B”H
“The
Vol.1 No. 1
Sephardi Voice of Victoria”
Contents
A Project of the Sephardi Association of Victoria Inc., Australia
Editorial Newsletter Guidelines Advertising Guidelines Synagogue Services ***Important Synagogue News Sephardi Laws and Customs for Shab’uot Shab’uot Recipes Shabbat 29th May Parshat Naso Shabbat 29th May Sephardi Web Resources Topics in Further Editions Acknowledgements
Editorial
On behalf of the Sephardi Association of Victoria, I would like to welcome you to the first edition of our new online Newsletter, “The Sephardi Voice of Victoria”. This newsletter will be published (G-d willing), once a week. You should receive it in your mailbox by Thursday night. Please distribute it to your friends, and print it out so you can read it over the Shab‟uot Festival. We are doing some maintenance on our email address list and we need to confirm our members and Sephardi friends‟ emails. So could you please distribute this Newsletter to your friends and relatives, and notify us of anyone’s email addresses if you feel they would like this publication (or we have the wrong address), at: sephardi@acinformation.com In the next few weeks, we will be joining-up our subscribers, to a Yahoo Mailing List Group, through which this publication will be distributed. Many other features will be available, e.g., the posting of photos and uploading files, chat facilities, and the ability to use Discussion Forums through which we can interact with members of our Community, and other Sephardim around the world. On behalf of the Committee we wish you all a Tizkoo Leshaneem Rabboth and Hagh Shabu'oth Sameyah. The Editor,
Alan L. Cohen
Alan (Yisrael) Cohen.
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Newsletter Guidelines
Content, Letters to the Editor, and Advertising (see below), are all welcome. We must receive them by 9.30pm on the Tuesday prior to publication. However, nothing anti-religious, anti-Jewish, or anti-Israel will be allowed, (unless you are talking about someone or a group perpetrating these things.) And no „flames‟ or Lashon Hara against another person in the community.
Advertising Guidelines
We would be pleased to advertise your business for a monetary donation (min. $20) or, donate a suitable book to the Library. Please contact me via phone or email at: sephardi@acinformation.com
Tax free donations may be made to the:Sephardi Association of Victoria Library Fund Charitable Trust
Alternatively, you may place a small advertisement, and contribute content to this Newsletter. Please support our advertisers, as they support us. Advertising copy, MUST be in MS Word, or plain Ascii text format, and is to be sent in as a mail attachment, or as normal email. We must receive copy from you by 9.30pm on the Tuesday prior to publication.
For all enquiries regarding this Newsletter, please contact the Editor at: sephardi@acinformation.com (03) 9527 2943 0418 477 643
Synagogue Services
The Sassoon Yehuda Synagogue 79 Hotham Street East St.Kilda. VIC. 3183
Enquiries: Synagogue (Yehuda) (Not Shabbat or Yom Tov) Ph: 9527 8863
Shab’uot
Tuesday 25th May, Erev Shab’uot Candle Lighting: 4.54pm 5.00pm Minha then Arvit 27/04/2009 4:09 PM “The Sephardi Voice of Victoria” Vol. 1 No.1
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Wednesday May 26th 9.00am 10.30am 11.00am Shaharit including Hallel Torah reading Ten Commandments Musaf followed by Ice cream for the children and Sephardi Desert the adults
for
5.00pm Mincha followed by Arvit *** Candle Lighting NOT BEFORE 5.54pm Thursday May 27th 9.00am 10.30am 11.30am Shaharit including Hallel Torah reading Hazkara Musaf Minha followed by Arvit
5.00pm
Yom Tov ends 5.54pm
Regular Services:
Friday Night: 5.00pm Minha followed by Arvit Shabbat Morning: 9.00am Shaharit followed by a scrumptious Kiddush/Luncheon, usually with hot Hamim. Shabbat Afternoon: 4.30pm Minhah followed by the Seudat Shlishit meal and then Arvit. Sunday Morning and Public Holidays: 8.30am Shaharit followed by Breakfast (Prepared by the Religious Sub-Committee, Enquiries: Ya’akov Dahan (Not Shabbat or Yom Tov) Ph: 9578 3805)
***Important Synagogue News
We have recently increased the number of services per week. We will be re-starting Shiurim shortly. Shiurim will be in English and Hebrew. Please support us by your attendance at ALL our activities. 27/04/2009 4:09 PM “The Sephardi Voice of Victoria” Vol. 1 No.1 3
Unless specifically noted, ALL our activities are open to men, women and children.
