1 Dennington Park Road
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What makes this day the new year for trees is that it is the time when the first fruits of the trees begin to take form. Tu B'shvat has significant halachic implications. The date is the cut off point for three laws:
According to some, the date is also a cut-off point for the law of Shemitta, the year of rest given to the land once in seven years. Beyond its halachic significance, Tu B'shvat heralds the coming of spring. When it arrives there are only four more weeks until Purim, about eight until Pesach, winter approaches its end; renewal is near. |
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NEW DEALThis is now in operation. In November a joint service was held with Hampstead in the Eli Chin Hall, and there was a large turnout from both sections of the community. Some people - both from Wham and Hampstead - have said that they would prefer to see joint services in the main shul hall. In finding the right formula it is felt that all avenues should be explored and so this is probably where the next joint service will be held. As yet no date has been set. Meanwhile, Rabbi Harris will continue to join Wham each month. He will next be with us on 17th January. |
WHAM 5-a-Side
Football Kicks OffAt the last minute a notice was put into the previous edition of the Newsletter inviting people to commit themselves to an evening each week to the cause of keeping fit in a seriously competitive way.
In fact, the five-a-side pool of eligible males now has twenty-nine names. These are divided into "regulars" who have paid in advance for all the games, and "casuals" who are prepared to step into the breach if a regular has to pull out. As it is a regular's responsibility to find his own replacement, the system ensures that at least ten men now turn up regularly at the sports hall every Tuesday night at 9:30pm. This is based on the same model (thanks again to Charles Daniels) used by the committee some years ago dubbed the "Buddy" system which succeeded in getting a minyan (or "Ten-a-Side") into the shul at 10:15 every shabbat morning. [Current committee take note!].
Players range from the "quite talented lad, should go far", to the lads who are, frankly sick parrots, but a great time is had by all. Half our energies are spent in claiming fouls, penalties and appealing to the non-existent ref, but it's a great way to unwind from the day's work and though we might be limping all the next day this only serves to remind us just how virtuous we all are!
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Sunday 15th FebruaryFollowing last year's success, there will again be a tree planting on the Sunday after Tu B'Shvat. This time we will be planting at Westmount at 3pm. Tuesday 24th February"An Evening with Hampstead Forum". Many of you will have heard of Rabbi Yehoshua Engelman. In addition to being the Rabbi of Yakar, he has just recently had an album of Chasidic music released in Israel. He will be performing songs and stories from his album in the Eli Chinn Hall at 8:30pm. Purim Sunday 15th MarchA party for the kids - at 12 Hillfield Rd, NW6, the home of Sarah and Keith. Starting at 3pm this will be lots of fun and an entertainer will be there too. | |||||||||||||
Shabbat 21st MarchIt's another Aufruf! This time the happy Whamee is Lyall Cresswell and his betrothed Candice Katz (but you can call her CK). They invite all of us to a Kiddush after the service. |
Shabbat Times
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Contemporary Jewish Issues - An Adult Education ProgrammeContinuing its third year, with four further sessions taking a relaxed but in-depth look at the Jewish view on subjects of contemporary interest. All are very welcome. Each discussion commences at 8.15pm at the home of Rabbi Michael and Sara Harris (Flat 19, Palace Court, 250 Finchley Road, London NW3 Tel: 0171 431 2887). Monday 19th January 1998Heaven and Hell Monday 9th February 1998The Blessing "Shelo Asani Ishah" - "Who has not made me a Woman" Monday 2nd March 1998Surrogate Motherhood and Judaism Monday 16th March 1998"Land for Peace" in Israel: A Halachic and philosophic approach. |
AnagWHAM corner:Hates an island Last month's AnagWHAM was Geoffrey Zelin This month's contains the name of one who has only recently joined the community - in fact I don't think this person has been to our shul yet on a Shabbat morning, though will do soon no doubt. Answers to Geoff Charin. |
