The "Once Every 28 Year" Mitzvah Celebrated by Beth Shalom

From the Daytona News Journal

April 09, 2009
Special sunrise
Jews believe every 28 years the sun returns to the spot it occupied on the 4th day of creation
By KARI COBHAM Staff Writer
FLAGLER BEACH -- "I think it's coming," a woman says.
The huddled group moves instinctively toward the wooden rail as the sun's rays break pink and orange over the frigid Atlantic Ocean. Numb hands clutch at prayer sheets.
"I haven't seen the sunrise in a long time so I might as well see this one; it's a special one," says Philip Barish, a Flagler Beach retiree and Palm Coast Temple Beth Shalom member.
At daybreak Wednesday, similar scenes unfolded worldwide, as many devout Jews gathered to observe Birkat HaChama or the Blessing of the Sun.
The ancient ritual comes just once every 28 years -- perhaps three times in a lifetime -- and marks the moment observers say the sun returns to the spot in the sky it occupied on the fourth day of creation.
"Often to us in these modern times, there's this ancient association of the sun with power," said Rabbi Merrill Shapiro of the conservative Wellington Drive synagogue.
About 20 of its members gathered in the dim morning light on Flagler Beach. Over in Ormond Beach, members stood outside the Esformes Chabad Center after a 7:30 a.m. service to acknowledge the moment.
"Sun is one of God's creations and definitely there's something to be grateful to witness," said Rabbi Pinchas Ezagui, spiritual leader at the center. "It's very emotional."
This year's observance holds special significance because it happens to coincide with Passover, Shapiro said.
The weeklong Jewish festival celebrates the deliverance of the Jewish people from Egyptian slavery and commemorates God sparing them from a plague that killed the firstborns of Egypt.
"What this year and this era holds for us, we cannot know, but we know that that makes it important," Shapiro said.
But other area synagogues, some of which hadn't heard of the Blessing of the Sun, bypassed the somewhat obscure tradition to focus on the Passover celebration.
"In the total scheme of things, this is an interesting idea and certainly it does have the makings of a strong ecological message," said Rabbi Barry Altman of the reform Temple Beth-El in Ormond Beach.
Conservative Congregation B'Nai Torah in Ormond Beach also did not observe the blessing. Temple Shalom of Deltona members recognized it individually, treasurer Ellen Korn said.
Not all Jewish denominations teach about the tradition and because it doesn't come often it's not "top of mind," Shapiro said.
Flagler Beach retiree Barish arrived in the Wednesday morning cold clutching a cup of steaming liquid. This Birkat HaChama will likely be his last, the 74-year-old grudgingly admitted.
"I hate to think of it that way, but it comes with the territory," Barish said.
Abraham Fortun, a ninth-grader at Flagler Palm Coast High School, went mostly because his dad made him.
"I've also never seen a sunrise before," said Abraham, 14, his bespectacled face barely visible beneath a tightly drawn gray hoodie.
Shapiro remembered joining 400,000 Jews 28 years ago at the Wailing Wall, watching the sun come up over the gold Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem with his wife and two children. He was 34 years old then, 62 now.
"We're all sure that the sun will rise tomorrow, but what would happen if it didn't?" Shapiro said. "This is God manifest in our world."

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Florida Fair Elections Center Executive Director Susan Pynchon to speak at April 19th Men's Club Breakfast

Florida Fair Elections Center Executive Director Susan Pynchon, a nationally recognized election reform and voting rights advocate will address a new initiative to end election district gerrymandering in the State of Florida at the a Temple Beth Shalom Men’s Club Breakfast on Sunday, April 19th at 10 a.m. The meeting is open to all and includes an elaborate breakfast. A $12 donation is requested. The public is urged to attend. Reservations can be made through the synagogue office at 386-445-3006.

