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October 2007

As we reflect on our many blessings over this Thanksgiving weekend, the DJC would like to give a most heartfelt thanks to each and every person who gave of their time during our High Holidays this year. We’d like to acknowledge as many as possible, giving thanks to all our valued members - both long time and new members- in our midst. Planning the services, creating invitations, getting the word out, preparing music & rehearsals, hosting the Rosh Hashana Kiddush, blowing the Shofar, delivering kavanot, sharing a poem or a reading, reading from the Torah, flowers for the service, making the services hum - all this and more, we thank you one and all. And a special thank you to Melissa Heller, for leading our services this year with such a gentle, assured hand.

High Holiday Honour Roll
(If we’ve left anyone out - please accept our apologies in advance and write to us info@djctoronto.com and we will include their name in our next newsletter)

Avrum Jacobson, David Wyman, Brian Grebow, Lisa Kent, Danny Greenspoon, Daphne Woolf, David Hagon, David Wright, Dina Waik, Richard Chartash, Harriet Chartash, Emil and Molly Sher, Elizabeth Burrell, Janice Fricker, Eve-Lynn Stein, Galina Vaisman, Paul Winestock & Jessie and Sophie, Josie and Ray Lalonde and Samantha, Gary, Nellie and Reuben Labovitz, Jacob Bali, Janice Fricker, Noreen and Ralph Rozmovits, Diane Wise, Larry Till, Joanne Hunter, Bobby Rotenberg, Carla Flamer, Katie Bell, David Green, Jules Bloch, Alannah Bloch, Barbara Falk, Julia Mustard, Julie Zikman Toporoski, Kaitlyn Axelrod, Karen Bernstein, Laurie Stein, Mark Zaret, Martin Heppner, Myles Roth, Nadya Burton, Reid Robins, Donna Goldenberg, Saara Greene, Ilana Waldston, Christel Kleitsch, Kathy Miller, Paul Axelrod, Susan Friedman, Susie Waldman, Tanya Lewis, Temi Firsten and Alan Kaufman, Rafael & Michael Goldchain, Allan Merovitz, Danny Bakan, Michael Morris, Alan Gotlib, Morgan MacKinnon, Melissa Heller

…And a thank you to all the Rosh Hashana Kiddush volunteers from Janice Fricker:
“Thanks to everyone who came out to setup the room, cut the apples, prepare the trays and refreshments, post the signs and cleanup the room. This year there were more volunteers for each team than ever before and each part of the preparation was completed in less than forty minutes. Proof that many hands make quick work!
Thanks for making the Kiddush a pleasant way to start the new year.”

A LETTER FROM Melissa Heller:

On January 28th, 2007, singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, wasinducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame. Mitchell’s music, over the course of her more than 40-year career, has had a significant impact on Canadians and Americans alike (not to mention humans the world over.)
I count myself among those who have been deeply affected and moved by her work. Of all her songs, it is Circle Game that holds the most important place in my heart. I learned the song in 1985 at my sleep-away summer camp. Summer after summer along with my friends, first as campers and then as staff members, we would sing it around the campfire. The moving lyrics, which follow a young boy as he grows, came to have a different resonance for me each year as I too, was maturing and changing.

Yesterday a child came out to wonder
Caught a dragonfly inside a jar
Fearful when the sky was full of thunder
And tearful at the falling of a star
Then the child moved ten times round the seasons
Skated over ten clear frozen streams
Words like, when youre older, must appease him
And promises of someday make his dreams

My friend and classmate, Darby Leigh, who serves as the student rabbi for the Ottawa Reconstructionist Havurah, also has a special attachment to Circle Game. Growing up, he remembers his rabbi regularly including it in holiday services. This year, Darby incorporated Circle Game into the Ottawa congregation’s High Holiday services. During our post-High Holiday check-in with one another, Darby described an intense outpouring of emotion as the congregation sang, and reported that by the end many members of the community were in tears.
It seems to me that in Circle Game, Mitchell expresses with sublime language, what the Yamim Nora’im, the Days of Awe, convey in Jewish language- our heightened awareness of the passing of time and of life’s preciousness.

