While investigating a recurring issue in our rooftop HVAC that service our Main Sanctuary, technicians found issues in 2 of the three units. In one system a control board has to be replaced - this is on special order and we hope to have it resolved within a week. Further, the ignition chamber of the second unit has to be replaced - we are awaiting the analysis / proposal for this. While these old units are past the end of their functional lifecycle, they had further stress placed on them while operating daily since the beginning of Covid.
Additionally, our Building Committee has been working with the same Engineer involved in our facade work to review our rooftop options. By all accounts, our roof will have to be completely replaced. Our preliminary application is ready for a new Dept. of Energy grant that can assist with financing a roof replacement (similar to the federal security grants). We are also reviewing our options and incentives for replacing the rooftop HVAC units to a more efficient system. Our tentative timeline is to begin this work in the Spring of 2023.
In the meantime, due to severe cold weather reports, please note the location changes listed in this weekend’s schedule. While services will not take place in the Main Sanctuary, it will be open to retrieve personal items. We thank you for your patience.
Indeed, we recognize the warmth of our shul does not only emanate from the heat in the vents - but also from our members' encouragement and support.
Creating beauty requires care, diligence, and attention to detail. It means attending to what material to use, how much of it, and in what arrangement. And it often means connecting the aesthetic features of our creation with other values, e.g., moral or religious.
One small light can be as beautiful as eight lights. But when we want our lights to send a larger message--"a great miracle, an amazing triumph of the spirit over power, took place at this time"--then we may want to include in our message--the number of days of the miracle, that our family is united in our celebration of the miracle, or that our creation of beauty brings us together while preserving our individual identity,
In addition to celebrating holidays rooted in miracles, do you have the chance to celebrate smaller, more personal miracles? How do you make them beautiful? What messages do you send in the ways that you celebrate them?
Reflections on Chanuka
The Sages taught in a baraita: The basic mitzva of Hanukkah is each day to have a light kindled by a person, the head of the household, for himself and his household. And the mehadrin, i.e., those who are meticulous in the performance of mitzvot, kindle a light for each and every one in the household. And the mehadrin min hamehadrin, who are even more meticulous, adjust the number of lights daily. Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel disagree as to the nature of that adjustment…[B.T. Shabbat 21b]
One needs to be very diligent in kindling the Hanukkah lights. Even a poor man living off charity must lend or sell his clothes, and buy oil to kindle with. How many lights should one kindle? On the first night, he kindles one [light]. From then on he continues to add one each night, until on the last night they are eight. And even if the household members are many, they should not kindle more. Rem"a: And some say that every one of the household members kindles (Maimonides) and such is the widespread custom…[Shulkham Aruch Orach Chayim 671:1-7]
Congregation Ohab Zedek
118 West 95th Street
New York, NY 10025
