MCJC E-Megillah May 2011 (5771)    Mendocino Coast Jewish Community  The Jewish Center (Shul) is located at 15071 Caspar Road, Caspar CA. The MCJC can be reached at (707) 964-6146 Mail can be sent to PO Box 291, Little River, CA 95456 website : http://www.mcjc.org email: mcjcmegillah@mcjc.org PDF Version: http://www.mcjc.org/mjoldart/Megillah/MJMM0000.htm Facebook: MCJC - Mendocino Coast Jewish Community MCJC Kids

My mom just came back from the trip of a lifetime, a weavers’ tour of Guatemala.  Right now (the day before the first seder) she is in the next room with our friend Annie Lee, who has family in Guatemala and just got back from there yesterday.  They are looking at pictures and glorious woven pieces that Mom brought back and sharing stories.  I’m hearing excited sounds as they exchange experiences of this country they both love.

A few minutes ago Annie was telling us about the Holy Week ceremony in some of the larger cities; among other things, each night of the week before Easter, or in some places, as I understood it, many of the forty nights of Lent, people arrange elaborate patterns of fruits and colored sands into something almost like carpets that run through the main street.  At nightfall monks shuffle through the beautiful patterns, kicking them apart.  The next day new carpets of fruit and colors are laid, and the next night ritually disassembled.

I remember hearing stories in the past from travelers in Bali about street processions in which huge palanquins of fruits would be paraded through the streets with a similar kind of ceremonial solemnity.  I remember musing then, and I’m imagining again today as I listen to Mom and Annie, that various people (probably women) have lists of fruits to get together, have to find volunteers and arrange schedules and make sure that the mechanics of the ritual are in place so that friends and neighbors can be transported by the pageantry.  I can just imagine the griping a couple of days ahead: “So-and-So said they would bring ten kilos of pineapple, and they just called to say they can’t get them after all...”  “I can’t find anyone to do the colored sand on Thursday...”  “Why do I have to be the one who takes responsibility ever year?”  “Where are the young people?”

So today Mickey and I and my folks are bringing in the Pesach dishes from the shed and taking out the hametz.  I’ve already cleaned all the crumbs out of the stove, cleaned the oven, repapered the cupboards with dishes and glasses.  But I didn’t boil the coffee cups, and we do sometimes put soymilk in our morning tea.  I washed the little divider thing that holds our silverware, but I haven’t kept track of which silverware has been washed in the dishwasher (my modern boiling technique) and put back in there, and which got hand-washed.  In town there seems to be a little horseradish crisis this year; with all the rain the new crop can’t be harvested, and so the only roots available are old and moldy and probably not hot enough to make us tear up.  And of course our matzah bake was rained out.  Back here at home, Mickey is busy trying to borrow enough chairs and figure out how to fit everyone into our living room.  There has been remarkably little complaint among my crew -- they are well-behaved and well-acclimated.  But I’ve been fretting about various details for weeks.  I have a shopping list highlighted with different colors and a schedule of what to cook when.  Will there be enough for the vegetarians?  Should we iron and lay the table with my grandmother’s linen tablecloths, or should we use some of the new Guatemalan fabric for table runners, which would look funny on all that pastel Irish linen? 

At Shabbat Ha-gadol this year -- the Shabbat before Pesach, when the rabbi is supposed to give a big sermon about Passover -- I talked (not at great length, I don’t think) about the afikomen, how it is a material representation of enlightenment, how when we eat it at the end of the seder meal, we are taking in all that has been hidden and broken and lost, how the second half of the seder indeed invites us to actually partake of the World to Come in bliss.

And that’s the key: it is not only a symbol or a story, but an actual experience, a real journey which is facilitated by the symbols -- all of which have to be purchased, washed, ironed, arranged, cooked and so on.  We put them together in a certain order, arrange ourselves around them, light the candles, say the blessings, and suddenly we are actually in transit from slavery to freedom, from Narrow Place to Wilderness to World to Come.

There is usually a certain amount of bump-and-grind at the seder itself; spilled wine, fidgety guests, people’s wants and needs.  Knowing me, I’ll wake up the next morning with a couple of complaints: something won’t have come off perfectly as I envisioned it.  But if I look back over a lifetime of s’darim (that’s the plural of seder,) I can’t imagine my life without taking that journey every year.  Without all of it, I would still be a slave.  With it, I see myself as though I came out of the Narrow Place, and as though I can again and again.