For many years, Pynchon has monitored, researched, and wrote reports on various elections and election problems around Florida, including special reports on elections in Volusia County, Flagler County, and Sarasota County. She has made numerous trips to Tallahassee to speak on election-related issues before the Ethics and Elections Committees of the Florida House and Senate; advocated for verifiable paper-ballot elections in Washington D.C. and Tallahassee; studied election law and election “best practices.” Pynchon personally initiated and sponsored Florida’s first statewide election reform conference, which has become an annual event. She regularly gives talks to community organizations throughout Florida to help educate Floridians about the problems with electronic voting, partisan election administration, and other reform issues.

Susan Pynchon co-founded the Florida Voters Coalition; served as a member of the Election Protection Coalition; and served on the Advisory Board of VoteTrustUSA. She has been Interviewed frequently by local, state, and national news media on election-related issues, including CNN, the Wall Street Journal, the Daytona Beach News Journal, the DeLand Beacon, and the Orlando Sentinel; appeared in the Emmy-nominated documentary Hacking Democracy.

Pynchon is well-known for having forged cooperative relationships with established civil rights organizations to monitor proposed legislation on the state and national level and to advocate for needed election reforms. She Initiated the preservation of Florida election records, which would otherwise have been destroyed, for the 2000, 2004 and 2006 elections so that historians and researchers will forevermore have access to those records.

Susan Pynchon was the recipient of the 2008 Nelson Poynter Civil Liberties Award, Florida ACLU The Nelson Poynter Civil Liberties Award has been presented for 29 consecutive years to an individual or group of individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of civil liberties. The award is named for the former crusading editor of the St. Petersburg Times, who was never afraid to stand up for unpopular causes. He fought racial segregation, defended the right of a free press, exposed corruption in government and supported the rights of the elderly and the poor. He also led the fight for the Sunshine Law, opening Florida’s government to public scrutiny and accountability. The first recipient of the Nelson Poynter Civil Liberties Award was the late Florida Governor LeRoy Collins in 1978, who was recognized for his courageous leadership in upholding racial justice and opposing the death penalty. Other recipients have included Florida Supreme Court Justice Gerald Kogan; Florida Bar Association President Chesterfield Smith; Immigrant Rights Attorney Cheryl Little; and, in 2007, author and columnist Carl Hiaasen.Together with three colleagues, I received the 2008 Nelson Poynter Civil Liberties award for “defending voting rights in Florida,” which included rallying diverse organizations across Florida in the successful push for statewide implementation of verifiable paper ballot voting systems in 2007 and other election reforms.

Susan Pynchon's Educational background:American College, Paris, France – one year; Liberal ArtsEckerd College, St. Petersburg, FL – two years; Liberal ArtsUniversity of Maine, Augusta, Maine – one year; Liberal ArtsUniversity of New Hampshire, Durham, NH – Business MathTechnical training: Honeywell, Inc., Minneapolis, MN Election Conferences: Washington, DC; San Francisco, CA; Minneapolis, MN; Kissimmee, FL; DeLand, FL;

Area Jews Gather to Greet the Rising Sun of Creation in Flagler Beach, Wednesday, April 8th

Members of the local Jewish community who do not avail themselves of the opportunity to greet the rising sun of Creation, Wednesday morning, April 8th need not be concerned. They’ll have another chance to do it again on Wednesday, April 8th in 2037! Once every 28 years, the Sun returns to the position it occupied when it was created at the beginning of the fourth day of creation as described in the opening chapter of the book of Genesis:
And God made the two great lights: the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night and the stars. And God placed them in the sky of the heavens to give light on the earth, and to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from darkness; and God saw that it was good. And it was evening and it was morning, a fourth day.
A two thousand-year-old tradition calls upon Jews to institute a special prayer acknowledging God's might and creation of the world. This ritual is known as The Blessing on the Sun, or, in Hebrew, Birkat HaChamah.

