Temple Educator’s Column - March 2026

Let all who are hungry come and eat…

Mr. Sered insisted we learn how to read the prayer in the original Aramaic:

הָא לַחְמָא עַנְיָא דִּי אֲכָלוּ אַבְהָתָנָא בְאַרְעָא.

ך יֵיתֵי וְיִפְסַח 􀉜 .דְמִצְרָיִם. כָּל דִכְפִין יֵיתֵי וְיֵיכֹל, כָּל דִצְרִי

Ha lachma anya di achalu avhatana b’arah d’mitzrayim.
Kol difchin yeitei v’yeichol, kol ditzrin yeitei v’yifsach.

We liked Mr. Sered. (He looked weird to us sixth graders. Looking back he looked a lot like Kurt Vonnegut.) This was painful. Why did we need to learn ANOTHER language, even if it used the same letters as Hebrew?

I realize now, many years later, what his point was. It was not about the language. It was about the idea that no matter what language we speak, no matter where we wander as Jews, we have an obligation to remember and to act on that memory. We remember that we were strangers in a strange land, slaves in Egypt who suffered physically, emotionally and spiritually. We are commanded to use that memory to inform our actions. We are commanded to share our meals with those who do not have enough.

I am grateful for the work of our Social Justice Committee that has focused our congregation’s efforts on addressing those suffering food insecurity in our community. They have urged me to make it a part of the learning in our Religious School.

As I write these words, Passover is a scant six weeks away. We are commanded to remember and to act. I invite you to consider how we can act on that memory in our own homes. Perhaps invite someone in need to your seder. Maybe contribute time and money to the several institutions in our community that feed those in need like the Community Dining Room in Branford or the Pauline Baldwin Food Pantry in Madison – just to name two places. Have a family conversation about how your family might best remember and act on this Mitzvah.

We are Reform Jews. That means we have accepted the responsibility of examining our heritage and finding ways to make meaning that works for us. I do not believe it means “we don’t have to.”

So, as we get ready to once again be redeemed from Egypt, let’s remember that we were once slaves and we still have a lot of folks in our world who need redemption.

L’Shalom,

Ira J. Wise, DJRE,
Temple Educator

Temple Educator's Column - February 2026

A Purim Dilemma or (Two)

The holiday of Purim always presents us with challenges. That is one of the reasons it is such a great holiday. It engages our minds. Please consider a few:

1. This year, Purim begins on the evening of March 2. Too close to the publication of the March bulletin to be helpful in your planning. So even though you are getting this email days before Tu Bishvat, I am reminding you to plan on Purim.

2. As we get older, we tend to think of Purim as a kid-centric holiday. We DO have a lot of fun with kids. However, this is actually one of our most serious as well as most festive holidays. We are celebrating events that prevented a genocide. There are anecdotal stories that immediately after the liberation of some concentration and death camps, survivors began to organize daily worship. Some journalists and GI’s who witnessed this asked the survivors how they could pray after Hitler and what they had experienced. It is said that different people said the same thing, “Hitler was nothing new to us. He was just a more successful Haman.” So let me suggest we celebrate the seriousness of our survival together.

3. A third (but not the last) dilemma is about drinking. In the Babylonian Talmud (Megillah 7b), Rava said “A person is obligated to become so intoxicated on Purim that they do not know the difference between "Cursed is Haman and Blessed is Mordecai." The clear implication is that Rava was referring to wine and actual drunkenness. This seems a bit much to many of us today.

At the same time, the most enduring of the Jewish values is Pikuach Nefesh – saving a life. We can violate every commandment to save a life, with the exception of murder, adultery and public idolatry.

It is simple to say that our understanding of the real consequences of alcoholism is better than it was to Rava’s 4th century C.E. contemporaries. I think this obligation is a challenge to us – we need to take time to examine our understanding of what it means to celebrate in ways that are healthy for us and that set good examples for our children. I love the idea that we are to be so joyful that we unbutton our inhibitions a little bit to honor Esther’s bravery and celebrate our survival. It is upon us to find ways to do that.

