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 Are you looking for a synagogue where you won’t be just a number, a close knit and caring community where it’s EASY to become involved in temple life, and a spiritual home where your children will receive an outstanding religious education in just one day a week? Come to a Spring Open House at Congregation B’nai Torah on Sunday, April 29th and Sunday May 6th from 9:30-11am and see for yourself!
Prospective members are invited to meet and ask questions of Rabbi Boaz Heilman, Cantor and Education Director Jacqueline Breines, and members of the School and Membership Committees. Opportunities for informal classroom visits will also be available. School registration for next year is now underway.
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 Exciting news! CBT is proud to offer a one-of-a-kind program called "Try Us Out" for families considering CBT.
Under this special program, a new family who has children enrolled in our Hebrew school (grades Pre-K through Three only) can become a CBT member at a significantly reduced cost in the first year. While you pay religious school tuition in full, membership dues for the first year are reduced by more than 80%.
"Try Us Out" families are encouraged to become involved in all temple activities and take advantage of the numerous programs and services CBT offers. The 'Try Us Out' program has been a tremendous success as virtually all 'Try Us Out' families have made CBT their permanent spiritual home.
We encourage you to give us a try and take advantage of this special program. Please contact membership@bnaitorah.com for more information.
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Find Congregation B'nai Torah on 
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May 2012
This group is an offshoot of the Caring Committee in that we are knitting or crocheting healing shawls for congregants, caps for soldiers, lap robes, baby caps and blankets, etc., and just enjoying a good gather and gab. We welcome ALL skill levels, we have patterns if you don't and we coach each other along.
Service, Oneg, and the study of the book of Ruth
June 2012
Director/Teacher Julia Priest holds the highest Music Together Certification for Teaching Mastery, Level II. She has been a singer and teacher since 1987. She came to Music Together teaching through her own son's toddler years. In class she plays a funky Martin Backpacker guitar and sometimes recorder or drum.
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 Join the new Israel Committee at B'nai Torah
Is Israel important to you? Do you want to learn more about Israel's history and current events? Do you want to connect with others at B’nai Torah who have a similar interests? Well here’s your dream committee come true! We invite you to join the newly formed Israel Committee at B’nai Torah.
Important Announcement:
In April the Board of Directors unanimously voted to create B’nai Torah’s first Israel Committee. This important decision demonstrates the temple's strong commitment to the support of Israel by creating a group that will focus on the study of Israeli history and current events. The committee, through its mission statement, supports a strong US/Israel relationship and will be a forum for congregants who wish to discuss Israel's complicated circumstances as the only Jewish Nation and the only Democratic country in the Middle East.
So now that we have a committee, we’re seeking members! We’ll distribute news and other interesting materials to each other via email and have occasional meetings and speakers at the temple as well. MORE...
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 Announcing the start of a new project at Congregation B'nai Torah! We are streaming live video of worship services and special events.
Check the Streaming Video page to see what events will be shown.
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 Between Life and Death—Matters of Health
D’var Torah for Parashat Tazria/Metzora
By Rabbi Boaz D. Heilman
As a teaching, the Torah almost at once begins with failures. Adam and Eve fail to teach their children morals; Cain fails to control his anger and frustration; Noah fails to advocate for the world around him and for the fellow created-beings that he is one of.
How else could the Torah also teach about the proper and right choices that humans can make?
It’s all about error and correction. MORE...
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Of Freedom and Heroism
Thoughts on the Confluence of Passover, Yom Hashoah and Israel’s Independence Day
By Rabbi Boaz D. Heilman
April 20, 2012
The confluence of Passover and Yom Hashoah—Holocaust Memorial Day—is not coincidental. The planners of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising timed it that way, to coincide with Pesach. The day they stood up to Hitler’s army of executioners was set aside to be our annual day of remembrance.
We don’t diminish the joy we feel during the holiday, as we remember our redemption from Egypt. But the following week, all Am Yisrael, the People of Israel, stops still for 24 hours. The entire day is devoted to little else beside observance of the most catastrophic event our people had suffered in 2000 or more years. Some sink into their own memories and sadness; others listen intently—as though nothing else mattered in the universe—to stories of other people. How did you survive? Who was with you? Where did you hide? Who of your friends or family were killed? MORE...
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 Next Book Club Meeting to Discuss "The Family Orchard"
Book club friends,
We have a book and a date for the next Book Club. We will meet on June 3rd at 10:00 AM in the library to discuss The Family Orchard, by Nomi Eve. Hope to see you all then. Everyone is invited. No need to register just read and show up!
Overview (From B&N.com)
In the bestselling tradition of The Red Tent, The Family Orchard is a spellbinding novel of one unforgettable family, the orchard they've tended for generations, and a love story that transcends the ages. More...
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 Connections Pot -Luck Dinner
Congregation B’nai Torah’s Connections group will hold its third and final pot-luck dinner of the year on Sunday, June 10, starting at 5:30 P.M. at the home of Sara and Peter Goodman, 5 Read Road in Sudbury.
All adult members of the congregation are invited to attend the June 10 dinner, which will be another great opportunity to catch up with old friends, make new friends, and stay connected as a community. MORE...
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 The 18th Annual B’nai Torah Open will be held at Mt. Pleasant Country Club in Boylston, MA on Monday June 11, 2012. Registration and a nice bbq lunch will start at 11:30 am and we tee off at 1:00 pm. The tournament will end with dinner, awards and an auction.