Remember: “Our Children Are Our Future”
Next Shabbat, Parshat Naso, will be a Special Shabbat, for our Community, (and there will be a Special Kiddush). We will be celebrating Maurice Gamil‟s 98th. Birthday, which is actually on the 31st May. It will also be Vicky Jaffe‟s Birthday. We all wish them both, Mazal Tov, and “Ad Meah ve‟ Esrim”, May they enjoy many Happy and Healthy Years to Come, “till 120”.
Sephardi Laws and Customs for Shab’uot
Shabu'oth, which comes seven weeks after Pesah (Passover), commemorates the receiving of the holy Torah at Mount Sinai. Our Rabbis of blessed memory tell us that Israel (the Jewish people) merited to receive the Torah, only because we said Na'aseh WeNishma' (we will do and we will hear). The Torah was a precious treasure that was hidden for 974 generations before the creation of the world. When Haqqadosh Barukh Hu (the Holy One Blessed Be He) decided to create the world, the Torah was its blueprint On Pesah we celebrate the Children of Israel's deliverance from Egypt. But though they were delivered out of the house of bondage, they were as yet not a free nation. In fact, the reason the Children of Israel merited to be delivered from Egypt was to receive the Torah at Mt. Sinai. At that time they would truly shake off the yoke of slavery and replace it with one of Torah – thus becoming a truly free nation. On Shabu'oth we celebrate the receiving of the Torah. In addition, it is also the Festival of the Reaping of the wheat and of the Gift-Offering. Since we are commanded to count seven full weeks between the onset of Pesah and the arrival of Shabu'oth, Qiddush on the first night must be made after Layla Wadday (after the stars come out). The second night (for those who live outside the Land of Israel) does not require Layla Wadday and in some cases it is even preferable to start early. The Berakhah (blessing) of Sheheheyanu is recited on both nights. After the Se'uddah (festive meal) the men stay up all night reading the prescibed Seder Hallimmud (order of learning) known as Hathimah. It includes portions from the entire Twenty Four Books of the Torah, Prophets and Writings (Tannakh), the 613 Miswoth, Midrash and Adra Rabba. No other studies should be substituted by Sephardim and no Mishnah should be read on this night. 27/04/2009 4:09 PM “The Sephardi Voice of Victoria” Vol. 1 No.1 4
It is written in the holy Sha'ar Hakkawwanoth, concerning the custom of Rabbenu the Ari, z"1, that after the Sefer Torah was brought out and shown he would return to his seat and remain seated till the end of the Parashah. Sepharadim have the same custom and remain seated for all Torah readings, including the Ten Commandments. The Ashkenazi custom is to stand for this portion. Dairy foods are an essential part of the meal during the day on Shabu'oth. Many varieties are eaten by Sepharadim, including rice cooked with milk and cucumbers in Yogurt. Some of the reasons are as follows: The numerical value of the Hebrew word for milk (Halab) is 40, which is compared to the 40 days and nights of the giving of the Torah. Another reason is that the source of milk is blood. But just as blood, which is red, becomes white when it turns into milk, so too the Torah has the power to turn sins into merits, as it says: "Eem Yihyu Hata-ekhem Kashaneem, Kashelegh Yalbeenu (If your sins are red, they will be made as white as snow)". A third reason is that just as the first food that a newborn tastes when he enters the world is milk, and the desire for milk remains in the child even when eating other foods, so too the Torah must be more sweet in our eyes than all the other pleasures of the world. And just as a baby drinks milk whenever it wishes with no preset times, so too the study of the Torah must be constant, as it is written: "We Hagheetha Bo Yomam Walayla (and you shall study it day and night). The Minhagh of eating pastry fried in butter (Kahi), fulfills the requirement of dairy food, but in addition, it is representative of another important aspect of the festival of Shabu'oth, that of the Gift Offering. As it is written: "...(You shall bring...two tenth parts of fine flour...they shall be baked with leaven...for first fruits unto the L-rd."). At night, one eats a normal festive se'uddah (meal), and the custom is for the dairy meal to be eaten during the day. Many have the Minhagh of following the dairy meal with a meat one. Some have the custom of only eating a dairy meal in the morning. Meghillath Ruth, Azharoth, – which is a poem enumerating the 613 Miswoth and Tehilleem (Psalms) are read over the two days of Shabu'oth. The Tehilleem have a special importance on Shabu'oth because their author, King David, 'a"h, died on this day. In general, all the above are read at home, though some congregations read them in synagogue in the afternoon.