How to celebrate is not such a dilemma. The Mitzvot of Purim are a) to hear the story of Esther in a language you understand; b) give tzedakah and gifts to the poor and c) give mishloach manot – tasty treats – to your friends.

To address these Mitzvot:

On Sunday, March 1, we will celebrate by wearing costumes to Religious School, telling the story of Purim, eating Hamantaschen and enjoying the SALTY Purim Carnival!

On Monday, March 2, we will come together as a whole community, kids and adults for a Purim Spiel (play) and celebration.

Our Religious Activities Committee (RAC) is providing the opportunity to send Mishloach Manot to your TBT friends and family.

There should be more details elsewhere in this issue and they will also be in the weekly emails.

Join us!
L'shalom,

Ira J. Wise, DJRE, RJE
Temple Educator

Temple Educator's Column - December 2025

TBT has been blessed with amazing teachers- past and present- who serve our Religious School.

We are fortunate that the Jewish community at Yale has been a great source of many of our teachers. We currently have five Yale undergraduates teaching at TBT: Aviv Pilipski, Hannah Saraf, Keira Gerstley, Dani Klein and Anya Geist. They teach Kitot Bet – Vav (2nd – 6th) in the order listed. It is a joy to watch them work with our kids, and the kids love them!

From the broader community, we have Ed Soufer, who teaches music and leads tefilah for our students, while Miriam Heyman teaches Gan (kindergarten). Ed lives in Madison, and Miriam makes her way from the Naugatuck Valley each Sunday.

Members Shelley Capozzi and Rachel Kilian, teach Kitot Zayin (7th) and Alef (1st), respectively. I realize that many of our congregational members served our school long before I became part of this amazing community. Our members often find ways to share their gifts with us – such as working in leadership, worshipping with us, or serving on committees.

TBT members often connect me to candidates who join our faculty. Our mission statement says: “Temple Beth Tikvah is a vibrant, inclusive Reform Jewish community, guided by Torah and interconnected through our traditions and values of tikkun hanefesh (enriching our lives) and tikkun olam (improving the world).”

Our teachers fulfill most of the mission. However, only the teachers who are TBT members can fully demonstrate our mission. They live the values of TBT, and they model them to our children inside TBT and outside in the community.

If I have two candidates equally capable, and only one is a member of our congregation, I will hire the member. I do so because a member modeling our values is something that rarely can be found outside of TBT. Of course, not being a member is a curable condition. Our SALTY advisor, Devon Barker, joined TBT around the same time he began his work with us!

Please consider teaching Religious School at TBT, perhaps starting as a substitute. No teaching experience? Not to worry. The best teacher I ever had was a treasury agent. The criteria for teaching our children is simple:
You love being Jewish and are passionate about the history and future of the Jewish people.
You enjoy engaging with children.
Good listening skills.

I can help you with technique and Jewish knowledge.
Let’s talk.
Ira J. Wise, DJRE Temple Educator

Temple Educator's Column - November 2025

Hakarat Hatov means Gratitude (or Thanksgiving if you prefer!)

Thanksgiving is a time for…check the boxes that fit your reality:
0 Family gathering?
0 Specific food choices?
0 Lions and/or Cowboys football?
0 Debating the historical origins of the holiday?
0 Booking flights and hotels?
0 Counting the blessings in your life?

As Jews, many of us tend not to use the “count your blessings” phrase too often. It sounds to some like language other people use. I think that may be a mistake for us.

During the High Holy Day season, we often talk about doing Cheshbon Hanefesh – an accounting of the soul. The idea is to review the past year and note the times we have hurt someone or fallen short from what we (and God) expect from our own behavior. Then we are supposed to go to those people and to God and atone – make amends – and try to restore our relationships.

Thanksgiving suggests a similar, yet slightly different, exercise. The Hebrew for gratitude is Hakarat Hatov. The literal translation of the two words is “recognizing the good.”

Cheshbon Hanefesh focuses on how we missed the mark. Hakarat Hatov demands that we take some time to take notice of the good things – both those we have done and especially those that others have done which we now value.

