Provided: three delicious soups (cheesy turnip & leak, butternut squash bisque and black bean chili) and challah, of course!   You bring: a vegetarian side dish and your whole family. Location: Covenant Presbyterian Church lounge – 2070 Ridgecliff Road, Upper Arlington, 43221 SoupRSVP: Emia Oppenheim eo10@cornell.edu or 267.5974

• 6:15 - soup is served
• 7:00 - kabbalat shabbat
• 7:30 - maariv/evening service

Here in the central Ohio, the Hebrew month of Sh’vat falls during January and February. And much like Hanukkah, where we celebrate light on the darkest days of the year, Tu B’Shvat in the frozen tundra of the Midwest gives us an opportunity to celebrate trees, fruit and life, even when everything outside seems so lifeless. In modern times, Tu B’Shvat has assumed many roles: a chance to reflect on the land of Israel (which is starting to bloom with new life); a chance to reflect on the state of our planet (the destruction of forests and the warming of the climate); a chance to explore the Kabbalist concepts of the Four Worlds or being and doing; and a chance to celebrate the gifts of life that trees and other plants give. Throughout Torah and our Jewish history, our partnership with the earth has been a recurrent theme and our care for the earth, a prominent mitzvah/commitment.

In the spirit of light, learning, growth, and celebration, please join the Little Minyan for our 6th annual  intergenerational Tu B’Shvat seder to celebrate the New Year of the Trees on Saturday, February 4th, from 2:00 to 4:00 pm, at the Antrim Park Shelter House, 5800 Olentangy River Road, 43085. We will journey through time and across spiritual landscapes learning our tradition’s wise and prescient teachings about the environment. Come prepared to sing and sample the many edible fruits of trees.

Please RSVP to littleminyan@littleminyan.org TODAY or by Wednesday, February 1st, and let us know how many people in your family are coming to join our celebration. If you have any questions, call Jessica Shimberg at 459.9593.

Following our service, at 11:30 a.m., we will have our customary vegetarian potluck luncheon – please bring a dish to share.  We have a treat this month – a presentation by LM member, David Frankel, a graduate student at OSU. David’s topic teaser follows.

The Cairo Genizah and Progressive Judaism today: The Cairo Genizah was a storage room in the attic of the old Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat (Old Cairo).  When it was discovered over 100 years ago, scholars found hundreds of thousands of Jewish documents, many of which were over 1000 years old.  So what does a 100-year-old discovery of 1000-year-old documents have to do with the ever-changing face of Judaism today?  You may be surprised! Join us as we discuss the story of the discovery of the Genizah,  the world that it uncovered, and the questions that arise when we learn about a Jewish society much different than our own.

Dinner begins at 6:15 p..m. at Covenant Presbyterian Church, 2070 Ridgecliff Road, Upper Arlington, 43221; Kabbalat Shabbat will commence with song at 7:00 and services at 7:30.  Thank you to our oneg Shabbat sponsors, Bill and Randi Cohen, and our d’rash presenter, Jerry Tinianow.  Services will be led by Jessica Shimberg with musical accompaniment by Bill Cohen and Julie Sapper.

In the spirit of levity, light, love, and the joy and ruach that music brings to even the darkest winter nights, enjoy watching and listening to this fresh spin on kindling the Hanukkah lights.

Consider this excerpt from an essay by David Spinrada, who traveled to Immokalee, Florida, with Rabbis for Human Rights-North America, to witness the conditions surrounding the tomato harvest there. He writes that the trip triggered for him a passage from Pirkei Avot in which Ben Zoma asks four rhetorical questions:

“Who is wise?” He said it is one who learns from everyone. “Who is powerful?” One with self-control. “Who is wealthy?” Wealthy is the one who appreciates what he has. And finally, Ben Zoma asks, “Aizohu mechubad? Who is honored? Hamchabed et habriyot (Pirkei Avot 4:1). The one who is honored honors God’s creations, specifically, honors other human beings. The one who is honored honors and affirms human dignity in another.”

Spinrada reminds us that “neither mountaintop sage nor one on a high rung of the corporate ladder holds a monopoly on teaching us what we need to know. Wisdom is gained by talking to all kinds of people, by listening to what they have to say, be they the person next to you on the bus or those who help bring our food from the fields to our tables.”

For more information about Rabbis for Human Rights, please visit their website. For an opportunity to bring light to the darkness of a December Erev Shabbat, join Jessica Shimberg, Bill Cohen, and members of the Little Minyan as we welcome Shabbat with special attention to our responsibility to k’vod habriot/human dignity, on Friday, December 9, at 7:30 p.m. at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Upper Arlington.

Yet, for as brilliantly secular as our American Thanksgiving is – uniting all Americans in a holiday of gratitude – this holiday mirrors, in so many ways, our Jewish heritage of giving thanks. Our liturgy is ripe with daily opportunities for appreciation, as is evidenced by these words from our daily Amidah prayer of thanks – From generation to generation may we thank You and count Your praises: evening, morning, and noon … Baruch Atah Adonai hatov shimcha ul’cha na’eh l’hodot – Holy One of Blessing, Source of goodness, it is pleasing to give thanks to You.

If you are looking for a way to bring Jewish values and our tradition of thanks-giving to your Thanksgiving table, here are several different options drawn from ritualwell.org, an amazing resource where you can find, create, and share rituals of all kinds.  Our siddur, Kol Haneshamah, and many other modern siddurim, have prayers for American holidays as well as Jewish holidays. Hag Sameach!

Thanksgiving Day: A Modern Psalm

Thanksgiving Supplement to Birkat Hamazon

Appreciating Our Elders

Our service will focus on the theme of hunger and overcoming the obstacles that cause hunger in our community and around the world.  Overwhelming, you say? Not when we put our hearts and minds together and work with individuals and agencies to support innovative approaches.  Did you know that global hunger is not the result of a global food shortage? The world’s farmers produce enough food to adequately feed every person on the planet, yet nearly 925 million people worldwide remain hungry. (The United Nations World Food Programme, http://www.wfp.org/hunger/stats.)

American Jewish World Service (AJWS) promoted a Global Hunger Shabbat last weekend and we will be looking at some of their materials as we experience Shabbat from the perspective of visioning a world without the devastation of hunger. One of the main messages of Global Hunger Shabbat is that promoting self sufficiency—ensuring that local communities have access to and control over the sources of their food—is the key to overcoming hunger. Systems of food aid should not simply distribute food to people facing hunger, but should also support local communities here at home and in developing countries in their efforts to become self-sufficient. Preventing hunger in the future, rather than creating a system of dependency, is a model that we are able to see and touch right here in Columbus through efforts like the Seeds of Hope Community Garden on the grounds of our hosts, Covenant Presbyterian Church, and educational and direct-service programs like those through Local Matters and the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA), just to name a few.

If you are unable to join us, but would still like to participate in the learning and activism associated with AJWS’s Global Hunger Shabbat, you can visit their website. For information about our location and about upcoming programming please visit our calendar.

ברוך אתה ה’ הזן את הכל

We praise You, God, who provides food for all.