Weekly Message from the Board President

Well, that was interesting.  Last week, Chabad Rabbi Yaacov Raskin from Laramie led the discussion at Torah Thursday.  About a dozen people attended, which is far more than the normal attendance.  Rabbi Raskin talked about the history of the Talmud, and how traditions evolved and changed over time.  He’ll lead again this Thursday.

Torah Thursday is free and takes place from noon to 1 PM at the Synagogue.  You’re encouraged to bring your lunch so you can feed your body and your mind at the same time.

Rabbi Halfon is in Israel attending the Hartman Institute.  He’ll spend some time traveling around the country, as he did last summer.  And we expect he will come back with lots of stories about his adventures.

The Board of Directors meets Wednesday.  A big topic of discussion will be the Yiddish Food Festival.  The Board will look at what worked and what didn’t, and what needs to be changed for next year.  It’s always difficult to predict how many people will come to the Festival.  It’s ranged from about 400 to as high as 800.  We want to run out of food, but not until the end of the day, and we also don’t want to make too much and have hundreds of leftovers.

We also raised the prices of the shekels this year in response to inflation, but that caused some confusion among our guests.  The Board will decide if we keep the price increase or roll it back.

It may seem early to start thinking about the High Holy Days.  They are late this year – Rosh Hashanah is not until October 2^nd.  The Board may start preliminary discussions about it at the meeting.

Do you remember the issue we had with the sump pump in the Synagogue?  The building is located over an underground river, and we use a sump pump to keep the basement from flooding.  The underground river is also used to feed our Mikvah, which has been certified as Kosher under Orthodox standards.  However, the river water is polluted (we use only a tiny amount in the Mikvah – the rest is clean city water.)

The Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality has offered to clean the water at no cost to the Synagogue, but we are checking to make sure their plan doesn’t affect the religious importance of the Mikvah – we want it to stay Kosher.  We’re working with the Rabbi who certified the Mikvah and the DEQ to come up with a plan that addresses all of the needs.  We’ll keep you posted.

Here’s our Yiddish Phrase of the Week:

Nito keyn eybike zakh af der velt.     
Nothing in the world is forever.          

Shalom,

Dave Lerner
President
Mt. Sinai Board of Directors

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A selection of Basic Jewish Library (Books, movies and other resources), recommended by Rabbi Halfon.  Please click here.

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July Birthdays

4             Lee Moench

5             Paul Saltman

6              Martha Silver
               Howard Levine

12           Dave Lerner

13           Marie Still

15           Andrea Moldo

15           Ryder Lucero

16           Georgia Young

20           Hawk McLoud
               Cara Johnson

22           Susan Feldman

27           Matani Ravenna