Shabbat Parshat Shelach June 20, 2009 28 Sivan 5769

Torah GNS TEFILLA DIGEST: A Weekly Discussion about the Fundamentals of Jewish Prayer
Artscroll, 798 By Rabbi Brahm Weinberg – Rabbinic Intern
Hertz, 623 This inspiring article about Rabbi Soloveitchik explains the most basic human awareness
Haftorah tefillah is sponsored by that prayer is an outgrowth of a of a need. The more developed
Artscroll, 1184 Diane and David Rein in person’s basic need awareness form of prayer comes once a
Hertz, 635 memory of Diane’s mother, and a means for us to sharpen person is ready to gain greater
Bar Mitzvah Helene M. Fink z”l. our understanding of those need awareness, analyzing what
Samuel Berk Issue # 46 – Philosophy of needs. his or her need is and why it is
Prayer (Part III) Someone who is unaware of meaningful for him or her.
Mevorchim Chodesh
Tamuz
As part of the last few their basic needs in life will not For Rabbi Soloveitchik, prayer is
Rosh Chodesh call out in prayer; that person the natural outgrowth of an
Monday & Tuesday issues of the Tefilla Digest,
Molad is Monday evening I would like to present will not pray because he or she existential tension that we feel
8:35:4 pm some of the main points of experiences none of the when our needs are unfulfilled.
Rabbi Soloveitchik’s existential suffering that stems At the very same time prayer can
Times Philosophy of prayer from the awareness of a serve not only as the vehicle for
gleaned from his various disparity between where he or the expression of that need
Candle lighting 8:11 pm
writings on the topic. I she is in life and where he or awareness, but also as the means
Mincha 7:00 pm she would like to be. A slave to better understand the need.
think that his approach to
Hashkama 8:00 am prayer can be very may cry out in physical pain, Prayer allows us to clarify our
Minyan meaningful and relevant for but he takes his enslavement self-image, our needs, our vision
many of us. and torture for granted. The of ourselves and the disparity
Parsha Shiur 8:30 am slave is unaware of his need for between them.
Youth 8:30 am We, of course, are still freedom and liberty. Once the
starting out with the Rabbi Soloveitchik’s view of
slave becomes aware that prayer as a means to changing
Main Minyan 9:00 am essential question laid out freedom is a real possibility, heoneself is not unprecedented in
Beit Midrash 9:15 am in the last few articles of will feel the need for freedom
how to make prayer a the history of Jewish thought. In
and cry out in a primordial fact, there is a school of thought
Gemorah Shiur 7:00 pm personal and meaningful prayer called tzaaka. amongst the medieval Jewish
Mincha 8:00 pm experience when it seems to
be an experience that is the Rabbi Yehuda Amital has philosophers that also claims
Shabbat Ends 9:19 pm argued that the reason why the prayer transforms the self. Both
same for everyone and
Sunday 7:30 am stifling to our personal mishna in Bava Kama refers to Rabbenu Bahya Ibn Pakuda in
8:30 am autonomy and man as mav’eh, from the root numerous places throughout his
individualism. By ba’y – to pray, is because Chovat Halevavot and Rabbi
Mon., Tues., 6:35 am
understanding the nature of human nature is such that a Yosef Albo in his Sefer Ha-
&Thurs.,
prayer according to Rabbi person always feels like he is Ikkarim explain that prayer is not
Wed., & Fri., 6:45 am lacking something and, thus, he meant to change G-d, but to
Soloveitchik we will come
Second Shacharit to understand just how naturally calls out in prayer. change the individual. Albo
Minyan (Daily) 7:45 am personal it can be. Primordial prayer, or Tzaaka, is explains in great detail how
prayer is meant to change the
Mincha (week of 8:10 pm
June 21)
Latest times for
Kiddush is sponsored by
Shema/Shmoneh Esrei Yana Shamaev Berk
June 20 9:09/10:25 am
In honor of the
June 27 9:11/10:27 am
Bar Mitzvah
Next Shabbat - Korach
Candle lighting 8:12 pm
Of her son
Mincha 7:00 pm Samuel
26 Old Mill Road, Great Neck, NY 11023 (516) 487-6100
individual almost in to a new being that is more prepared to
receive G-d’s bountiful blessing, shefa, that He tries to
shower upon man (Albo, IV:18).
It is the discovery and analysis of one’s needs that
can make Rabbi Soloveitchik’s philosophy of prayer
particularly meaningful to us.
Rabbi Soloveitchik explains that modern man
naturally seeks a life of change, a life of the quick fix and
the satisfaction of here and now. We often seek a life of
limitless experiences that we can change at will because we
want to ensure that we will constantly have a new fix,
something different that will appeal to us once our old
experiences can no longer fulfill our needs.
The problem with this approach is that we often do
not pause to scrutinize why our experiences have not
fulfilled our needs or to think about exactly what
