Happy Chanukah! This Sunday: A Very Maccabee Chanukah Party for Kids

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1 Happy Chanukah! Shabbat Mikketz/Chanukah December 3-4 NOTE: Light three Chanukah candles before Shabbat Candles. Shabbat Candle lighting: 4:09 P.M. Shabbat ends 5:12 P.M. Light four Chanukah candles after Shabbat. Friday night services: 6:00 P.M. Shabbat morning: Sanctuary 9:30 A.M., Singing service 9:30 Torah Study, 11:00 A.M. (third floor, Goldman building) Sunday Morning Service: Dec 5, 8:30 A.M. (note earlier time!) Shabbat Vayigash December Candle Lighting 4:09 P.M. Shabbat ends 5:12 P.M. Friday night Services: 6:00 P.M. Shabbat morning services: 9:30 A.M. Bar Mitzvah of Max Zolberg, son of Erica Zolberg and Allen Kelman Sunday Morning Service: Dece12, 9:00 A.M. What A Bright Kid: A student from the Hebrew School Gan class, above, shows off the Chanukah crown he made in school. Rabbi s Teaching: Understanding your Purpose It is one of the most gripping scenes in the Torah, arguably in all of world literature. Joseph has suffered for 13 years in Egyptian prisons, after his brothers sold him into slavery and various Egyptian overlords and peers abused him. Finally he gains his freedom and is elevated to viceroy, second in command of all of Egypt, in charge of national warehouses during regional years of famine. His brothers journey from Canaan to Egypt to buy food. They appeal before Joseph, whom they don t recognize but who recognizes them. Joseph forces them through various, emotionally torturous trials. At one, climactic point, he has framed the youngest brother, Benjamin, on false charges of theft, and threatens to enslave Benjamin, the favorite of their father. The eleven brothers stand, trembling, before Joseph. (continued at bottom) Mazel Tov v Todah Rabah The Kane Street community extends a warm Mazel Tov to Allen Kelman and Erica, Max and Leo Zolberg on the celebration of Max s becoming a Bar Mitzvah on Shabbat Vayigash, December 11. We look forward to continued growth and nachis/spiritual fulfillment with Max and his family, and thank Erica and Allen for their gracious sponsorship of Kiddush in honor of this simcha. This Sunday: A Very Maccabee Chanukah Party for Kids

2 Kane Street Kids and Family Programs team up for a fantastic party for kids age 1-6 to celebrate the Festival of Lights. Yellow Sneakers Productions performs a Chanukah Puppet Show, Look on the Bright Side: A Green Chanukah Story starring Joey the Kangaroo. Plus there will be singing, a 2-foot dreidel, a craft project, sufganiot and a small gift for each child plus other great activities to make a celebration that others can t hold a candle to. $10 per family. Starts at 10 am. Attention Teens: Kane Street Scholarship Accepting Applications Kane Street Synagogue is now receiving applications for the $1,000 Ben and Martha Friedman Scholarship, established by Drs. Mordechai and Ellen Friedman in memory of Mordechai s beloved parents. Children who are planning to engage in an activity to enrich their experience as Jews during the coming year are invited to apply. Financial need and the applicant s Synagogue activities will also be taken into account. Candidates should submit to Rabbi Weintraub a word proposal describing the activity, and how they believe it will contribute both to an increased knowledge of Judaism and to their overall Jewish pride and identity. The deadline is February 28, Questions should be directed to Rabbi Weintraub at Learn to Read Hebrew Better, Faster and for FREE Take a bite out of our Kosher BLT (Beyond Linear Translation) for a grasp of Hebrew that will put new meaning into your life. The course, taught at Kane Street by language pro Andreea Adereth, runs 10 Mondays, 7:15 p.m. to 8:15 p.m., on Jan. 3, 10, 24, 31; Feb. 7, 14, 28; and March 7, 14 and 21. Students should already know the Hebrew letters and vowels. (For a book to catch up before the course, contact Rabbi Weintraub at rabbi@kanestreet.org) Please notify office@kanestreet.org if you plan to attend. For more info Rabbi Weintraub is your contact. We Need A Few More Volunteers at Synagogue Homeless Shelter There s no better time to perform a truly selfless mitzvah. Be one of the esteemed Kane Street members to help out at the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue Homeless Shelter. We are looking for two more overnight volunteers for each of the following nights: Dec. 14, 21, 22 and 27 (and one volunteer for Dec. 13). Located on the ground floor of the Brooklyn Heights Synagogue, 131 Remsen Street, between Henry and Clinton Streets, the shelter provides a warm, safe place for 10 women to sleep and have dinner and breakfast. socialjustice@kanestreet.org to volunteer. Join the Hebrew School for Kane Street s Nursing Home Chanukah Singalong: All Ages Welcome Sunday, December 12, 2:30-3:30 pm Join our friends and neighbors at Cobble Hill Health Center for an hour of song featuring Kane Street Hebrew School, plus dance, friendship, latkes and dreidels. 380 Henry Street. All ages welcome. Meet Nigel FeBland in the Recreation Room. Bring Your Coats to Kane Street for New York Cares Coat Drive Give the gift of warmth to homeless adults and children who need a winter coat. For the November-December Mitzvah of the Month, donate your gently used coats in the

