Welcome to
The Jewish Community of Kansai
Congregation Ohel Shelomoh
Kobe City
JAPAN
4-12-12 Kitano-cho
Chuo-ku
Kobe 650-0002
JAPAN
Inside Japan:
090-4297-2095
Overseas: (+81) 90-4297-2095
Fax: 078-242-7254
Overseas Fax (+81) 78-242-7254
Email: please use the contact page.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
✡ The
Jewish Community of Kansai✡
Kobe,
Japan
www.jcckobe.org
Weekly
Newsletter
Shabbat
Kindling הדלקת
נרות
18:05
Friday
Parashot
Nitzavim, Devarim / Deuteronomy 29:9~30:20; and
Vayeilech, 31.
Haftorah
Nitzavim is read: Isaiah 61:10~63:9. This is the
seventh of the seven Haftorot of Consolation between Tisha
b’Av and Rosh Hashanah.
Evening
prayers 19:30
Festive meal
20:30 (approximately)
Morning prayers
8:45 Saturday
(last initial reciting of Shema 8:46)
Festive
meal 12:00 (approx.)
Mincha
13:30 (approx.)
Third
meal 18:15 (approx.)
Nightfall
19:01 followed by Arvit, Havdala
The
Community sponsored
the Shabbat Ki Tavo Kiddush and meals, and as always we
thank Moshiko Swisa for cooking and in general “taking
care”. It was a pleasure to welcome Cyrille Cohen of
Bar-Ilan University, Israel (where Tsvi Sadan / Sasaki
Tsuguya also is); Mr. and Mrs. Benny Abramovitz, also of
Israel; and second-time visitor Zwi Berneman of Antwerp,
Belgium, all of whom were in Kobe for an international
conference on immunology. Gili Shases joined us
as well.
Cyrille
Cohen, Shmuel Cohen (both of whom twice performed the
Priestly Blessing) and Shemy Bezza acted as Chazzan
and also “leyned” the Torah; Shemy Bezza read the
Haftorah.
From
the Hyogo Prefectural Museum came Mr. Kobayashi, Tadashi
with some fascinating black-and-white photographs of Jewish
refugees in Kobe, 1940 and 1941. He is a
curator doing research on that period and would welcome
more information.
Mazal
tov to Daniel, Yona, and Shmuel Moskovich on the birth of
their daughter / baby sister at 22:45 on August 21 / 12
Elul, a healthy 2980 grams. Her name is Chana
(on passport: Ann)..
>
>
Menorah
Magazine
of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is, at age 50, the oldest Jewish
magazine in Latin America. For a special Rosh Hashana
issue featuring Jewish life in Japan, to appear in
mid-September, the editor, Sr. Ronaldo Gomlevsky, is now
visiting Japan. He wishes to interview and photograph
Jewish communities and individual Jews (affiliated or not).
If interested in talking with Ronaldo inKobe,
Osaka, Kyoto, or Hiroshima Sept. 5, 6, or 7, please
contact
marcya@globo.com
,
ronigom@globo.com,or
jlyohay@nava21.ne.jp
To see more:
menorahnet.com.br>
Please
call Moshiko Swisa, 090-4297-2095, as soon as you can to
make reservations for the Year 5771 Chagim—the High Holy
Days. Candlelighting on erev Rosh Hashana is at
17:58 on Wednesday, Sept. 8. This year the
three pairs of Chagim are on Thursdays and Fridays (each
starting at sundown Wednesday and each immediately followed
by Shabbat; Yom Kippur itself is
Shabbat).
Rosh
Hashana Sept. 9 and 10: Arvit 19:00 followed by
Kiddush, the Seven Species, and festive meal.
Shacharit 8:00 followed by Musaf, festive
meal.
Tashlich
Sept. 9 in the afternoon, before or after
Mincha.
Yom
Kippur: Kol Nidre Fri. Sept. 17; day-long fast
Sat., Sept. 18
Sukkot
Sept. 23 and 24
Shmini
Atzeret / Simchat Torah Sept. 30 and Oct. 1.
