels which were delivered to homebound seniors. "UJA-Federation (http://www.ujafedny.org/) cares for those in need, strengthens the Jewish people, and inspires a passion for Jewish life and learning." "UJA-Federation supports so many different programs that care for so many people all over the world." JASA is a UJA-Federation agency in which senior citizens come to Temple Beth El of Long Beach and participate in activities and have hot meals. The senior citizens rarely go on trips so some of the money that I raise will go towards an exciting trip to the Bronx Zoo for the senior citizens at JASA in May. Any donation made out to UJA-Federation would be greatly appreciated and can be mailed or dropped off at our home, 2111 Oliver, Merrick, NY 11566 through June 13th. Thank you very much for all your support, Sylvie Moscovitz For more information please call 771-8298 or email michelekmos@gmail.com 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 SAVE THE DATES Sunday, May 23, 2010 - Salute to Israel Parade A Celebration of 25 Years of Service Honoring Rabbi Neil Kurshan and Alisa Rubin Kurshan Sunday, June 6th, 2010, 6 pm Huntington Jewish Center To receive an invitation contact Mitch Pashkin, mpash@verizon.net FRIDAY LETTER Parashat Tzav Shabbat HaGadol The Dvar Torah is written by Rabbi Barry Chesler, Coordinator of the Jewish Studies Department In addition to its designation from the weekly Torah reading, Tzav [the second weekly portion in Sefer Va-yiqra, the Book of Leviticus], this Shabbat is known as Shabbat Hagadol. Unlike the four special parashiyot [portions] preceding Passover, which have both a special maftir reading from a second Torah and a special haftarah which is connected to the maftir rather than the weekly reading, Shabbat Hagadol only has a special haftarah, the concluding verses of Malachi, by tradition the last of the prophets. It is by no means clear how this Shabbat came to be known as Shabbat Ha-gadol. The Shulchan Arukh, the great code of Jewish law compiled in the 16th century by Rabbi Joseph Caro, links it to the miracle which happened on the 10th of Nisan. According to the Torah, the 10th of Nisan was the day the Israelites selected their paschal sacrifice. The Mishnah Berurah, the 19th-20th century commentator on the first section of the Shulchan Arukh, explains that when the Egyptians saw what the Israelites were doing, the Israelites told them it was in order to slaughter the sheep as a Pesach by the commandment of God. The Egyptians' teeth were set on edge because the Israelites were about to slaughter their gods and they were not permitted to say anything. Oftentimes, however, special portions take their name either from the Torah Reading or the Haftarah, and the word hagadol appears in the last verse of the haftarah: Lo, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before the coming of the awesome, fearful day of the Lord. Elijah becomes the harbinger to the coming of the Messiah. By declaring this Shabbat Shabbat Hagadol we express our hope that our celebration of Redemption this Passover becomes the ultimate Redemption. But how is this to come about? Traditionally, Shabbat Hagadol was one of the 2 shabbatot in which the rabbi addressed his community [the other one is Shabbat Shuvah, between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur]. Among the things to be discussed are the laws of Passover, although it seems a little late to be reviewing them just a few days before the Seder. There is also a custom to recite the Haggadah from Avadim Hayinu, "we were slaves". And while this custom is probably not widespread in the Conservative Jewish community, it is one deserving of our time. The Seder for many of us resembles the High Holidays in that we treat the Haggadah and the Machzor in the same way: we recite them as if anew on the days we actually use them. Rather, we should treat them as scripts for our own personal drama. In other words, we should see our Seder as a performance piece, where each of us plays a starring role. Just as we would be put off by attending a theater production in which the actors had not rehearsed, so too should we not come to the Seder without our own preparation. In addition to reading the actual Haggadah in advance, there are any number of activities we can do in the days leading up to the Seder in order to prepare ourselves. On Monday night, at the Seder table, we will say b'khol vador, in every generation we should see ourselves as if we, too, had left Egypt. Just as our ancestors needed to prepare for Redemption, so, too, do we.
PDF filesYom Hashoah Program @ Mid-Island Y JCC |
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