This Week’s Update

August 8 / August 9

FINDING OUR WAY TO THE HIGH HOLY DAYS

A Day of Learning about Our Tradition and Ourselves
in Preparation for the Yamim Noraim
with Rabbi Edward Feld and author Merle Feld

Sunday August 8
WHY WORDS?
Teaching and Discussion with Rabbi Edward Feld, 7:00 – 9:00 pm

Sunday evening’s session is open to all at no charge
Monday August 9

DISCOVERING TODAY’S VOICES, REDISCOVERING TRADITIONAL TEXTS
Study with Rabbi Edward Feld, 10:00 am – 12:30 pm

PREPARING FOR AWE:  HIGH HOLY DAY WARM-UPS AND STRETCHES
A Personal Writing Workshop with Merle Feld, 1:15 pm – 3:15 pm

Monday’s workshop is $75 for both sessions (which includes lunch.)
Please mail a check made out to CSH or bring it with you on Monday August 9th
RSVP

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August 11th

Rosh Chodesh Elul
Morning minyan at 8:30am
(The countdown to the High Holy Day begins)

Come hear the shofar blown for the first time this season
helping us begin our spiritual preparation for the High Holy Days

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August 13th / August 14th

We welcome back

Dr. Zvi Gitelman
Preston R. Tisch Professor of Judaic Studies
at the Universuty of Michigan
who will join us for Shabbat Dinner
Friday, August 13th

Dinner is being sponsored by
Lorraine and Herb Schottenfeld
and Gary Gaines

Please RSVP by August 5th

Following dinner Professor Gitelman will speak about
Litvak-Galitsianer Wars

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On Shabbat morning, August 14th Professor Gitelman will speak about

ISRAEL‘S RUSSIAN REVOLUTION:

How the largest aliyah in history — one out of five Israelis is now from Russia –has influenced the nature of Israeli culture, politics (and the strength of the right wing),
and the question of “Who is a Jew”?

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August 21st

CSH welcomes
Ruth W. Messinger

the president of American Jewish World Service (AJWS), a faith-based international human rights organization that works to alleviate poverty, hunger and disease in the developing world

will join with CSH on Shabbat morning
when she will talk about

Fighting Hunger in a World of Plenty

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Friday July 31, 2010       Candle Lighting 7:51pm
Kabbalat Shabbat Service at 6:30pm
at the home of Rabbi Jan Uhrbach
258 Redwood Road (directions below)
Shabbat Morning  9:30
Old Whalers Church
Union Street, Sag Harbor
Kiddush sponsored by Helen and Harvey Schrier

This week’s Torah reading: Ekev
Annual (Deut. 3:23-7:11): Etz Hayim p. 1005
Triennial (Deut. 5:1-7:11 OR 6:4-7:11): Etz Hayim p. 1015 OR 1024
Haftarah (Isaiah 40:1-26): Etz Hayim p. 1033

Musings on Ekev

And if you do obey these rules and observe them carefully, the Lord your God will maintain faithfully for you the covenant that He made on oath with your fathers.

It is interesting that there are only two mitzvot about which we are told what the reward for their performance is. One is honoring one’s parents and the other is shiluah ha-ken, chasing away a mother bird before taking eggs from her nest. In both cases we are told “that you may long endure in the land that Adonai is giving you.” These two mitzvot could not be more different: how can one compare the efforts one must put into honoring parents with the simple act of protecting a mother bird? And yet the reward is the same in both cases. We cannot always know how simple and effortless acts can change the world!

We are left to wonder whether some mitzvot are more important than others. Are some mitzvot kallot, light, while others are hamurot, weighty, in their significance? The sages may have emphasized the equal importance of all the commandments but in reality we do make distinctions and emphasize some mitzvot more than others – rightfully or wrongly. In some communities there is a great deal of emphasis on Tikkun Olam at the expense of the ritual and in other communities there is little thought given to the moral dimension of life if it does not affect one’s fellow Jews. Given that few observe all the mitzvot, how is one to decide what one’s priorities should be in taking on Jewish practices?

http://www.oceansidejewishcenter.org/rebmark/TORAH_TABLE_TALK/5769/TTTEkev69.pdf

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The Torah is clear. “If you listen intently to My commandments I will give the rain of your land in its season” (Deut. 11:13-14). Rain, corn, wine and oil, grass for the cattle ­ the catalogue of rewards is endless. But is that the reason why we decide to obey the commandments? Are we spurred on by the thought of reward, or do we do the right thing for its own sake? One answer is that the righteous need no reward. They act “lishmah”, doing the right thing because it is right. They probably prefer that rewards should not exist so that they never feel tempted to act for an ulterior motive. For them the reward is at best a consequence but not the motive of a mitzvah.

That’s all right for the tzaddikim, but most people are not (yet) on that level. For the ordinary person the thought of a reward is useful. If they will only act when there is talk of a reward, then let the reward be there as an encouragement. Better a mitzvah with a reward than no mitzvah at all. Nonetheless this is not the highest ethic. We hope the thought of a reward will train people so well to do mitzvot that the time will come when the possibility of a reward will become quite unnecessary. That’s when we will be able to say with Pir’kei Avot (4:2), “s’char mitzvah mitzvah”, “the reward of a mitzvah is the mitzvah”.

http://www.oztorah.com/2007/06/do-you-need-a-reward-ekev/

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Coming Up Quickly

PLEASE, return your High Holy Day RESERVATION FORM.