About
tsedaka for the Chagim meals, please inquire of Moshiko
Swisa or of Rotem Levy, 090-1920-1497. It
is suggested that each adult contribute 5,000 yen for one
day of Rosh Hashana; 7,000 yen for both days.
3,000 yen is asked for the pre-Yom Kippur meal
plus break-the-fast refreshments. For Sukkot,
2,000 yen for the first day; 3,000 for the first and second
days; similarly 2,000 yen for either Shmini Atzeret or
Simchat Torah, 3,000 yen for both.
As usual, donation information
appears at the bottom of this
newsletter.
Nitzavim: A Summary of
the Parashah
Moses describes
the Covenant between God and the Israelites, urging the
Israelites to uphold the Covenant and honor the Torah so
that they may be rewarded with life in the land of Israel.
By Nancy Reuben
The following
article is reprinted with permission from
Jewish Family &
Life!
Moses
continues his last speech
before the Israelites. "You are standing before God in
order to enter into the Covenant of God and take the oath
that God makes with you, so that God may fulfill God's
promise to your fathers,
Abraham,
Isaac and
Jacob. It is
not with you alone, but with those who are here and those
who are not here that God makes this Covenant and oath."
Moses continues, "You remember how we dwelt in the land of
Egypt as slaves and saw the Egyptians worshipping their
idols. If any of you turns your heart away now from our God
to serve these foreign gods, there could be among you a
root that will someday ripen as a poison. God will not be
willing to forgive those who know of this Covenant but
follow their own selfish heart. God's anger will rise
against those people and God will blot out their name and
set them apart as evil.
"Future generations will see the devastation in the land
and all the nations will ask, 'why has God done this to
this land?' It shall then be said that the people forsook
the Covenant of God that God established with them when God
brought them out from the land of Egypt. They served other
gods who did nothing for them. For this reason did God
remove them from the land in great outrage.
"There are secret things that belong only to God. The words
of this Teaching, however, are revealed. This Teaching is
ours and our children's forever.
"And it will come to pass when all these words, the
blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, will
come upon you and you will take it to heart. In the midst
of all the nations to which God has exiled you, you and
your children will return to your God and hearken to God's
voice with all your heart and with all your soul. Then God
will turn back to seek out your exiles and have compassion
upon you and will gather you together from among all the
peoples to which God has scattered you. Then God will do
good to you and multiply you even more than your fathers.
"God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your
descendants to love God so that you may live. Then God will
place all these curses upon your enemies and upon those who
hate you. Meanwhile you will return to God's commandments.
Then good will be the work of your hands and good will be
your livestock and the fruits in your field. For then you
will be listening to the voice of God and following what is
written in this Book of the Teaching."
"For this commandment that I command you today," Moses
insists, "is not beyond your understanding, nor is it far
away. It is not in heaven, nor in the seas beyond your
reach for the Word is very near to you. Carry it out with
your mouth and with your heart.
"See, I have set before you today life and good, and also
death and evil, inasmuch as I command you today to love
God, to walk in God's ways and to keep God's commandments,
so that you may live and multiply. God will bless you in
the land to which you are coming to take possession. But if
your heart shall turn in a manner that forsakes God and
serve other gods, then I have announced to you this day
that you will quickly perish, that you will not last long
in the soil of this promised land.
"I have called heaven and earth today as witnesses against
you. I have set life and death before you, blessing and
curse. Choose life, so that you and your descendants may
live to love your God. Cling firmly to God, for that is
your life and the length of your days, to dwell upon the
soil that God swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob."
Questions For
Discussion
1) What do you
think are "the secret things that belong to God?" What are
some questions that you would like God to answer about
these secrets? What difference would the answer make to
your life?
2) In this portion it appears that Moses already knows that
the people will stray away from God's teachings and will be
scattered among the peoples of the earth, but that the
Israelites will return to the teachings of God. Why do you
think that Moses predicts this rejection and then
acceptance? Do you think this has happened? What phase,
rejection or acceptance, are the Jewish people in
now?
| Nancy Reuben |