This space in the weekly e-mail often serves as place for us to share spiritual insight, thoughts on Torah, and timely information about local grassroots social justice efforts. While this week’s parsha or Torah Portion, Bo is both rich and exciting (it includes The ten plagues sent by God against the Egyptians, among other things), we’d like to switch gears a little bit and offer to you all a simple invitation. In just six weeks Massachussetts will hold its presidential primary when voters have the opportunity to pick the presidential candidate of their respective parties.

Another opportunity to excercise the democratic perogative is coming up much sooner. Moishe Kavod House will hold its annual Membership Meeting on February 12th. This is when members of the Moishe Kavod House can come together and struggle as a community with the direction they want this organization to go in.  The issues will of course be a bit different from the up coming election. We don’t get to decide whether our government is committed to maintaining a fair economy that works for all people, will run a balanced budget, or will work with its neighboring governments to ensure a more peaceful world. However wewill have the opportunity to weigh in on whether Moishe Kavod House will ever be a multi-generational community, how we can reach financial viability, and what it means to be a powerful civic entity. It is the chance of every member of the Moishe Kavod House to stand up and make their voice heard. You may not always be able to voice your opinions on where our conuntry should be going in a way you know it will be heard, but you can help to shape the direction of this house.

These meetings help to decide the strategic direction that our house takes, but it is only open to those who have become members of Moishe Kavod House. If you are not yet a member and you want to have a voice in the conversation on where Moishe Kavod is going, it is not too late. You can still become a member. It takes a few minutes and can be done on-line here.

And if you can’t make it, but still need some democracy in your life there’s always Super Tuesday, but we hope we get to see you before then.

This past Sunday and Monday, several of us had the opportunity to take part in the 2^nd annual Arts Team Retreat. It, as you probably could have guesses, was about 30 hours or art and retreating which is to say taking time away from the everyday business of the world and making space to create. It was in one of these creative spaces that this week’s e-mail exegesis became apparent. Very often you open this e-mail and find yourself exhorted to look inside yourself and find the strength and conviction to engage in the work of progressive social change in the world. This week, we’d like to send you a slightly different message.

One of the sessions during this past Arts Team Retreat took the form of participants drawing what their spiritual home would look like. Given that these were all Moishe Kavodniks, one would think that if there was a common theme amongst these pictures it might be something symbolizing a thirst for justice. While some did feature this theme, the real common thread between all of the pieces produced during this session was a dwelling place that was still, peaceful, beautiful, and open to nature. What they all suggested was not necessarily a commitment to justice but an openness to radical awe. Now we are not suggesting, (and certainly not on this the day after Martin Luther King Day) that we are abandoning our commitment to action in the pursuit of social justice. However what we would like to suggest is that a well rounded and holistic sense of spirituality takes more than this. It takes an willingness to feel the unexplainable, to see the divinity in all people and all things, and to experience miracles in our everyday existence. Being spiritual person means being able to stand in silent awe of something, whether it be a beautiful sunrise or an unexpected act of loving kindness.  That being said, we would simply like to suggest to all of you that you keep your ears, eyes, and spirits open this week, and find something radically awesome in your life to be witness to.

We also hope that you can find ways to stand in awe with us and experience the divine presence in our Jewish community.

Check it out! Thursday the 22nd , MKH will be cosponsoring the Radical Chanukah Dance Party with Workmen’s Circle and Keshet. Event runs 6-10 pm at AllAsia in Cambridge. Musical guests feature DJ Tree Fingers and DJ Ross of Love. Check out the Facebook Event for More Details. http://www.facebook.com/events/254265131296621/ See you there!

On a warm Sunday in September, the Moishe Kavod House Board was hard at work holding our first annual kickoff retreat.  There, we went over how our board works.  To give you a glimpse, the Moishe Kavod House Board consists of the four housemates and five board chairs, and each chair runs at least one management team (including the board itself, which the Board President runs), which in turn manage the various areas of our work.  Participants are welcome to join the management teams and help think through big picture community issues like membership and development, are also welcome to join program teams, or just attend programs.

At our retreat, our board chairs and their housemate sidekicks set goals for each area of management, and then the whole board gave the chairs feedback for how to make the goals even SMARTer.  After the chairs have edited their goals, we will be posting them online in December.

Thanks to the board for all of their great work.