Rosh Hashanah is just after Labor Day this year.  Please let us know if you plan to be spending the High Holydays with CSH this year by returning the High Holyday Form that was sent out by email

If you did not receive the mailing and would like to: please respond to this update and let us know.

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Yom Huledet Sameach

Gary Gaines

Norman Bleckner

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Quote of the Week

Can you imagine eating a hotdog and thinking the whole time this is the worst sushi you ever had?  We need to know what something is first before we can begin to evaluate it.  The same thing goes with this world.  Until we understand how it works we will constantly be met with frustration and disappointment.   David Sacks

Shabbat shalom.

Stacy

Stacy Menzer

President

The Conservative Synagogue

Of the Hamptons

PO Box 1800

East Hampton, NY 11937

631 725 8188

www.synagoguehamptons.org

Directions to

Home of Rabbi Jan Uhrbach

258 Redwood Road

From East Hampton and points east (via Route 114)

Take Route 114 north to Sag Harbor. Turn left on Union Street (there is a restaurant on the near left corner called Cilantro’s).   Turn left onto Main Street.  Turn right onto Glover Street (directly across the street from the Cove Delicatessen).    Pass Long Island Avenue on your right, and turn left at the next stop sign onto Redwood Road.  Pass the marina on your right, and take the first left onto Cove Road.  As the road swings to the right, number 258 will be the second house on the left,  the tan house with the red door.

From Sagaponack or Wainscott (via Sagg-Main)

Take either Sag Harbor Tpke or Sagg-Main Street into Sag Harbor. Turn left on Union Street.  Take the first left onto Main Street.  Turn right onto Glover Street (directly across the street from the Cove Delicatessen).    Pass Long Island Avenue on your right, and turn left at the next stop sign onto Redwood Road.  Pass the marina on your right, and take the first left onto Cove Road.  As the road swings to the right, number 258 will be the second house on the left,  the tan house with the red door.

From Bridghampton (via Bridge-Sagg Pike)

Take the Sag Harbor Tpke into Sag Harbor.  Turn left onto Glover Street (just past Canio’s Bookstore and directly across the street from the Cove Delicatessen).    Pass Long Island Avenue on your right, and turn left at the next stop sign onto Redwood Road.  Pass the marina on your right, and take the first left onto Cove Road.  As the road swings to the right, number 258 will be the second house on the left,  the tan house with the red door.

From Watermill (via Scuttle Hole Road)

From 27, turn left onto Scuttle Hole Road.  Stay on Scuttle Hole Road until the end, then turn left onto the Sag Harbor Turnpike.  Take the Sag Harbor Turnpike all the way into Sag Harbor, and turn left onto Glover Street (just past Canio’s Bookstore and directly across the street from the Cove Delicatessen).    Pass Long Island Avenue on your right, and turn left at the next stop sign onto Redwood Road.  Pass the marina on your right, and take the first left onto Cove Road.  As the road swings to the right, number 258 will be the second house on the left,  the tan house with the red door.

From Southampton, West Hampton, and points west

Take 27 (Montauk Hwy) east.  Turn left at the large green sign pointing toward Sag Harbor (just past East End Clambakes).  This will be Sandy Hollow Road.  Turn left at the first light onto North Sea Road.  Take North Sea Road to Noyack Road – turn right onto Noyack Road, following the signs to Sag Harbor.   Turn left onto Long Beach Hwy.  Turn right onto South Ferry Road at the traffic circle (sign will say Route 114 South).  Cross the bridge into Sag Harbor.  Turn right onto Main Street (opposite the windmill and the wharf).  Go straight along Main Street past the stores.  Toward the end of the stores there is a fork in the road (at the monument and Allen Schneider realty); bear right to stay on Main Street.  Turn right onto Glover Street (directly across the street from the Cove Delicatessen).    Pass Long Island Avenue on your right, and turn left at the next stop sign onto Redwood Road.  Pass the marina on your right, and take the first left onto Cove Road.  As the road swings to the right, number 258 will be the second house on the left,  the tan house with the red door.

From Southampton, West Hampton, and points west – Alternate

Take 27 (Montauk Hwy) east.  Turn left at the large green sign pointing toward Sag Harbor (just past East End Clambakes).  This will be Sandy Hollow Road.  Turn left at the first light onto North Sea Road.  Take North Sea Road for a very short distance, and make a right onto North Sea Mecox Road.  Take that to the end, then turn left on Seven Ponds Road.  At the end of Seven Ponds there is a stop sign, and fork in the road.  Take the middle path (always a good idea anyway), onto Lower Seven Ponds Road.  Make a left at the end of the road onto Head of the Pond Road, and bear right at the next fork, staying on Head of the Pond.  Stay on Head of the Pond Road until the end (it will curve and turn a fair amount, then take a left turn on Scuttle Hole Road.  Stay on Scuttle Hole Road until the end, and turn left onto the Sag Harbor Turnpike.  Take the Sag Harbor Turnpike all the way into Sag Harbor, and turn left onto Glover Street (just past Canio’s Bookstore and directly across the street from the Cove Delicatessen).    Pass Long Island Avenue on your right, and turn left at the next stop sign onto Redwood Road.  Pass the marina on your right, and take the first left onto Cove Road.  As the road swings to the right, number 258 will be the second house on the left,  the tan house with the red door.

PARKING

You may park in the driveway, or on the street, but please be particularly careful of the neighbors’ driveways.  There is also a small public parking area on the right side of Redwood Road, just past the marina and directly opposite the left turn onto Cove Road.  It is then a very short walk to the house.

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