Hyper Local News Pages

Web Stats Provided By Google Analytics

Monday, September 29, 2008

09/29/08 Greenwich Time News Links For Monday (updated)




Above: Juliette Rolnick, 10, and other members of the
Chabad Hebrew School try out their new shofars that they made.
(Helen Neafsey/Greenwich Time Staff photo)

Below: Rabbi Schneur Wilhelm plays the shofar.
(Helen Neafsey/Greenwich Time Staff photo)


TOP STORY:

Headlines:

Dateline: 5769 - Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, Starts this Evening

Children At The Hebrew School at Chabad of Greenwich Take Home New Shofars For The New Year

Happy New Year: Greenwich Jews celebrate 'birth of the world' with Rosh Hashana

Quotes:

It is important that the horn is curved, because it represents the individual's willingness to bend to God's will, Rabbi Schneur Wilhelm said.

"It's not that hard, you just have to do it for a long time," Daniel Rosenblatt said while sanding it down, "and it's really fun to blow it."

"It was really hard to cut through," Jordyn Young said. "It just shows you how much work goes into making this."

"I thought it was great," Chani Feldman Director Of The Chabad Hebrew School " The kids were able to answer questions and it showed that they have learned a lot this week."
The Story:


While helping to make a shofar out of a ram's horn Sunday, Daniel Rosenblatt, 10, was confident that it was something he could do every year....

...In preparation of the Jewish new year Rosh Hashana, the Hebrew School at Chabad of Greenwich made the traditional horn used so that God can hear all Jewish people ask for forgiveness for their sins during the holiday, said Rabbi Schneur Wilhelm, who conducted the program.

Wilhelm set up a work table with a sander, hand saw and drills to demonstrate what goes into making the shofar....

Please Read The Full Greenwich Time Story



What The Greenwich Time Should Have Told You About The Holiday:

First: There are four different kinds of shofar blasts, and combinations. including “tekiah gadola,” a two-note sound that’s held as long as possible.

You want hear a good blast of the shofaron the second note. An experienced player will go about 30 seconds or more for a really good "wake up" blast. Basically the player wants the congregation to think he is going to pass out. You want the congregation to be very impressed. That’s what you’re going for.

Second: Today, Greenwich synagogues will echo with the blast of the shofar, a ram’s horn transformed into a kind of trumpet in a tradition with roots millennia deep.

The horn is blown on Rosh Hashanah, which is the Jewish New Year and beginning of the Jewish calendar’s holiest period, a 10-day period concluding with Yom Kippur. The holiday begins at sundown.

Rosh Hashanah means the “head of the year,” marking the anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve.

It’s the day we accept God as our kind, our sovereign, the one who will guide our lives for the rest of the year. It’s also a day of judgment, when God looks at how we achieved that goal in the past year.

Rosh Hashanah is traditionally a season of taking stock.

It’s commemorating the birth of the world, so it’s a time for us to recognize achievements and shortcomings in the year past, and get ready for the year to come.

As part of the traditional rituals, Jews eat apples and honey, to start the year sweet as part of holiday dinners. But the shofar’s sound is the peak of the liturgical day, usually blown by an experienced player.

The shofar’s sound is meant to be “a cry of the hearts, from the depth of the soul.

It’s a sound of hearts crying to God to ask for a good year.

In another way, it’s meant to be a symbolic “wake-up call to remind us that it’s the new year, and to reconnect with god.

And in these troubled and fearful times perhaps we need to hear that symbolic wake up call and reconnect with god in a more genuine and powerful way.

If you hear the shofar tonight think of the first man who ever blew a shofar.

Some time after the birth of Isaac, Abraham was commanded by God to offer his son up as a sacrifice in the land of Moriah. The Abraham traveled three days until he came to the mount that God taught him. He commanded the servant to remain while he and Isaac proceeded alone to the mountain, Isaac carrying the wood upon which he would be sacrificed. Along the way, Isaac repeatedly asked Abraham where the animal for the burnt offering was.

On New Years Day, Just as Abraham was about to sacrifice his son, he was prevented by an angel, and given on that spot a ram caught in the thicket (Gen. 22:13) which he sacrificed in place of his dear son.

It was said that Abraham was the first to fashion and play a shofar on that day.

Can you even hope to possibly imagine how strong and powerfully long that first ever blast of the shofar was on that day.

It is new beginning.

It is a new day.

A precious anointing can come your way.

May God Bless You and Your Family And May You Have A Happy, Healthy And Peaceful New Year.

During this period of reflection and introspection, let us take time to review our actions this past year and consider how we can improve ourselves and the world in which we live. Let us have a humble prayer that this year that we will work for justice.

Let us rededicate ourselves to ending poverty and bringing peace to the world.

As we consider the economic challenges facing our nation, let's not forget those who are struggling to feed, clothe, and shelter their families. Let us think of those threatened by oppression and genocide, Let us think of our young brave men and women in uniform who have selflessly volunteered to stand in har,s way in order to protect us, and please Lord let us think of the ways each of us can bring an end to all wars and conflict.