Rabbi Margie Klein

GBIO Healthcare Webinar, Tikkun on Tap: October, Community Sukkot Party

Greetings Moishe Kavodniks,

We hope all of you had a meaningful Yom Kippur and a delicious Break the Fast this past weekend. As you all may have noticed, if you’ve been reading these e-mails the days leading up to Yom Kippur are generally a time set aside for self reflection. It is a time when many Jews the world over are focused internally on themselves, on their shortcomings, their priorities, and their relationship with God and the Community. While this sort of internally focused reflection is both growthful and often necessary it can be quite tiring. It’s a good thing then, that Sukkot is right around the corner. Sukkot is a time when we change directions and face outwards towards our friends, our families, our neighbors, and the world. It is a time to invite people into our homes to eat, drink, and celebrate all the goodness that the harvest has to offer. To symbolize this new orientation we build sukkot or small huts which allow us to literally move part of our home into the outside world.

We hope that you all are able to focus this new outward orientation towards not only celebrating with friends and neighbors but also towards living the Moral and ethical priorities that you’ve set for yourself during Yom Kippur. As always we offer many avenues to live your values. If you’ve decided that this year you want to fight for better healthcare, a more sustainable Jewish Community, or the ability to have shame-free truthful conversations around sexuality we have projects for you. If there are other ways you’d like to live your values in this new year, let us know. We’re always here to help you make an impact on the world around you.

Featured Events

Community Sukkot Party – Don’t dwell on it – dwell IN it! Join us this Sunday, October 16th from 5-9 pm and celebrate in and decorate our sukkah, and enjoy and evening of music, food, learning, lulav shaking, and other fun. We’ll have plenty of stuff to eat, but please BYOB.

GBIO Healthcare Webinar – Are you interested in learning about and supporting the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization’s Healthcare Cost Control Campaign, but don’t know where to start? Join Moishe Kavod’s GBIO Team, along with TBZ leaders and JOI Fellows, to learn about the ins and outs of our health care system at one of GBIO’s Regional Webinar Viewings and House Meetings on Wednesday October 26th from 7-9pm.

Tikkun on Tap – Who was your favorite teacher when you were growing up and why? This October, our monthly networking and learning bar night is focusing on the issue of education reform. We’re joined by a couple representatives of the Boston Teacher’s Union who will be bringing a unique perspective to a number of complex issues. Tuesday October 25th 7:30-9:30 pm.

Rosh Chodesh Cheshvan – We are having our 1st Rosh Chodesh meeting and New Moon Gathering of the year at the end of October, date TBA. Any women or female identified people who want to join us to learn, create, and celebrate the new month are welcome. We’d love to see many new and familiar faces so if you are interested in our New Moon Gatherings in general and have not gotten e-mails from newmoonkavod@gmail.com, please email us to get on the mailing list

Other Announcements

Want to Use Our Sukkah? – Want to fulfill the commandment to eat outside but missing your own sukkah? Our Community Sukkah is open to the public, October 12th-18th. Enjoy dinner in the beautiful Moishe Kavod Sukkah. You must reserve time and space to make use of our sukkah, but once you do, the sukkah is yours from 5 pm – 9 pm. Click here to sign up, space is limited. Please bring your own dinner (vegetarian only).

We wish you the best in turning outwards to the world and hope we can be a part of your new year!

In Peace,

Aaron Gunning, Tslil Shtulsaft, Annie Fox, and Helen Bennett

Community Calendar

Sunday October 16, 2011 -
Sex Ed Team Faciliator Training, 1:30-4:30 pm
Community Sukkot Party 5-9 pm
Wednesday, October 19, 2011 – Benefit Planning Meeting, 7-9 pm
Friday, October 21, 2011 – Shabbat Service and Potluck 6:30 pm
Tuesday October 25, 2011 – Tikkun on Tap 7:30-9:30 pm
Wednesday, October 26, 2011 – GBIO Healthcare Webinar 7 pm

Well Moishe Kavodniks,

This is it. Yamim Noraim, the Days of Awe. Last chance to be written down in the book of life before it gets sealed til next year. For some of you, this means that God is literally writing down your name. For others, perhaps it means you are writing your own name in a metaphorical book of life by committing to living fully and according to your highest ideals. Whatever your belief, soon many of us will stand in the waning light of the autumn sun and recite the ancient words of Ne’ilah, Yom Kippur’s concluding service. “What are we? What is our life? What is our piety? What is our virtue? What is our salvation? What is our strength? What is our accomplishment? What shall we say before You, O Lord our God and God of our ancestors?”

