Dear {{first_name}}, The fourth hearing for Synagogue expansion was held this past Monday with great success.
Our professional team finished presenting all the testimony about our project and the board received our testimony and proposed plans very well. The board requested that we make some minor changes to our plan like adding more trees in certain areas and adjusting some of the parking lot layout to better accommodate handicap spaces, they also asked us to add EV charging stations.
The board did not yet vote on a resolution to approve our project, because some of the board members were absent, and it was the right thing to make sure that the full board was present for the vote.
The vote will take place at the next hearing on February 12th at 7pm. At that time, we will summarize our project, and the board will listen to public comment, and then move to vote on this project.
Please book your calendars to be present at the hearing on Feb 12, to show support, to voice your support during public comment and to be present when with G-d’s help the board will approve our beautiful synagogue expansion project.
Sincerely, Rabbi Mendel & Elke Zaltzman
Shabbos Times
Friday, January 12 Candle Lighting: 4:31pm Evening Service: 4:35pm
Saturday, January 13 Tanya Class 9:15am Morning Service: 10:00am Kiddush: 12:15pm Evening Service: 4:20pm Shabbat Ends: 5:36pm
Jteen Havdalah and Game Night: 8:00pm
Kiddush Sponsored by: Yehuda and Marina Goldgur in memory of Marina's parents Grigory (Hirsh) ben Elik and Tamara bas Faivel May their memory be a blessing
FAIR LAWN JEWISH DAY CAMP
A BISSELE HUMOR
After seventy years of communist oppression and seven hours of flying, Boris, a burly immigrant from Moscow steps off the plane in a free land to begin his new life in his new home, Israel. Standing at the Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv, a young and enthusiastic Israeli reporter plunges a microphone in front of him with a level of excitement that is only seen when an inside scoop is about to be caught. The reporter asks with focus: “Tell me, what was life back in Russia like?” To which the Russian immigrant replies: “I couldn’t complain.” An obviously unexpected answer, the young reporter continues to probe: “Well how were your living quarters there?” To which the Russian responds “I couldn’t complain.” Not expecting this answer either, the reporter decides to hit him with a question that is bound to get the answer he is looking for: “What about your standard of living?” To which the Russian replies again: “I couldn’t complain.” At this point, the reporter’s frustration with the new immigrant’s answers reaches a crescendo, and so in a derogatory tone the reporter yells out, “Well, if everything was so wonderful back in Russia, then why did you even bother to come here?” To which the new immigrant replies with gusto: “Oh, here I can complain!”
WEEKLY eTORAH
We keep hearing about tolerance. Be accepting of other people, of differences. Diverse cultures need to find ways of coexisting on a planet that keeps getting smaller. But there are times when too much tolerance can be detrimental. Like when the Jews were slaves in Egypt. And I shall take you out from under the burdens of Egypt is the promise the Almighty told Moses to pass on to the Jewish people in this week's Parshah. One of my holy ancestors, Rabbi Yitzchak Meir of Gur (widely known by his work Chiddushei HaRim), once re-interpreted the Hebrew word for "burdens" - sivlos - to mean patience (as in savlanut in modern Israeli Hebrew today). What he meant was that before the Children of Israel could be freed from Pharaoh, G‑d had to first free them of their own inner bondage. Years of slavery and drudgery had left the Israelites so oppressed and so hopeless that they had sunk into a terrible tolerance, accepting their situation as final and unalterable. Freedom was unimaginable to them. Some of us are too tolerant of intolerable situations and so long-suffering that we ourselves become insufferable. Before G‑d can take us out of our personal "Egypts" we need to banish the slave mentality from our own headspace. In order to become truly free we must first remove the shackles of servitude from our own mentality. We must stop being so patient and accepting of all that is oppressive in our lives - whether it be slavery, exile, discrimination, anti-Semitism or mediocrity in general. We can become masters of our own destiny if we want to. But the first step on the road to our own personal exodus is to lower our threshold for tolerance and break out of the prison of patience.
