Upcoming events

-You’re invited to join the JLI course “The Art of Marriage—Kabbalistic secrets to a successful marriage” which will provide spiritual and practical ways to enhance your relationship, increase your happiness, and strengthen your marriage. The 6 week course begins on Mon 30 April, 8:30 PM at the JBC (5th Floor) for more info & to register, visit www.myjli.com

Save the date:

- Girls teen event - “All American Day”, hosted by the American Ambassador

For girls aged 11-18, 29th April 2012 14:00 - 18:00

details of destination will be given upon RSVP

 Expect BBQ, Quiz, Pool time and more

 Please RSVP by replying with your name, age and email to teens@jwb.org.sg

- Lag Ba’omer at Palawan beach- Join us in in celebrating Lag Baomer this year for a day full of games,food,music,sports and Bonfire. Sunday May 13th 2012, 4:30 pm, Agsan 4 Palawan beach, For more details and to Register, go to www.singaporejews.com/events

-  World renowned Author and speaker, Rabbi Lazer Brody will be visiting Singapore from May 11-15, He will be speaking on various occasions during his stay, Details to follow in the near future.

Parasha in a Nutshell

Leviticus 12:1 –15:33

The Parshahs of Tazria and Metzora continue the discussion of the laws of tumah v’taharah, ritual impurity and purity.

A woman giving birth should undergo a process of purification, which includes immersing in a mikvah (a naturally gathered pool of water) and bringing offerings to the Holy Temple. All male infants are to be circumcised on the eighth day of life.

Tzaraat (often mistranslated as “leprosy”) is a supra-natural plague, which can afflict people as well as garments or homes. If white or pink patches appear on a person’s skin (dark pink or dark green in garments or homes), a kohen is summoned. Judging by various signs, such as an increase in size of the afflicted area after a seven-day quarantine, the kohen pronounces it tamei (impure) or tahor (pure).

A person afflicted with tzaraat must dwell alone outside of the camp (or city) until he is healed. The afflicted area in a garment or home must be removed; if the tzaraat recurs, the entire garment or home must be destroyed.

When the metzora (“leper”) heals, he or she is purified by the kohen with a special procedure involving two birds, spring water in an earthen vessel, a piece of cedar wood, a scarlet thread and a bundle of hyssop.

Ritual impurity is also engendered through a seminal or other discharge in a man, and menstruation or other discharge of blood in a woman, necessitating purification through immersion in a mikvah.

Weekly Shabbat lunch sponsor

The Jewish Welfare Board

Our Shabbat lunches offer a beautiful opportunity to meet fellow
Jews from all over the world as well as much needed hospitality to
young students, guests and visitors who would not otherwise enjoy
the Shabbat experience. We hope that you will partner with us in
sponsoring these lunches and help us provide much
needed hospitality every Shabbat. Please contact us at :enquiries@jwb.org.sg

Main article

The Wonder That is Woman

And G‑d spoke to Moses, saying: “A woman who shall conceive and give birth . . .” (Leviticus 12:1–2)

It happens 250 times a minute, almost 15,000 times every hour. It happens after years of effort and anticipation, or “by accident.” It occurs on every socioeconomic level, in every country and village in the world. But no matter how frequently it transpires, no matter how commonplace an event it is, we always stand back in awe and say: a miracle.That one being should give birth to, should create, another. If there is any area in which a creature emulates its Creator—if there is any act by which we express the spark of divinity at our core—it is the miracle of birth.

Yet it is in this, the most G‑dly of our achievements, that we also most reveal the limitations of our individuality. Feeding, sleeping, thinking, producing a work of art or building a house—virtually everything we do, we can do on our own. But giving birth to a child is something we can only do together with another person. To give birth, we must cease to be an entity unto ourselves and become a part, a component, of a community of two.

Because if we are only what we are, we are most decidedly not divine. As beings unto ourselves, we are finite and self-absorbed things, manufacturers rather than creators. To create, we must rise above our individuality. To actualize our divine essence, we must transcend the bounds of self.

It is the woman, not the man, who gives birth. It is the woman who is most fulfilled in parenthood, and who most acutely feels the lack when parenthood is denied her. It is the woman who continues to mother her child long after the man has fathered it. It is the woman, according to Torah law, who exclusively determines the spiritual identity of her child.

Because it is the woman who most surrenders her selfhood to create life. She is the passive and receptive element in the procreation process. For nine months, her very body ceases to be hers alone as it bears and nurtures another life. So it is the woman, rather than the man, who “conceives and gives birth,” and to whom motherhood is a state of being, rather than an “achievement” or “experience.”

Yet everyone can become a “mother.” What comes naturally to the female half of creation can be learned and assimilated by all, and not only in giving birth to children but in every one of life’s endeavors. We all have the power to recognize that there is more to our existence than the narrow confines of individual identity.

We all have the power to become more than we are and to do more than we can—by becoming receptive to the divine essence that underlies the self and pervades the whole of existence.

Elite kosher shop

The Kosher shop stocks a wide range of products such as meats (imported from Australia),
poultry, dairy products, as well as a large variety of wines. 

                        
The Kosher Shop also just received a wide range of products form Israel at very affordable prices such as popular snacks (Bissli etc…), canned foods and much more.

