Amitim for Grown-Ups! A New Adult Bat/Bar Mitzvah Class

Announcing Amitim for Grown-Ups! A New Adult Bat/Bar Mitzvah Class At Congregation Netivot Shalom with Rabbi Menachem Creditor 24 Wednesday evenings  at 7:30-9pm, Oct 17 -May 2* *Class meets: Oct. 22, 29; Nov. 5, 12, 19; Dec. 3, 10; Jan. 7, 14, 21, 28;  Feb. 4, 11, 18, 25; March 11, 18, 25; March 11, 18, 25; April 15, 22, 29.   Class cost: $360, no one turned away for lack of funds This is a class for any Jewish adult (born Jewish or converted) who wants to dive deeper into aspects of what it means to be Jewish and engaged in today's world. Learn about: Theology, Holidays, Lifecycles, Prayer, Law, Torah, and more! Make new friends in a welcoming, inclusive setting, participate in Shabbat observance and holiday celebrations, cook and eat traditional Jewish food on Shabbat potlucks, take part in a community service project, and become familiar with Jewish practice. Knowledge of Hebrew is unnecessary.  On May 2, 2015, participants will assume responsibility for leading one aspect of a Shabbat service as part of the group's Adult Bat/Bar Mitzvah celebration! To register, please be in touch with Daniel at office@netivotshalom.org.  For more information, please be in touch with Anne March at anne@anneisaacs.com.

A Rosh haShannah 5775 Note: (Daveners, Leiners, Drash-ers, and more!)

Welcome back to Josh Buchin, our Netivot Shalom Rabbinic Intern, who will be facilitating services in the Social Hall this Rosh haShannah! For the list of CNS Rosh haShannah Daveners, Leiners, and Drash-ers, click here! Help build  the CNS Sukkah! In less than one week we will, under the amazing leadership of Milt Greenstein, build the CNS Sukkah! No special skills required. Just be willing to pitch in! (Come for 1, 2, or all 3 times. Everyone is welcome!) Sundays at 9am:  Sept. 28, Oct. 5, Oct. 19 For more information, email  margemilt@comcast.net. A Rosh haShannah 5775 Note From Rabbi Creditor:  (Daveners, Leiners, Drash-ers, and more!) Erev Rosh haShannah 5775 September 23, 2014 Dear Chevreh, It's just amazing.  Look at the photos on the right and soak in the holiness of our beautiful home, where the chairs are set up, the Torah's are rolled, and the spirit is so alive. All that is waiting for our collective energy to make the very air tremble with hope and possibility for the year to come. It is easy to focus on the parts of the past year that have been hard, the very real news that continues to touch our lives. All of that is real, and it would be a mistake to see Rosh haShannah as an escape from the world, a world so very much in need of healing and restoration. And so I write to you with a different intention, one born of a heart that aches with each of yours for a better year to come than the one we are releasing into history. The deepest hope I can name, dear friends, is that we strengthen ourselves as individuals, families, and as a sacred community, so that we can engage in the very urgent work of bending the arc of the universe an inch closer to justice. The impact Netivot Shalom has on the world is a serious one, and  requires renewal. This Rosh haShannah, that is what I wish for you, for me, for us all. May the sound of the Shofar crack through the scars of our hearts and help us feel fiercely, hope once again, and recommit to living holy lives. Each of us is, as Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel z"l told us, "a fragment of the Divine, a fraction of God's power at our disposal." A tall order to be sure, but we're designed to embody precisely that kind of potential. Let's love each other well, feel the possibilities of the year, and then get back to work.  We are in for an amazing year at Netivot Shalom, chevreh - I'm so excited for us to get started! May it be a year of health, a year of safety, and a year of Peace for you, for those you love and those you've not yet met, for our country, for Israel, and for the whole entire world. Shannah Tovah, Rabbi Creditor --------------- netivotshalom.org

Special Guest Drash this Shabbat, and Save the Dates!

