This past week, I had the pleasure of attending the wedding of Miriam and Daniel Dimont in Passaic, New Jersey (special Hakarat HaTov to my good friends Chani and Zev Karpel for their hospitality on Monday night). At the gate for my flight from DFW to Newark, I saw many people with colored tags with their names on them, clearly members of a tour group of some kind. There was one man who was being asked questions by many people; figuring he was a leader of the tour group, I asked him where they were going. It may not be a surprise to you that they were 70 members of a delegation twice that size from Highland Park United Methodist Church, traveling to Tel Aviv. For virtually all of them, it was to be their first time in Israel. The man people were asking questions of was Aaron Long, the music pastor. He was excited to meet a Rabbi - especially one who studied in Israel and has, thank God, been there many times. Some of the members even shared the key Hebrew phrases they learned, such as “Habibi” and “Ahalan”- and were somewhat disappointed when I pointed out that both of those words were actually Arabic, incorporated into Israeli slang. I hope I will have an opportunity to get together with Pastor Long when the group returns, and hear how their trip was - and maybe for Shaare Tefilla to learn from their example (and that of, lehavdil, countless other shuls as well).
Rabbi’s Recommendations
1) When Shulem Lemmer and the choir came for Shabbat, they introduced a new tune to the second half of Lecha Dodi on Friday night. It wasn’t exactly a “new” tune - it is an old tune from the Sanz Chassidic dynasty, which includes the Bobov, Klausenberg and Stropkov chassidim - but it was new to us. Last Friday night, I used it again. It is a rousing niggun sung in chassidishe shtiebelach and header yeshivot alike, and it would be amazing if it were part of our repertoire - listen to it here, or sung by the talmidim in the Hesder Yeshiva in Otniel(where Benji and Sammy Zoller studied).
2) As we begin reading about the Ten Plagues, here is Franz Josef Haydn’s String Quartet opus 50, number 6 - titled “The Frog.”
Mystery Shul Of The Week
This was the first shul in the British Commonwealth ever to be granted an official Coat of Arms. Name the shul, and, for bonus points, share a picture of the Coat of Arms.
Last Week’s MSOTW
Last week’s clue was - “You can find a minyan any time of day or night at this landmark Jerusalem shul. On Friday nights after dinner, a legendary Rabbi used to deliver speeches on the Parsha that drew capacity crowds. Name the shul, and the Rabbi.”
Last week’s winner was Bernie Rosenberg, who correctly identified the shul as the Zichron Moshe Shteieblach in Zichron Moshe, adjacent to the Geulah neighborhood of Yerushalaim, and for identifying the Rabbi as the legendary Maggid of Jerusalem, Rav Sholom Mordechai HaKohen Schwadron.
The Maggid’s passionate speeches and legendary oratory drew capacity crowds every Friday night after dinner to the main shul at Zichron Moshe.
Some of Rav Schwadron’s speeches were translated into English by the noted mohel Rabbi Paysach Krohn, who had a close personal relationship with the Maggid, and became a popular speaker in his own right.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Ariel Rackovsky
Congregation Shaare Tefilla 6131 Churchill Way Dallas, TX 75230
