Weekly Newsletter

Week of April 8, 2020 / 14 Nisan 5780
Passover Schedule

SERVICES ARE CANCELED THIS SHABBAT

Please take good care of yourselves. If there is any way the Stanton Street Shul community can support you and your loved ones during this difficult time, please email us. We hope to see you again soon, in person, in good health, for simchas.

•  All in person services and programs at the Stanton Street Shul are canceled until further notice. 
  
  
• We are saddened to announce the passing of Louis Palgon, z"l, beloved father of Cheryl Palgon. Cheryl may be reached by phone at 917-757-8009 of by email at chpalgon@gmail.com. May Cheryl and her family be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem. 
  
  
• Refuah shleimah to Elaine Palgon, Paul Klausner פסח יוסף בן מרים, Sharon Lebewohl שיינע פערעל בת לאה, and to Fran Meyers, who is recovering from a cycling accident. We pray that all who are sick may have a full recovery. To add a name to our communal misheberach prayer list, please email us.​​​​​​​
  
  
• Thank you to Marnie Rubinstein from UJA-Fed who delivered dozen of Pesach meals to the shul for arranged distribution to all among us who are hungry and all who are in need

• Thank you to Risa Gerstein, Kelly Cohen, and Jeff Katz for cleaning the Stanton kitchen and disposing of chametz before Pesach. We appreciate you!

Getting Ready for Passover

Siyum Bechorim

All are invited for a Siyum Bechorim with Rabbi Joe Wolfson on Wednesday morning at 9am, via Zoom at https://nyu.zoom.us/j/501435786

To commemorate the salvation of first- born Hebrew men during the last of the 10 plagues, which killed all first born Egyptian men and livestock, it is customary for first-born Jewish men to fast the day before the first Seder. To preempt the need to fast, the ritual of Siyum Bechorim was created, where the completion of the learning of a tractate of Mishna or Talmud occurs and is customarily followed by a festive meal that allows folks who are both participating and fasting to break their fast.

You need not be a first-born male to join Rabbi Joe's siyum, which will be on Masechet Horayot. Please have some food (mezonot - crackers, cookies, etc.) to break the fast on. 

Prepare for the Seder

For some of us, this year may be the first time (or the first time in a long time) making your own seder, under less than ideal conditions. 

• Read Seder Essentials in the Time of COVID-19, prepared by Jeff Katz here. 

• To brush up on the basics of the Passover holiday, laws, and customs, review the NJOP Passover Guide available here. 

Get Inspired

View parts 1 and 2 of Rabbinic Intern Jason Goldstein's Pre-Pesach video shiurim series at: stantonstshul.com/divrei-torah

Check out our Divrei Torah page for words of Torah and inspiration from our rabbis and community members.
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Maot Chitim Fund: Helping Those In Need 

Passover 2020 is proving to be an enormous challenge for all of us. Within our own kehillah and the larger LES community there are many families and individuals, seniors, young families, and newly unemployed people who are in immediate need of financial assistance.  This year the Stanton Street Shul is partnering with the United Jewish Council, under the executive leadership of Betsy Jacobson, to help provide needy Jews with the assistance they need to adequately make Pesach during this pandemic.

Please contribute generously to the Stanton Street Shul's Maot Chittim Fund. We recommend that you donate through the Shul rather than directly to the Council. All donations we receive will be sent to the Jewish Council to help individuals and families receive cash assistance for holiday purchases and help defray the cost of Passover food packages.

Please donate online (select "Maot Chitim: Passover charity" as the donation type) or mail your check to the Stanton Street Shul, P. O. Box 1008, New York, NY 10002. 

Thank you for fulfilling this important mitzvah. Chag Kosher V'Sameach, wishing you all a Happy and Sweet Passover.

Community Havdalah
Motzei Shabbat, 15 minutes after Shabbat ends

Join Zoom meeting online at:   https://us04web.zoom.us/j/603704215
To participate by phone: 1 (929) 205 - 6099
Meeting ID: 603 704 215

Come together post-Shabbat to connect and transition from Shabbat into the new week.

Being There for Each Other: Success Stories from the Chesed Committee

One of our congregants who was self-isolating was unable to get out for groceries or to complete her work obligations. Without a computer, she was unable to work at home. Stanton Street members came to the rescue! Not only did they provide a computer for her to use at home, but they helped connect to her office. She is now able to work remotely and does not have to use up her vacation days to fill the gap! Another member connected her to Meals on Wheels and within a few days, she will be eating kosher meals delivered to her home. 

When an older couple needed help with groceries, Stanton members stepped up to drop off supplies and share community resources. 

Please email the chesed committee if we can help in any way and if you would like to volunteer. 

Staying Connected While Apart

Even when we're apart, we are still a community. We encourage people to check in with one another by phone and email, so that social distancing does not become a time of isolation. Pick one or two "Stanton buddies" and check in weekly with your buddies!

When you are logged in to your account on the Stanton Street Shul website, you have access to view the membership directory, including contact information for members and friends of the shul. You also have the ability to edit your own listing and, if you prefer, to hide your information so that it does not appear in the public directory. If you have any difficulty, please email Jessica Spector, membership committee chair.  