experience to seek in order to fulfill that need. Instead, we
just look for the most superficially exciting choice that will
give us a temporal high until we find something new and
more exciting. The drive to constantly move on to new
things, to change life’s experiences at will is unrealistic
because life is naturally cyclical and repetitive. The result
is that people often become bored with life; the multiplicity
of options that they make available to themselves
eventually runs out and people find themselves bored and
unfulfilled. Modern man attempts to escape boredom in the
wrong way seeking superficial excitement and
entertainment rather than meaning in the repetitiveness of
life.
The person who has the ability to autonomously
choose those quick fixes that seem superficially exciting
may seem to be self reflective constantly evaluating what
gives him or her pleasure. That person may think he or she
is autonomous and self- serving, but in reality he or she is
not because that person has not gained enough distance
from his or her own self to judge, objectively, what that self
needs.
That person may be guided by false perceptions
and lack of understanding of their own being and thus
cannot possibly understand what their deeper needs really
are. In order to engage in real self-reflection a person
needs to disengage from themselves so that they can
objectively gaze upon their “self” almost from the outside.
Psychologists have found that humans naturally
Great Neck Synagogue
Shabbat Activities Program
Dale Polakoff, Rabbi
Shalom Axelrod, Assistant Rabbi
Brahm Weinberg, Rabbinic Intern
Dr. Ephraim Wolf ,z”l, Rabbi Emeritus
Zeev Kron, Cantor
Eleazer Schulman, z”l, Cantor Emeritus
Mark Twersky, Executive Director
Howard Silberstein, President
Harold Domnitch, Chairman of the Board
Shabbat Announcements Parshat Shelach, 5769
tend towards personal growth. When a person has an
inaccurate picture of their own self and they pushe towards the
actualization of that perceived self while their true inner self
pushes in a different direction it causes frustration and
neurosis: What Rabbi Soloveitchik might call The Crisis of
Boredom. When making choices in life, we often include
information in the decision-making process that doesn’t
belong, or exclude information that does belong because of
past experiences, fears, or learned responses. This yields
untrustworthy choices and behaviors.
Put more simply by Rabbi Abraham J. Twersky notes,
people “are so bombarded by the many stresses of everyday
needs and activities that they lose sight of what their life is or
should be all about” (Twersky, 2001, p. 19).
The solution, according to psychologist Carl Rogers is
to gain an undisturbed awareness of who you are and what you
are experiencing in the world without distorting it because of
the way that you think that you are.
Stay tuned for next week’s article where we will
discover how prayer, according to the philosophy of Rabbi
Soloveitchik, can help us to understand who we really are.
Thought to Ponder
Have you ever gained clarity about something that
you needed or thought you needed by having some quiet time
to reflect upon it? Think about how prayer can afford you that
opportunity.
GREEN TIP OF THE WEEK
Article 31, THE RIGHT TO WATER:
Everyone has the right to clean and accessible water, adequate
for the health and well-being of the individual and family, and
no one shall be deprived of such access or quality of water due
to individual economic circumstance.
There is a growing privatization of the world's dwindling fresh
water supply with an unflinching focus on politics, pollution,
human rights, and the emergence of a domineering world
water cartel subsidized by huge corporations funding the
bottled water industry. These private water labels are taking
our fresh water supply for FREE and selling it in a$400 billion
industry.
Over a billion people across the planet lack access to clean and
potable water and that millions die each year as a result, it is
imperative to add one more UN article, the Right to Water.
Call upon the United Nations to add a 31st article to the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, establishing access to
clean and potable water as a fundamental human right. IN
addition, avoid buying water bottles. Instead purchase a
stainless steel reusable bottle and fill with filtered tap water.
The world will be a better place when the Right To Water is
acknowledged by all nations as a fundamental human right,
and that this addition to the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights represents a major step toward the goal of water for all.
Please sign the petition to adopt Article 31:
Water is a right, not a privilege.
http://article31.org/
 SUMMER LEARNING PROGRAM
Dear Friends,

