Nov/Dec Nov/Dec Nov/Dec Nov/Dec 2019 2019 2019 2019 Cheshvan/ Cheshvan/ Cheshvan/ Cheshvan/ Kislev/ Kislev/ Kislev/ Kislev/ Tevet Tevet Tevet Tevet 5780 5780 5780 5780 The Shofar Congregation Agudath Achim Congregation Agudath Achim Congregation Agudath Achim Congregation Agudath Achim In 2018, or 5779, I led the High Holiday services at the University of Texas Hillel. It was my first time being the “Rabbi” of a community on the High Holidays and it was a great experience. On my way home the day after Yom Kippur got into a shared car at the airport, and to my surprise the person who was there with me was also coming back from spending the High Holidays in Austin. His mother lived there and he would go down every year to help the Reform Temple there with their services. We got to talking a bit and the conversation turned to the differences between life in Texas and in New York City. Specifically, we commiserated about the pace of life in New York. How fast it was, how we felt as though every- one—including ourselves!—were always in a rush to somewhere or from somewhere. We both shared how everything seemed to move just a bit slower in Austin, in Ann Arbor where I grew up, in Little Rock, pretty much anywhere else. This conversation got me thinking about the importance of not being in a rush, of slowing down. I believe that when I’m in a rush I’m not the best version of myself and that’s likely true of others as well. And even though New York City might be the capital of rushing, in the 21st century it’s nearly impossible not to be in a rush no matter where you live. With email, social media, cell phones, and the immediacy of both our work life and our social life, we are hard pressed to find the time when we can slow down at all. When we do allow ourselves the luxury of slowing down, we affect three different relationships, we affect our relationship with others, our relationship with ourselves, and our relationship with God. In the course of our conversation, the gentleman from the car ride shared with me a study that was done at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1973. Researchers John Darley and Daniel Batson recruited 40 seminary students for the experiment which was performed on the campus of the school, which trains Protestant Christian clergy. Darley and Batson brought the seminary students to one building for the beginning of what they believed was a study in “religious education.” They were told to prepare a lesson or lecture on a topic and that they would then go to a different building where they would teach or deliver the lecture. On the way to the second building, they would pass a man—an actor—slumped over in an alleyway asking for help. The goal of the study was to see how the students would react to the man and what—if anything—might change the way they behaved.. There were two primary variables in experiment: one was the subject the student would be teaching. Students were given a variety of subjects including that of the parable of the Good Samaritan, where the moral of the story is the importance of helping strangers along the road. Darley and Batson found that the subject had a negligible effect on whether the students would stop to help the actor. Even if they were lecturing on the parable of the Good Samaritan there was not a significant difference in whether they would stop! The second variable was how much of rush they were in. For some students, the researchers told them they had a lengthy period of time to reach the other location, while for others they would say they were in a big hurry and already late to lead the other lesson. In low hurry situations, 63% stopped to help the person. In high hurry situations, just 10%. In high-hurry situations, on several occasions, a seminary student going to give his talk on the parable of the Good Samaritan literally stepped over the victim as he hurried on his way! Now, this is not to say that any of these students are bad people. As Darley and Batson themselves noted, It is often true of people in a hurry that they are hurrying because somebody depends on their being somewhere. “Conflict, rather than callousness,” the authors wrote. “can explain their failure to stop.” They concluded that “Ethics becomes a luxury as the speed of our daily lives increases.” By slowing down, we allow ourselves the time to see others in need and respond to that need. It also allows us to be more in touch with ourselves and our own throughs and feelings. The early 20th century Lithuanian scholar Eliahu Eliezer Dessler wrote: אין הזמן עובר על אדם אלא שהאדם נוסע בתוך הזמןIt is not time that passes by us, but rather we travel through time. How can we make that journey more intentional? How do we make ourselves more aware of the way time shapes our lives and how do we make sure that we’re not letting time simply pass us by? Author Michael Gelb wrote in How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, that he asked thousands of people, “Where are you when you get your best ideas?” The most common answers he got included “in the shower” and “walking in nature.” “Almost no one,” Gelb