From Our Spiritual Leader Cantor Henry Shapiro

December 2016 Kislev/Tevet 5777 Volume 20, Issue 8

From Our Spiritual Leader Cantor Henry Shapiro

Sha’ar HaShamayim I remember the first time I saw the phrase at Parkway, Sha’ar HaShamayim, I thought it was rather presumptuous. After all, the literal English translation of the Hebrew, The Gate of Heaven, seems to imply that this is the one and only gate. It wasn’t until I came across the passage in Parsha VaYeitzei that I began to have another understanding of it. This parsha continues the rivalry we saw previously between Jacob and his brother Esau; to the point where Jacob is in fear for his life. On the advice of his mother Rivka, Jacob travels back to the old county of Aram to her brother Lavan. On the way, out from Be-er Sheva, Jacob ‘encounters a certain place’. When he stays for the night and sleeps, he has his famous dream of angels going up and down a ladder reaching to heaven. That place, according to Rashi, was Mount Moriah, where Abraham bound Isaac and where later the Temple would stand. Certainly a holy place indeed. The end of this episode has Jacob saying that God was in this place and he did not realize it. That it was none other than a House of God and the Gate of Heaven. Now a common teaching of this passage is that there is holiness all around us and we don’t usually recognize it as

Coming Events

Friday Night Shabbat Services - 6:00 PM Saturday Morning Shabbat Services - 9:30 AM December 23rd Gift Shop 4:00 PM Chanuka Dinner 5:30 PM Jan. 13th-14th Birthday Shabbat Souper Shabbat Jan. 13th Mushroom Barley Feb 10th Corn Chowder

Candle Lighting

December

2 4:35 PM

9 4:34 PM

16 4:36 PM

23 4:39 PM

30 4:44 PM

Parkway Jewish Center

December 2016 – Kislev/Tevet 5777

such. But in this case, I want to show how this can refer to the specificity of place and person in our lives. When we begin the Amidah prayer, it starts with a refrain, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. The reason for that according to the rabbis - instead of reading as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - is because each patriarch had a different relationship with and a different understanding of God. So when Jacob calls the place Sha’ar HaShamayim, he is speaking of his own person and experience. Even though both his father Isaac and grandfather Abraham stood in the same place, their experiences and therefore their gates had meaning specific to their lives. So too our little shul in the woods, at the of the road, that we, our fathers and grandfathers built. This is our Gate of Heaven, each and everyone of us. Cantor Henry Shapiro

Fire in Israel

Jewish Federations are collecting funds to help address the impact of over 200 fires that were set across Israel last month, which displaced nearly 100,000 people. In many places, essential services such as electricity and train lines were interrupted. Below is the link to make a donation. https://jfedpgh.org/israel-fire-emergency-fund?srctid=1&erid=2139469&trid=62a8d909-9a4e-4e83-a2f6-73e045a6dbf4



From the President’s Desk………………………….Robert E. Korfin My Mother used to tell me repeatedly, “The older you get, the faster the years go by.” She was so right as the years appear to be flying by quicker than ever. 2016 was a bitter-sweet year at Parkway Jewish Center. The High Holy Days were pretty well attended, understanding we are a much smaller congregation these days. At the same time we still have a nice minyan each Friday evening and Saturday evening. If you haven’t come to shul in a while, please consider attending sometime soon. This coming weekend would be a great time to start; we’ll be looking for you. We lost some friends this year. Members of our Parkway Family who may be gone but never forgotten. Their memories will be with us forever. We said farewell to Betty Rapport and Shirley Melnick. Allan Goppman, Jack Kessler, and Marvin Tell were members, friends and “Saturday Morning Regulars.” It’s a tribute to them that we continue make a Minyan just about every Shabbat. With our size of just about 74 member families, making a Minyan each Friday and Saturday is truly a miracle. You should be commended for helping to make that happen and a reality. All of the weather authorities forecasted a mild fall season. The experts were right-on in their predictions. The same experts are promising a bitterly cold and snowy next couple of months. Look, we’re not kids anymore….we don’t need to be out and about when the temps are low and the roadways dangerous. Some of our Shabbat Regulars have breathing issues, travel long distances, require public transportation, or may have undergone recent leg surgeries. My point is simple……We will take the safety of our Parkway Family seriously. We will cancel services or other events as needed throughout the winter months. Whether its snow, ice, or single digit temps we will announce cancellations. We will do so via email early enough in the morning so you can still make other arrangements to attend another synagogue. Our Shabbat Regulars who don’t have access to computers will receive phone calls to announce cancellations. As this is the last column of 2016, I will take this opportunity to wish you and your family a Happy, Healthy, New Year 2017. Hey, what ever happened to Guy Lombardo? If you see him, give him my regards and then we’ll talk again….



Kiddush & Oneg Shabbat Sponsors PJC Sisterhood Susie & Bruce Feldman Susan & Michael Tell Faye Fischman Betty Ann & Ron Secorie Diane Bloomfield Neil & Tammy Blumenfeld Charles and Leslie Rubin

Kiddush Oneg Sponsorships Sisterhood invites you to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries and other Simchas by sponsoring an Oneg Shabbat or Saturday Morning Kiddush. You can also sponsor in memory of a loved one’s Yahrzeit. For more information, call Syma Levine at: 412-823-7677.

Donation Contacts: Donations to the Marilyn Markowitz/Phyllis Stein Memorial Library Fund can be made by calling the shul office or by mailing checks, payable to PJC Sisterhood, to the shul office.

