Erev Shabbat Friday, May 23 Zoom Shabbat, 7:00 pm Online Only Our Shabbat services, on Zoom! Join us to light candles and gather in virtual community to celebrate Shabbat.
This is our last month of online only services! Stay tuned for our summer schedule and changes to our Shabbat rotation.
Shabbat Morning Saturday, May 24 Saturday Morning Service and Bar Mitzvah, 10:00 am Hybrid Our Shabbat morning service will include the Bar Mitzvah of Tommy Taylor. Read more below.
All TBH members are invited to attend monthly board meetings as guests. Agenda are located here. If you would like to request to be put on a board meeting agenda, please be in touch with your board representative or the board president in advance of the meeting.
PrayerFormance: Performance and Book Reading with Gabriel Meyer Halevy Thursday, May 22, 7:00 p.m. In Person
Free admission! Join us for a unique and special event of song, story and readings with Gabriel Meyer Halevy, who is in the Pacific Northwest with his new book, "On the Verge of the Verb: An autobiographical fiction of Prophetic Sorts.” He will share his gifts of heart music, sacred activism, storytelling, prayer, and balm for the soul, rooted in the Hebrew Prophetic tradition, and embodied in his first English prose book.
Gabriel bridges hearts and cultures even beyond enemy lines through the medicine of music, story, and humor celebrating Spirit. In these perilous and turbulent times, he brings groups of people from diverse backgrounds together as a microcosm of peace to sing, play, pray, and create "spontaneous" sacred community.
Born in Cordoba, Argentina. Gabriel brings beauty, humor, vitality, and pathways of understanding and healing through the universal language of music, movement, and prayer. Gabriel sings in over 6 languages, including English, Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, Sanskrit, and Urdu. Trained as a spiritual leader and ambassador of peace, Gabriel was given an honorary title of "true representative of the Jewish people" by Rabbi Zalman Schachter Shalomi z'l and was initiated into the "order of disorder" by Zen Roshi Bernie Glassman z'l. For more information about Gabriel: www.gabrielmeyerhalevy.com, and find some music here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZw4YDmKxU
Thomas Taylor Bar Mitzvah
Thomas (Tommy) is a seventh grader at Jefferson Middle School in Olympia. He enjoys reading, playing musical instruments, rowing crew and playing soccer. He also likes gardening and going camping and backpacking with his family throughout the Pacific Northwest. Thomas’s Mitzvah project is to collect children’s books and a few, small adult books for a little free library he is building and for the South Sound Reading foundation. The South Sound Reading Foundation provides free books to children in low-income housing units, schools, after-school programs, and community events. The TBH congregation is warmly invited to join Thomas, his parents, Debra and Chris and sister Abigail to celebrate this joyous occasion for both the service and lunch to follow.
For Thomas (Tommy) Taylor’s B'nai Mitzvah project, he is working on building a little library for the front of his house. He recently moved to a new house on an active walking route and noticed there were not very many little libraries in the neighborhood. He thought it would help build and strengthen community and promote reading if he added one to the neighborhood.
Please join him in spreading community to Olympia by donating one book for the grand opening of the little library or to South Sound Reading Foundation. The South Sound Reading Foundation provides free books to children in low-income housing units, schools, after-school programs, and community events to promote reading throughout the South Sound area. If you plan to donate one book, a box will be found in the TBH lobby.
COMING UP AT TBH
Shavuot is the springtime festival that celebrates Torah and Jewish learning in all its forms. A commemoration of the biblical story of the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai, Shavuot is marked by the traditional practice of learning late into the night and eating dairy foods. Typically at TBH we hold a short service followed by a series of learning sessions led by our members, this year we will kick off the evening with an all-ages ice cream party!