3 receptacle in the Goldman Building Lobby. For more information go to Got the Music in You? Apply for Youth Klezmer Band by Dec. 14 Joey Weisenberg is starting a Kane Street Synagogue Youth Klezmer Band for students grade 4 12 who have been playing an instrument for a year or longer. Applications can be found at the synagogue and are due December 14 to vlieber@kanestreet.org or bring it to Valerie in person. Sessions for the band consist of five Monday evenings 6:15pm 7:30pm (we ll provide pizza dinner for those attending Hebrew School) January 17, 24 and February 7, 14 and 28. For more information contact Joey Weisenberg, joeyweisenberg@gmail.com or Valerie Lieber, vlieber@gmail.com Fabulous Fellowship Opportunity for Teens The exceptional and adventurous might want to apply for the Bronfman Youth Fellowships in Israel (BFYI), one of the most enriching educational opportunities in the world for Jewish teens. BFYI is a competitive, merit-based program for Jewish students of all backgrounds who will enter the 12 th grade of high school in the fall of Fellows spend five weeks in Israel (June 29-August 3, 2011) learning from educators, political leaders and prominent cultural figures representing a broad range of Jewish experience. The program is fully funded, and no Jewish educational background or level of religious observance is required. For information and applications, visit For more information, or to speak with local students who are former Bronfman Youth Fellows, contact Rabbi Weintraub. End Notes The next Community Dinner for Celebration Shabbat is Friday, December 17. Plan to join everyone for the fun. The next Havdalah and Dessert Event is Saturday, December 18 at 6pm. Jamming with Joey! Kane Streeters who missed author Jane Ziegelman s talk at the temple about her well-received new book, 97 Orchard: An Edible History, can catch her 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 12, at the Park East Synagogue, 164 E. 68 th St. in Manhattan. $5 admission. About Kane Yirbu: Kane Yirbu, the Kane Street Newsletter, comes out on Thursday of every other week. Submissions are due the Thursday prior to publication at 5 pm. Please send submissions to editor Ron Dicker at rodicker@aol.com. Next deadline for submissions is Dec. 9. Rabbi s Teaching, cont. Judah rushes forward, as no commoner should, and begs for leniency: Now if I come to your servant, my father and the boy is not with us.he will die and your servants will send the white head of your father down to Sheol in

4 grief therefore, please let me your servant, remain a slave to my lord instead of the boy (Genesis 44:31,33) cont. at bottom Joseph, no longer able to hide himself, banishes all of the courtiers and openly weeps, disclosing himself to his brothers: I am Joseph. Is my father still alive? And the brothers could not answer him; they were terrified of his presence. ( 45:3) Joseph now lords, clearly and without limitation, over his brothers. Those who caused him to be torn from his father, exiled and enslaved, now squirm before him. Joseph can exact revenge in any away he wants. He can order them slain on the spot, sent to the dungeon, or simply denied food so that they will starve. But Joseph does none of these. Indeed, he tells them that there is no need for them to apologize: Now do not be distressed or reproach yourselves because you sold me into Egypt. G-d has sent me ahead of you to save life on earth and to insure your survival so it was not you who sent me here, but G-d. (45: 5, 7,8) This is the greatness of Joseph. Almost alone among he heroes and heroines of Genesis, Joseph gets it. He sits up there on this throne, but what he has is not just political power, but a sweeping spiritual vision. I imagine that as the brothers cower before him, his life runs by in a flash-- his reduction to human chattel, the cruelty of Photiphar s wife, 13 hungry years in the dungeon, then his high but lonely position as an exalted foreigner. Suddenly it s all clear. Joseph gets it: It was not you who sent me here, but G-d. Surely we believe in free will. B chira Chofsheet, free will, ethical responsibility, a privilege, is a birthright which only human beings enjoy. It is prerequisite for a holy Jewish life, one marked by the voluntary acceptance of Mitzvot. But we have also known something else. We have known times when, like Joseph, we were allowed to survey our lives from a throne, from a high place with a grand vision. Such moments are fleeting, but they are overpowering. Often they coincide with the great passages of life -- our weddings, the birth of a child, the death of a loved one. At these moments we realize that all along we have been part of something much larger than our daily decisions. Without our knowledge or consent, we have been players in a meaning much larger than our individual plans. Usually we are not aware of this. We don t usually see G-d in things. To remain aware of G-d, of overarching purpose, takes get effort, discipline and an openness to prayer and to praise. Besides, it is much more fun to pretend that we are totally running the show. Even Joseph, when we first re-meets and torments his brothers before disclosing himself, imagines, I think, that he will

5 finally get his comeuppance and control the brothers who had so violently upended his own life. However, as Judah appeals, and as Joseph looks down at his desperate, frightened brothers, his intention changes. He understands that there is no such thing as coincidence. Everybody is joined to everybody else, and everything comes from G-d. At times, we too become aware of this greater network. We may suddenly see blessing in a tragedy, or sense the deep dependence that we have even on those who are our biggest enemies. Or we may simply discover how the work we have been doing, day to day, in a perfunctory manner, really does serve something much bigger. This knowledge can mean the difference between hope and despair, between self-knowledge and self-recrimination. Joseph gains this awareness through forgiveness. Like him, for our own psychic and spiritual health, we have to forgive even those who pained us, who caused us much confusion and guilt. Alcoholics Anonymous has a dictum: Fake it to make it. We can each pretend to be a little like the mature, pious Joseph. If we fake forgiveness, day to day, we will eventually forgive, without pretending and like Joseph, become masters of our destiny. Shabbat Shalom Rabbi Weintraub