Also:
They finished work on the CR just before Rosh Hashana, and they hope to complete work on that $700 billion bank bailout bill by midweek, which should get ...

More From The Greenwich Time:


Faulty valve stem woes trigger probe


An untold number of motorists across the region may be hitting the road with a defective car component that could put them at risk of rapid tire deflation and vehicle control problems while traveling at high speeds, safety advocates say.


The rain held out as more than a thousand people descended upon the Greenwich Polo Fields to go wild and raise money for land preservation.


Stamford's top Democrat is ticked off at fellow party leaders in neighboring Greenwich, who she said have been tepid in their support for 36th District state Senate candidate Mark Diamond and even tried to force him to step aside earlier in the campaign so one of their own could run.


Though the town was forced to open its beaches to outsiders for the exercise of their free speech rights, its legal advisers say there is ample precedent to support maintaining a pool for residents only.



The new year becomes a hands-on experience

Helen Neafsey/Staff photoWhile helping to make a shofar out of a ram's horn Sunday, Daniel Rosenblatt, 10, was confident that it was something he could do every year.


Eagle Hill School will host a two-day symposium on special education, with the theme "Best Practices and New Perspectives in the Field of Learning Disabilities," featuring a slate of experts on children with learning disabilities.



The staff of First Church Preschool in Old Greenwich unveiled the preschool's newly renovated playground at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Sept.


GREENWICH - For nearly 60 years Margaret Brassler Kane was a neighbor of The Historical Society of the Town of Greenwich and its historic Bush-Holley Site in Cos Cob.


September 30 Rosh Hashanah - Public schools closed.

October 1 "Jazz for Uganda" show, 7:15 p.m., Convent of the Sacred Heart.



The Convent of the Sacred Heart soccer team continued its recent surge, defeating host Canterbury 2-1 in New Milford Saturday.


The financial gyrations of recent weeks drives home the importance of understanding investing, whether in a company-sponsored 401(k) or a portfolio of individual stocks, bonds and other vehicles.



To the editor:

This Byram Pool idea is an ill-timed, inappropriate and narrow-focused chowder-headed, pea-brained additional cost element in the town's already overburdened capital improvement plan budget!
If anything, the selectmen should be reducing the budget - not adding to it!

I suggest that residents e-mail CIP2009Comments@greenwichct.org indicating opposition to one more unnecessary spending item.

If the town were flush with excess funds, then by all means build the pool. But going into a period when revenues will undoubtedly be decreased, charitable contributions are already being reduced by contributors and we will probably be facing post-presidential-election austerity measures, we should not be spending for any new initiatives that are not absolutely essential. Let's take care of our infrastructure before we spend for superstructures!

Finally, even if this pool is to be financed by private donations, there would be ongoing town costs such as maintenance, personnel and similar charges.

Bad idea for now. Perhaps for the future.

Roger H. Lourie
Greenwich

The writer is a Representative Town Meeting member from District 7.

ALSO:

To the editor:

This independent has had it with John McCain! The last straw for me was him accusing Barack Obama of responding to our current financial crisis with "me first, country second" politics.

This is merely a cute transposition of his "country first, me second" mantra. At one time, his mantra sounded believable. But when he picked Sarah Palin as a running mate in an attempt to convince right-wing extremists not to stay home on Election Day, his hypocrisy became readily apparent. Country first, my foot! He wants to win and will do anything to get that done.

Choosing Palin puts winning the election first, and the good of the country last - and heaven help this country if McCain doesn't make it through the next four years. We'd be in for meaningless pronouncements (like "I look out my window and I see Russia, and so therefore I know something about Russia"), constant repetition of the big lie (Like, "Thanks, but no thanks on that bridge to nowhere"), and, based on her pre-campaign history, attempts to ban books and teach creationism.

To quote David Brooks, "like President Bush, she seems to compensate for her lack of experience with brashness and excessive decisiveness."

With respect to foreign affairs, nobody has said it better than Republican Senator Chuck Hagel: "In a world that is so complicated, so interconnected and so combustible, you really got to have some people in charge that have some sense of the bigger scope of the world." Palin is light years away from having that sense, even with the help of experienced foreign-affairs professionals. With her at the helm, other countries would respect us even less than with Bush.

If McCain wins, we'd better pray for his health every morning.


Philip J. Feuer
Riverside

Most Viewed Greenwich Time Stories


Byram pool ban gains support


Faulty valve stem woes trigger probe


Greenwich Land Trust goes wild


Small banks benefit


Palin choice contradicted 'country first'


Teen pleads not guilty


House defeats $700B bailout

================================================================

Please send your comments to GreenwichRoundup@gmail.com

No comments:

The Raw Greenwich Blog And RSS Feed - Bloggers Who Are From, Work In Or Used To Live In Greenwich