We need teachers! Do you have something to teach or share? Do you want lead a conversation on a topic of interest? It can be a text, a song, a craft, meditation, etc. Contact Rabbi Seth with your idea! rabbi@bethhatfiloh.org
6:30 p.m. Ice Cream Party & Kids Activities 8:00 p.m. Erev Shavuot Service 8:30 p.m. 1st Learning Block 9:30 p.m. 2nd Learning Block 10:30 p.m. Cheesecake and Noshing 11:00 p.m. 3rd Learning Block 12 midnight End
Shavuot Library Book Drive
“The pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, an almost fanatical love of justice and the desire for personal independence, these are the features of the Jewish tradition which make me thank my stars that I belong to it.” Albert Einstein
Have you been upstairs yet to the youth and adult libraries? Thank you to those members of all ages who have been borrowing books! There's a need to add new/current books authored by diverse voices. While by no means comprehensive, the Library Committee has created an Amazon.com wish lists as the most convenient way to share some suggestions, but if you’d like to support Browser’s or Orca Books you can order the title there or, use https://bookshop.org/shop/browsers (where you can search for other cities, if you’d like to support a local bookstore elsewhere). Note: We can no longer accept book donations due to space limitations. Alternatives are Tommy Taylor's collection (see above), the Friends of Olympia Library (for their ongoing book sale, Wednesdays and Saturdays from 12-2) or Bookmongers, a woman-owned company that will pick up your books (and even box them for you).
Please make sure to check out the Lost and Found box by the entry door as well as the coat rack in the front area across from the resource table. We will be donating all items remaining after June 1st.
Come build homes with TBH and Habitat for Humanity! Friday, June 13th, 8:00 a.m.-2:30 p.m. In Person
TBH Homeless Task Force invites you to join our second annual Habitat for Humanity work party. We are assembling a team to contribute to the Habitat project in Tumwater (Tâlíčn) site at 73rd & Henderson. Our TBH work day is Friday, June 13th from 8:00 a.m.-2:30 p.m. No construction experience needed! Habitat can accommodate a group of up to 15 volunteers, so if you are interested please create an account with Habitat to register. https://www.spshabitat.org/ Also, please email Kayla to let us know that you have signed up (kiverson@bethhatfiloh.org).
VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
Share your Torah Thoughts!
Each week we have the opportunity to share thoughts and teachings about the weekly Torah portion as part of our services. And we want to hear your wisdom! Rabbi Seth invites you to deliver a d’var Torah at an upcoming service, no experience necessary—and he can help you craft your message. (Also look for a d’var Torah workshop over the summer). If you are interested, sign up here.
THANK YOU!
Contributions
Sustaining Fund Debra Shapiro Schwent in honor of Jazmin Shapiro's birthday, in honor of Sam's birthday, and in memory of Connie Shapiro
Max Blustein David Levy Asher Jacqueline Rosenkrantz John William Fay Perle Schrager Esther Ravitz Kate Franklin Jackman Eugene Balter David Wedogsky Susan Strange Pauline Snyder Estelle Grant Constance Shapiro Sunny Grotsky Alan Orman Samel Turkheimer William Patrick Halpern Marilyn Lampert Littauer Morris Dobrin Bessie Cotler Eli Schneider Karl Brown Eli Schneider Alan (Allie) Goldberg Helen Finkel Marv Reiner
Happy Birthday!
21 Linda Blustein 21 Joshua Halofsky 22 Daniel Fajans 24 Beth Halpern
Yahrtzeit Updates & Additions
Members are able to view, edit, and add Yahrtzeits on the member portal of the TBH website here (requires log in). If you need assistance, please feel free to send any updates to kiverson@bethhatfiloh.org.
Mi Sheberach Updates
During Shabbat services, we always include a prayer for healing and maintain a list on behalf of members who want to include names in the healing prayers (as well as offering them verbally during services). Fill out this form to add a name to the list. May all be blessed with a refua shleyma, a complete healing of body, mind, and spirit.
COMMUNITY EVENTS/RESOURCES: Note: These are not necessarily officially sponsored or endorsed by TBH, but they are listed as they have Jewish content and/or may be of interest to our community.
Never Again is Now Sunday, May 25, 3pm - 4:30 pm In Person @ TBH
Join the Olympia Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens' League for viewing a short film about the initial incarceration of Japanese Americans at Puyallup Fairground, followed by a discussion of survivors' families, a description of how the incarceration parallels today, and what we can do about it. Cosponsored by the Multicultural Services Center of South Sound and generous support of TBH.
Temple Beth Hatfiloh, 201 8th Ave SE, Olympia, WA 98501
Growing Shabbat! at TBH & Darchei Noam End-of-Year Celebration Friday, Jun 20th 6:00p to 8:30p Everyone is welcome to join us for family friendly dinner catered by Nineveh and a service.
Registration is free, but required for dinner plans.
Please put any dietary requirements in the notes when registering.
