Dear Friend,
This coming Shabbat marks the first day of the month of Elul on the Jewish calendar. It’s the beginning of 30 days focused on spiritual growth, introspection, and preparing to stand in front of G-d to ask for another year of life.
The Talmud refers to Elul as “days of favor” – a time when it’s easier to access G-d’s forgiveness, to shake off our bad habits, and step out of the rut we may be in. Each day of the month of Elul we blow the shofar as a reminder to wake up!
This 30-day period culminates in the celebration of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, which this year begins on Sunday, September 25th.
We are delighted to invite you, your family, and friends to join us for our Rosh Hashanah banquet. This will be the first time we will celebrate this special holiday in the beautiful ballroom of our brand-new Jewish Community Center.
Given how quickly we filled up the room for Passover in April, we would strongly encourage you to book your seats as early as possible. Click here to reserve your seats for Rosh Hashanah!
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Building local and global partnerships
We’d like to highlight an aspect of the JTCA’s mission in Taiwan which we’ve been pursuing well before we opened the doors to the JCC in January: building partnerships with local and global institutions.
Some of these partnerships, like with Austrian Service Abroad, we have already begun, with our first student volunteer from Austria completing his service at the JCC recently, and another two young volunteers from Austria joining us later this month.
Other partnerships we are actively exploring and discussing. For example, last week we met with Mr. Yeh-Chin Kuei and his leadership team from the Department of Cultural Exchange at Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture.
We are exploring ways we can step up our collaboration with this influential government organization that oversees cultural programs in Taiwan. We were honored by their recent recognition of the JCC with the publication of a page devoted to the JCC on their website, listed among “Heritage Sites & Landscapes.”
As another example of outreach, last week, Glenn Leibowitz participated in an online meeting of the World Jewish Congress’s (WJC) monthly Online Hate Working Group, a committee comprised of leaders from Jewish communities around the world who are actively fighting antisemitic hate speech online and in their local communities.
The World Jewish Congress is a venerable and influential organization dedicated to representing the interests of the global Jewish community to governments around the world. The JTCA has been working with the WJC for over a year now on various initiatives in support of their efforts.
The JCC listed as a “Heritage Site” on the Ministry of Culture’s website
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Connecting heart, mind, and hand
In our last update, we announced the bar mitzvah celebration of Itay. We thought we would conclude this week’s update with some photos of a very special moment: Itay returned to the Schwartz Synagogue last week to lay tefillin for the very first time, with the assistance of visiting Rabbi Mendel Brandwine.
Laying, or wrapping, tefillin is one of the many new commandments that Itay is now, according to Jewish tradition, obligated to fulfill every morning (except on Shabbat and major holidays). The two tefillin boxes contain a parchment scroll inscribed with four passages from the Torah including the Shema, considered one of the most sacred prayers in Judaism.
There’s an interesting story on Chabad’s website which I thought I’d share which explains the purpose and function of tefillin.
Back in the early sixties, when the first mainframe computers were being introduced into business, a professor of computer technology visited the Lubavitcher Rebbe and asked him a question:
“I know that everything that exists in the world, even something that we discover later in history, has its source somewhere in the Torah. So, where are computers in the Torah?”
Without hesitation, the Rebbe answered, “Tefillin.”
The professor was perplexed.
“What’s new about a computer?” the Rebbe continued.
“You walk into a room and you see many familiar machines: a typewriter, a large tape recorder, a television set, a hole puncher, a calculator. What is new?”
“But under the floor, cables connect all these machines so they work as one.”
“Now look at your own self. You have a brain. It is in one world. Your heart is in another. And your hands often end up involved in something completely foreign to both of them. Three diverse machines.”
“So you put on tefillin. First thing in the day, you connect your head, your heart and your hand with these leather cables—all to work as one, with one intent. And then, when you go out to meet the world, all your actions find harmony in a single coordinated purpose.”
Mazel tov, Itay!
Itay laying tefillin for the first time after becoming a Bar Mitzah
Remember to reserve your seats early for Rosh Hashanah!
Warm regards,
Jeffrey D. Schwartz & NaTang
Co-founders, Jewish Taiwan Cultural Association
