Tikkun Olam begins at Home or Does it? Join us October 28th!
October 12, 2011
You are invited to join your Havurah family for the first of four Friday night Tikkun Olam Services and “Simple Souper Suppers” on Friday,October 28th at 6:30 pm
Dinner starts at 6:30 PM
Services to begin at 7:30 PM
You are welcome at services even if you cannot attend the supper
Dinner reservations are required
Deadline for reservations is October 23. Click here for form and send it in by the deadline or pay online!
Childcare is available for ages 2-8, from 7:00 pm until the end of the service.
We live in a world besieged with problems: poverty, sickness, war, oppression of the weak and the other, degradation of the environment. Jewish tradition tells us that we are not expected to solve the world’s problems, but we are obligated to continue to seek justice, to engage in work that promotes tikkun olam, repair of the world. How can we best do this work? How do we choose a focus for our work?
What can we do as a community to sustain each other in this difficult work? Does it matter that we work together as a community?
Through reflection and discussion we can explore these important questions. Please join us on October 28th when we come together to share a meal and celebrate Shabbat.
Yom Kippur Afternoon Break: Food for Thought!
September 12, 2011
Please join Layton Borkan, Steve Rudman, Ben Walters, Rabbi Joey and other pushers, pokers and prodders for Havurah’s tikkun olam efforts at the break on Yom Kippur afternoon. Progressive Jews, not just on this big day, are hungry to imagine what it means to translate Jewish spiritual insights into action. One world opens to another, there’s no getting away from the place we call our own, our accountability to what happens all around us. We’re richer when we study these things – the world’s impoverished require us to stay with it!
Liberal-thinking Jews are apt to consider the fundamental principles of tzedakah (socially based acts of justice and sharing largesse) a set of optional and symbolic choices. But this flies in the face of what the rabbis taught us about a behavioral, obligatory,spiritual practice. Perhaps what contributes to the sense that our own relationship, as a community, to tikkun olam waxes and wanes, is the false idea that we should somehow decide for ourselves if we want to participate. We say “No thank you”, politely, when we should be expanding and inculcating the rhythm and beat of coming to grips with our tripartite efforts: we can get involved in direct action, in giving money, in advocacy for social change. Bottom line: we should be making it a point to check in reliably and repeatedly. We can be making tzedakah integral to who we are as human beings.
Right? Not sure? Well, rather than rush home or fall asleep on the holiest day of the year, join us in thinking about what we simply must be doing, as Jews connected to community and the larger place that cries out to us – in which we live. The world awaits us!
See what Maimonides has to say on the subject of choice and imbued habit, and come ready to discuss this powerful statement of Jewish practice:
“Desirable character traits are not achieved through the size of the deed, but rather according to the quantity of deeds. This means that the traits are reached through repeating good deeds many times. . . for example: if a person gives one thousand dinars once to a single worthy person, this person does not achieve the trait of generosity through this one large deed; this is in contrast to one who gives one dinar one thousand times, with each dinar given generously, as this multiplies this person’s acts of generosity one thousand times, and this person achieves the trait strongly. But in the case of this one-time act, this person’s soul is awakened in a major way to do a good deed, and afterwards this feeling departs. Similarly, the reward for one who redeems one captive for one hundred dinars, or who gives one hundred dinars of tzedakah to a poor person, thereby filling this person’s need, is not the same as one who redeems ten captives, or who fulfills the needs of ten poor peole, even with ten dinars each.”
(Maimonides, Commentary on Pirke Avot, as translated by Rabbi Jill Jacobs in her book Where Justice Dwells. . . Note: This is a book worth purchasing. We’ll be discussing it all year long.)
Trip to El Jocote, Nicaragua in December 2011!
July 18, 2011
Greetings Potential Nicaragua Trip Participant!
Last fall, Havurah raised the money and now the water is flowing in El Jocote, Nicaragua!
Havurah is organizing a trip this December to visit the community that recently installed the solar water pumping system that is bringing water to their households. This service project trip is being organized for interested folk to visit Nicaragua with Green Empowerment.
Green Empowerment is our own Portland based nonprofit whose mission is: providing rural communities in the developing world with access to clean water, electricity from renewable energy, and sustainable solutions.
Highlights of this trip are:
• Meeting with AsoFenix staff, Green Empowerment’s local partner who work with communities to use renewable energy in ways that improves lives .
• Homestays with families in the villages we visit, experiencing/participating in daily life’s chores, activities, and conversations.
• Service projects that will focus on tree planting and constructing improved cookstoves, and/or greywater reuse stations for patio gardens.
• Learning about solar powered water pumping, irrigation, and community micro-hydropower systems.
• Relax and explore some of Nicaragua’s best geological and natural resource destinations, such as a volcano national park (Masaya), or having a beach day in San Juan del Sur.
Trip dates: Arrival in Managua December 26th, Departure January 3rd.
Trip cost is $750 plus cost of airfare and trip insurance. Because this trip will be benefitting a nonprofit, 60% of the $750, or $450, is tax deductible. Scholarship money is available. Optimum size of the group is 10 participants.
Want to join us? Click for the registration form
Requirements of the trip: open mind, interest in connecting with others of a different culture, flexible to accomodate to different situations that are different from your usual daily life, understanding that El Jocote is not connected to roads and requires a 45 minute hike in to reach. (Accomodations can be made to assist those who are unable to walk this distance.)
Homestays will be basic, but comfortable. Many of the homes have dirt floors, the group will be separated into smaller pods in El Jocote for the homestays and each pod will have someone with them familiar with Spanish and/or the community. Expect to sleep in a cot or basic bed, have rustic style bucket dip and pour baths, eat lots of bean and rice, use pit latrines, and practice your Spanish (fluency not required).
All ages are welcomed! And a chaperone will be provided for anyone under 18 and not accompanied by a parent.
Interested? To reserve your spot on this trip, fill in the application along with a $250 nonrefundable deposit. Full payment should be made by November 4th. While the deposits of $250 will be counted as part of the total trip fee, they will be unrefundable in the event you need to cancel, and become a donation to Green Empowerment. Sorry, refunds for the final payment can only be given if another participant is found to take your place. This final $450 payment will then become a donation to Green Empowerment, and may be used for trip costs if needed.
In the event that the trip is cancelled by Green Empowerment, all payments will be refunded to you.
Questions? Contact: Judy Arielle Fiestal: 503-248-1963; Linda Boise, 503-221-4907
Havurah Celebrates Gay Pride
June 28, 2011
Take a look at this photo of Havurah members, including Deborah Eisenbach-Budner and Rabbi Joey, at the 2011 Portland Pride Parade!
Read the Final Green Empowerment Report from El Jocote, Nicaragua!
June 14, 2011
Click here to read all about the finishing touches in El Jocote, Nicaragua!
