Weekly Newslinks

Announcements & Upcoming Events

Rabbi Davies will be on vacation from Thursday, August 3 - Wednesday, August 16. During this time, for all SOI related matters and/or items of an urgent nature, please contact Ilana Weiss at president@soicherryhill.org. If you are in need of immediate Halachic assistance, please contact Rabbi Jonathan Bienenfeld at rabbijbien@gmail.com. 

Jean Klein, the office manager will be on vacation from August 7th - August 11th. The office will be open Monday - Friday from 12:00-2:00pm.

I am very excited for the opportunity to share words of Torah with you. Each week, in this spot, I look to share an idea I've found that speaks to me and that I think will resonate with you as well. This week, I share with you an excerpt from an article by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks Z"L entitled "Why Civilisations Fail", about what we should and shouldn't focus on to determine our success and reach our goals.

[...] In parshat Eikev, Moses springs [a] great surprise. [...] What Moses [said] to the new generation was this: You thought that the forty years of wandering in the wilderness were the real challenge, and that once you conquer and settle the land, your problems will be over. The truth is that it is then that the real challenge will begin. It will be precisely when all your physical needs are met - when you have land and sovereignty and rich harvests and safe homes - that your spiritual trial will commence.

The real challenge is not poverty but affluence, not insecurity but security, not slavery but freedom. Moses, for the first time in history, was hinting at a law of history. Many centuries later it was articulated by the great 14th century Islamic thinker, Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406), by the Italian political philosopher Giambattista Vico (1668-1744), and most recently by the Harvard historian Niall Ferguson. Moses was giving an account of the decline and fall of civilisations. [...]

All of this was said for the first time by Moses, and it forms a central argument of the book of Devarim. If you assume - he tells the next generation - that you yourselves won the land and the freedom you enjoy, you will grow complacent and self-satisfied. That is the beginning of the end of any civilization. [...] There will be social divisions, resentments and injustices. Society will no longer cohere. People will not feel bound to one another by a bond of collective responsibility. Individualism will prevail. Trust will decline. Social capital will wane. [...]

Only against this background can we understand the momentous project the book of Devarim is proposing: the creation of a society capable of defeating the normal laws of the growth-and-decline of civilisations. This is an astonishing idea. How is it to be done? By each person bearing and sharing responsibility for the society as a whole. By each knowing the history of his or her people. By each individual studying and understanding the laws that govern all. By teaching their children so that they too become literate and articulate in their identity.

[...] Above all it is achieved by recognising a power greater than ourselves. This is Moses' most insistent point. Societies start growing old when they lose faith in the transcendent. They then lose faith in an objective moral order and end by losing faith in themselves. [...] Only faith in God can lead us to honour the needs of others as well as ourselves. Only faith in God can motivate us to act for the benefit of a future we will not live to see. Only faith in God can stop us from wrongdoing when we believe that no other human will ever find out. Only faith in God can give us the humility that alone has the power to defeat the arrogance of success and the self-belief [...]. Only faith can save a society from decline and fall. That was one of Moses' greatest insights, and it has never ceased to be true.

Have a Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Davies
Rabbi@SOICherryHill.org

We are excited to be partnering with Mizrachi World Movement to provide their publication of HaMizrachi Parasha Weekly.

         Kol HaNearim Tallit
Honor your children, grandchildren, nieces, or nephews by embroidering their names on the Congregation Sons of Israel Kol HaNe’arim Tallit. This beautiful Tallit is embroidered with children’s names in gold. It is used on Simchat Torah when the children are called up to the Torah for a special Aliyah. Deadline to be included is August 16, 2023 and each line is $25. See examples and submit your entry at https://www.soicherryhill.org/form/Tallit.

Welcome to Yehuda Stuchins and Sloane Gray and family
who have become members of SOI!
Welcome to Emily Gevins who has become a member of SOI!

Thank you to Dan Malamud, Alisa Fox and Meira Weiss for helping with kiddush last week.
Thank you to Matti Rosenberg, Eric Klein & Yochai Yares who helped with last week's seudah shlishit.
Thank you to Yaakov Linder, Yaakov Zeffren, Jonathan Delman and Yair Klein for helping with seudah shlishit on Sabbos July 22nd.

Thanks to The Bagel Bandits (Team 4) for providing security this week.  They are Yaakov Linder, Matti Rosenberg, Michael Morgenstern, Elon Elisha and Dan Eisenstein.  Thank you also goes to Debbie Fineberg, Ken Panitch, Paul from JFeds and Sam Tilonsky.

Welcome
Welcome to our newest security volunteer, Yaakov Levinson.  He is joining The Bagel Bandits (Team 3) and filling the 9:00am position.

Volunteers Urgently Needed
We are urgently looking for several men and women volunteers to help with security in the main sanctuary during services. In the event of an emergency these individuals will be responsible for directing the congregation to safety. These important positions are vital to the success of keeping everyone safe and secure. Training will be provided. Contact Sam Tilonsky (drsamod@gmail.com) for more information and to help.

Gavriel Yehuda ben Chaya Sarah 
David Partnow - David Avram ben Tilla Razel 
Aaron Moshe ben Ruth
Gaela bas Pinina
Chayim Gedalya haLevi ben Henya
Tobie Cohen - Tova Lieba bas Esther Chaya
Alan Friedman - Avraham Pinchas ben Hudda
Kayla Chaya bat Bayla
Simcha Avraham ben Datya Leba
Inga bat Bella
Shaindel bas Gruna Leah
Moshe Krumbein - Moshe ben Yehudit Sarah
Shmuel ben Ita Ettle
Esther bat Yehudit Nechamah
Yitzhak Dovid ben Gruna Leah
Reizel bas Yentel
Peretz Yirmiyahu ben Elka
Moshe Simcha ben Sarah
Ester Chavah Nachamah bat Rifka Miriam
Gershon Daniel ben Malka Chaya

Please help us keep this list up to date.  If you have names to add or would like to have a name removed from this list, please email memberhotline@soicherryhill.org.

 Click below for a link to the prayers for good health and healing that you can recite for our ailing members

​​​​There are many ways to support our Shul:

(check out our website for more oportunities)

Yartzeit Plaque ($400)

Shabbat Security ($180)

Siddur for the sanctuary ($50)

Chumash for the sanctuary ($75)

Newslink ($36)

Welcome Basket ($18)

Mr. Finklestein Bottle Club ($36)

Kiddush (starting at $180)

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ERUV UPDATE
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UPCOMING/ONGOING
EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES

Class is on a Break

UPCOMING/ONGOING
EVENTS & PROGRAMS

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Shoprite Scrip Now Available
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If you have news to share please send the info to:
MEMBER HOTLINE
memberhotline@soicherryhill.org

All submissions for the Newslink are due by noon on Wednesday

Reminder:  If your mailing information has been changed, please update it on our website by logging on at soicherryhill.org 
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Office hours next week are Monday - Friday  12pm-2pm
Rabbi Davies will be on vacation beginning Thursday, August 3rd - Wednesday, August 16th.

Congregation Sons of Israel
720 Cooper Landing Road
Cherry Hill, NJ 08002