When President Lincoln formalized the holiday, he was asking that each American, in their own way, give thanks and praise. He did this in the months following Gettysburg, which was the turning point in the American Civil War and the end was seen to be nearing.

We teach Hakarat Hatov as a part of our Religious School curriculum. The idea is that no matter what negative things may happen, it is our job to find sparks of the divine in our world, to recognize and acknowledge them. I hope that as each of us may or may not begin to work our own pre-Thanksgiving checklists we each include a check box for counting blessings and giving thanks. Join me in recognizing the good.

L’shalom,
Ira J. Wise
0 Count Blessings
0 Give thanks

Educator's Column - Summer 2025

This past weekend (June 21-22), my flight to participate in the Jewish National Fund Educator’s Mission on July 13 was cancelled due to the airport in Tel Aviv being closed because of the war with Iran. While I am working to get the airfare refunded, I am still hopeful that the war will end in time for me to go. Of course, hope is not a strategy.

As I write, October 7th was 625 days ago; I know that many of us at TBT have been watching the events in Israel and Gaza with concern, hope and compassion that is now compounded with the war with Iran. These emotions intensify. We each bring our own perspective to our emotions. Your feelings are yours alone. We should have conversations about them – that is part of a healthy process.

The idea of the mission I was to attend was to learn alongside other synagogue educators and explore how we might do better at teaching about Israel than we already do. Israel has been a core Jewish value for my entire personal life and for my professional practice since I first worked in a classroom as a 9th grade aide.

I believe that we need to teach our children the dream of what Israel can be and what led to the creation of the modern state. Theodor Herzl saw it as a home for our people, who were seen as outsiders, despite being citizens of the countries in which they lived. Ahad Ha’am described the dream as a center and source of Jewish culture for all of us. Ze’ev Jabotinsky saw it as a place where the Jewish people can be strong and defend themselves against all who sought to destroy us, and A.D. Gordon described a place where we could get our hands dirty in the soil, bringing life to an arid place. These are just a few of the ideas.

I believe in a developmental approach to learning. We are ready to explore topics in different ways at different times in our lives. So, we should revisit them, applying our experiences and ideas that we have developed since we last talked about them. We might think about God, for example, differently at 39 than we did in third grade – which is when we do our first deep dive into theology at TBT.

In the younger grades, we are teaching our kids about the dream of Israel and introducing parts of Israeli life and culture that will help them to learn, to connect, and perhaps even love it. As they get older, and develop skills in pulling apart complex issues, we get into the ideas that keep some of us up at night or cause flights to be cancelled.

I invite you to take advantage of the opportunities TBT will be offering for adult conversations around Israel and current events. I ask you to have real conversations about it with one another and with your kids in a way that makes sense for you and them. I want to gently remind everyone that even if our opinions on how to approach Israel may vary widely, we are all a part of the same Jewish family. We need to remember we are talking about people in our family. Our children will learn from our example, both in what we say about Israel and how to say it to one another and to people outside the Jewish community.

L'shalom,

Ira Wise

Temple Educator's Column - April 2025

AHA! You Can Make Pesach Amazing!

I once published a monthly pullout section in a printed temple bulletin. It would teach the basics of a holiday, a section of the prayerbook, segment of history or lifecycle ritual. The idea was to give people – especially parents – the tools to talk confidently. (If you would like us to do something like that, please let me know!)

One feature of each issue were the At Home Activities or the AHA section. With Pesach coming in less than two weeks, here are some AHAs and one ATA (At Temple Activity) to help bring more joy to your Pesach:

• AHA: Host a Seder. It is not as difficult as it sounds. And it is ok to ask guests to share in the cooking and/or planning the Seder. Make it a team activity! There are many different Haggadot available. More than 3,000 versions exist, and you can make your own as well. Recustom.com is a great resource. Or speak to me and I can help.

• AHA: Place a piece of paper and a pencil next to each plate at your Seder. Ask each person to write down a Passover-related question. Read the questions out loud, and as a group, try to answer each. You might end up creating your own Midrash!