writes, “claims to get their best ideas at work.” In his Treatise on Painting, Davinci wrote, “ A very good plan every now and then to go away and have a little relaxation...When you come back to the work your judgment will be surer…” When we take the time to slow down and not simply let time pass us by, we become more in tune with our inner selves. We also have the opportunity to connect more deeply to God and our experience as Jews. Beth Kander Dauphin, the communications director for the Institute for Southern Jewish Life pointed out that at this time of year: “The air gets a little cooler, the days get a little shorter, and while weeks are no less busy, they are interrupted and overtaken by celebrations, reflection, and reminders both seasonal and sacred that it’s time to hit the pause button.” The air certainly got cooler in Little Rock between Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur, and this is indeed a time of year that we are better at slowing down. We are more willing to say “work can wait.” We are more open to the idea of put- ting ourselves and our relationship with God first. But this does not have to be limited to a few weeks in the fall. Continued on page 3 Student Rabbi Ben Freed
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Nov-Dec Shofar 2019 - Synagogue Agudath Achim · 2019-11-01 · Silvana Berlinski Kenneth Besser Sonia Burris Andrea Cohen Anna Marks & Joshua Epstein (In Memory of Corky Schroeder)
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In 2018, or 5779, I led the High Holiday services at the University of Texas Hillel. It was my first time being the “Rabbi” of a community on the High Holidays and it was a great experience. On my way home the day after Yom Kippur got into a shared car at the airport, and to my surprise the person who was there with me was also coming back from spending the High Holidays in Austin. His mother lived there and he would go down every year to help the Reform Temple there with their services.
We got to talking a bit and the conversation turned to the differences between life in Texas and in New York City. Specifically, we commiserated about the pace of life in New York. How fast it was, how we felt as though every-one—including ourselves!—were always in a rush to somewhere or from somewhere. We both shared how everything seemed to move just a bit slower in Austin, in Ann Arbor where I grew up, in Little Rock, pretty much anywhere else.
This conversation got me thinking about the importance of not being in a rush, of slowing down. I believe that when I’m in a rush I’m not the best version of myself and that’s likely true of others as well. And even though New York City might be the capital of rushing, in the 21st century it’s nearly impossible not to be in a rush no matter where you live. With email, social media, cell phones, and the immediacy of both our work life and our social life, we are hard pressed to find the time when we can slow down at all. When we do allow ourselves the luxury of slowing down, we affect three different relationships, we affect our relationship with others, our relationship with ourselves, and our relationship with God.
In the course of our conversation, the gentleman from the car ride shared with me a study that was done at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1973. Researchers John Darley and Daniel Batson recruited 40 seminary students for the experiment which was performed on the campus of the school, which trains Protestant Christian clergy. Darley and Batson brought the seminary students to one building for the beginning of what they believed was a study in “religious education.” They were told to prepare a lesson or lecture on a topic and that they would then go to a different building where they would teach or deliver the lecture.
On the way to the second building, they would pass a man—an actor—slumped over in an alleyway asking for help. The goal of the study was to see how the students would react to the man and what—if anything—might change the way they behaved.. There were two primary variables in experiment: one was the subject the student would be teaching. Students were given a variety of subjects including that of the parable of the Good Samaritan, where the moral of the story is the importance of helping strangers along the road.
Darley and Batson found that the subject had a negligible effect on whether the students would stop to help the actor. Even if they were lecturing on the parable of the Good Samaritan there was not a significant difference in whether they would stop!
The second variable was how much of rush they were in. For some students, the researchers told them they had a lengthy period of time to reach the other location, while for others they would say they were in a big hurry and already late to lead the other lesson. In low hurry situations, 63% stopped to help the person. In high hurry situations, just 10%. In high-hurry situations, on several occasions, a seminary student going to give his talk on the parable of the Good Samaritan literally stepped over the victim as he hurried on his way!