The local Jewish community organized under the auspices of Palm Coast’s Temple Beth Shalom under the leadership of Rabbi Merrill Shapiro will gather just north of the Flagler Pier at 6:45 a.m. on Tuesday, April 8th. For tradition also prescribes that one should rush to fulfill the commandment and complete the ritual as soon as possible, in this case as the sun rises on the fourth day of the week, on a Wednesday during spring’s Hebrew month of Nisan.
“The calculations are complex,” explains Rabbi Merrill Shapiro, “but accessible. Anyone wishing to go through them can and they are readily available. But the mystical meaning is equally important. The teachers of Kabballah, of Jewish mysticism, noted the significance of the 28-year cycle of the sun and its relation to the powers and abilities of human beings. It is as if a sun-human being connection is being created bring warmth, strength and power to the world.”
This sun-human connection is significant, others say, as we here on earth learn to harness the power of the sun to power our electric grid and the needs of a modern world. Floridians, of all of America’s citizens, have the greatest connection with the sun. And the cycle of the sun and the cycles of women make them especially tuned to the actions of the heavens.
All of these elements will be addressed at the brief service that welcomes the new sun cycle to begin April 8th. All are welcome to attend, just north of the Flagler Pier at 6:45 a.m. The day is significant for after greeting the sun, Jews the world over will prepare to celebrate the Passover that same evening, recognizing that the sun provides warmth and strength for all and that no person can enslave another!

Nazi Forgery Recalled Through Palm Coast Temple Musical Presentation

In the early March 1941, Marriage register no. 60 (1761 – 1762) of the Cathedral Parish Office of Vienna, Austria’s St Stephen’s was officially removed and handed over to the Reichssippenamt (authority dealing with matters of nationality and race) in Berlin, the capital of the the German Third Reich established by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party. The reason wasn’t immediately clear until the choir of Temple Beth Shalom in Palm Coast chose to present the operetta “The Waltz King” based on the music of one of Hitler’s favorite composers, Johann Strauss II.
When piano teacher and holocaust survivor Claire Soria brought the libretto to the Temple’s choir director and Moscow Conservatory of Music graduate Marina Lapina, they weren’t sure it was proper to present a Nazi favorite in the sanctuary of a local synagogue. Rabbi Merrill Shapiro sat down to do the research and discovered an interesting irregularity in the biographical history of the Strauss family, an irregularity meant to be covered by a forgery.
Adolf Hitler loved the music of the very Germanic Strauss and, when he was told of the possibility of Strauss’ being a Jew, the Nazi leader shot back with “I will be the decider of who is Jewish and who is not!”
As it turns out, the marriage records of St. Stephen’s Cathedral note the marriage, in 1761 of Johann Michael Strauss, the great-grandfather of the Waltz King who wrote the famous Blue Danube and Emperor Waltzes, was listed as “the worthy Johann Michael Strauss, in service with His Excellency Field Marshal Count von Roggendorf, a baptised Jew, single, born in Ofen, legitimate son of Wolf Strauss and his spouse Theresia, both Jewish!” Johann Strauss II, Hitler’s favorite, was not the pure Aryan ideal of the Nazi regime but rather part Jewish! This would have caused great embarrassment to a leader and a powerful political party dedicated to the destruction of all Jewish bloodlines in Europe.
So, the records were removed, photocopied and altered to eliminate any mention of the Strauss marriage and any mention of his Jewish ancestors. Even the table of contents was altered and then returned with the originals to the Austrian Cathedral. The forged photocopies were placed in the Parish office and the originals were hidden.
Hitler, who was of Austrian birth, personally liked Strauss' music and The Waltz King’s waltzes and operettas were embraced by the Nazi-run cultural apparatus of the Third Reich. In Austria, however, a lot of creative people and ordinary citizens who abhorred the Nazis and the occupying Germans, and who clung to their separate national identity, also embraced Strauss' work as their own, as a statement (veiled and subtle, as it had to be for their own safety) of their separateness from the Germans. Indeed, Strauss' music and the Imperial era that it evoked were a safe haven for the nationalists and anti-Nazis working quietly in the Austrian cities of Vienna and Salzburg. There was the odd, unspoken truth amid all of this, that the Strauss family was of Jewish descent -- in fact, when the Nazis marched in during the spring of 1938, descendants of the composer were protected from persecution by the timely, surreptitious creation of baptismal certificates, indicating conversions to Christianity generations earlier, which conveniently turned up in the public record.
The question of Johann Strauss II’s racial origins and religion is perhaps the most interesting of all, casting a sad and sombre cloud over his heritage given later events after his death in 1899 - and the horrific fate of some of his relatives in the 1930s. Those who assume he was indifferent to his Jewish origins are mistaken. In December 1887, he wrote to his brother-in-law Josef Simon: "I'm not at all sure any more to which religion I belong... although in my heart I am more Jewish than Protestant." These Jewish antecedents of Strauss became particularly problematical for the Nazis when they annexed Austria in 1938. Clearly the subjugation of the Austrian nation could not proceed smoothly if the most popular music of the country was suppressed on racial grounds. Besides, Hitler (who was Austrian himself) loved the music of Strauss. As with Franz Lehr (another Hitler favourite, whose wife, Sophie, was Jewish, but who was made an "honorary Aryan"), Johann Strauss II and his father (who composed the famous Radetzky March, practically a second national anthem in Austria) were to be protected.
What began as a question of whether a Nazi favorite’s music could be played in a local synagogue has come to reveal that the music of Johann Strauss, the :”Waltz King” was written by Strauss the Jew. The embarrassment of the Nazi Reich makes the music that much sweeter to the listeners who will gather at Temple Beth Shalom in Palm Coast at 4 p.m. Sunday, February 22nd. The event is part of a dinner theater afternoon, and the $15 tickets that include the musical and dinner are available to the public through the synagogue office at 386-445-3006.