Each year our Summer Learning Program is run through the generosity of sponsors. It is to the credit of our
sponsors that the voice of Torah is strengthened each summer.

Sponsorship is one hundred dollars. Please call the office to be included in this noble effort.

We will once again be including a sponsor’s list in the Shabbat Announcements. If you would like to sponsor
a “Day of Learning” at an additional cost, in honor or in memory of someone, please call Mark Twersky and let
him know.

Thank you for helping support Torah.

Very cordially yours,

Rabbi Dale Polakoff Rabbi Shalom Axelrod

Philip Machnikoff

SALLY & SEYMOUR OLSHIN ADULT EDUCATION PROGRAM

GREAT NECK SYNAGOGUE SUMMER LEARNING PROGRAM

Roshei Yeshiva Lecture Series

July 1, 2009 (following Maariv)
Rabbi Dovid Hirsch

July 8, 2009
Rabbi Baruch Simon

July 15, 2009

Rabbi Daniel Feldman

July 22, 2009

Rabbi Shmuel Maybruch

Professional Lecture Series

August 12, 2009
Rabbi Dr. Edward Reichman

August 19, 2009

Rabbi Dr. Aaron Levine
 ANNOUNCEMENTS
HIGH SCHOOL PIRKEI AVOS CLASS
There will be a Pirkei Avos shiur for High School students every
shabbos afternoon approx. 40 minutes before mincha given by
Cary Schwechter in the GNS Youth Center.
CHAI LIFELINE SHABBATON
On June 27th, together with YIGN we will welcome children from Chai
Lifeline who will be in Great Neck for a Shabbaton. They will be at
Great Neck Synagogue Saturday afternoon for Seudah Shlishit and
Mincha. We thank the following for sponsoring this event: Lilly & Gary
Chubak, Jacqueline & Stan Fischer, Sarita & Ben Greszes, Alisa
& Michael Hoenig, Addie & Avi Markowitz, Florence & Irvin
Spira, Orly & Alan Steinberg, Michele & Howard Wolf, Shellie &
Steve Zuckerman, Michelle & Norman Rutta, Ed & Brenda
Parver, Mordechai & Nurit Weiss, and Anne & Harvey Brenner.
We are in need of housing! For more info please see Arthur Kirsh.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH
The Sisterhood of GNS would like to thank Debbie Wang Etzion for
organizing a wonderful evening and presenting the documentary
“Always Remember Where You Came From: The Life of Samuel Hersch
Wang” which was a moving tribute to her father, and an inspiration to
the entire community.
WITHIN OUR FAMILY
Mazal Tov to Yana Shamaev Berk on the Bar Mitzvah of her son
Samuel.
Mazal Tov to Michael Berk on the Bar Mitzvah of his son Samuel.
Mazal Tov to Beth & Gary Orbach on the Bar Mitzvah of their son
Jacob.
Mazal Tov to Sarita & Ben Greszes on the Bat Mitzvah of their
granddaughter Juliana daughter of Michelle & David Gershbaum.
Yeshiva Har Torah's 9th Annual Golf Outing
The Golf Outing will be held at the North Shore Country Club this Monday,
June 22nd. To RSVP and for further info Please see Alan Steinberg.
SAVE THE DATE
YU Women’s Organization are holding its annual Spring Ballet Swan Lake Wed.,
June 24th, 2009 at Lincoln Center. For info and to RSVP call 212-960-0855 or
see Sydelle Slochowsky.
SAT TRAINING
July and August, 6-7:30pm at GNS given by David Rabinowitz. Mondays:
Math, Tuesdays: Verbal, Wednesdays: Writing, Thursdays: Misc. review of
material from the previous three days. For more info call 998-6621.

UPCOMING SISTERHOOD EVENTS LOST AND FOUND

*Please Note that our Sisterhood event for Wednesday, August 5th at If anyone finds a multi-colored tallis, or has taken it by mistake, please return it
8pm, Ladies Night Out to see “Menopause the Musical” at the to the Synagogue office ASAP! If you have lost a Ladies Brown 3/4 down coat,
Landmark on Main Street in Port Washington has been CANCELLED. please contact Rona Jutkowitz at 659-9228.