Now, this is not to say that any of these students are bad people. As Darley and Batson themselves noted, It is often true of people in a hurry that they are hurrying because somebody depends on their being somewhere. “Conflict, rather than callousness,” the authors wrote. “can explain their failure to stop.” They concluded that “Ethics becomes a luxury as the speed of our daily lives increases.”
By slowing down, we allow ourselves the time to see others in need and respond to that need. It also allows us to be more in touch with ourselves and our own throughs and feelings. The early 20th century Lithuanian scholar Eliahu Eliezer Dessler wrote:
אין הזמן עובר על אדם אלא שהאדם נוסע בתוך הזמןIt is not time that passes by us, but rather we travel through time. How can we make that journey more intentional? How do we make ourselves more aware of the way time
shapes our lives and how do we make sure that we’re not letting time simply pass us by? Author Michael Gelb wrote in How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, that he asked thousands of people, “Where are you when you get your best ideas?” The most common answers he got included “in the shower” and “walking in nature.” “Almost no one,” Gelb writes, “claims to get their best ideas at work.” In his Treatise on Painting, Davinci wrote, “ A very good plan every now and then to go away and have a little relaxation...When you come back to the work your judgment will be surer…”
When we take the time to slow down and not simply let time pass us by, we become more in tune with our inner selves. We also have the opportunity to connect more deeply to God and our experience as Jews. Beth Kander Dauphin, the communications director for the Institute for Southern Jewish Life pointed out that at this time of year: “The air gets a little cooler, the days get a little shorter, and while weeks are no less busy, they are interrupted and overtaken by celebrations, reflection, and reminders both seasonal and sacred that it’s time to hit the pause button.” The air certainly got cooler in Little Rock between Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur, and this is indeed a time of year that we are better at slowing down. We are more willing to say “work can wait.” We are more open to the idea of put-ting ourselves and our relationship with God first. But this does not have to be limited to a few weeks in the fall. Continued on page 3
May the Omnipresent comfort you among all the mourners of Zion & Jerusalem
President Susan Weinstein
1st Vice President Terri Cohen
2nd Vice President Michael Kuperman
Treasurer Mike Margolis
Secretary Toni Roosth
Financial Secretary Polly Greenbaum
1st Past President David Greenbaum
2nd Past President Karen Mackey
Men’s Club William Lulky
Sisterhood Karen Mackey
At-Large Members: Richard Steppach
Dan Girone
Valerie Steinberg
Lirit Franks
Jonathan Aronson
Chuck Prousnitzer
Congregation Agudath Achim Board of Directors
Annual Agudath Achim
Family Picnic
Sponsored by the Synagogues Men’s Club
Sunday November 3rd
Maumelle Park Pavilion #5 (9006 Pinnacle Rd on the Ark River)
Complimentary Luncheon at Noon
FUN & GAMES, FISHING, CHALLENGE MATCHES
Member’s, Friends & Guest are invited!
Thank you
Judy Pearlstein
& Family
for the beautiful Bimah flower
arrangement for Rosh HaShanah
holidays.
Jewish War Veterans Nov 14th
&
Dec 12th
2:00PM 2:00PM 2:00PM 2:00PM
For more information contact Jerry Sherman 663-0740.
Donations for Kol Nidre Charles & Martha Alman (In Memory of Sol & Blanche Alman)
Silvana Berlinski Kenneth Besser Sonia Burris Andrea Cohen Herbert Dicker Anna Marks & Joshua Epstein (In Memory of Corky Schroeder)
David & Polly Greenbaum Judy Greenbaum (In Honor of my Children, Grandchildren & Very Special Friends)
Leonard & Miriam Hasson Marvin Itzkowitz Philip & Ruthe Kaplan Doris Krain Aaron & Melissa Kuperman Michael & Alina Kuperman Eugene & Barbara Levy Ellen Lowitz (In Memory of Glenn Lowitz)
Mark & Karen Mackey Michael & Arlene Margolis John & Ellie Moore (In Memory of Sidney & Selma Koenig)
Melanie Pilcher Chuck & Charlene Prousnitzer Cecile & Lynn Schweig (In Memory of Buddy Schweig)
Allen Sherman Terri Cohen & Marc Sherman Joe & Valerie Steinberg (In Memory of Bernard & Selman Resnick & Nathan & Sarah Steinberg)
Susan Weinstein Eva Zeno Michael Zeno
A Leaf has been added to the
Tree of Life In honor of
Terri Cohen
with our appreciation for her
care, support and Love.