Second Temple Beth Shalom World Wide Wrap a Huge Success!

Several dozen people gathered at Temple Beth Shalom on February 1st, Super Bowl Sunday, for what has now become an annual tradition. Super Bowl Sunday is the date set annually by the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs for the World Wide Wrap, the effort to get as many people as possible to use Tefillin.

Beth Shalom’s 2009 participants studied the Torah texts about Tefillin, and were taken on a guided tour through the mentions of the phylacteries in the Biblical Books of Exodus and Deuteronomy. The obligation of tefillin is mentioned four times in the Torah. Twice when recalling the The Exodus from Egypt:

"And it shall be for a sign for you upon your hand, and for a memorial between your eyes, that the law of the LORD may be in your mouth; for with a strong hand did the LORD bring you out of Egypt" — Exodus 13:9

"And it shall be for a sign upon your hand, and as totafot between your eyes; for with a mighty hand did the LORD bring us forth out of Egypt" — Exodus 13:16

— and twice in the shema passages:

"And you shall bind them as a sign upon your arm, and they shall be as totafot between your eyes" — Deuteronomy 6:8

"You shall put these words of mine on your heart and on your soul; and you shall tie them for a sign upon your arm, and they shall be as totafot between your eyes" — Deuteronomy 11:18

The word tefillin is obviously related to the Hebrew word "tefillah", meaning prayer and is its plural form. In the Torah tefillin are called totafot. This word is difficult to translate or understand.

The term "tefillin" is found in Talmudic literature, although the Biblical word totafot was still current, being used with the meaning of "frontlet". In rabbinic literature the expression is not found translated into a foreign word.

The Septuagint renders "totafot" as ἀσαλευτόν meaning "something immovable". A reference in the English translation New Testament calls tefillin "phylacteries", from the Greek "phulakt rion" meaning "guard's post" or "safeguard" from phulakt r, guard, from phulax, phulak. However, neither do Aquila and Symmachus use the word "phylacteries".

Targum Onkelos and the Peshitta translate the word "totafot" as tefillin. The Tur writes that the word "tefillin" is derived from the word "pelilah" meaning evidence, because tefillin act as a sign and proof that the Shechinah rests upon the Jewish people.