 The Awafi Restaurant

Open for Lunch and Dinner To make a reservation call 6336. 5166
Also serving breakfast every morning after Shacharit.Awafi also provides for outside catering.
 Feel free to contact us at: 6336 5166 

Halacha Corner

Oaths - Shevuot

a) Types of oaths

3) Oaths about deposits: If anyone has someone else's real, movable property in his posession by deposit, loan, theft, extortion, or loss and it is demanded of him he is forbidden to deny it, as it says "You shall not deceive"; and there is a further prohibition against swearing falsely about it, as it says "And you shall not lie one to another". If one swears such a false oath (about something that he would have been required to pay for had he admitted the truth) he must pay 5/4 of the amount and (when the Temple exists) must bring a sin-offering [as it says "If a person sins... and deceives another regarding deposited property or a pledge or theft, or extorts from another or finds lost property and denies it, and swears falsely... he must return what he stole or what he extorted or what was deposited with him or the lost thing that he found or whatever he swore falsely about, and pay it in full and add a fifth to it..."].

4) Oaths about testimony: If witnesses are asked by someone to testify about his claim to real, movable property, and their testimony alone would enable him to collect his claim, but they falsely swear (and deny in court) that they do not know anything about which they could testify for him, they must (when the Temple exists) bring a sin-offering, as it says "And if a person sins and hears a request to swear and he is a witness [or saw or knew something], if he does not tell he bears his sin."

Growing Each Day-With Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski

 By virtue of the mitzvah of counting the omer of today, may my defects be rectified (Siddur).

The theme of correcting a defect each day is specially employed in the mitzvah of counting the omer, during the forty-nine days that begin with the celebration of the Exodus on Passover and end with the commemoration of the receiving of the Torah at Sinai on Shavuos. On each of these days, we pray that we become better, more refined people.

While the emphasis of this book has been on character development and spiritual growth via daily improvement of personality traits, the mitzvah of counting the omer goes one step further. The above-cited prayer continues: "May I be purified and sanctified from Above; and through this, may there be an abundant outpouring of Divine bounty in all the universe."

The concept here tells us that the impact of a personal defect is not limited to oneself or even to one's immediate environment, but it impacts the entire universe. Just as a watch works only when all its parts are in good shape, the world functions optimally only according to the Divine law, part of which is people's developing good character traits. Any transgression can have a much greater impact than we think.

We therefore share a sense of responsibility. People cannot claim that their lives are their own private business, any more than a passenger in a boat can drill a hole under his or her own seat and tell others to mind their own business.

A vivid proof of this concept comes from today's exploitation of world resources and pollution of the environment. No one can say that an oil spill is a private matter.

Arseth

 6 Iyar/28 April

Katie Daniel

9 Iyar/1 May

Yehezkel Yossef

11 Iyar/3 May

Miriam Yehezkel bat Rahma

12 Iyar/4 May

Ken Sharbanee

May Their Memory Be A Blessing

Today in Jewish history...

 [5 Iyar]       

Joseph Rivlin laid the cornerstone of the first private home to be erected outside the wall of Jerusalem marking the beginning of the modern Yishuv, 1869.

Israel was proclaimed an independent state, 1948.

[6 Iyar]       

The British mandate over Eretz Yisrael came to an end, 1948, exactly 28 years after it began.

The armies of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon invaded Israel, 1948

[8 Iyar]   

Venice became the first city in the world where the term ghetto was associated with the Jewish quarter, when the Jews were compelled, in 1516, to move into a restricted area. The area was formerly the site of a foundry which manufactured weapons for the government of Venice. The Italian term for "foundry" is geto. The first official document which uses the word ghetto to describe an area restricted to the residence of Jews exclusively was a papal edict from 1562.

[10 Iyar]  

Yahrzeit of Rabbi Isaac Alfasi (RIF), 1103.

A storm at sea threatened the ship aboard which Rambam and his family had sailed for Eretz Yisrael after their escape from North Africa. Rambam set aside this date as an annual private fast-day, 1165.

Ask The Rabbi

Dear Rabbi,

Recipe of the Week

Morrocan Sea Bass

Ingrediants

1 lb. sea bass

1/2 c. chopped onion

1/4 c. white wine

1 tbsp. ketchup

2 tbsp. butter or olive oil

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tbsp. soy sauce

1/2 tsp. dill

Directions

Arrange fresh fillets in shallow roasting pan. Melt butter in small frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic; cook until onion is limp. Add the wine, soy sauce, ketchup, and dill . Stir until heated through and pour over fish. Bake, uncovered, in 425 degree oven for 20 minutes or until fish flakes readily with a fork. Serves 2-4.

Ongoing Events & Programs

Weekly Minyan, stories and snacks for children after reading of the Torah. For more info contact The boys.
One on one learning with the Yeshiva Boys for adults and children. Contact Mrs. Rivni@ 92327095.
Lunch & Learn Tuesdays at Awafi, JBC. Contact Rabbi Abergel
Talmud class every Wednesday@ 9:00pm in tractate Sanhedrin. Contact Rabbi Abergel
Mikva: Mrs. Simcha Abergel 9673 9184
Mrs. Odelia Rivni 9232 7095
(Appointments at least one day before)

Yeshiva Boys

• Mendy Ash: 9459 8690
• Yisroel Drihem: 9459 8125
• Dovid Knapp: 9459 8152
• Sroli Gutnick: 9384 3236
• Mendel Kranz : 9488 8610
• JWB Offices, Julia: 6337 2189 ext 103
• Awafi Restaurant, Sushil: 6336 5166
• Kosher Shop, Maya: 6337 2189 ext 107

www.singaporejews.com
enquiries@jwb.org.sg