Anne & Larry Miller
10/3/2019
Rabbi’s Message Cont…
My mentor at the Conservative Synagogue in Riverdale Rabbi Barry Katz wrote, “the emotional intensity of the high holidays is possible only once a year. But once a week, our tradition offers us the chance to remove the obstacle that keeps us
from gaining perspective- our engagement with the work of building a life.” The Zionist philosopher Echad Ha’Am similarly noted, “more than the Jews have kept shabbat, it is shabbat that has kept the Jews.” Shabbat is this weekly reminder that we can slow down. That we can slow down not merely for the sake of slowing down, but slowing down with the goal of celebrating creation and connect-ing to our community and to the divine. Abraham Joshua Heschel reminds us that The Sabbath is not for the sake of the weekdays; the weekdays are for the sake of Sabbath. It is not an interlude but the climax of living.” Slowing down allows us to connect differently and allows us to be the best versions of ourselves.
This year, I want us to embrace shabbat as a community as a way to slow down, as a palace in time that we can build together. We are going to work to make our palace in time a palace that is more friendly for everyone in our community, including the whole family. We will be developing new programming for kids so that they and their parents can be full members of our shabbat experience. Additionally, every time I come to town I will be teaching a class about some aspect on shabbat. We will explore texts and ideas related to shabbat that can help our community come to a greater appreciation of this amazing day that we are gifted with every week. I look forward to spending time together learning halacha (law), midrash (legend), as well poetry and song that can make this day more special every time we celebrate it together.
Or, as another sage, the great Ferris Bueller once put it, “Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
Shanah Tovah,
Student Rabbi Ben Freed
Student Rabbi Ben Freed will be visiting on the following dates:
November 8th - 10th
December 25th - 28th
January 23rd - 26th
(Gladstein Conference)
February 7th - 9th
March 6th - 10th
April 3rd - 5th
May 1st - 3rd
Student Rabbi Ben will be happy to meet
with any congregant or prospective
congregant during his visits here, to hear
their concerns and questions.
If you haven’t met him yet, please do
not hesitate to reach out to him. He is very
sensitive to the different needs of our
congregants and anxious to meet everyone.
Donations for Aliyot
Charles & Martha Alman Silvana Berlinski Kenneth Besser
Leonard & Miriam Hasson Marvin Itzkowitz
Eugene & Barbara Levy Laurence & Anne Miller Melanie Pilcher
Congratulations to Bernie Baskin & Yvonne Quek
on the birth of their son
Joshua Jinxuan Quek Baskin
on October 2nd, 2019
& to the proud grandmother Susan Weinstein.
Joshua is named after Bernie’s father, Jeff Baskin “Z”L”.
Bernie continues to maintain the Synagogue’s website at no charge, although he moved to Arlington, VA in 2017.
Meet Us Under the Chuppah!
Vella Nguyen
&
Mitchel Brown
are excited t invite you to their
Wedding
Sunday, December 8th, 2019
AT 4:00 IN THE AFTERNOON at Synagogue Agudath Achim
7901 West Capitol Avenue , Little Rock, AR 72205
Dinner & Dancing to follow at B’nai Israel at 5:00PM
3700 North Rodney Parham Rd., Little Rock AR 72212
JFAR’s Medicare Open Enrollment Workshop Thursday, November 14th, Noon- 4:00PM
at Agudath Achim Insurance specialists for the Arkansas Commission Senior
Health Information Program (SHIIP) will be present & can help
Leaves may be inscribed to highlight or commemorate such joyous events as birth, weddings, anniversaries, graduations or to
honor or remember family and friends.