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DECEMEBER ANNIVERSARIES

20 Pauline and Charles Davis 23 Tammy and Neil Blumenfeld 24 Vera and Lesley Greenberg

DECEMBER BIRTHDAYS

1 Robert Zukerman Woody Allen Bette Midler

5 Gary Moidel 6 Bill Hershman

Ira Gershwin 7 Noam Chomsky

Eli Wallach 8 John Kosko

Sammy Davis, Jr. 9 Heather Caplan Ewing

Kirk Douglas 12 Harold Bloomfield

Ed Koch 17 William Safire

Arthur Fiedler 18 Steven Spielberg

20 Uri Geller 21 Karen Mayer

Benjamin Disraeli 23 Josh Brown

24 L.J. Tell 26 Phil Spector



Week of November 25, 2016 - 24 Cheshvan Sigmund Spiegel, Milton Heyman, Mildred Zuckerman, Freida Sussman, Simon Rosenberg, Morris Silberman, Rosalie Brody, Barbara Lynn Rosenbaum, Sylvia Greenberg, Benjamin Klawansky, Hilda Moss Lenchner, Jack Serbin, Irving Goldstein, Reuben Lucker, Katie Levy Bell, Dr. Louis H. Schwartzman, Jacob Silverblatt, Betty Holtzman, Jennie Simon, Ilene R. DeFazio, Anita Mazer, Alvin “Boomie” Marks Week of December 2, 2016 - 2 Kislev Herman Stern, Harold Markovitz, Joanne Zukerman Lebovitz, Sarah Ross, Selma Tacker, Jerry Tashbook, Walter Sigel, Manuel Zang, Solomon Weinstein, Donald David Landay, Gerald Fischman, Florence Rosenberg, Milton Marks, Lee Rosenberg, Reeva Alexis Kelly, Gussie Mayer, Lena Applebaum, Mark Rosenberg, David Alexander Weiss, Leah Drosnes Week of December 9, 2016 - 9 Kislev Isadore Schwartz, Rose Bazerman, Burton Zilber, Israel Levine, Dora Zang Shalachman, Lillian Freehof, Leon Abrams, David Hirsch Fischman, David Podolsky, Sam Steinberg, Samuel Bloom, Leona Mandel, Beatrice Nelson Week of December 16, 2016 - 16 Kislev Abraham Edward Lipsitz, Zelda Cooper Edelstein, Joseph Reisz, Joseph H. Meyer, Henry H. Peritz, Nathan Merenstein, Milton Richman, Martin Rebb, Mary Anolik, Sassi Hagege, Emanuel Lieberman, Bertha Zeligson, James Ackerman, Arthur Howard Simon, Rose Weiner, Hyman Solidar, George Rebb, Mike Miller, Erna Suess, Sadie Sandler Week of December 23, 2016 - 23 Kislev FloSloan, Ben Magdovitz, Molly Markovitz, Nathan Savitz, Freda Abrams, Edith Lucker, Esther Freilachoff, Lawrence Louis Green, Melvyn Bernard Cohen, Pauline S. Berman, Leonard Caplan, Isadore Bliwas, David Hausman, Leonard Quint, Bottom Lawrence (Larry) J. Klein Week of December 30, 2016 - 1 Tevet Benjamin Hoffman, Samuel Markovitz, Albert Brawer, Jeannette Freehof, Max Marcus, Anita Kaye Margulis, Sadie Edelman, Jerry Merenstein, Rose Tannenbaum Malhmood, Alfie Felser, Madeline Klein, Abraham Wolfson, Ethel Klein

December Yahrzeits

Condolences To: Michael Tell, on the passing of his Father, Marvin Tell



Souper Shabbat - PJC Winter Warmer Fridays, December 16th - Brazilian Black bean (w/ sweet potato and mango!) January 13th - Mushroom Barley February 10th - Corn Chowder This the time of year when the cold wind blows and the snow comes a tumblin’ down. It’s hard to motivate oneself to go out for services so here’s an incentive. We’ll be offering a warm, vegetarian, stick-to-the ribs soup on one Shabbat a month. With some challah, what else could you want? Dress warm and bring an appetite. Cooks & sponsors welcome. I'll cook the Thursday night before or on Friday afternoon of if you want to come and help out. You can also help sponsor with a donation check made out to PJC Sisterhood. Our Friday services are held on 6-7pm followed by a kiddush In case of cancellation due to temperature, weather or snow, the soup will be served the following week.

Mitzvah Day 2016 will take place on

Friday, December 23rd & Sunday, December 25th! for more info and to volunteer see:

http://jfedvolunteer.org/mitzvah-day-2016/



Parkway Jewish Center 300 Princeton Drive Pittsburgh, PA 15235

DATED MATERIAL PLEASE DO NOT DELAY

Or Current Resident Congregation Sha’ar HaShamayim 412-823-4338 www.parkwayjewishcenter.org

Cantor Henry Shapiro, Spiritual Leader ([email protected] or [email protected])

Officers President Bob Korfin

Board Members Marvin Heyman Mike Jacob Ira Mazer Harold Bloomfield Donna Wolfson Committee Chair Persons

House Chair Alan Levine Ritual Chair Hal Lederman Cemetery Chair Arnie Levine & Syma Levine

Office Administrator Gail Levine

Sisterhood Officers President Laurie Barnett Levine Vice Presidents

Membership Susan Mazer Program Vera Greenberg Fundraising Vacant Catering Leslie Rubin & Diane Bloomfield

Corresponding Secretary Vacant Financial Secretary Amy Mayer Treasurer Lynda Heyman Auditor Lynda Heyman

Scribe Staff Editor Harold Bloomfield

PUBLISHED MONTHLY VOLUME 20, ISSUE 8

DECEMBER 2016 [email protected]

NON-PROFIT ORG U.S.POSTAGE PAID PITTSBURGH, PA PERMIT NO. 3000

From Our Spiritual Leader Cantor Henry Shapiro

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