Pathways The Temple Concord Quarterly Volume I, Quarter 4 October - December 2016 TEMPLE CLERGY Rabbi: Daniel J. Fellman Cantor/Educator: Kari Siegel Eglash, Rabbi Emeritus: Sheldon Ezring Cantor Emerita: Francine Berg, TEMPLE ADMINISTRATOR Cheri Lass TEMPLE OFFICERS President: Joseph Greenman First Vice President: Stewart Koenig Vice President: Sally Cutler Vice President: Mark Kotzin Treasurer: Jeanette Myshrall Secretary: Scott Saroff Immediate Past President: Irv Bodofsky PATHWAYS Managing Editor: Jeanette Myshrall Editorial Staff: Sally Cutler, Stew Koenig, Mark Kotzin Click to follow the link Music of Memory, Meeting, Meaning, and Majesty Feeding the Hungry: A Decades-Long Mitzvah To the Editor Recent B Nai Mitzvah Recent Deaths Temple Concord Links Recent Fund Donations Welcome to Pathways With this issue of Pathways: The Temple Concord Quarterly, we launch a new publication one that we hope will stimulate thought and discussion and provide you, our Temple Concord members, an additional way to engage with your Temple. Published quarterly, Pathways will provide insights and ideas from our own clergy and members as well as from other sources on Jewish themes, concerns, and issues. Pathways also will be your source for information on recent B nai Mitvah as well as on recent deaths and Temple fund donations. We look forward to hearing from you! Jeanette Myshrall, Managing Editor Pathways is published quarterly (January, April, July, and October) by Temple Concord, 810 Madison Street, Syracuse, New York 13210
Music of Memory, Meeting, Meaning, and Majesty Sally Cutler sat down with Cantor Kari Siegel Eglash to talk about music and prayer. When Cantor Kari was attending Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion, Cantor Benjie Ellen Schiller shared with her a key notion about music s place in worship. Cantor Schiller described how music reaches us on four levels. First, it stirs memories. Second, it creates a space where we meet. Third, it helps us meditate on the meaning of prayers. And fourth, it has the ability to lift listeners through a sense of majesty. As Cantor Kari points out, these four musical responses memory, meeting, meaning, majesty have particular significance during the High Holy Days. And the challenge for any Cantor today as sweet as the challenge may be is to strike a balance among these four responses. Music taps into memory in a particularly poignant way. A melody from our childhood may take us back to our earliest worship experiences. Such musical memories may comfort us, making us feel at home during worship. Remembered melodies may even bring back words we thought we had forgotten. At the High Holy Days in particular, as we cast back over the year, music may cast us back over years or even decades. Cantor Kari points out that Kol Nidre especially has this power to connect us with memory. Music is likewise a place of meeting. We sing together, and we are in community. A wordless nigun builds as people add their voices, picking up not only the nigun s melody but also its spirit. We are connected as we sing a familiar prayer setting or a rousing closing song. And ask anyone to list what stands out from his or her Jewish summer camp experience, and singing together is certain to appear on if not to top the list. Music also affects meaning. Consider the importance of cinema music. Whether it s the soothing strains of a love song or Darth Vader s ominous theme, music helps us interpret the scene. Likewise, melodies help create the emotional context for prayers. Cantor Kari points out that our interpretation of a prayer can be refreshed when we hear it set to a new melody. For example, V shamru is often sung to an up-tempo, energetic melody, as we joyously celebrate keeping Shabbat. But some musical settings of V shamru take the opposite approach: they are quiet, contemplative. When we hear a gentle setting of V shamru, different words may stand out, and the emphasis may shift to Shabbat as an opportunity to refresh the soul. Finally, music can convey a sense of majesty. Particularly on the High Holy Days, we hear the soaring melodies, the fullness of the organ, and the richness of the choral singing. The music of the High Holy Days aligns with the majesty of this time and these services. Special melodies throughout align with and lift the High Holy Day liturgy. We address Adonai as the King of Kings, and we hear music that reflects kingly power. For many, the majesty of this music elevates the entire High Holy Day experience. Cantor Kari notes the need to finely balance the responses of memory, meeting, meaning, and majesty. We risk falling into rote repetition if we rely solely on music as memory and if our communal singing sticks only to familiar melodies; we miss an opportunity for the ah ha! that new melodies can provide. If, on the other hand, we are constantly finding new melodies, we may lose the comfort of memory and may struggle to mix our voices in song. Finally, if we are seeking a more intimate experience of the High Holy Days, we may find a disconnection between the experience we seek and the traditional music of majesty. Yet for others, that majesty is indeed integral to their High Holy Day experience. In some rare moments, we may individually experience a fine blending of all four responses. When that lucky moment happens, music truly lifts us. Whatever our response, we can be sure that music at Temple Concord will continue to stir us. Pathways Vol. I, Quarter 4 October December 2016 Page 2