VOICE OF PHILADELPIAHi to all of you at WHAM. I've finally got email and am keeping up with events at WHAM by regularly accessing the home page; so Andrew all your efforts on that score are not in vain. Sarah is busy being a full-time "Mom" which is mostly about school drop-offs and pick-ups and keeping Sophia and Ben amused the rest of the time, though she has done a little bit of teaching in the local Jewish high school. Her talents are well sought after but she is not officially allowed to work due to her visa status and she only has a couple of hours free in the morning while Ben is at nursery to go and teach. Being away from home means you don't have the backup of friends/family to do favours like looking after the kids whilst you have an hour's teaching etc. The work at the Children's Hospital is interesting and good fun most of the time though they do like to work so terribly hard here. All the medicine is high quality but there is always the undercurrent of billing and medico-legal issues in all that one does. I have moved on from general paediatric anaesthesia to cardiac paediatric anaesthesia and this is consequently much more of a challenge with the kids being much younger (as a general rule) and also much sicker. A lot of them are quite blue before I've even got my hands on them. The work is fascinating and I feel that this experience and teaching (the clinicians that I am working with are excellent in every aspect of their job) is what I worked so hard for when we set up this year abroad. My back has been giving me some gip which I put down to the stress of the job and the long hours so this time I am determined to go and see someone to get it sorted out. Unlike in England, osteopaths and even chiropracters are considered mainstream and are covered by most health insurance plans. The community where we have settled for the year (Bala Cynwyd - 2 small towns in Wales) is friendly, hospitable and affluent. One can see why people come here for a short time(eg for residency training) and end up staying. The choice of Shuls is a bit limited if you want to be Orthodox- Frum or very Frum but what with on-calls, being in England for 3 weekends for Sarah's Father and the Yomtov season, we've not really got into a regular routine of Shabbat morning attendance. Like the Warrens' in Boston, we find that there is no broadness in the mainstream Orthodox shuls primarily because there is a large and thriving conservative movement here. Interestingly enough Sophia attends the local Conservative school but I would certainly describe the headmaster (Jay Lieberman who was at King David's Liverpool and at Carmel) as having a modern orthodox philosophy and much more United Synagogue than Reform. We spent the last days of Succot at a hotel in the Catskills which we had chosen from a selection of brochures after they had assured us on the phone that they had a wide variety of clientel. What we meant was orthodox and not so orthodox but what they meant was Lubavitch, Satmar, Gerrer, Vichnitz and Bobbow. In to the bargain the hotel was a dirty dump and poorly run. Arriving an hour before Yomtov on Hoshana Raba we were trapped and endured 74 hours of what was meant to be a break but turned out to be a long wait for Saturday night to arrive. At least the food was plentiful in the great Catskill tradition and frequent. The children Sophia and Ben are loving their schools and have made nice friends. The attitude in schools here is much more laid back and although Sophia was reading fluently by this time last year she would only be taught to read in America in the first grade (next year). Ivrit is only taught orally and although Sophia is picking up quite a few words she has not been taught any of the reading and writing which she had already done last year at NWLJDS. I'm not sure whether our English attitiude to education is the right way, there is a lot to be said for letting the kids learn in a more fun environment when they are 5 and 6 years old. Ben is a real boy and has made friends with the lads in his kindergarden where they practise making guns and swords out of anything that comes to hand and jumping around playing Buzz Lightyear "To Infinity and Beyond". Having a 24 hour cartoon channel is a real paradise for Ben and he has become very partial to the Flintstones as there is a Barney character (Barney is a large purple dinosaur who Ben dotes on and is very popular here in the US if you are less than 7). Holidays are upon us here as at home but they really do it well here with houses completely swamped with Christmas lights and decarations. Its very pc here as one does not say Happy Christmas but rather Happy Holidays as that includes Christmas, Hanukah and Kwanza. The shoops are well decked out and of course there are endless shopping ads on the telly which generally are aimed at a viewer with an IQ of about 23. The cold has not started yet and it hasn't yet snowed. Once it does I'll have to put my bike into hibernation for the winter and await the sound of airline tickets arriving in our mailbox which PG will take us out of the gloom of winter for a well-earned break in the Florida sunshine. More news of that and other Philadelphia gossip in the next installment from the DAVIS'S. Please email us davisl@email.chop.edu or phone/fax [number available to WHAM members and "friends" on request] or write to us and especially Sophia and Ben at: [address available to WHAM members and "friends" on request]. We'd love to hear from you and we do miss all our friends in WHAM. Lionel Davis |
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Wednesday 11th February is
Tu B'shvat. Tu B'shvat is the subject
of a well-known dispute between the school of Hillel and the school
of Shammai in the first mishna of tractate Rosh Hashanah According
to Beit Shammai the New Year's Day for Trees is the First of Shvat.
For Beit Hillel it is the 15th (the abbreviation TU is made up of
the letters Tet and Vav whose numerical value is 9 and 6 = 15).
NOTE
DOWN THESE FORTHCOMING EVENTS:- 