JANUARY BIRTHDAYS Ranita & Raymond Barney Jr.

Sarah Carroll

Maricar Eldridge

Angela Grier

Michael Grier

Faith Griffin

Benyamin Macabee

Tamar McCollough

Demitrius Wolf Wallace

Sylvan Morrigan Wallace

Terran Kalani Wallace

Niniece White

Zakenah Gale Whitfield

Zevadya Whitfield

Loretta Coleman-Wickman

Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken E.H.C.

6601 S. Kedzie Ave.

Chicago, IL 60629

Phone: 773.476.2924

Fax: 773-476-2259

www.bethshalombz.org

Shabbat Shalom JANUARY 2, 2021 18TH TEVET 5781

WELCOME

We welcome you and your interest in Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation (House of Peace for the Children of the Ancient Ethiopian Hebrews). As stated in Psalm 133:1, “how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!”

We are truly blessed by your presence and welcome the opportunity to share our love of the Most High G-d with you. Your experience today will probably be very different from most services you have attended. We hope this information will explain our beliefs and mode of worship. As G-d stated in Isaiah 56:7…”for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” Again, we welcome you and pray that you will enjoy our service as much as we do.

Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation (Beth Shalom) is the oldest Temple in the Chicago area serving the Israelite Community. It was established as the Ethiopian Hebrew Association in 1918, by Rabbi Horace Hasan. In 1920, Rabbi David Lasarus and Rabbi Caino Stirson, came to the Chicago area from New York and later joined forces with Rabbi Hasan. In 1923 our beloved Senior Rabbi Abihu Ben Reuben, (may G-D bless his memory) joined this congregation, which was located at 1850 West Lake Street. In the 1930s and 1940s, the leadership of the Ethiopian Hebrew community was firmly in the hands of Rabbi Abihu Ben Reuben, Rabbi Lazarus, and Rabbi Louis Green. Rabbis Reuben and Lazarus studied with Chief Rabbi Wentworth A. Matthew, at the Commandment Keepers Congregation in New York City, and were ordained rabbis by Chief Rabbi Matthew. Rabbi Louis Green received his Masters of Science in Jewish Studies from the College of Jewish Studies in Chicago, Illinois.

In 1952, Chief Rabbi Wentworth A Matthew came to Chicago to oversee the opening of a new Temple to serve the Ethiopian Hebrew Community. In 1984, the Congregation of Ethiopian Hebrews and Beth Shalom Hebrew Congregation merged to form Beth Shalom Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation. Rabbis Abihu Ben Reuben and Capers C. Funnye, Jr., served the congregation as senior and assistant rabbis. In 1993, Beth Shalom merged with the Congregation of B’nai Zaken, to form Beth Shalom B’nai Zaken Ethiopian Hebrew Congregation, with Rabbi Capers C. Funnye, Jr. as Rabbi.

Beth Shalom is an affiliate congregation of the International Israelite Board of Rabbis Inc. and fully embraces the ideals of Resolution 80lA which was passed by the Board in 1981. It affirms the brotherhood of all people who worship the G-D of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob without regard to tradition or terminology (for example: Black Jews’, Hebrews, Israelites, Jews, etc.) However, when among us, visitors are obliged to respect the customs and traditions followed by members.

Is the vaccine effective?

Pros: We know the two vaccines, Pfizer and Moderna, are highly effective - nearly 95% effective. This is the best it gets for vaccines.

Cons: We do not know the duration of this benefit. Only time will tell if the vaccine efficacy is still effective after 1-2 years. If not, then another booster shot may be necessary.

The COVID-19 virus is inescapable. It is in our community, at our workplaces and entertainment places. It can infect the entire population and cause the same level of devastation.

Imagine the colossal harm: five fold increase in cases, hospi-talization and deaths would do. A vaccine can prevent this. If enough people choose to vaccinate, we can achieve herd im-munity by the end of the summer.

For a moment think about this. If there is a choice between getting the COVID-19 disease versus the COVID-19 vaccine, most everyone should choose the vaccine.

The disease still has a high mortality rate over 1% and there are many long term side effects called “long haulers” syn-drome which occur in 10% of patients.

People complain of fatigue and brain fog for weeks and months after the infection. Getting the vaccine prevents the acute illness and long term complications.

HEALTH TIPS

Should I get the COVID-19 vaccine?

Question: Should I get the COVID-19 vaccine?

Answer: As the vaccine becomes available to our healthcare workers and first responders—I got my shot on Friday—many in the general population are wondering if they should get the vaccine in the coming months? Each person has to evaluate the benefits and the drawbacks of taking the vaccine for themselves and their family members.

One way to evaluate the vaccine is to think about it in two categories: safety and efficacy. Then to ask what are the pros and cons of each.

Is the vaccine safe?

Pros: Yes, the two vaccines available have been tested in over 35,000 people, and no serious side effects noted. The vaccine does cause injection site pain, fatigue, headache, and joint pain, all of which are mild and temporary.