Feeding the Hungry: A Decades-Long Mitzvah You visited your ailing aunt. You helped jump-start a stranger s car. You donated money to a worthy cause. You fasted on Yom Kippur. Yes, you did a mitzvah, and that is all to the good. Now, consider what it takes to do a decades-long mitzvah, namely, to manage a Food Pantry for well over a decade, distributing in one year (2015 2016) enough food to make 69,750 nutritious meals for almost 1,000 people. This is a Superbowl of mitzvahs. The Food Pantry serves people who practice all faiths or no faith. They are white or black. They are native-born Americans, or they hail from around the world. They are families sometimes extended ones and sometimes with single heads of the households and they are individuals. The Temple Concord Food Pantry owes its longevity and success completely to volunteers. These volunteers come from the Temple Concord congregation, from other synagogues, and from the general community, including students from Syracuse University. They handle food deliveries, distribute food, coordinate schedules, and recruit additional volunteers. At the head of this team are Sue and Ernie Wass. Their involvement began in earnest in 2002, when they took over management of the Food Pantry after six months of getting familiar with it. Sue s background she had managed the local implementation of a Federal housing program and Ernie s engineering logic make them a formidable pair. It turns out that the simple act of providing food to people is not so simple after all. This is a mitzvah with a lot of moving parts. For one thing, the pantry s smooth operation involves coordinating the volunteers. Sue and Ernie report that there were 27 volunteers in 2015 2016, donating an average total of 199 hours a month. The Temple Concord Food Pantry owes its longevity and success completely to volunteers. Also, Sue and Ernie manage the physical set up. Food comes to the pantry s food-storage cabinets, freezers, and refrigerators from the Central New York Food Bank, farmers, commercial establishments, and even Temple Concord s own garden. The food distribution is set up by food groups: vegetables, fruit, protein, grains, and so forth. Sue and Ernie say, Each family chooses food that suits its family members. No mystery bags here! Finally, the pantry is supported by an array of sources. These include grants from the Federal Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Assistance Program and from foundations, including the Pomeranz, Shankman and Martin Charitable Foundation and the Jewish Community Foundation. Local faith-based organizations Temple Concord, University United Methodist, Grace Episcopal provide support, as do local restaurants Panera and Bruegger s Bagels. All these and more are woven together to provide the needed funding, space, food, and people. So, here s the big question: Why? Why devote these hours, this energy? Why deal with the inevitable headaches? And we are back where we started: It is a mitzvah. For Sue and Ernie and their loyal volunteers, there is deep satisfaction. They know that they are doing good, helping, and not judging. Some folks have come to the Food Pantry for years; Sue and Ernie know their stories, their families. Sometimes, people coming for the first time are anxious. Always, people are welcomed, are met where they are, are fed and with no other agenda. Person to person, the work goes on. Pathways Vol. I, Quarter 4 October December 2016 Page 3
To the Editor Pathways prints readers messages received by email or postal letter as written but may edit for length, if necessary. Messages must be signed. Please let us know what you think of Pathways. Address email to jmyshrall@twcny.rr.com. Address postal mail to Temple Concord, 810 Madison Street, Syracuse NY 13210 Attn: Pathways. Recent B Nai Mitzvah Alana Jacowitcz September 3, 2016 Noah Adler September 10, 2016 Seth Bailey September 17, 2016 Recent Deaths The sympathy of the congregation is extended to the families of those recently departed. Judith Meighan - August 9, 2016 She is survived by her husband Samuel D. Gruber, son Jonah Gruber, daughter Zoë Meighan, and cousins Cynthia and Constance Mitchell. Myrna Rubenstein - September 19, 2016 She is survived by her brother, Lawrence Greenhouse; her son, Marc (Mary) Rubenstein; five grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews. Temple Concord Links Rabbi Daniel Fellman s Weekly Videos Temple Calendar Pathways Vol. I, Quarter 4 October December 2016 Page 4
Recent Fund Donations We appreciate all donations given to support Temple funds. Listed are those who have goven $18 or more in July and August 2016. BUILDING& CEMETERY IMPROVEMENT FUND Charlotte & Alexander Holstein Margie & Robert Johnson Bonnie Leff & Dan Lord Marjorie Morchower Gary Orenstein Warren Wolfson & Carole Kametz CANTOR S DISCRETIONARY FUND Irv & Lorraine Bodofsky Gloria Katz FLAH ADULT EDUCATION FUND Betty Granastein FRANK FOOD PANTRY SUPPORT FUND Barbara Blumberg John Fazio & Ellen Schaeffer Food Bank of Central New York David Froehlich Cheryl & William Long Sali Lutwin Roshan & Noshir Mistry GORDAN TORAH FUND Margery Burstein Marsha Snyder JACOB-LEVI FUND David Jacobs LOIS ARNOLD GALE LIBRARY FUND Micaela & Jeff Cooper RABBI S DISCRETIONARY FUND Miriam Bladen Leslie Eimas & Brett Linden Roger Grody Margie & Robert Johnson Chana Meir Joy & Michael Moss Corinne & Lynn Smith RAKOV MUSEUM FUND Mady Kudisch & Gary Lavine TEMPLE CONCORD GENERAL FUND Marilyn Ben Howard Berman Ruth Block Irv & Lorraine Bodofsky James Brodsky Sally & Lewis Cutler Sheldon Ezring Sandra Gingold Cindy Goldstein Suzan Gordon Lorraine Rapp & Jeff Kirshner Jo Lee & Jeff Konecky Karen & Sheldon Kruth Linda & Paul Liberman Joy & Michael Moss Judy Papenfus Susan Rosenthal Amy & Michael Shaw Steven Sisskind Harvey Strauss Pamela & Richard Strauss Frances & Steven Volinsky Leona & Alan Wilson Kenneth Young Phyllis & Mark Zames WISEMAN MEMORIAL FLOWER FUND Nancy Levine Pathways Vol. I, Quarter 4 October December 2016 Page 5