We’ve added a new feature to our site: a Photos section (found in the Temple Offerings tab at the right) where we’ll share photographs of our temple events and celebrations. Please feel free to send your own!

It currently features some pictures from our Sukkot celebration and honoring of Matt Repetto for his construction of our new garden.

Check it out!

It is the dog days of July as I write this. The temperature has been scorching, reaching triple digits. The humidity has been unbearable and the sun unyielding. In short, it’s been pretty darn hot. But hey, that’s all right -- summer’s here.

At the Reform Temple of Putnam Valley we’ve had an eventful 2010/11 Fall, Winter and Spring. We gathered for the High Holidays, celebrated in the Sukkah, danced on Simchat Torah, had our annual “Hanukkah Hootenanny” and enjoyed a communal Passover Seder. We’ve had numerous congregational dinners, had a Temple BBQ, helped run the food pantry, presented Wellness Seminars to the community, held a gold buying party and had a yard sale. We’ve joined together for Yom Hashoah and Yom Ha’atzmaut, joined in sympathy for the loss of loved ones, assisted our congregants and community through illness and times of need and shared in the nachus of joyous occasions, whether it was the naming of a child, a bar or bat mitzvah, or the commemoration of a happy event.

Yes, we’ve been busy here at RTPV and we won’t let a little heat stop us. We are working hard to make the coming year an exciting, fun, inspirational and spiritual one for all of our members. Coming soon to a mailbox near you will be a completely updated member questionnaire. It is an effort not only to learn more about who our members are, but also to hear from each one of you about what you want out of this Temple. It is a way of fostering a stronger bond between the Reform Temple of Putnam Valley and our members; a way of allowing the RTPV community to be an integral part of your lives and a place that you can rely on for community, inspiration, spirituality and friendship.

You will also soon be receiving requests for High Holiday tickets. Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur arrive very early this year, so it is important that you look out for that mailing and return your ticket requests as soon as possible.

We continue to strive to serve the needs of all of our members. I want to personally encourage each one of you to contact me with any questions, comments, concerns or suggestions about our Temple.

On behalf of everyone here at the Reform Temple of Putnam Valley, we want to wish you all a safe, happy, healthy, fun and cool summer.

Finally, don’t forget that we are open for business all summer long. Services are still being held each Friday evening at 8:00 pm. Please join us. Bring family. Bring a friend. Besides, we have really good air conditioning.
 
Shalom,
 
Scott Levinson

This Friday evening, July 9th, is a Pot Luck Oneg.

Please bring a nosh to share.

Hope to see you there.

Passover Thoughts & Wishes

Spring is here, and our thoughts turn to... matzoh?
 
My thoughts and memories of matzoh and, of course, Passover, bring me back to my childhood, sitting at the end of a long table by the side of my father as he read the Passover Haggadah. When I was young and we were orthodox, it was all in Hebrew, reflecting my father’s upbringing. But as the years passed and we moved to conservatism, English became a large part of the Passover service (as well taking some shortcuts to speed things along).
 
I fondly recall the pride I felt watching my father lead this service in our home. All eyes were on him, all words were uttered at his direction. When he said “shhh,” conversations stopped. When he told the same background stories, the same jokes, the same historical references year after year after year, we all nodded in appreciation and wonder, as if it were the first time we heard these words (although there was, admittedly, some rolling of the eyes). And we all laughed at those old jokes like we did the year before and the year before that.
 
Passover for me has always been a time of family. And family for me has always included relatives as well as close friends. Over sweet wine and juice and brisket and turkey and potatoes and lots and lots of food, we sit together and laugh and sing and remember and share, bonded by a common history and strength.
 
I remember the first Passover after my father died. I was 29 and single and still finding my way in the world as I prepared to lead the Passover service in my mother’s apartment in the Bronx.  I sat down in my father’s chair at the head of the long table, all eyes and ears on me.  An hour before that I had looked through our Haggadah and wrote notes in the margins -- “wash hands,”  “leave table,” “hide Afikomen,” “sing,” “skip this part.”
 
We all sat down, the same faces from the year before, minus one, as I began to read from the Haggadah: “ We are about to begin the recitation of the ancient story of Israel’s redemption from bondage in Egypt...”  But it was all wrong.  I was not the leader; my father was. Yet I felt his presence as I began the Kiddush, and I felt him stronger still as I finished. My words were his words and my stories were his stories. Even my jokes mirrored the ones I had heard throughout my life. And while it was sad, so terribly sad not to have my dad there, it was at the same time uplifting to know that everyone at that table was pulling for me, prompting me and supporting me as I carried on our Passover traditions.
 
As the years have passed since that seder I developed my own stories and jokes, no doubt causing new rolling of the eyes.  We still gather each year with family and friends to tell the story of Pesach.  I have carried on the traditions of my father and his father, even as I have embraced the reform movement, while developing new traditions with my wife that our children will carry on.
 
As you enjoy the warmth of Spring and tradition of Passover, I hope that you also enjoy the strength of family and friends and companionship, the power of faith and the magic of renewal and hope.
 
Shalom.
 
Scott Levinson
 
 
P.S.: Please join us for our annual 2nd night Congregational Seder. Tuesday, March 30, 2010 at 6:30 pm in the social hall. Please see the entry below to RSVP and for more information.

Spring cleaning is in the air and it's time to spruce up the Temple.
 
Please join us this Sunday morning for our
 
RTPV SPRING CLEANUP.
 
9:30 a.m.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
 
It looks like it will be great weather and a wonderful opportunity to join with your fellow congregants as we work together to clean, garden and beautify the outside of our Temple.
 
Bring a rake, some gloves, some gardening tools, yourselves. All ages are welcome to help out and it will be greatly appreciated.
 
A special invite goes out to the Hay families: the start of Bar Mitzvah season is just around the corner and this is a perfect time to help make sure that our Temple is looking its best for your child's special day.
 
Thank you all. Hope to see you Sunday.

WE WILL HAVE A TEMPLE CLEAN UP ON:

Sunday, OCT 25 @ 9:30 a.m.
(Rain Date: Sunday Nov. 1 @ 9:30 a.m.)

ANY HELP WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED

 
Please bring:

• gloves
• rakes
• tarp
• broom
• shovel
• Leaf shredder
• Leaf blower
• Weedwacker

IF YOU ARE ABLE TO VOLUNTEER, please send an RSVP to Shimon.

We will be having a Pot Luck Oneg both this Friday, May 15 and next Friday, May 22.

Please bring something to share.

Hope to see you there.