PACING YOUR PAYMENTS

We have two WONDERFUL Kohelet Fall events coming up: High Holy Days (October 2-12), followed by our fabulous Fall Retreat onNovember 4-6.
You might consider pacing your payments by paying for the High Holy Days early this year, so you can start putting your pennies away for the not-to-be-missed Fall Retreat at the YMCA of the Rockies!
High Holy Days payments can be made by clicking below.

IMPORTANT MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

Dear Kohelet members,
This issue of our Newsletter continues the sign-up period for the High Holy Days. Fundraising is traditionally a part of the season and this year as in the past Kohelet will rely upon your generosity. I entreat you to give serious consideration to doing all that you are comfortable with to assist in this campaign. Our present dues structure requires significant additional financial input from the membership to comfortably meet all our obligations.
We want to be prepared for new expected expenses but also to rebuild a more fortified reserve in case of unforeseen conditions. We are already noting probable needed repair work to the Kohelet roof, ongoing building structural maintenance and increased rent payments for our playground.
Please give your close attention to this request and help to continue our strength as we pave our path onward.
Kohelet is important to all of us and its sustenance is the responsibility of us all.
Neiel

The Minor Prophets - Hosea and Amos

Both Hosea and Amos were written during the 8th C B.C.E. in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The king at this time was Jeroboam II who built Israel into a prosperous trading “empire” controlling trade routes to Damascus on both sides of the Jordan River. In response to this wealth, Amos focused his prophecies upon warning of the economic disparity created by Israel’s newfound wealth and her lack of concern for the fate of the poor. Income inequality - does this sound familiar? He castigated those who “live on beds of ivory, sprawled on their couches, eating the fattest of sheep and cattle and who anoint themselves with the choicest oils with little concern for the future of Israel”. His outcry was that consequences to Israel must be understood by their causes within Israel and that all calamities that befall the nation must be understood as punishments and never as coincidence. How can we understand this today?
Hosea focused on Israel’s lack of loyalty to its history and teachings. He noted that new wealth and new trade with other nations threatened Israel’s attention to its exclusive relationship with their God.The resultant regression into repeated wrongdoing and transgression would have severe consequences. He warned against attributing prosperity to their own doing and at the same time denying that wrongdoing could have a part in amassing fortunes. Hosea urges us to “return to God” who will ”heal and bandage us and we will then run to quickly renew our loyalty”. The penitent “begs God to look favorably upon good intentions, prayer and confession as more worthy than offerings of fatted bulls which are superficially impressive but lack inner content”.

Event: Preparing for the High Holidays. A talk by Rabbi Binyomin Halpern of the Denver Kollel.
Where: Aish Denver - 9550 E. Belleview - refreshments provided.
When: Thursday Sept 1 at 7 pm
Info: Rabbi Halpern is Denver Kollel Scholar in Residence will speak on physical , emotional and spiritual preparation during Elul.
Contact: Ken Weil kencweil@gmail.com for further information