Coming Up:
Playground Shabbat is this Saturday morning, Oct. 21 from 10am-12pm
There is NO SCHOOL on Friday, October 27th as it is a Professional Development day. If you have children in Kindergarten through 5th grade you can sign them up for Club Sinai's School's Out programming: www.clubsinai.org/schoolsout
There is NO SCHOOL on Friday, November 10th as it is Veteran's day.
Parent/Teacher conferences are on Monday, November 13. Learn more and reserve a spot at www.gansinai.org/conferences
Reminders:
Hot lunch orders for next week are due by Sunday at noon. Don't forget to check your prior orders and order hot lunch for next week (and the rest of the year) at www.gansinai.org/hotlunch
Last call to register for second quarter of enrichment classes for PK2 and PK3 at www.gansinai.org/enrichment
Get all the latest info and links at www.gansinai.org/greatthings.
Find quick links and easy-to-access information at www.gansinai.org/families.
From Rabbi David
This week's Torah portion begins by telling us that:
נֹחַ אִישׁ צַדִּיק תָּמִים
Noah was a righteous and pure man in his generation. That's why he was saved when the rest of the world was destroyed for its corruption and wickedness.
If you remember the four children from the Passover Seder, one of these Hebrew words describing Noah may sound familiar. The four children are the חכם (wise), רשע (wicked), תם (simple) and שאינו יודע לשאול (one who doesn't know how to ask.) Do you see it?
The child often understood to be "simple" is called, in Hebrew, תם (tam) - the same word that's used in reference to Noah - תמים (tamim). We usually translate תמים regarding Noah as "pure" or "innocent" but what if we were to translate it here as we do in the Haggadah as "simple". Noah wasn't anything all that special but he was "simply righteous" and that was enough.
In a world gone mad, perhaps we can just focus on being "simply righteous" and that will be enough.