Weekly Newsletter

Week of January 1st, 2021
17 Tevet 5781
Shabbat Vayechi

Thank you to this week's DONORS
We are grateful to have such a committed community

Ruth Adler renewed her Membership
The following congregants contributed to the End-of-Year Fund:
Ruth Adler • Alvin Goldstein • Rabbi Jason Klein • Celia Honig Rosenblum Margie Segal • Barbara & Sheldon Wieder • Joe Wolfson
Karen & Marty Wolfson (Thank you for all you do! Tizku l’mitzvos!!)
Nina & Yoni Cooper to the Eruv Fund
Jeff Katz for the High Holidays Fund
William Meylach • Joan & Samantha Lieberman to the Building Fund
Dalya Dektor for Kislev Mazal
Paul & Phyllis Ruffer In Honor of the birth of Rose Marie Bergman
Peretz Berk & Eric Leung In Honor of the E-Board and all their hard work - earmarked for an InstaPot to make parve cholent when we next share a Kiddush

COVID Protocols
As cases rise nationally, and New York City tightens restrictions, we reemphasize the need to abide by the CDC guidelines. If you feel sick, please stay at home. If you attend in-person services, please wear a mask and register for services in advance. Thank you everyone for your cooperation as we all work together to ensure a safe service. 

Because many of us are not able to attend shul in person, the Rabbi has agreed to share his shabbat morning drashah in advance. Here is the first half of it. To read the full drashah, click here and it will take you to what will become a rich archive of all of Rabbi Staller's drashot.  

This week we’ll be finishing the Yosef story, and with it, the first book of the Torah, Sefer BeReishit. And while the Yosef story wraps up nicely– the family is reunited in Egypt, Yosef provides for them with land and food during the famine, and the tense question of who will takeover Yaakov’s mantle is seemingly resolved with the answer that the tribes will share it– the larger arc of the narrative should leave the reader wanting. While by now, most of us are already familiar with the story of Jewish history and anticipate the turns the story takes, for a first time reader looking at the Torah’s narrative of God’s divine plan, this entire Egypt chapter likely seems so strange. Why does God have to bring Yaakov’s family down to Israel just to enslave them in Egypt? Wouldn’t God’s miraculous salvation of Yosef have been a powerful ending to the story? Couldn’t the brothers have then moved back home after the famine and tried to build the nation of Israel? Why is the Jewish descent into Egypt– the culmination of the entirety of BeReishit– a necessary step?

I think the significance of the Jewish people’s long-term descent to Egypt is actually found in an often overlooked passage at the very end of last week’s Parashah. Before transitioning to the death of Yaakov and his blessings to his sons, the Torah tells us one final episode about Yosef, the viceroy of Egypt. The Torah tells us (BeReishit 47:13-26) how, during the height of the Egyptian famine, the people of Egypt had expended all of their silver, metals, and money purchasing food from Yosef, and were left penniless. Yosef, seeing that the people had no more money to buy back the food he had previously collected from them, instead issued a tax of farmland itself. Indeed, the Torah dramatically tells us that due to Yosef’s tax, the entirety of Egypt became owned by Pharaoh and all of its inhabitants became Pharaoh’s sharecroppers– surely a hefty tax! Having taxed everyone down to their very land, Yosef then collects everyone in the country and moves them from their ancestral farmland into cities– breaking their claim to the land, and displacing them. Indeed, it is not surprising that the Egyptian people respond to this new situation by saying Yosef has saved them, but “we will be slaves to Pharaoh” (BeReishit 47:25)... continued

Click HERE to read the Rabbi's full Drasha

Please take a moment to fill out the Chesed/Social Action Committee's Survey. Share your interest, with Committee Chairs, in chesed, or acts of kindness, including volunteer opportunities and providing support to community members during lifecycle events; and educational opportunities for social action, specifically focused on racial justice efforts.

Misheberach: We pray that all who are sick may have a full recovery. To add a name to our communal misheberach prayer list, email us. 

It is with great sadness that we share the passing of Rachel Shalem z"l, mother of Revital Shalem Gazal and Victor Gazal, and grandmother of Isaac and Micah.

On the occasion of the Shloshim of Phyllis Sauerhaft Gottlieb, The Stanton Street Shul wishes her children, Amy Greenberg, Adam Gottlieb, and Jason Gottlieb and their families, and her brother, Sonny Sauerhaft, a nechama. May the memory of Phyllis Sauerhaft Gottlieb be for a blessing.

A big thank you to Michael Goldstein and his able assistants, Moshe Bloxenheim and Mordecai Silver, for removing the High Holiday parochet, installing a new heavy-duty curtain rod, and hanging our year round parochet. Michael has been responsible for many of the latest improvements in the sanctuary. Yashar Koach!

Five Years of Art from Yiddish New York
Tine Kinderman and Deborah Ugoretz, participating artists and oft curators of Stanton art shows in partnership with Yiddish New York, have put together a virtual retrospective: "FINF Yor"! Five Years of Art from Yiddish New York.

SPONSOR A CLASS
Please sponsor a virtual class in honor of oneself, the Shul, a yahrzeit, an anniversary, a birthday, or in the name of a friend or someone who sustains the Shul with their hard work.  Sponsorships begin at $36, but there is no maximum. All sponsorships benefit the Shul and are very much appreciated. 

Rabbi Leead Staller hosts weekly Parshat haShavuah Vayechi
Tuesday, January 5th, 7:00 - 8:00pm
via ZOOM with pswd: 614725
To join by phone, dial 1-(929) 205 6099 and enter Member ID: 847 9509 7605
This week's class is sponsored by Jeff Katz, dedicated in memory of Jeff's next-door neighbor, Rebecca Waldman, on the occasion of her Shloshim. May her memory be for a blessing. 

AND Tefillah Shiur
Wednesday, January 6th, 7:00-8:15pm 
via ZOOM with pswd: 785886
To join by phone, dial 1-(929) 205 6099 and enter Member ID: 894 9535 0094

Women’s Tefillah Group
Rosh Chodesh Shevat Services 
Thursday, January 14th at 8am
By women for women. Please write us if you would like to lead any part of the service. 
Sponsored by Margie Segal for the yartzeit of her mother,
Renee Segal, Rivka bat Bayla V Yitzchok

The Weekly Chesed Roundup
Looking for a local or remote chesed opportunity this week?
Here are some ways you can help individuals in need:

ONLINE ARCHIVES
Click HERE for an archive of shiurim by Rabbi Staller
Click HERE for an archive of drashot by Rabbi Staller
Click HERE to go to our YouTube Channel for an archive of our ZOOM classes

Rabbi Staller Encourages and Welcomes Your Feedback and can be reached by email or by phone/text at (917) 282-7643. Alternatively, you may reach out, confiedentially, to our Rabbinic Advisory Committee. Contact committee chair Jeff Katz or committee members Paul Ruffer, Margie Segal, Marc Schwartzberg, and Ellen Silverstein. We welcome your input.

We at The Stanton Street Shul and beyond have the incredible opportunity to learn Torah from the comfort of our own homes every week! Hear Rabbi Staller's fresh perspective on the weekly parsha on Tuesday evening at 7:00 PM and his innovative approach to understanding Tefillah (prayer) on Wednesdays at the same time. All Stanton classes are free and recorded for your review, but it is the live interchange between rabbi and participants that energizes these classes and makes them special. 

For important resources during this COVID-19 era, please  CLICK HERE.