Articles

WhatsApp Minyan Group
By: Beth Tzedec
Feb 26th 2023
Help Us Make a MinyanDo you live in the shul neighborhood? Please join our new WhatsApp Minyan Group to help us ensure a minyan when we are short. Once a week, once a month – it’s really up to you!You will fulfill several mitzvot. You will make a minyan. You will give yourself time to engage with God. You will enable others to recite Kaddish. And you will strengthen our Beth Tzedec community...
We Don’t Revere a Mountain ~ The Week's End (February 24, 2023)
By: Aviva Chernick
Feb 23rd 2023
We don’t revere a mountain. It is a distinct part of the Jewish narrative that, although the giving of Torah happened at Mount Sinai, we do not make a pilgrimage to or revere the mountain. Rather, the experience at Mount Sinai was an interaction with holiness, with the Divine, and so the Israelites set about creating an indwelling place for that Divine that could travel with them in the desert....
A Faithful, Responsible and Caring Community ~ The Week's End (February 17, 2023)
By: Yacov Fruchter
Feb 15th 2023
We will be reading this Shabbat from Parashat Mishpatim which expands upon the ten commandments. Among the many laws that instruct us how to create a faithful, responsible and caring community is this law about how treat strangers and makes the connection to our experience of being othered in Egypt.You shall not wrong or oppress a stranger (ger), for you were strangers in the land of Egypt...
The Greatest Sound and Light Show Ever ~ The Week's End (February 10, 2023)
By: Daniel Silverman
Feb 10th 2023
When teaching the revelation at Sinai to children, I help them try to connect to the experience as described in the Torah by saying that it was the greatest sound and light show ever. There was lightning, smoke and thunderous noise, an experience that would overwhelm the senses of sight and hearing. For adults, take the most over-the-top rock show you’ve ever seen, complete with the...
Shirat HaHodesh: Brosh (February 2023)
By: Beth Tzedec
Feb 1st 2023
February starts, and we are getting closer and closer to Tu B'Shevat (ט"ו בשבט), that this year falls on February 6! Tu B'Shevat is a day when we appreciate and celebrate the trees and nature in Israel.. That's why the song "Brosh—Cypress" by the Israeli artist Ehud Manor is the perfect song for this month! Cypress trees are very common in Israel, you can see...
The Song of the Sea ~ The Week's End (February 3, 2023)
By: Rev. Lorne Hanick
Feb 1st 2023
The Song of the Sea (Shirat Hayam, Exodus 15) is chanted publicly from the Torah twice a year on Shabbat Shirah (Parashat Beshallaẖ) and on the seventh day of Passover. It is also recited publicly in our morning prayers every day of the year in the Preliminary Service. Shortly after Shirat Hayam, we say the following between the Shema and the private devotion of the Amidah:שִׁירָה...
Who's Who in Bo ~ The Week's End (January 26, 2023)
By: Cantor Sidney Ezer
Jan 26th 2023
This week’s parashah Bo contains the last three plagues afflicted upon Egypt. Before the eighth plague, Pharoah temporarily agrees to let the Israelites go, and he asks Moses whom he wants to take along into the wilderness to serve God. He phrases the question using the word “Who” twice: “Who and who is going?” Moses replies: “With our young and old we will go, with our sons and our...
EPIC Israel: Experience with Purpose, Intention, and Community (for Grades 10 to 12)
By: Sylvie Moscovitz Librach
Jan 25th 2023
Beth Tzedec is excited to partner with UJA and USY to help Toronto teens in Grades 10 & 11 save over $5,000 for EPIC Israel trips this summer! (Teens in Grades 12 are eligible for $1,600 in scholarship funds.)In this unique three-week Israel trip, participants will build a community unlike any other, experience the Jewish homeland, and take part in all the country has to offer...
Finding the Courage ~ The Week's End (January 20, 2023)
By: Rabbi Robyn Fryer Bodzin
Jan 20th 2023
Dear Friends,In this week’s parashah, God asked Moshe to go to Pharaoh and try again to demand that Israel be freed. Even though Pharaoh did not budge the first time Moshe went to see him, God doesn’t give up on Moshe.In a fit of frustration Moshe said to God: “If the Israelites do not listen to me; how then should Pharaoh heed me, I am aral s’fatayim—a man of uncircumcised of lips.”...
Join the REDI Committee
By: Beth Tzedec
Jan 16th 2023
Beth Tzedec's REDI CommitteeJoin the work of Beth Tzedec's REDI CommitteeREDI stands for anti-Racism, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. Our committee consists of members of the Beth Tzedec community who work passionately to promote an inclusive, anti-racist, safe and welcoming environment for all.Our mission is to champion the inclusion of all members of the Jewish community at Beth...
Who Gives Humans Speech ~ The Week's End (January 13, 2023)
By: Rabbi Steve Wernick
Jan 12th 2023
Moses eyes the Burning Bush and approaches it. God charges him with going to Pharaoh to free the Israelites from slavery. Miracle after miracle occurs, and what is Moses’ initial response?“Please, O my Lord, I have never been a man of words—kabed peh u’khvad lashon Anokhi—I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” (Ex. 4:10)Did Moses have a speech impediment? That’s certainly how...
Hazak Hazak v’Nithazek
By: Aviva Chernick
Jan 5th 2023
At shul last Shabbat morning, Reb Steve noted the pending secular New Year, inviting us, as we do for the Jewish New Year, to take the opportunity for heshbon hanefesh—a spiritual accounting of sorts.  “How have I lived this past year?” I always appreciate a nudge toward greater awareness. At that moment, however, I noticed a kind of fatigue at the prospect of further recounting...
Introducing a Socratic D'Var Torah Style
By: Beth Tzedec
Jan 3rd 2023
We are continually seeking ways to create different approaches for engaging together during our services. As part of this, we will introduce, as an experiment, an alternative to the traditional sermon using a more interactive discussion aligned with the weekly Torah reading. We plan to do this on four upcoming Shabbatot on January 14 and 28 and February 11 and 25.  On these days,...
Sending Purim Cheer!
By: Klara Romm
Jan 1st 2023
The Member Engagement Committee is gearing up to send our annual holiday package filled with Purim treats to our university/college student members. Please send us a ‘snailmail’ (mailing) address to Klara at kromm@beth-tzedec.org or call 416-781-3514, ext.220.All requests must be received by Tuesday, February 7.
Humility in the Face of Tragedy - The Week's End (December 9, 2022)
By: Cantor Sidney Ezer
Dec 9th 2022
On June 12, 2014, Israel was witness to the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers Eyal Yifrach, Gilad Shaar, and Naftali Fraenkel. After the discovery and burial of the bodies of the three boys a few weeks later, Israeli singer and composer Yonatan Razel paid a shiva call to the family of Naftali Fraenkel. At a subsequent concert Yonatan gave, he shared the following experience from...