• AHA Do spring cleaning in your home before Pesach.

• AHA: Conduct a ritual search for Hametz. Bimbam has a short video to get you started.

• AHA: Try converting a favorite recipe for Passover (matzo pizza, matzo lasagna) OR look online for the wonderful variety of recipes available! Tori Avey, Delish, and The New York Times are just a few ideas. Of course, there is no shortage of cookbooks to be had, including in the TBT Library!

• AHA: Make a Miriam’s Cup and include it in your Seder. Miriam’s Cup is a new ritual object that is placed on the seder table beside the Cup of Elijah. Miriam’s Cup is filled with water. It serves as a symbol of Miriam’s Well, which was the source of water for the Israelites in the desert.

• AHA: Create matzo covers out of cloth napkins or handkerchiefs with fabric paint and other craft items.

• ATA: Join us at TBT for the Temple Seder on Friday, April 18 and let’s celebrate together! I invite the kids to help me lead part of the Seder – more to follow in the Religious School blast.

Do you have some of your creative ways to celebrate? Please let me know and I will share them further! Chag Sameach! Happy Pesach!

L’shalom,
Ira J. Wise, DJRE, RJE
Temple Educator

Temple Educator's Column - March 2025

What’s in a name?

Most of us remember Juliet answering her own question: “That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.” She was of course trying set aside the conflict of dating someone from a family house at war with her own.

Judaism actually says names are really important. They can tell us a lot about where we came from and who our parents hope we will be.

Often our first names are chosen to remember someone (living or dead, depending on your family background) about whom our parents felt strongly. Perhaps they hoped we would grow to develop similar positive traits as our namesakes. And of course a Hebrew name includes the names of our parents, declaring our connection to our families.

The world of marketing also says that names are very important and need to be chosen with some care. That a name is a central part of developing a brand identity and making sure people remember to buy YOUR product. In the 2016 film The Founder, Michael Keaton plays Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald’s. He is explaining to Dick McDonald, one of the brothers from whom he bought the original company what he was paying for. “It’s the name. That glorious name, McDonald’s. It could be, anything you want it to be...it's limitless, it’s wide open... it sounds, uh... it sounds like... it sounds like America.”

When we change the name of something, we should be very certain about our reasons for doing so. In our religious school, we have referred to our classes in the same way as they are in most non-religious settings: Kindergarten, First Grade, Second Grade and so on. Nothing wrong with that. Kids know what grade they are whether they are at their five day a week school or at TBT.

What if we could change that in a way that sends the message that they are in a different place than their “regular” school? What if we could reinforce the values of TBT a little more just by how we name things?

Our Curriculum Working Group is moving into phase two of our work. Hebrew is at the top of our agenda. (If you would like to join us, please call or email me!) And our Education Committee has taken the first step.

Beginning this fall, we will use Hebrew names for our classes – although we will have a “soft-open” beginning now. Click here to see a chart of the new names!

It will teach a little more Hebrew, declare that we care about Hebrew as Jewish value AND it may make this place a feel even more distinct from “regular” school.

The picture on this page is the clock on the roof of the Jewish Community Building in Prague in the Czech Republic, which is across an alley from a synagogue built in the year 1200. The Hebrew letters on its face make it clear that this is a place operating in Jewish time. If you look closely at the letters, you will realize that it actually works in a counter-clockwise fashion, as Hebrew moves in the opposite direction as English. It sets a definite tone, as will the change in class names. I invite you to change how you refer to our grades at TBT. See if it feels different to you!

L’shalom,
Ira J. Wise, DJRE, RJE
Temple Educator

TEMPLE EDUCATOR'S COLUMN - FEBRUARY 2025

Which Truth Do You Mean?

There has been a lot of talk about the truth – or lack of it – in the news. People talk about “the big lie” and disagree about a variety of events of the day. Seen from various perspectives, it is hard for many to believe that so many can disagree on what seems to be the plain truth, based on what we can all see with our own eyes. These are troubling ideas that are dividing us one from the other. I encourage everyone to try and imagine perspectives different from our own and remember they are held by members of our community, even our own families. We have to figure out how to move forward together. I am not going to discuss that here though.