Rabbi Ari Leubitz Special Guest this Shabbat:  Rabbi Ari Leubitz, Head of School at the Oakland Hebrew Day School (OHDS) Rabbi Leubitz will deliver the Drash during services this Shabbat morning at Netivot Shalom!

Jared Goldfarb Save the Date:  A Netivot Shalom  Scholar in Residence Shabbat  with Israel Educator Jared Goldfarb Nov. 14th - 16th Jared will be the Israel Educator for the  Netivot Shalom Mission to Israel this June! (itinerary, pricing, and registration  for the Israel Trip are now available! click here!)

Rabbi Arthur Green and Save the Date:  A Special Evening  with Rabbi Arthur Green world renowned scholar of Jewish Mysticism,  Rector of the Hebrew College Rabbinical School Sunday, Nov. 23rd, 7:30pm at Congregation Netivot Shalom cosponsored by Congregation Beth El, Congregation Beth Israel,  and Congregation Netivot Shalom

Links from Today's Learning with Pastor McBride

Today's After Birkat haMazon talk "A Prophetic Call from Ferguson... and Beyond" with our teacher Pastor Michael McBride was provocative, well attended, and riveting. He had just returned from Ferguson, and the stories he shared shocked and galvanized us, shaking us like the call of a shofar. Many attendees asked for links to his work and related information.  Pastor McBride is the National Director of the PicoNetwork's LifeLines to Healing Campaign, designed to reduce Urban Gun Violence and Mass Incarceration, a group that has been on the ground in Ferguson and many other sites of violence and racism, bringing peace and hope to many, many people. The PICO LifeLines to Healing website is here.  To support the campaign, click here. We also heard from Netivot Shalom members, leaders of Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice, Molly Shapiro, Kate Smallenburg Burch, Rabbi Dorothy Richman, and Rabbi Michael Rothbaum, ways in which Netivot Shalom can begin to make a difference in prison reform, safe neighborhoods, and schools, all issues related to Pastor Mike's sacred work. We will be learning in an upcoming after Birkat haMazon teaching (with Rabbi Rothbaum) more about California's Prop 47,  as a partner of Bend the Arc in performing the mitzvah of Tikkun Olam, repairing the world. Bend the Arc's website is here. To learn about Prop 47 (in advance of the After Birkat haMazon session) click here.

Thirteen years ago/ my heart crumbled when the dust/ and ash, all fell down. #NineEleven #NeverForget

Our Cellophane Lives

Our Cellophane Lives
© Rabbi Menachem Creditor

Neat, manicured lawns,
canopies of planted trees,
can only conceal for a time
the raw, untamed life that would otherwise be.

Every shrink-wrapped 'natural' product,
a shadow of a pulse
pretending to be real.

What is true
peeks through
our cellophane lives,
calling to be
unwrapped and realized.

----
° menachemcreditor.org
° netivotshalom. org

"Under the Iron Dome: Netivot Shalom members in Israel during the Gaza war"

Under the Iron Dome: Netivot Shalom members in Israel during the Gaza war   V'zot Yisrael panel -    Sunday, September 7,  10:00 - 11:45 am in the sanctuary. 10-10:15 am  Schmooze and nosh   10:15-11:45 am Program What is  it like being in Israel during the Hamas-Israel war? A panel of Netivot Shalom members who were in Israel this summer share their experiences, impressions, personal reactions and the reactions of Israelis to the Gaza war.   Some members were there solo, some as families.  Participants are pre-teen, teen, adults:  Revital, Ophir and Adee Gilad, Daniel Krupitski,  Efrat Simhi-Aloni, Elad Ziv.  Moderated by Debby Graudenz. This program is the first of several V'zot Yisrael programs planned for the coming year that feature  Netivot Shalom members talking about a variety of experiences in Israel.  Please note that this is not a political discussion.   Come hear fellow CNS members share their experiences.