Well, what will we say, whether to God or to our fellow human beings, when we are confronted with that which is wrong? When faced with unjust foreclosure, the threat of sexual violence, or callous indifference towards workers and the environment, will we say that we are too busy to get involved? That we’re not strong enough to help? That this was not our fight? Or will we make a firm declaration, when all is said and done? The buck stops here! This is our responsibility! We will stand up and we will do something!

That’s a pretty heavy line of questioning, no? Fortunately for you, the book of life is never really closed and The Moishe Kavod House always has opportunities for you to get involved and stand up for what’s right. Take a look at our featured events and get started writing yourself down the in Book of Life.

*First a Note to Our Members – As Yom Kippur approaches, it is time to think about how you will be contributing to our community in the coming year. Please take a moment to fill out this short time commitment form by October 12th to help us ensure that everyone does their part to make our community personally meaningful and politically powerful!

Featured Events
Yom Kippur Breakfast – Come join us as the sun sets on Yom Kippur. and we communally break the fast. This Saturday October 8th, 8 pm. Bagels never tasted so good! Food will be provided.
Sukkah Decorating – Please join us on Sunday, October 9, 3:00 – 5:30 as we build our very own Sukkah in the Sky and create colorful recycled decorations, which our community will use to adorn the Sukkah during the party on the 16th.
Sukkot Party – Don’t dwell on it – dwell IN it! Come celebrate in our sukkah, and enjoy and evening of music, food, learning, lulav shaking, and other fun. Food will be provided, but please BYOB. Sunday, October 16 from 5-7 pm
SojoCoCo Kick Off – If you’re a new leader or a seasoned veteran, we encourage one and all who are interested in helping Moishe Kavod House to build it’s power and become an effective force for social justice within the Jewish community and without to attend this meeting. Join us Monday, October 9th at 5 pm for discussion and training around campaign planning and Moishe Kavod’s ten year strategic plan.
GBIO Healthcare Webinar – Are you interested in learning about and supporting the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization’s Healthcare Cost Control Campaign, but don’t know where to start? Join Moishe Kavod’s GBIO Team, along with TBZ leaders and JOI Fellows, to learn about the ins and outs of our health care system at one of GBIO’s Regional Webinar Viewings and House Meetings on Monday October 24th from 7-9pm.
Tikkun on Tap – Who was your favorite teacher when you were growing up and why? This October, our monthly networking and learning bar night is focusing on the issue of education reform. We’re joined by a couple representatives of the Boston Teacher’s Union who will be bringing a unique perspective to a number of complex issues. Tuesday October 25th 7:30-9:30 pm.

Community Allies Events

Little Bride – Check out this world premiere song and story event that follows a Jewish mail order bride on her journey into the American West. TONIGHT Tuesday October 4, 2011 at Middlesex Lounge in Cambridge.
Jewish Identity Focus Group – Want to make a few bucks and help provide valuable information on Jewish identity and continuity? The Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies is conducting a focus group in Brookline on Wednesday October 5th. Interested? E-mail Dina Bleckman at bleckman@brandeis.edu for more information.

We at Moishe Kavod of wish everyone an easy and meaningful fast this weekend and all the best in your efforts to inscribe yourself in the book of life.

Shana Tova,

Aaron Gunning, Annie Fox, Helen Bennett, Tslil Shtulsaft

Upcoming Events

Saturday, October 8, 2011 – Break the Fast, 8pm
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Sukkah Decorating – 3 pm
Farm to Shul Meeting – 7 pm
Monday October 10, 2011 – SoJoCoCo Kick Off 5 pm
Sunday October 16, 2011
Sex Ed Team Facilitator Training 1:30 pm
Sukkot Party 5 pm
Friday October 21, 2011 – Shabbat/Simchat Torah 6:30 pm
Monday October 24, 2011 – GBIO Webinar
Tuesday October 25, 2011 – Tikkun on Tap

Did you become a member of the Moishe Kavod House last year and are wondering whether its time to renew?

Haven’t joined yet but want to know how?