Likewise with staying up all night to receive Torah at Mount Sinai in Shavuot, mourning the burnt Temple at Tisha B’av, hearing the shofar saying, “Awake you sleepers!” at Rosh Hashana, walking the path of the High Priest into the Holy of Holies at Yom Kippur.  I shlep and fuss, and then I am transported. 

There is this mysterious, funny, annoying, somewhat taxing but ultimately transformative alchemy of the mundane and the sublime that is achieved through ritual.  We bring our material selves, with all our worries and complaints, and we place them in a greatly-enlarged context.  Ritual is a portal to meaning.

My dear friend is in the hospital today, as I write, newly-facing a difficult diagnosis.  And I don’t think she will mind if I paraphrase something she said -- that she is happily surprised to see that the faith which she has spent years developing and cultivating through study and practice is firm in this time of crisis, and she feels calm, at least for now.

The whole month of May is part of the omer, the 49-day interval of wandering in the desert, counting each day and week, trying to remember the meaning ascribed to days 1-49, preparing for Shavuot.  I’ll be counting and forgetting to count, and I will also undoubtedly fretting a little bit about whether we should really stay up all night again, who will teach, who will xerox, what to do for that 4 AM craft project, who will bring blintzes...

But I will also be looking forward to that delirious, ecstatic moment at dawn on June 8 when, for a split second at least, I know it will all come together again: past, present and future, the mundane world and the World to Come, the written Torah and the Torah of white fire on black fire. 

Grump grump grump, shlep and grind -- but I can’t imagine life without it!

        - ©2011 Rabbi Margaret Holub

Holocaust Memorial Service 
This year we will remember the holocaust with a pair of films shown on Saturday night, April 30, 7:30 PM and with a short memorial service on Sunday, May 1, at 7:00 PM.  the films:

Bloodlines is a moving meditation on guilt and reconciliation, exploring the unwritten cost of war and genocide on future generations – of both victims and perpetrators. Bettina Goering, descendant of Nazi war criminal Herman Goering, comes to Australia to meet Ruth Rich, artist and the daughter of Holocaust survivors. With astonishing honesty and courage, both women attempt to reconcile the traumas in their bloodlines.

The Power of Good: Nicholas Winton is a gripping documentary about the courage and determination of a young English stockbroker who saved the lives of 669 children. Between March 13 and August 2, 1939, Nicholas Winton organized 8 transports to take children from Prague to new homes in Great Britain, and kept quiet about it until his wife discovered a scrapbook documenting his unique mission in 1988. The films will be shown at 7:30 pm and tickets will be sold at the door for $10/8 seniors.  Refreshments will be available as always.

Sunday, May 1, at 7:00 PM, we will have a short service at 7:00 PM at the shul.  We hope very much that everyone will see the two films at the shul on Saturday evening, which deal with themes of remembrance and healing in the wake of the holocaust.  Responses to the films will be woven into the Yom Hashoah service.  As always, a list of names of family members and loved ones of Coast residents who perished in the holocaust will be read, and memorial prayers will be offered. (mh)

Lag B’Omer
Lag B’omer, the 33rd day of the omer, is a kind of wild-card day in the midst of the solemnity of the omer period.  It is customary to have picnics, light bonfires and to play sports (and to shave and get a haircut.)  Not ones to shirk our ritual obligations, we will have a potluck picnic and various ball games (and maybe some Bananagrams for the sedentary) at Hendy Woods on Sunday, May 22, from 2:00 onwards.  Probably no hairstyling, unless a barber volunteers.  Let’s hike in the giant redwoods, barbecue, walk the river bed and enjoy a fun afternoon in a fantastic place.  If you’ve never been to Hendy Woods, take Highway 128 to the Philo Greenwood Road and turn right (west) -- continue one mile and enter the park.  We’ll meet at the picnic area.  Please bring food to share. (mh)

Kathy Sarin & Steve Schoolman; Gerald & Sara Kreger; Dawn Hofberg & Bob Schlosser: Paul Hed; Harriet Bye & Larry Sawyer; Pamela & David Duncan; Jane Graeven; Roberta & David Belson; Marcia Matlin; S A Ephraim & Ruth Rosenblum; Mark Kalman; Adrienne Ross; Rachel Lahn & Jim Young; Eric Labowitz & Kathy Bailey; Mina Cohen & Jeff Berenson; Karen Rakofsky; Danny Mandelbaum & Benna Kolinsky; Ira Beyer; Betty Deutsch; Bob & Charlie Silverman; Loie Rosenkrantz; Kathy Disney Nilson; Missy & Jesse Fiedler; Pete & Alicia Kafin; Rhoda Teplow; Fran & Roger Schwartz; Dani Spievak; Art & Rosalie Holub; Helen Jacobs.
 