KOL DITZRICH NETWORKING EVENT

Cleaning up for the summer? We can re-use your old stuff! Please Sunday, June 28th, 9:30-11:30am the second networking event will take place
bring: Eyeglasses, Hearing Aids, Cell Phones (with chargers), at Temple Israel. Please tell your friends and colleagues about this event. People
Children’s Books (Jewish & Secular), DVDs and Videos, Drop all items who are looking to hire from a very talented pool of people should take
at the shul office or bring to the coat lobby on Monday June 15th, advantage of this opportunity.
6-8pm. These items will be donated to people who can use them, NSHA’s 6th ANNUAL GOLF & TENNIS CLASSIC
including: New Eyes for the Needy, Domestic Violence Shelters, Cell Monday, July 13th, NSHA invites you for a day of golf (noon shotgun), tennis
Phones for Soldiers, Hospitals, and other worthy organizations. For (ladies at 9:30am & men's at 2:30pm), ladies card games/mahjong lessons (for
further info, call Ellie Werber 487-4745. those who don't play golf or tennis from 10:30 am to 5pm), brunch, lunch,
BBQs and a sunset cocktail party & million dollar Jet Blue Challenge followed by
DOS YIDDISH VORT a buffet dinner and our Charity Texas Hold’Em Tournament starting at 7:30pm
Dos Yiddish Vort will be sharing letters in Yiddish from ‘yener tseiten’ until 11:30pm. Brochure/registration has been mailed. For info. please call
on Wednesday, June 17th at 1:30 pm in the Chalfin room. If you have Arnie Flatow at 487-8687 ext 133.
any old letters you would like to share, bring them along. For more info
call Roz Wagner 487-9795. Saturday, 28 Sivan
SAVE THE DATE Herschel Flax for Joshua Pasvolsky
Sat., June 20th, the Annual Sharon Sokol Heisler Family Luncheon Mary Flax for Joshua Pasvolsky
will take place. Gary Rosenblatt of the Jewish Week will be the Richard Lillien for Sol Engelhard
featured speaker. More details to follow. The Youth Luncheon will also Benjamin Lunzer for Shoshana Lunzer
take place that day. Sally Olshin for Sara Weinberger
Sunday, 29 Sivan
BLOOD DRIVE Y Myles Mittleman for Philip Mittleman
Semi-annual Men’s Club blood drive will be on Sunday morning, June
21st, 8:15 am to 1:30 pm.
A Monday, 30 Sivan
Albert Benak for Jacob Benak
GNS GRADUATION AND CONGREGATIONAL KIDDUSH H Kitty Justin for Jolan Nagel
Alon Mogilner for Leonard Joseph Mogilner
Saturday, June 27th, celebrate all of your smachot with us! Births, Bar
& Bat Mitzvahs, graduations, weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, or
R Gerald Nathel for Daniel Nathel
commemorate a loved ones yahrzeit. To participate, call the Z Richard Reiser for Freida Reiser
Zahava Slonim for Mordechai Kukelkah
synagogue office, or send your info to mtwersky@gns.org.
E Tuesday, 1 Tamuz
MEN’S CLUB EVENTS Phyllis Marcus for Irving Kalchman
Sun., July 26th 10am Bus Trip to the NYC Eldridge Synagogue and
I Wednesday, 2 Tamuz
Center for Jewish History. Cost including lunch is $60 per person.
Call Dave Wagner 487-9795, Hilly Milun 597-0320, or Al
T Jacques Aboaf for Albert Aboaf
Lev Dynkin for Zalman Dynkin
Leiderman at 482-0628. Ebrahim Gabbaizadeh for Jack Shaw
Sun. Oct 18th, 1pm Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv vs New York Knicks at Halina Greenwald for Psachje Salpeter
MSG. All proceeds are donated to Migdal Ohr. Joan Hope for Ann Hope
Mid-court tickets at $105 each. For tickets call Steve Blumner 487- Thursday, 3 Tamuz
3859, Hilly Milun 504-0320, or Paul Brody 466-5412 Anton Fischman for Magdalina Fischman
Joseph Fischman for Magdalina Fischman
SAM AHARONOFF MEMORIAL SHIVTEI TORAH CAMPAIGN Sharon Janovic for Valerie Meltz
On Nov. 22nd, The NSHA and the NSHAHS, in conjunction with the Henry Katz for Fred Katz
greater Great Neck Jewish Community, will hold a historic campaign Frederick Shaw for Bernard Shaw
that will involve the dedication and commissioning of 12 new Sifrei Mitchell Siegel for Isadore Siegel
Torah. All proceeds go to the Sam Aharonoff Memorial Scholarship Elaine Wolf for Hinda Wolf
Fund to help offset tuition costs for dozens of needy students. For info: Friday, 4 Tamuz
www.shivteitorah.org, or Arnie Flatow 487-8687 ext 2. Miriam Bader for Samuel Bader
Herbert Eckstein for Elchanan Fisch
GIVE OLD MAGAZINES A NEW LIFE James Frisch for Laszlo Frisch
Please drop off your current used magazines to the Synagogue office Ruth Klapper for Chaya Rivka Goldberg
to be donated to NSUH. Please cut off labels, do not tear. Ellie Werber for Michael Preis