Excavation of Qumran in the Judean Desert in 1955 indicated widespread use of tefillin during the Second Temple period. The dig revealed the earliest remains of tefillin, both the leather containers and scrolls of parchment, dating from the 1st century. Some of the scrolls found deviate from the traditional passages prescribed by the sages. This led scholars to believe that some of the sets were used by a non-Pharisee sect. Temple Beth Shalom participants in the World Wide Wrap had an opportunity to view photographs of the tefillin found with the Dead Seas Scrolls in Qumran.

Tefillin resembled amulets in their earliest form, strips of parchment in a leather case. Tefillin and "ḳeme'ot" (amulets) are occasionally mentioned side by side in the Mishna (Shab. vi. 2; Miḳ. vi. 4; Kelim xxiii. 9; et al.), and were liable to be mistaken one for the other ('Er. x. 1 et al.) King Saul appearing in battle, with a crown on his head and wearing bracelets, is connected with this idea. Proverbs reflects popular conceptions, that they originated in great part with the people, or were addressed to them. Prov. i. 9, iii. 3, vi. 21, and vii. 3 (comp. Jeremiah xvii. 1, xxxi. 32-33) clearly indicate the custom of wearing some object, with or without inscription, around the neck or near the heart; the actual custom appears in the figure of speech. In view of these facts it may be assumed that the Biblical passages quoted (Ex. xiii. 9, 16, and Deut. vi. 8, xi. 18) must be interpreted not figuratively but literally (unlike the Karaite interpretation, mentioned later in this article). The Biblical commandment assumes that ṭoṭafot were at the time known and in use, but that thenceforth the words of the Torah were to serve as ṭoṭafot.

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Beth Shalom’s Shapiro Named a “Jenny’s Hero!”

Jenny Jones, host of The Jenny Jones Show from 1991 until 2003, is giving away 2 million dollars! Temple Beth Shalom’s Rabbi Merrill Shapiro felt that the fledgling Flagler County Cold-Weather Shelter Coalition could use some of those funds, particularly as the efforts to help the homeless on the coldest nights was beginning to show up on the heating bill of the host, First United Methodist Church of Bunnell.  

Jenny Jones has been well-known for her works of charity. She was an honorary chairperson for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation's Chicago Race for the Cure, an annual event that raises awareness and money for breast cancer research. Jones also donated a mobile mammography motor coach to Cook County Hospital. Then she founded the Jenny’s Heroes program to give away that 2 million dollars. The first million was given to benefit thousands of people through the identification of heroes who through their voluntary efforts create a better life for those in need in their own local communities.  

By singling out such heroes, Jones, especially at her website www.jennysheroes.com creates examples for others to follow. She takes pride in highlighting the efforts of rather ordinary people who have taken heroic actions to benefit those in need.

Rabbi Shapiro made application on behalf of the Flagler County Cold-Weather Shelter Coalition and received a grant of $3000 to purchase computer equipment and high-speed internet access at the shelter location in the First United Methodist Church of Bunnell.  

Shelter CEO Carla Traister and the Church’s Reverend Elizabeth Gardner, called Shapiro to get him to the church one morning for what was to be a newspaper “photo-op.” Upon arriving at the church and entering the office, there was a telephone call for the Rabbi. Shapiro took the phone and, on the other end of the line, Jenny Jones introduced herself and told the Rabbi of the grant.  

Now, the Shelter Coalition has a computer to organize and reach out to volunteers and is available to homeless guests to allow them internet access. “Traister and Gardner are the real heroes,” said Shapiro. “They are the ignition, the heat and the light that make this wonderful endeavor possible.”

Men's Club Breakfast to Feature News Journal Columnist Pierre Tristam

Daytona News-Journal Columnist Pierre Tristam to be featured guest at January 18th Temple Beth Shalom Men’s Club Breakfast

Pierre Tristam 2008 First Place Winner for Editorial Writing, from the Florida Press Club will be the guest speaker at a January 18th Temple Beth Shalom Breakfast at the synagogue beginning at 10 a.m. All are welcome. For adults age 13 and older the suggested donation is $12, children are admitted for free.  