And the seasons they go round and round
And the painted ponies go up and down
Were captive on the carousel of time
We cant return we can only look behind
From where we came
And go round and round and round
In the circle game

Joni Mitchell gives voice to a poignant truth. Nonetheless, I believe that we are able to do more than look behind. Through the cycle of the Jewish year we are presented with many opportunities to actually return. This Shabbat, in fact, we will return to the creation story in Parashat- Bereshit, as we roll the scroll back to the beginning and start the yearly Torah reading cycle anew. As the seasons go round and round we will be reintroduced to the Patriarchs and Matriarchs, to miracles and wonders, to prophets and poetry, to holiness and the many faces of God.
Just as the lyrics stay the same from summer to summer, so too does Torah from year to year. But as we continue to change, so does our relationship to the text. To what biblical story will you feel connected this year? Where will you find resonance?

Sixteen springs and sixteen summers gone now
Cartwheels turn to car wheels thru the town
And they tell him,
Take your time, it wont be long now
Till you drag your feet to slow the circles down

Thirty-five springs and thirty-five summers are gone now. These days I find myself singing Circle Game to my sixteen month old daughter Ruby. As a mother, watching this amazing creature grow and change before my eyes, I want very much at times to drag my feet. Here too, Judaism provides opportunities. When we mark significant lifecycle events such as birth, bar/bat mitzvah, marriage and death through ritual, or when we celebrate Shabbat and holidays as a community, we allow ourselves to be fully present in those moments. In doing so we sanctify time, setting it apart and making it holy. In doing so, we ever so briefly slow the circles down.

With blessings for a sweet Shabbat,
Melissa 

PLEASE MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

SHABBAT SERVICE- Friday, October 19, 7:00 PM, led by Melissa Heller, Eastminster Church, 310 Danforth Avenue - AUDITORIUM.
Kiddush to follow. Free childcare provided.

TORAH STUDY - Saturday, October 20, 10:30am, led by Melissa Heller, Eastminster Church, 310 Danforth Avenue - ROOM C 17
ROOM C 17 is located at the front of the building, on the Danforth side. Please ring the caretaker (buzzer beside the door) at the Jackman entrance. He will show you the way to room C 17.

CRACK! BAM! DRAGONS!

Who will rule the day...REDS or GREENS? No, it’s not a drug war or gang colours...IT'S MAH JONG!
Debbie Plested is interested in starting a Mah Jong club. Absolute beginners welcome. Experienced players welcome too! (Warning anyone with experience may end up being our instructor). Please email Debbie debbie@oxfordcomputer.ca if you are interested in learning to play, already know how to play and want to be part of our group, or know an instructor (or a place to find one).

Green Bayit/House Tips and Tools

Every month, we will share a tip or tool in the newsletter that helps reduce energy in the home, the focus of the DJC's Green House/Bayit Campaign for the Jewish Year 5768. This month, we look to saving energy consumption and costs from your home computer. The CO2 emissions from just 15 computers are equivalent in energy terms to the gas consumption used by one car. For PC users:
http://www.localcooling.com/
LocalCooling is a 100% Free power management tool from Uniblue Labs that allows users to optimize their energy savings in minutes.
For MAC users with the OS X operating system:
http://www.apple.com/environment/resources/calculator.html, the energy saver is accessed in Systems Preferences.
DJC Go Green! Group

DJC Book Club NEWS

Please visit our online link: http://djctoronto.com/explore/education.php for information about the selection for our November meeting. There is still space in the club for members, so write to info@djctoronto.com to register or sign up for the November meeting.

Happy reading!

Our next newsletter will go out on Monday, November 5 - please forward submissions for placement by October 31, 2007.

Thanks!

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