In Memory of Ella Russell from Kate Dougherty; In Memory of Frances Lehan from Jonathan & Annette Lehan; in Memory of Melvin & Ida Ratner from Harriet Bye & Larry Sawyer.    (dm)

MCJC Board Meeting Dates
The next MCJC Board meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, May 25th. If you would like to attend the meeting please call the shul at 964-6146. (mc)

Mitzvah Freezer
If you need food from the freezer contact one of the Bikkur Cholim committee Mina at 937-1319 or mcohen@mcn.org, Fran Schwartz at 937-1352 or franamie@cs.com, or Karen Rakofsky at 937-5522 or nerak@mcn.org. You can access the freezer anytime.

Kabbalat Shabbat
In May we will be celebrating our home Kabbalat Shabbat and dinner on Friday, May 20th  at the home of Benna Kolinsky and Danny Mandelbaum in Boonville . Please call them at 895-3883 for directions and to let them know you are coming.  In June our host will be Shelley Martin in Albion.  The monthly Kabbalat Shabbat includes a song-filled short service that begins at 6:00 pm and is followed by a pot luck vegetarian dinner.  If you would like to host this wonderful event in your home in future months, contact Mina at 937-1319.   We particularly need hosts for July (15th) and September (16th).

Book Group
The book group will meet Monday, May 16th at 3:00 pm. Please call Fran Schwartz at 937-1352 if you wish to join us. We will be reading “The Puttermesser Papers” by  Cynthia Ozick. This book relates the story of a brilliant lawyer, Ruth Puttermesser whose love life is minimal but whose fantasy life seems to have a way of coming true with disastrous results. Cynthia Ozick has won many awards for her essays, novels, and short stories including a Guggenhiem fellowship.  This selection is available at Cheshire Books in Fort Bragg and you can get a 10% discount if you mention the MCJC book group.

Mendocino Coast District Hospital has a robot that acts as the hospitalist during the nights.  The robot is hooked up to an actual doctor who can be seen on a video screen where the face should be, talks to the patient as necessary, can do lots of diagnostic stuff, and then can advise the "human" staff how to proceed.  One of the doctors "inside" the robot is an orthodox physician in Israel.  Of course, he doesn't work on Friday nights (his time). Hopefully, you will not need to encounter the robot anytime soon but if you do, don't be surprised to see the robot with a kippah!

To read more about this technology, browse:
http://www.offsitecare.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=126&Itemid=182   or watch
http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=1528972146

 - Mina Cohen

Prayer Book Dedications
If you would like to honor or remember someone, a dedication plate can be inserted in one of our prayerbooks at the shul.  Cost for this is $36.  Please include information that you would like on the book plate when you send your donation to P.O. Box 291, Little River  95456. (mc)

Megillah Thanks
Thank you to Rhoda Teplow for folding and mailing the March Megillah and to Judy Minkus for folding and mailing the April megillah.  This is a task that you can do at home in about an hour or two.  If you can help with this please contact Mina at 937-1319 or mcohen@mcn.org.

Please pass this along to everyone at MCJC. Thank you so much for the thoughtful Purim package, it means so much to still be thought of on special occasions even though I don't get to make it home very often. I'm sorry it took so long for me to get back to everyone, but I'm very busy with my last semester of undergrad at SFSU. I hope all is well with everyone and hopefully I will be able to come home for a visit soon.
Thanks again,
Neshama.

Mendocino Maven

I hope that everyone experienced a meaningful Pesach and is happily enjoying the pleasures of chametzy barley, oats, rye, spelt and/or wheat.

If you have photos from Purim, your seder or other MCJC events that you would like to share, they can be uploaded to the MCJC Facebook page. Access to the page is open only to MCJC members. There are currently 63 members. There is also a Facebook page for Torah school students and their parents.

A huge Mazel Tov goes out to Elana Berenson and the Berenson-Cohen family on her upcoming marriage to Yakov Pesah in New York.  The soon to be newlyweds will spend the next year studying and working in Jerusalem.

Speaking of sharing, if members of the MCJC have writings, art, recipes, recommendations (travel, books, films, etc.) or recollections of a Jewish nature, they can be shared with the community through the Megillah. I know that our community is blessed with an abundance of talented writers, artists and cooks, please send your submissions to mcjcmegillah@mcjc.org.

For those of you have not checked it out yet, there are 62 animated Torah lessons at the

* = board member