Your donation will be tax deductible in the US to the extent allowed by the IRS.
To make a tax-deductible donation by wire transfer in the US, please contact:
Avrum Lapin, North American Representative
Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: schechter@thelapingroup.com
To make a tax-deductible donation in Israel, please contact:
Dina Gudai, Israeli Representative
Phone: 074-7800643
Email: dina@schechter.ac.il
Please mail your check to:
The Schechter Institutes, Inc. (a 501(c) 3 tax exempt organization)
Box #3566
PO Box 8500
Philadelphia, PA 19178-3566
Attn: Mr. Avrum Lapin, North American Representative
Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: schechter@thelapingroup.com
Please indicate the donation is "for your joint Schechter Institutes program."
Checks should be made payable to the Jewish Theological Society of Canada and mailed to:
Jewish Theological Society of Canada
c/o Camp Ramah in Canada
3845 Bathhurst St., Suite 310
Toronto, ON, M3H 3N2
Phone: 416-789-2193, ext. 2139
E-mail: accounting@campramah.com
Please mail a check to:
The Schechter Institutes
Attn: Dina Gudai, Finance Department
PO Box 16080,
Jerusalem, 9116002
Israel
For assistance, please call Dina Gudai at 074-780-0643 (8:00 AM – 3:00 Israel time Sunday through Thursday).
Your donation will be tax deductible in the US to the extent allowed by the IRS.
To make a tax-deductible donation by wire transfer in the US, please contact:
Avrum Lapin, North American Representative
Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: schechter@thelapingroup.com
To make a tax-deductible donation in Israel, please contact:
Dina Gudai, Israeli Representative
Phone: 074-7800643
Email: dina@schechter.ac.il
Please mail your check to:
The Schechter Institutes, Inc. (a 501(c) 3 tax exempt organization)
Box #3566
PO Box 8500
Philadelphia, PA 19178-3566
Attn: Mr. Avrum Lapin, North American Representative
Toll-free: 1-866-830-3321
Email: schechter@thelapingroup.com
Please indicate the donation is "for your joint Schechter Institutes program."
Checks should be made payable to the Jewish Theological Society of Canada and mailed to:
Jewish Theological Society of Canada
c/o Camp Ramah in Canada
3845 Bathhurst St., Suite 310
Toronto, ON, M3H 3N2
Phone: 416-789-2193, ext. 2139
E-mail: accounting@campramah.com
Please mail a check to:
The Schechter Institutes
Attn: Dina Gudai, Finance Department
PO Box 16080,
Jerusalem, 9116002
Israel
For assistance, please call Dina Gudai at 074-780-0643 (8:00 AM – 3:00 Israel time Sunday through Thursday).
This Simchat Torah, Rabbi Chaya Rowen Baker invites us to work to glorify God’s presence in the world, despite the horrible evil in our world.
As we approach Simchat Torah this year we are filled with dread.
The thought of re-playing that horrific day is almost paralyzing. Getting out of bed, I am sure we will all recall those fateful moments of the dawn of Simchat Torah last year: where we were, what we did, how little we knew about the extent of evil in this world.
Some of us have been grappling this year with deep anger – towards the perpetrators, certainly, and also – towards God.
Many of us are asking questions about God’s presence and God’s relationship with us, and about ours with God.
On Simchat Torah, and on the following Shabbat Bereshit, we will read from the Torah that humans are created in the Image of God.
Some 1,900 years ago, Rabbi Akiva, Rabbi Elazar ben Azaria, and Ben Azzai, were contemplating the presence of God in the world. They maintained that murder and/or avoiding procreation are ways in which the presence of God in the world is diminished, because humans are in the image of God and having fewer humans in the world will “diminish the image.”
This understanding of humanity is both humbling and challenging. It is an invitation to conduct ourselves in this world as if we are representatives of God. Not cynically, as all-powerful and all-knowing beings, but more like ambassadors, who symbolize the entity that sent them, and therefore must be extra careful and aware of what they do and how they are perceived.
It is an invitation to ask – What is required of me by this charge? How must I perceive others, knowing that they too are representations of God in the world, and knowing that when people do horrific things that is not God disappointing us, that is humans disappointing God: exercising their God-given ability to choose, choosing to misrepresent God in the world, in the worst possible way, by diminishing God’s presence and defiling it.
I wish for us strength as this day we dread approaches. I pray that as we cope with the trauma and horror, we can also feel charged with bringing a Godly presence into this world and glorifying it with good choices.
Shabbat Shalom from Schechter
Rabbi Chaya Rowen Baker, Dean, The Schechter Rabbinical Seminary.
Ordained in 2007 by the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary, Rabbi Rowen Baker has served, since her ordination, as the rabbi of Kehillat Ramot-Zion in French Hill, Jerusalem. Ramot Zion, a flagship Masorti congregation, is home to many Israelis in search of a meaningful connection to Jewish tradition in a rapidly changing world. For the past eight years, she has served as Coordinator of Practical Rabbinics at SRS.
Much of Rabbi Rowen Baker’s work is done outside the synagogue space, with those not accustomed to synagogue life, so as to make accessible a vibrant Jewish approach and practice which is part of all walks of life. In 2015 she was the first Masorti rabbi – and the first ever female rabbi – to be invited to teach Torah at the Israeli President’s residence.
Rabbi Rowen Baker holds an MA with Distinction in Talmud and Jewish Thought from The Schechter Institute, and a BA in Jewish History and Archeology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is a fellow at the Honey Foundation for Israel and a member of the Rabbinical Assembly Executive Council.
Rabbi Rowen Baker lives in French Hill, Jerusalem with her husband Etai, their four children and their dog Hummus.