Players of all skill levels are welcome to join us at our annual tournatment for a fun and low-key golf event. Net proceeds benefit the Temple's Building Fund.
Sign up as a foursome or as a single. Sponsorships and donations for the event are highly encouraged! MORE...
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 The Myra and Robert Kraft Passport to Israel Savings Program
Give your child the experience of a lifetime. We can help.
The Myra and Robert Kraft Passport to Israel program is a unique savings plan to help parents send their children on a life-changing teen Israel experience. The program is designed so that the community, through the synagogue and CJP, helps families make possible a trip to Israel during the high school years.
So, give your child the passport he or she needs to become a proud part of the Jewish future.To register your child or for more information, contact Congregation B'nai Torah's Passport to Israel chair: Debbie Kardon Schwartz. MORE...
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 Come out and support YOUR B'nai Torah softball team on Sunday mornings!
The brotherhood team plays against other Boston-area teams in the Men's Shul Softball League. Home games are at Featherland Park in Sudbury. MORE...
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 B'nai Torah Members: We need your help to help families in need!
As many of you know, Congregation B'nai Torah has partnered with JF&CS (Jewish Family and Children's Services) along with many other synagogues in our area to help provide food on a monthly basis to families in need. This project is known as Family Table. Since its inception, Family Table has gone from helping 40 families to currently 300 families in Eastern MA.
As our congregation looks forward to a new year of helping those in need, we have renewed our commitment to Family Table by providing the following items every month:
20 packages of toilet paper (4 rolls) and 20 boxes of whole grain cereal MORE...
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 In a perfect world, no child, no elderly person, no one in a committed relationship would live in fear of being abused or hurt by someone close. Unfortunately, we do not live in a perfect world. Even in communities like ours, with above average household incomes and high levels of educational attainment, a bully may target someone in person or via electronic media. Some of our teens may be involved in unhealthy dating relationships. An elderly neighbor may be the victim of family or caretaker neglect. MORE...
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 Congregation B'nai Torah is a growing congregation of 200 families. Located in Sudbury, Massachusetts, B’nai Torah was founded in 1974 by a small group of people who wanted to participate fully in the functioning of their congregation. Since then, we have become known as one of MetroWest’s most innovative Jewish experiences. Our congregation emphasizes a strong Jewish identity reinforcing today’s values, religious education and a shared commitment to the Jewish community. B’nai Torah is a friendly and inclusive congregation, where people brought up in different branches of Judaism worship together, and where interfaith and non-Jewish family members are included completely and comfortably. Our Reform Jewish congregation supports individuals and families from diverse backgrounds on their spiritual journey.
Our members come primarily from Sudbury and the surrounding communities - Framingham, Wayland, Natick, Marlborough, Stow, Southborough and Northborough. We built and dedicated our first permanent home in 1998. We are located conveniently on Route 20 near Landham Road in Sudbury.
The Board of Directors meets monthly to address current issues and business. Committees include Ritual, School, Adult Education, Social, Membership, Fundraising, Budget, Newsletter and Hospitality. Participation by members is highly encouraged!
Congregation B'nai Torah welcomes newcomers who wish to participate in and belong to a nurturing community with the warmth of Jewish tradition.
Please check out the rest of our website to see all that we offer. We invite you to attend services at B'nai Torah, where friends and families come together in times of worship, happiness, friendship and community action.
All Shabbat Services at B'nai Torah are open to the entire Community.
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by Jonathan Segal The year 70 BCE, the most valuable place to the Jewish people was destroyed. The second temple and everything that came along with it was demolished, leaving the Jewish people without a religious center in the world. Although the temple was destroyed, the west wall of the complex remained standing and to this day this wall is remembered as the greatest physical evidence of prosperous Jewish life before the Common Era. Today, the Western Wall stands for many things and for many people. To some people the wall stands for history, loss, or victory while to others [...]
by Cantor Deborah Katchko Gray In the new home of the National Museum of American Jewish History, a Women Cantors’ Network postcard shares space in a display case with one of Bella Abzug’s hats. Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined such a pairing. Likewise, in early 1982, neither could I have imagined the founding of the Women Cantors’ Network. During the spring of 1981, as one of only two women cantors serving Conservative congregations, I attended the Cantors Assembly convention. A fourth generation cantor, I’d previously attended the convention with my father when I was a college [...]
By Rabbi Sharyn Henry This week we complete the reading of Vayikra, Leviticus. In Ashkenazi congregations there is ritual that takes place each time we complete the public reading of a book of Torah. After the Torah reader reads the last words of a book in the Torah, before the recitation of the final blessing of the person doing the aliyah, the entire congregation, followed by the reader, recites aloud, “Chazak, chazak v’nitchazek—Be strong! Be strong! And may we be strengthened.” We have to imagine that the rabbis who originated this tradition had a reason for it, although the closest [...]
In several days time, we will celebrate Shavuot which, commemorates God’s revelation of Torah at Mount Sinai. As part of our commemoration, we will join together as one community, stand again at Mount Sinai and receive the Torah all over again. In her groundbreaking book, Standing Again at Sinai, published more than 30 years ago, Judith Plaskow calls upon Jewish women to reclaim scripture rather than discard it because of its patriarchal nature. Her inspiring words challenge each and every one of us to stand again at Sinai and reclaim Torah for ourselves—regardless of our gender, sexual orientation, or life experiences that [...]
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