Here's another way to stay connected: Head over to our new Stanton Street Shul Group on Facebook to chat with other congregants, share LES news, Passover food sourcing tips, a class you may have heard about, how you are doing, what help you might need, and wish your fellow congregants a happy Pesach! 

Virtual sponsorships are available!

Our doors remain closed but our spirits, minds and hearts remain open during these difficult times. We are davening together on Zoom for Kabbalat Shabbat and for Havdalah as well. We also have ongoing classes and more to come, which you can find listed in our weekly newsletter and on our website.

Please help keep our community and our spirits uplifted by sponsoring either a virtual kiddush on Friday or Saturday night or by sponsoring a class. Please follow this link to make your donation. Be sure to include any names of people or events that you  wish to honor in your sponsorship. Thank you Margie Segal for kicking off this new tradition with a virtual sponsorship last week!

We thank you for your continued support and look forward to being together in our shul as soon as it is possible. 

From a shiur by Rav Shmuel Silber

"This will not be the Pesach of our dreams. Rather than being with our extended family and friends, we will be alone with our immediate household or literally alone. We all recognize that at this moment the world is crazy. Accepting the reality of the circumstances, the better off we will be. Make peace with our new reality. Wishing it was different doesn’t get us anywhere, it just exacerbates our discomfort.   

The first part of the Seder is Kadesh, to sanctify, but we make Kiddush, recite Kiddush.  The goal of the evening is not just to recite the Hagada, rather it is to sanctify ourselves, to increase holiness in our lives. On this night be at peace and increase holiness."

View parts 1 and 2 of Jason Goldstein's Pre-Pesach video series at: stantonstshul.com/divrei-torah

Spilling Wine, Opening Our Hearts (Part 2 of 3)
By Jason Goldstein, Stanton Street Shul Rabbinic Intern & YCT Rabbinical Student




The Best Use of "High Tech" for a Quarantined Passover
By Rabbi Levi Welton

“In an age of social distancing, am I still allowed to open the door for Elijah  the Prophet?"

Although this question may be amusing, the fear that 2020 will pass over Passover is no joke. On all other Passover nights, millions of my brethren welcome their families, and strangers, into their homes to make known the story of Divine liberation that links us to our ancestors. But this night is different. Enslaved by the zenith of this pandemic, the liberation on Passover from this plague will come via self-isolation.

Hence, everyone from the UJA Federation to DansDeals.com has offered up their suggestions for the best online resources for a “ DIY Passover.” There’s even a controversy among the Rabbis (Oh great, another argument!) concerning whether Halacha (Jewish law) permits the use of video conferencing to host a Seder.  The Chief Rabbinate of Israel has declared such use to be strictly prohibited. But the fact that the queston was even raised highlight the urgency everyone feels to figure out ways to connect with one another during a time of social distancing.

I believe the Parashah of this Shabbat Hagadol offers a message ripe for our time. The name of the Parshah is “Tzav,” often translated as “commandment” or “good deed.” But the Kabbalists teach that mitzvot are not simply things we do because we are subservient to a higher command nor in order to feel good. Rather, mitzvah is a derivative of tzavta (“connection”) because mitzvot bridge the impossible distance - that ultimate “social distancing”  - between the finite mortal human and The Infinite, Immortal Being (Sefer Hayom Yom, Cheshvan 8). Mathematically, the only one way for an assignable quantity - mere specks in the oceans of time and space - to have a relationship with the Infinite is when She reaches out Her hand in 613 ways to offer that “connection.” 

But the “high tech” of Mitzvot goes much further than just creating that ultimate social connection. Mitzvot don’t simply “connect” us with the Creator, they empower us to become creators ourselves (Talmud, Bava Metzia 59b and Shabbat 119b). This is why the Torah doesn’t say the Creator’s work was “created and done” but “created to do” (Genesis 2:3), for the act of creation is a process we can partner in. This is the powerful opportunity of this upcoming Passover. While the world bemoans the social distancing, we can use Passover not just to create more social connectivity but to create more social empowerment . Think about it. There will be more individual blessings being made, more individual mitzvot being done, and more individual sparks of holiness being created this Passover than in any Passover in recent history. This year is an opportunity for us to empower greatness in all those who will be leading a Seder for their very first time.
This Passover can also give us time to reflect on a sobering reality. While we look at all the empty chairs around our “socially distant Seder tables,” perhaps we can hold a space for all the “5th sons” in our communities who - with a 70% assimilation rate - have stopped attending Passover seders altogether. Is there any greater social distancing than that? 
I pray that this Passover sees us using high tech to empower each other. I pray that the Ribono Shel Olam, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, mercifully heals all those who are ill and suffering. And I pray that when I open the door for Elijah during my Seder in quarantine, I remember the famous liturgical words, “May the Merciful One send us Elijah the prophet, may he be remembered for good, to bring good tidings, deliverance, and consolation.”  
And let us all say Amen!

Very Respectfully,

RABBI LEVI WELTON

Chaplain, United States Air Force
Spiritual Leader, Lincoln Park Jewish Center
Executive Director, www.RABBIWELTON.com

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Contact Us:
Stanton Street Shul
180 Stanton Street, New York, NY 10002
Mailing address: P.O. Box 1008, New York, NY 10002

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