President's Message

Dear Beth El Family,

From my apartment window, if I look at just the right angle, I can see Beth El. In fact, I can see Beth El’s iconic façade in all its glory facing Quaker Ridge Road. Sometimes during the past year, this view of Beth El has been calming and reassuring. Other times, it has been a bit more emotional. But today, the view from the distance of our largely vacant building provoked deeper thought. Perhaps this was because I was running tight on my deadline for this Bulletin article. But more likely it was because of Rabbi Schuck’s words at our Wonderful Kabbalat Shabbat last Friday. (We really should rebrand it “Wonderful Kabbalat Shabbat” rather than “Virtual Kabbalat Shabbat.”)

Rabbi Schuck was speaking about the connection between the episode of the golden calf and the commandment to construct the Mishkan, the Tabernacle. Rashi’s view was that the the MIshkan was God’s response to B’nei Yisrael constructing the golden calf. Worshipping such an idol might be seen as reflecting a human need to associate a physical presence with the Divine. So, in contrast, the Mishkan was to be a physical presence, but one where God could dwell among and be worshipped by our people.

For us, 1324 North Avenue is such a physical presence. Indeed, our very name, “Beth El,” means “House of God.” And yet, for the past year, many of us—most of us—have been unable to spend much time, if any, in our building. On the one hand, this experience demonstrated that, for us, the physical presence of Beth El’s building was not essential as we participated in a year replete with spiritual, educational, musical, cultural, and communal on-line programming. Some of these programs were emotional, some intellectual, some entertaining, and most a mixture of all three. The Beth El spirit triumphed over the physical constraints to enable us to remain a vibrant community. But, on the other hand, so many of us did miss the building and, most of all, being with each other in person. There is something about being in one another’s physical presence that being online cannot replace.

No doubt, post-pandemic our newfound capacity for delivering high quality and diverse virtual programming will stand us in good stead as we endeavor to continue to enrich our members’ lives. But we all long for the time—hopefully, very soon—when we can return together to the Beth El building as in days of old. Ken yehi ratzon. May it be the Divine will.

Mark

Mark Silver

PASSOVER LATER DAYS

Friday, April 2 5:45 pm Modified Kabbalat Shabbat and Yizkor—festive holiday singing and words of Torah with our clergy. We will conclude with Yizkor. Saturday, April 3 and Sunday, April 4 9:30 am Yom Tov Services—in the Sanctuary and on Livestream. 9:45 am Tot Services 10:45 am Family Kehillah

Beth El Synagogue Center Cemetery and Funeral Policies

Cemetery plots are only for sale to members in good standing. To purchase cemetery plots, please contact Alise Liquorie in the front office, 914-235-2700, ext. 223, or aliquorie@ bethelnr.org. Funerals right now are graveside. Please contact the rabbi's office for assistance (ext. 228). The following three funeral homes are the only approved funeral homes at Beth El—Plaza Jewish Community Chapel (NYC), Riverside Memorial Chapel (Mt. Vernon), Weinstein Memorial Chapel (Yonkers). If you have questions about end-of-life planning, our clergy are available to speak with you.

THE B'YACHAD CAMPAIGN

Thank You to our Additional B'Yachad Donor

CONTRIBUTOR $360 - $539

Barbara and Marc Lazarus

SAVE THE DATE . . . Thursday, April 15th • 7:00 - 8:00 pm

WESTCHESTER CELEBRATES ISRAEL @73—ISRAEL INDEPENDENCE DAY

Join Westchester Jewish Council virtually for this annual program which will feature a Music Talks concert, “Broadway Corner of Ben Gurion.” This exciting concert will include a celebration of Israel's Independence Day starring singers from Broadway’s “The Band's Visit” and “Fiddler on the Roof in Yiddish.” As Broadway theaters have been closed for over a year, this concert will pay tribute to some of the most beloved Broadway tunes sung in Hebrew, which connect to the story of Israel paired with Israel’s most famous musicals such as Kazablan. The evening will also include greetings from synagogues, schools and organizations, as well as the Acting Consul General of Israel. This event is free and open to all.

Whether you celebrated your seders across a table, a screen, or both, the Keruv Committee hopes that each of you enjoyed a chag Pesach sameach.

For at least one of us on the Keruv Committee, this year’s seders led to special thoughts of inclusion regarding the haggadah’s four sons. Some haggadot refer to the four “children,” but regardless of the translation, one of these youngsters is, in no uncertain terms, wicked. And that poor devil is the one who absorbed my attention.

As we retell the Exodus story each year, the haggadah offers what may be the briefest teacher’s manual in existence: how to respond to children’s questions about the Exodus. The “manual” originates in the Torah where, in four separate verses (three from the Book of Exodus1 and one from the Book of Deuteronomy2) the Torah posits questions a child could ask about Passover and advises what a parent’s answers should be.

The Torah does not describe the children—there’s no “wise,” “wicked”, “simple,” or “unable to ask”—no labels at all are used. The descriptions appear later, in midrashic and Talmudic writings

KERUV* KORNER

which assign a personality to each child who asks one of the four Torah questions. The personality types, the questions, and the responses we are commanded to give have, of course, sparked centuries of lively debate and puzzling interpretations. One thing we know for certain, though, is that one of those kids is wicked: the child whose parent “retorts” rather than responds with love (Maxwell House edition haggadah); whose parent is encouraged “to set [the child’s] teeth on edge” (Ktav Publishing House edition by Rabbi Nathan Goldberg); and, in all editions, a child who would have been denied redemption from slavery. I was one of many youngsters at many seder tables who never wanted to read the part of that child.

Slowly, though, as a parent and a teacher, small floodgates of compassion opened with each arriving seder which taught me to see more than the words on the page. The wicked child is labelled “wicked” or “contrary” because the child has withdrawn him or herself from the people of Israel. And yet…here the child is again, year in and year out for over one thousand years of haggadah reading, sitting at the seder table. And no one asks him or her to leave. Nor did the sages, or anyone at any seder ever, refuse to answer the child’s disrespectful inquiry.

Once seen, it’s hard to unsee: the wicked child is included at every seder table and, in fact, participates in equal measure with the other children seated there. I’ll go so far as to say that the presence of the wicked child makes an existential point: we are at a seder table in the first place on the merit of our ancestors – had they not included themselves among the great multitude that left Egypt, we would have no story to tell.

And if it is a contrary child who helps remind us that it is as a people that God led us out of slavery, I respectfully prefer the Torah version: no labelling, just recognition that each child is different and should be approached, hopefully with love, in a way that he or she can understand and appreciate. Now that’s inclusion.

Nina Luban

Elise Richman

Join Our S.M.A.R.T. Group (Senior Mature Adults Retired Together)

The SMART group continues to meet every Monday and

Friday from 11:00am -12:00 noon. The group will not meet on Friday, April 2nd. The group will resume our regular schedule on Monday, April 5.

C.A.P. will meet (virtually) on Thursday, April 29th, at 7:30 pm. Our discussion will be led by Shari Baum, LMSW, coordinator of Partners in Caring at Westchester Jewish Community Services. Email Erica Epstein at mmleepstein@gmail.com with your interest and email. Footnotes: 1. Exodus 12:26, 13:8, and 13:14 2. Deuteronomy 6:20

KEEP IN TOUCH! Update Your Information in the Member Directory

Did you know that when you log into the Beth El website, you can access a member directory? It is at bethelnr. org/member/directory. Please review your information and click on “edit my account information” to make updates. It is that simple, and it will help the Beth El community stay connected. Go to bethelnr.org/logininstructions, or email Carrie Fox (csfox99@gmail.com) if you need help logging into the website.