Cons: We do not know of the long term safety profile of the vaccine, that will take time to gather the data. However, ex-perience tells us that vaccines rarely have long term side-effects.

The concern is also that the vaccine was rushed. While the vaccine was developed in record time it is important to know that it has passed all the necessary requirements for emer-gency use authorization than any other medicine or vaccine requires. The vaccine has not taken any short-cuts based on safety.

Tidbit: Vayehi

18th Tevet 5781 – January 2, 2021

Chief Rabbi Capers Shmuel Funnye

This final parashah of Genesis ends the age of the Patriarchs. Jacob dies after

blessing his sons. Some years later, Joseph dies. Genesis ends on that note. In

contrast, Exodus will not deal with a family, but with a nation. The account of

Jacob’s death begins with “Jacob lived” (va-y’ hi), from which the parashah de-

rives its name. The achievements of Jacob’s life are emphasized, not the fact of

his death. Jacob lived the last seventeen years of his life, in honor and dignity,

rather than simply waiting to die.

One of the most important things that Jacob does before his death is to adopt

Ephraim and Manasseh, the two sons of Joseph, as his own sons, just as Reuben

and Simeon are his sons. In fact, the sons of an Egyptian woman, Asenath, the

daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, are the two people that Jacob says, when Is-

rael blesses you shall say, “G-D make you like Ephraim and Manasseh”, the sons

of an Egyptian woman. This is a vital point, because Asenath is an African woman!

So, in every generation, since the time of Jacob, Israelites/Jews, have blessed

their children with this formula: “G-D make you like Ephraim and Manasseh, the

Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to shine upon you, may the

Lord lift up His kindness upon you and give you peace”.

So, as we bring the book of Genesis to a close, we also bring the year of 2020 to a

close, let us pray that the year 2021, bring to us health, wealth, and a vaccine that

works for COVID- 19. May Hashem bless us in the secular new year.

Shabbat Shalom

VAYEHI

Torah Reading: Genesis 47:28 - 50:26 (page 180)

Haftorah: I Kings 2:1 - 12 (page 191)

WEEKLY SERVICE

Saturday: Shacharit (Morning) Service 10:30 A.M..–1:30 P.M.

Gift Shop (Tue & Thurs. ) 12::00 P.M.- 2:00 P.M.

PRAYER LIST:

************************************************************ Willie Myrtle Walker, Willie Miller, Gracile Moore, Dr. Wayne Williamson,

Dinah Israel, Carla Williams, Zaken Baruch Carroll, Ben Hardiman,

Kendal Morrow, Jerry Hecktman, Zakenah Deborah McCollough, Mary Dickerson,

Jerry Starks, Latrice Harrington, Rabbi Baruch Yehudah, Helen Madisky,

Colin Noinr, Connie Jones, James Daniels, Helen Alexander, LaFrance Shaffer,

Darniece Parker, Reginald Sonny Burke, Darlene Funnye, Faith Jones,

Mary Armstrong, Diane Tillman

************************************************************

YAHRZEIT

Elijah Hunt (nephew of Dinah Judah-Peterson)

************************************************************

To Our Guest:

We appreciate you being with us today. There are times during our service when walking is prohibited. Please refrain from walking while we stand during prayers and when the Torah is being read. We thank you in advance for honoring our request.

“We have learned to fly the air like birds and swim the sea like fish, but we have not learned the simple art of living together as brothers. Our abundance has brought us neither peace of mind nor serenity of spirit.” —Martin Luther King, Jr.

THIS WEEK IN BLACK HISTORY

December 27, 1835 - This week, the Georgia legislature banned Creek Indians from entering the state, except on legal matters while with a respectable white person, and criminalizes hiring or trading with them.

December 28, 1956 - Rosa Jordan, a pregnant African American resident of Montgomery, Alabama, was shot in both legs while riding a desegregated bus after the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

December 29, 1900 - Harvard professor Albert Bushnell Hart told American Historical Association in Detroit, Michigan, that states where lynching were prevalent should legalize lynching to maintain order. December 30, 1915 - Six Black men were lynched over two days in Early County, Georgia, after they were accused of being involved in the killing of a white over-seer. December 31, 1952 - For the first time since 1881, a full year passed with no reports of any lynching in the U.S. January 1, 1863 - President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, abolishing slavery except in non-rebelling or occupied states like Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee, and parts of Louisiana. January 2, 1944 - William James Howard, a Black 15-year-old, was lynched by three white men in Suwannee County, Florida, after one of the men accused Howard of writing a love note to his daughter.

NOTES

“ LIFT EVERY VOICE”

Lift every voice and sing,

Till earth and heaven ring,

Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;

Let our rejoicing rise

High as the list’ning skies,

Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.

Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,

Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;

Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,

Let us march on till victory is won.

Stony the road we trod,

Bitter the chast’ning rod,

Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;

Yet with a steady beat,

Have not our weary feet

Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?

We have come over a way that with tears has been watered.

We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,

Out from the gloomy past,

Till now we stand at last

Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.

God of our weary years,

God of our silent tears,

Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way;

Thou who hast by Thy might,

Led us into the light,

Keep us forever in the path, we pray.

Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,

Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;

Shadowed beneath Thy hand,

May we forever stand,

True to our God,

True to our native land.

**** MARK YOUR CALENDAR ****

As mandated by the Governor and the CDC, we are practicing social distancing and asking all members to do the same!

Regular Shabbat services are cancelled until further notice!

Please join Chief Rabbi Funnye for Virtual Shabbat Services streaming on Facebook live each Saturday at 10:30 a.m. (CST)

https://www.facebook.com/beth.shalom.52012

NASHE OR’ FUNDRAISER

Add a memorial leaf to the tree of life in the social hall a leaf is $50

See Sister Shalheves for more information.

BETH SHALOM BZ CHAT WITH RABBI

"Shabbat Torah Study Get-Together"

Every Saturday via Zoom

12:00 p.m.—1:30 p.m.

4)The third and final part of the lesson, (15-20min), we will have Kiddush together. A different child each week will read the entire Kiddush prayer in Hebrew and a second child will read it in English. After we break bread, we can answer any questions that the children may have thought of after the les-sons were concluded.

Please let me know if there is anything else you would like to add to the lessons.

Shalom,

Bro Mike Eldridge

SEEDS OF LIFE HEBREW CLASS

(YOUTH DEPARTMENT)

Shalom ,

Brothers from Anshe Chayil Brotherhood will host a Zoom meeting to teach our youth group the next level of the He-brew language and our way of life. The Zoom meetings would take place on Sundays, from 12noon-1pm starting the second week of January in 2021.

Here are the prerequisites for attendees:

1) A parent needs to be present in the room (at home) when our children are attending the virtual lessons; the Zoom meeting link will only be emailed to the parent. The parent(s) present will be required to assist with ex-plaining the info that is being taught to their children dur-ing the lessons.

2) I will be leading the first part of the lessons, (15-20min), and it will cover the prefixes, roots and suffixes of the names and vowels of the letters/characters that make up

the Hebrew Alef-Bet. Example: א is spelled אלף: and

here are the vowels used with the word: אָלֶף

3) The second part of the lesson, (15-20min), we will go over Rabbi Funnye's Shabbat tid-bit with the children. I will have three questions on Rabbis' teaching prepared for the CoHost to ask the children.

**** MARK YOUR CALENDAR ****

FOUR RIVERS

Custom furniture, upholstery, and residential HVAC

Jonhy O’Reilly

Owner

Chicago, IL

(773) 616-4142

jonhychai@gmail.com

If you would like for your business to be adver-tised in the weekly bulletin please provide your

information to Angela Parker.

Services for Elijah Hunt

(nephew of Dinah Judah-Peterson)

Saturday, January 2, 2021

Visitation: 9 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.

Service: 10:30 a.m.

Ultimate Faith Christian Center

683 83rd St.

Bolingbrook, IL 60440

PLEASE BE AWARE

There are a lot of scams going on during this pandemic one in particular is Unemployment Insurance Fraud.

People who received a letter or card from the Illinois Department of Employment Security without filing an unemployment claim might be victims of the unemployment fraud scam.

Those people can call the department of unemployment at 800-814-0513 for help.

They should not activate an unemployment debit card if they received one, and should check their credit report for suspicious activ-ity.

This is a serious matter a couple of our elders at Beth Shalom have been victimized by false claims with Illinois Unemployment and the Social Security Office.

Shalom,

Starting January 02, 2021, on every Shabbat/Saturday, the Beth Shalom FB Live Stream will end at 11:55 a.m., and at 12:00 p.m. sharp, Rabbi Funnye will launch his "Shabbat Torah Study Get-Together" Zoom Gathering, which will end promptly at 1:30 p.m. Chicago time (central time).

We have created a private FB chat group to send the Zoom link to you on Erev Shabbat; the group is named: Beth Shalom BZ "Chat With Rabbi." When you see the re-quest, please join the group because the Zoom link will only be sent to that specific chat group.

In the event you missed the meeting, a YouTube link will be sent out (via that chat group) once the Zoom meeting is ed-ited and uploaded to YouTube. If you're more into audio recordings, soon we will also be starting our own podcast series titled "Chat With Rabbi."

The purpose of the Zoom meeting only being sent to the private chat group is, Rabbi Funnye wants to engage with those who are truly seeking knowledge, wisdom and under-standing about the Torah and the Hebraic way of life. Due to the pandemics restrictions, we haven't been able to con-jugate in large numbers on our Holy Days; the Zoom meet-ing platform will allow us to gather together for a "virtual convocation" for all of our Shabbat/Holy Day's celebra-tions!!!

*Note - "Chat With Rabbi" implies you will be primarily chatting with Chief Rabbi Funnye, but notably, the Hebrew word "rabbi" also means teacher; Beth Shalom BZ-EH Congregation is full of knowledgeable Elders, Sisters and Brothers that will also be contributing to the conversation.

We look forward to seeing you at the meeting!

Shalom Aleichem,

Brother Mike Eldridge