Pierre Tristam is a journalist, writer, editor and lecturer. He's been a member of the editorial board at the Daytona Beach, Fla., News-Journal since 2001. 
Experience:

A native of Beirut, Lebanon, who became an American citizen in 1986, Pierre is one of the United States' only Arab Americans with a regular current affairs column in a mainstream, metropolitan newspaper. The column focuses on the Middle East, foreign affairs, civil liberties, immigration and federal politics. 

Pierre's work has been published in numerous newspapers and magazines in the United States and overseas. Since 1991 Pierre has collected 13 first-place awards from various state and regional professional press associations for magazine, column, editorial and commentary writing. 
Education:

Pierre is a graduate of the United Nations International School in New York and holds a B.A. in politics and history from New York University. 

Pierre Tristam himself says that “I started trying to explain the Middle East in all its glories and follies, mostly to myself, while trailing in my mother's footsteps when she was a reporter during the Lebanese civil war. I don't think I've stopped. To say that what goes on in the Middle East affects lives in every time zone is trite, but still true: The region that once was the cradle of civilization now allegedly crackles with a clash of civilization that threatens all. I don't believe in the clash theory, nor in anxieties that the Middle East somehow holds the rest of the world hostage to its disquiet. What keeps various factions from getting along in the Middle East is what keeps many of us in the West from understanding the Middle East, and perhaps responding to its various seizures more wisely: some prejudice, a great deal of misunderstanding, and that old stand-by of all things irrational: fear. A little well-tempered myth-busting can go a long way.”

AWARDS
2008 First Place, Editorial Writing, Florida Press Club (large newspapers) 
2007 First Place, Editorial Writing, Florida Society of Newspaper Editors.
2007 First Place, Commentary, Florida Press Club (large newspapers).
2007 First Place, Editorial Writing, Florida Press Club (large newspapers). 
2007 First Place, Serious Column Writing, Florida Awards of Excellence (SPJ).
2007 Second Place, Editorial Writing, SPJ’s Sunshine State Awards (large newspapers).
2007 Third Place, Column Writing, Florida Society of Professional Journalists.
2007 Third Place, Editorial Writing, Florida Society of Professional Journalists.
2006 First Place, Commentary, Florida Press Club (large newspapers). 
2006 Second Place, Editorial Writing, Florida Press Club (large newspapers). 
2005 Honorable Mention, Editorials, Southern Newspaper Publishers Association.
2004 Third Place, Commentary, Florida Press Club (large newspapers). 
2003 First Place, Editorial Writing, SPJ’s Sunshine State Awards (large newspapers). 
2003 Second Place, Editorial Writing, Florida Society of Newspaper Editors. 
2003 Third Place, Editorial Writing, Florida Press Club (large newspapers). 
2003 Honorable Mention, Commentary, SPJ’s Sunshine State Awards (large newspapers). 
2002 First Place, Commentary, Florida Press Club (large newspapers). 
2002 First Place, Editorial Writing, Florida Press Club (large newspapers). 
2002 Second Place, Editorial Writing, Florida Society of Newspaper Editors.
2001 First Place, Editorial Writing, Florida Society of Newspaper Editors.
2001 First Place, Magazine Writing, Society of Professional Journalists ( South Florida ). 
2000 First Place, Commentary, Florida Society of Newspaper Editors. 
1999 Second Place, Editorial Writing, Soc. of Professional Journalists (South Florida ). 
1995-2001 Nominated for five Chairman's awards, New York Times Regional Group. 
1995 Third Place, Best Written News Story, West Virginia Press Association. 
1995 Third Place, Best Local Government Affairs Reporting, WVPA. 
1993 First Place, Best Local Government Affairs Reporting, WVPA. 
1992 First Place, Best Written News Story, WVPA. 
1992-93 Three awards for Outstanding Editorial Achievement, Thomson Newspapers. 
1991 First Place, Best Local Government Affairs Reporting, WVPA. 
1991 Third Place, Best Written News Story, WVPA. 
1989 Third Place, Enterprising Reporting, West Virginia Press Association.