For more information call
Marc Sherman at 831-4462.
Yizkor - Remember!
There are many ways to honor the living or the memory of the departed :
! Donate to Tzedaka ! Study or sponsor Jewish Learning ! Do an act of kindness ! Pray or lead prayers
May their souls be bound in the souls of the living
If a birthday, anniversary or yahrzeit is missing or listed incorrectly please call 225-1683 or email LRsynagogue.org
Thank you.
Kiddush Sponsor
Thank you for
your generous
Contributions!
General Fund
Endowment Fund
Cemetery Fund
Suzanne Klimberg
Cecile & Lynn Schweig In memory of Buddy Schweig David & Polly Greenbaum In memory of Abram Greenbaum Judy Greenbaum
In honor of my Children, Grandchildren & Very Special Friends
Suzanne Klimberg
William & Monica Lulky
Charles & Martha Alman
Susan Weinstein
Chuck & Charlene Prousnitzer
Robert Namath
Larry & Anne Miller In memory of Sophie Knopping Patricia Dicker Stanley Goldberg & Faye Marks In memory of Louis B. & Dorothy Goldberg Alan Nussbaum
In memory of Sam & Jennie Nussbaum Carl & Michelle Schoenberger In memory of Victor Schoenberger Gary & Carole Weisbly In memory of Patricia Dicker Vera Weller Steven Lane In memory of Joe & Evelyn Bernhard Rose Schwartz In memory of Cheryl Lynn Schwartz Patricia Dicker Gary & Carole Weisbly In honor of Rose Schwartz Larry & Anne Miller In honor of Rabbi Ben Freed Jeff & Aliza Brown
In honor of Sherry Brown Gail Brown Karen Mackey Valerie Steinberg Esther Biton Michael Margolis Judy Greenbaum Polly Greenbaum Chuck Prousnitzer Michael & Alina Kuperman Dan Girone Gary & Eileen Freed In honor of Rabbi Ben Freed Rose Schwartz In honor of Gary & Carole Weisbly Terri Cohen Steve Koenig
Dorian Stuber & Marianne Tettlebaum
Elaine Wolff In memory of Sol & Rose Sanders Waldman Victor & Esther Biton In memory of Yosef Mansour Irving Kuperman
In memory of Pauline Kuperman Cecile & Lynn Schweig In memory of Buddy Schweig Kenneth Besser In memory of Helma Besser Maurice Besser
In memory of Helma Besser Ruth Itzkowitz In memory of Joe Itzkowitz
Eugene & Barbara Levy In memory of Syd Waltzer
DATES TO REMEMBER
Sun Nov 3rd, Noon Annual Family Picnic at Maumelle Park
Fri Nov 8th, 6:00PM Kabbalat Shabbat & Children’s Services followed by Dinner
Sat Nov 9th, 9:00AM Shabbat Services followed by Kiddush lunch & Skill Building by Rabbi Ben Freed
Sat Nov 9th, 7:00PM Havdalah & S’mores Home of Karen & Mark Mackey
Sun Nov 10th, 10:00AM Member’s Annual Meeting
Sun Nov 10th, 12:30PM Lunch & Learn about Shabbat by Rabbi Ben Freed
Thu Nov 14th, Noon-4PM JFAR Open Enrollment for Medicare at Agudath Achim
Sun Nov 17th, 9:15AM-12:00PM Annual Global Day of Jewish Learning Sun Dec 8th, 4:00PM Vella Nguyen & Mitchel Brown Wedding
Sun Dec 22nd - Mon Dec 30th Hanukkah
Wed Dec 25th - 28th Rabbi Ben Freed Visit
Wed Dec 25th, 6:00PM Latkes & Lomein Hanukkah Dinner