On Monday, December 16th we will be providing a chili dinner for 150 people at the Lunch Box at Dutchess Outreach.
We’re asking for the following donations:

• large cans of crushed tomatoes (864 oz. total)

• red, black, white canned beans (420 oz. total)

• red, green, etc. sweet peppers (10 lbs. total)

• yellow onions (10 lbs. total)

• peeled garlic (3 lbs. total)

• apple cider (4 gals. total)

Food donations can be brought to any Shir Chadash service or event.

But wait – we need MORE!
Would YOU:

• bake something  (recipe provided)?

• cook at the Lunch Box on 12/16 at 2 pm?

• help serve on 12/16 from 5—6:30 pm?

Contact Social Action co-chairs:
Robbie Schiff | veggierob@yahoo.com | 876-5598
Sandy Lash |sjlash@optonline.net | 227-4650

And remember – this is a great way to teach your children about the need and value of Tzedahkah.  Involve them in the shopping and food prep.  Bring them along and let them experience the satisfaction of filling a serious need.

As you receive this newsletter in your electronic mailbox, we will be in the midst of Chanukah. I know it has been unnerving to celebrate our “Feast of Lights” smack up against Thanksgiving. This has not happened in 125 years. And it will not happen again for generations. Still here we are. And I want to wish you a joyous Chanukah. Even in the shadow of its American colleague, it can be an important time for us.

Chanukah is unusual among our holidays. It has no Biblical warrant. In fact the Falashas, the Jews of Ethiopia, when they first made contact with the rest of the Jewish world, were puzzled to learn about Chanukah—they had never heard about it before. And, yes, it is a holiday that is too easily co-opted into the mercantile frenzy that comes in December. Our children sometimes imagine that the last word of the candle blessings is not “Amen” but…“Presents!”

Still, Chanukah can be an important celebration. The gathering of a family around their Chanukiah, or their (plural) Chanukiot, lighting progressively more candles can be a very powerful experience—one that remains warm throughout life. And there is an important message embedded in the celebration. I do not believe it is an accident that Chanukah falls during the time of year it does. For ancient Israel, no less than for us, Chanukah comes just when the days are getting to be their shortest and night the darkest. In Israel the rainy season is entering full swing, and for us the coldest times are settling in. And what do we do? We light first one and then progressively more candles. We create warmth and light. It is no accident that the holiday is called not the feast of the Maccabees, but the feast of lights. And in that there is a message that goes beyond the climate.

Chanukah is a beacon: when things are dreary for us, and dark, the dark does not have to prevail. Just as our Chanukiot get brighter, so can our lives. We can prevail over the forces of darkness. And we can create light. Note the word create. We don’t wait around for light—we light the candles. It does not happen all at once. And it does not happen by itself. But gradually, incrementally, we move to more—and then more—light. And so we can in every sector of our lives, in every chapter of our lives. We do not have to surrender to the dark. We can take it on ourselves to make the small steps—slowly and incrementally—until we have moved out of the realm of darkness into the brightness of a new time.

So I wish you a joyous Chanukah. And I hope that the greatest gift of all is the message that it can bring to all of our lives.

Chags sameach,
~Rabbi Daniel Polish

A note from Andrew Scheck whose Bar Mitzvah is on December 14.

“Hello my name is Andrew Scheck and my Bar Mitzvah will becoming up in December. For my mitzvah project I will be collecting instruments in any condition, musical instrument parts, or even pencils, music folders, and music stands. I will be sending the items to the Landfill Harmonic, which is a children’s orchestra, based in a slum in Paraguay. They have gone all over the world and are now trying to help children in the same situation. Please donate, anything is well appreciated.”

For more information on how to donate to Andrew’s Mitzvah Project, contact Shir Chadash at info@shir-chadash.org.