This is not just a current events story. I cannot remember a year when a learner – sometimes an adult, sometimes a youth – has not asked me or one of the rabbis “Are the stories in the Torah true?"

The answer to that question is another question: “What do you mean by true?” To be fair, my answer is different from the one you might get from an Orthodox teacher.

Until the mid-nineteenth century, nearly all Jewish thinkers and rabbis accepted that the Torah was written word for word, letter for letter by God – or at least dictated by God to Moses. So, the answer from the Orthodox perspective is “Yes. The Torah is true. It all happened.” There are of course many orthodoxies, not just one monolithic uniform movement. There is a fair amount of nuance that should be in that discussion. By and large, though, if the Torah is actually directly from God, then the Mitzvot are not just a good idea, they are the law.

From a Reform perspective, I suggest that there is truth and there is Truth. The first, with the lower case “t”, refers to historical accuracy. About 150 years ago, a number of biblical scholars – both Jewish and Christian – looked closely at the Hebrew text of the Torah. They noticed that in some sections, God was Elohim. In others, God was Adonai. There were several almost duplicated sections. In the midst of conversations between God and Moses, Aaron would simply appear and disappear. And the entire book of Deuteronomy seems to repeat much of Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers – although many of the commandments are stricter in the second version.

The scholars concluded that there must have been more than one – at least four – different authors involved in the writing of the five books of Moses. This was called the Documentary Hypothesis. And if humans – even if Divinely inspired – wrote the words, then the Mitzvot become more or less guidelines for behavior. And this is the core difference between Reform and Orthodoxy (although there are others). Based on this, I would suggest that the Torah is not a great source of historical accuracy. I see it as our people’s record of how we perceive our origin stories.

I will say that I believe that the Torah is filled with Truth with an upper-case “T.” It teaches us how to be Jewish. It teaches us how to embrace what we have come to call Jewish values like Kehilah (community), Kavod (respect, honor), Kedushah (holiness), Savlanut (patience) and Sovlanut (tolerance), to name five out of dozens. It teaches us that we are each created in God’s image, so we must treat one another with the same respect we have for God.

My friend and teacher Joel Lurie Grishaver once taught me that he believes that the Torah was written by humans. And they wrote exactly what God wanted them to write. So that leaves it in our hands. Coming from a human source, we each get to choose how to be Jewish, which values to embrace. Coming from God, filtered through humans, we must remember that we must not choose “none of the above” when it comes to values. We can handle the Truth.

L’shalom,

Ira J. Wise, RJE

Temple Educator

Temple Educator's Column - January 2025

I remember getting the same birthday card more than once. On the front was a picture of a forest of date palms. I think there was an Israeli flag somewhere in the background. It said, “In honor of your birthday, a tree has been planted in Israel.” When you open it, there is a guy in a bathrobe and sneakers, who needs a shave holding a watering can next to a little tiny sapling, and it says, “Your day to water it is Thursday.”

A trite joke for a serious purpose. The Keren Kayemet L’Yisrael – the Jewish National Fund (JNF) – was founded in 1901 to rebuild the land of our ancestors. Its leaders and supporters around the world raised funds to purchase land - currently it owns 13% of the land of Israel! They have indeed planted trees to turn the desert green. They have also built 180 dams and reservoirs to ensure access to water and established more than 1,000 parks!

Why am I talking about this now, in January? Because Tu Bishvat – the new year of the trees – is coming. Tu Bishvat is one of the several new years that we celebrate as Jews. (Rosh Hashanah – when the date changes, Simchat Torah – when we start a new year of Torah, January 1st , when we celebrate with the secular world, and the first day of the month of Nisan, just before Pesach, which the Torah calls the first month of the year).