Shab’uot Recipes
Kahi
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Jewish Babylonian Dish Ingredients: 5 cups flour 3 tsp. baking powder a pinch of salt ½ - ¾ cups water ½ lb. butter *Rivka’s shortcut for working mums: Use bought filo pastry and unsalted butter. for Clarify the butter by melting it on a slow fire, removing the scum. Set aside. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Add 2 tablespoons of butter and rub in with your finger tips until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs. Add ½ cup of water and knead until it develops into a soft dough. If too dry, add a little more water. Knead dough until it is smooth and elastic. Cover the dough and set aside for 1 hour. Divide the dough into approximately 10 pieces and shape into balls, the size of a peach. Open each piece with a "Shobak" (rolling pin) into rounds, slightly bigger than pita. Brush it with the butter. Fold it into half and brush it with butter. Fold it into a quarter and brush it again. Open the dough once again and repeat 4 times. The more you fold, the fluffier it will be. To serve, sprinkle with Silan (see Passover Haleq recipe for date syrup) or confectioner's sugar.
Shelkenei
Jewish Kurdish Dish Ingredients: 3 cups flour 8 cups milk 1 cup sugar 6 eggs 3 sticks butter/margarine Combine the flour, eggs and milk and mix well in a blender. Warm 1 tsp. margarine/butter in a frying pan and pour one soup ladle of the blended mixture into the frying pan. Fry both sides. Serve with sprinkled sugar on top.
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Advertisements: _____________________________________
Wanting to buy a used, rare, or antiquarian book and can’t find it in any of the shops? Book & Media Finders Online, and Jewishbookfinders can help you. www.bookfindersonline.com _______________________ Film night, to raise money for Victims of Terror in Israel The Simon Wiesenthal Center, and Peu’la – Action for Israel Presents
“In Search of Peace 1948 – 1967”
An award winning documentary on the early years of the State of Israel, narrated by Michael Douglas.
(By combining a rich tapestry of rare archival footage and photos, this film delivers a unique insight into the Middle East conflict) Classic Cinema, 9 Gordon St Elsternwick Sunday May 30th. 4.30pm and 7.15pm Bookings: 9524 7900 Adults: $18.00 Pensioners: $8.00 ***All proceeds will go to assist families affected by terror in Israel. ____________________________________________________
Shabbat Friday 29th. May 2004
Candle lighting Friday 28th: Shabbat ends: Sat. 29th: 27/04/2009 4:09 PM “The Sephardi Voice of Victoria” Vol. 1 No.1 4.53pm 5.53pm 7
The Parshat Hashavua for next is Naso
Next week will be a „short week”. due to Shab‟uot, so there will not be time to prepare next week‟s Newsletter. We have therefore included the Parsha commentary here. http://www.shemayisrael.co.il/parsha/kollel/archives/nasso62.htm (**Please note, that the times for the Zemanim, are last year’s)
Sephardi Web Resources
Send a Jewish e-Greetings Card http://www.midrash.org/cards
Jewish Sephardi & General Jewish Genealogy http://www.sephardim.com/
Topics in Future Editions
Kids Page Music Links The Sephardi Community of my Childhood
Acknowledgments:
Hakham Ya'aqob Menashe of Midrash Ben Ish Hai, New York, for the Laws and Customs of Shab‟uot. Daf Hashavua, Kollel Beth HaTalmud, Melbourne commentary on Shabbat Parsha Naso.
Please distribute this Newsletter to your friends and relatives
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