president@cbiboca.org Spring is here! Why doesn’t my heart go dancing? Spring is here! Why isn’t the waltz entrancing? No desire, no ambition leads me Maybe it’s because nobody needs me Spring is here! Why doesn’t the breeze delight me? Stars appear, why doesn’t the night invite me? ~Carly Simon (1981) Spring is here and while the rest of the nation thaws out, at Congregation B’nai Israel, we have been anything but frozen. Immediately after the High Holidays we hosted Mitch Albom, fed the community at Thanksgiving and again at Christmas, installed Cantor Muchnick (and were treated to a concert that rivaled one at a performing arts theatre), and helped bring tzadakah to our community with our annual Lori Sklar Mitzvah Day. As we enter the month of Adar, we are greeted with the holiday of Purim. The Halloween of the Spring, although a lot less ghoulish, Purim in America has gone mainstream. Just as everyone hails from New Orleans on Mardi Gras and feels Irish on St. Patrick’s Day, now Americans celebrate Purim in a similar way. Like Mardi Gras and St. Patrick’s Day, Purim is known for singing, dancing, eating and drinking. Purim was the holiday that introduced stand up comedy to America. Known as the badkhan, he was the first jokester, the rhyme master who regaled congregations throughout eastern Europe (it helped that they were inebriated.) The forefather to Sid Caesar, Mel Brooks, Don Rickles and Adam Sandler. They were the first Purim Shpielers who went from town to town, village to village, performing as vagabond street artists. During the Jewish diaspora, it was Purim that kept the Jewish humor alive. Come and join us on March 9th, drink a little, laugh a lot and enjoy the Purim Spiel as we once again remember the past and take Purim to the next level. It is during this time we are commanded to present gifts of pastries and fruit to our neighbors (yes, the opposite of the “trick or treatâ€? part of Halloween), and make gifts to the poor, as part of the month long preparation for Passover and the return from order to disorder. Our own Jacobson Food Pantry collection and donations to our Kantor Family Center for Justice can help you attain this mitzvah. In April we will once again read from the Haggadah and re-live the exodus from Egypt. As the Haggadah says, it is our responsibility to retell the story from generation to generation. And as we live in a country deep rooted in the sense of liberty, did you know the Hebrew word “libertyâ€? (kheroot- ‍ )תוריח‏is deeply linked to the Hebrew word “responsibilityâ€? (akhrayoot – ‍ )תוירח×?‏and they both begin with the word meaning to “follow meâ€? ( ‍)ירח×?‏. So, follow me to the Purim Shpiel on March 9th and to all the amazing offerings Congregation B’nai Israel has planned for our membership the rest of this year and into next year. This Passover may your cup overflow with happiness and prosperity. Have a Happy Passover!
Jeffrey Cannon
8
President
WELCOMING YOU FROM THE FIRST SHALOM