As a religious school kid, I wondered why the New Year of the Trees fell while I was shoveling six inches of partly cloudy from my driveway in suburban Chicago. Turns out, January/ February is prime early planting season in the land of Israel. There is an expression over there that that from Pesach to Sukkot, there is no rain, and from Sukkot to Pesach the rain rarely stops. This is a country where everyone follows and talks about the water level of Lake Kinneret.

This year, Erev Tu Bishvat falls on Wednesday, February 12. That gives us time to invite YOU to plant a tree in Israel this year. We will be distributing information through the school and making it available to all to enable us to contribute to the JNF and plant a tree.

By the way, the card was not really a joke. In the picture you can see me actually planting a tree on the grounds of a middle school in South Tel Aviv ON TU BISHVAT! There was a drought that year, and very few trees were being planted. This school has a concentration on environmental studies and was granted special permission. Let’s plant a tree together. We can talk about going over there to water it soon enough!

L’ Shalom

Ira Wise

TBT Temple Educator

Temple Educator's Column - December 2024

The TRUE story of Chanukah

The difference between Jewish and secular calendars this year means that Religious School is not in session for Chanukah. We adapt. And that to me, is the lesson of Chanukah – and of the Jewish people for that matter. We survived nearly 2,000 years of exile and being kicked out of nearly every country and city state in Europe – not to mention the Roman empire, the Crusades, the Inquisition and the Holocaust – by adapting. We continually find ways to not simply survive, but to thrive and find new joys in living Jewishly.

I am going to share some historical accuracy with you now. Do not confuse that with Truth. Truth is what we believe in our hearts. Sometimes it is informed by historical events. Sometimes by our beliefs. If hearing something different about Chanukah will disturb you, I urge you to scroll to the next article. This is not something that you NEED to know.

Still with me? Judah and the rest of the Maccabees were real. We have lots of contemporary evidence. It is extremely unlikely, however, that any of them ever heard about a little jug of oil that burned for eight days. The first time we hear that part of the story is in the Babylonian Talmud, written 460-660 years after the actual events.

In the First Book of the Maccabees, written just four years after the war, the dedication is celebrated for eight days just as the original temple dedication under King Solomon and dedication of the tabernacle in the wilderness with Moses, Miriam and Aaron was held. And Judah declared all Jews everywhere should celebrate each year.

Forty years later, it seems that Jewish communities outside of the land of Israel were not celebrating Chanukah. So, a Second Book of Maccabees was written. “They celebrated it for eight days with rejoicing, in the manner of the Feast of Booths, remembering how not long before, during the Feast of Booths, they had been wandering in the mountains and caves like wild animals.” It seems the holiday soon gained traction in the diaspora communities after that. Still no oil though.

One hundred and ninety or so years after the original events, Flavius Josephus describes the first Chanukah. Josephus had been a Judean general in the war against Rome that resulted in the destruction of the second Temple in Jerusalem in 70 C.E. He went over to the Roman side and spent the rest of his life writing about Jewish history and customs. Historians believe that he was trying to create an image of the Jewish people in the minds of the Romans that would lead them to think we were not a threat and should leave us alone. He wrote: “Judah celebrated the festival of the restoration of the sacrifices of the temple for eight days, and omitted no form of pleasures…” A very Roman type of simcha.

Finally, Pesikta Rabbati is a collection of Midrashic tales written in the land of Israel in the 8th or 9th century CE. while the land was under Muslim rule. In it we read “When they entered the Temple, they found eight rods of iron (spears), which they hollowed out and then kindled wicks in oil which they had poured in the grooves.” This version reminds us of turning swords into plow shares – making weapons into tools of peace. A good metaphor while living under foreign rule.

So too, the Talmudic story of the oil teaches those around us that we are not looking for a fight. God made the miracle of the oil and the victory of the few over the many – not humans. We celebrate God and our faith not war.

In each case, we adapted. In each case we recast the story in a way that gives us reason to celebrate. I am not debunking the story of the oil and its miracle. I am saying we have four more facets to the jewel that is Chanukah. They are ALL our stories.

And I am sticking to them. I invite you to join me. No need to tell the young kids just yet.

L’shalom,
Ira Wise, Temple Educator