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Honorable Mensch-ion

Show & Tell


There is no better way to learn than to show and tell. It works in preschool, but it also works as adults. 
 
Sinai Temple has been blessed to be part of the Israeli Shin-Shin (shenat sherut) program this year. Four Israeli teenagers who graduated high school last spring work at Sinai Temple and Sinai Akiba Academy, bringing their love of Israel to our community. As they enter the Israeli Defense Force this coming fall, they will bring the joy and passion of Sinai Temple with them. 
 
The Torah tells us that Moshe took and put the testimony into the Ark.” We know as Jews that there is a strong relationship between taking and giving. The Temple had two objects in the sanctuary. The shulchan, the table, and the mizbeach, the altar. When there is food on the table, we take, but when that same object is seen on an altar, we give. Ethics of our Fathers teaches, “The reward of a mitzvah is the deed itself.” That is so true of Sinai Temple’s relationship with our Israeli ambassadors, our Shin-Shin students. We have been given the gift of these dynamic, impressive Israelis whose love of our homeland permeates our walls. We have taken that love and acted upon it. And they too have been given an eternal gift. Last Friday our first graders at Sinai Akiba Academy received their first siddur, as they mastered the Kabalat Shabbat service. At the end of their presentation, each child proudly held his/her new siddur in hand. Yet, the biggest surprise was when our Israeli guests received their own siddurim, which they will now take back to Israel with them, reciting those same words of the Shema, as they serve our nation of Israel. 
 
May this connection continue to be an eternal bond of the Jewish people, as we are graced with the gift of our tradition.
 
Shabbat shalom.

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