In This Issue:

1. NCAA SQUARES TIME
2. HELP US DO WHAT WE DO: SUPPORT THE MOTAS APPEAL
3. SHARE YOUR SIMCHAS FOR MARCH
4. YELLOW CANDLES – HELP NEEDED
5. MOTAS SEDER SURVEY: WE NEED YOUR INPUT
6. IN CLOSING

---

1. NCAA SQUARES TIME

Now that football season is officially over, it’s time for basketball and the craziness known as the Final Four, in early April. Once again, MoTAS is happy to offer you the opportunity to help raise some needed funds for special TAS projects, and maybe you’ll earn some $$ along the way. You are receiving this email because you so generously supported our Sports Squares program sometime in the last year, and we want you to have first opportunity to play now. To get all the information (and in some cases, more than you could ever want), go to http://squares.tasnorthridge-motas.org/ where you’ll find the instructions, a sign-up form you can print, and a link if you wish to order your spaces online.

To summarize: each name on the board can have up to 3 spaces. The squares are priced at $36 each. The game is for both the men’s and women’s tournament (semifinal two games each, and final games), so there are 12 opportunities to be a winner, since there is a winner at the half and final score. If the board is fully subscribed at all 100 spaces, the payout is $150 per win. Once again, we’ll use our “tie-breaker” method to determine a winner if a winning square is unsold (If there are unsold squares, the payouts will be adjusted.) The tie-breaker is your prediction of the total number of points both teams will score in any game, for example, if you think the final score will be 82-61, your number = 143. Here’s a hint for those who are unfamiliar (or don’t really care….): the average score for the men’s tournament for the last two years was 147, and the average score for the women’s tournament was 134. You get only one tie-breaker per person, so choose wisely.

2.  HELP US DO WHAT WE DO: SUPPORT THE MOTAS APPEAL

By now, you have received your MoTAS Appeal Letter. You’ve read about all MoTAS has done to support TAS over the past year, and how the COVID environment has limited our fund raising options. You know that our appeal is even more important this year for us to do what we do. Luckily, it is easy to support MoTAS. Just visit our support webpage: http://support.tasnorthridge-motas.org/. There you can read the appeal letter, make your donation online, or download a form to mail with your check to Roger. Without all of our usual activities, MoTAS needs your support even more to be able to support the temple and its needs during these extraordinary times. MoTAS does not charge dues to its members; we depend on your donations to be able to do what we do.

Just visit http://support.tasnorthridge-motas.org/ to donate.

3. SHARE YOUR SIMCHAS FOR MARCH

If you have a Simcha you want to share, click here for the link to submit your Simcha. Submissions will be due no later than the last day of the month prior to the month of publication. We are now taking February submissions to be listed on in March 2021. For more details or questions contact Bob Levine. If you are interested in making a donation to TAS in honor of your Simcha, click here. A donation is not required to submit your Simcha.

4. YELLOW CANDLES – HELP NEEDED

Traditionally, our March meeting is where we assemble the Yellow Candle boxes for mailing, in lieu of a speaker. But this year our March meeting is virtual, and Zoom is not conducive to assembling candles. So March will be a normal virtual speakers meeting—but we still need to assemble candles.

The approach we will take is to have each volunteer assemble a small number of candles, and return the assembled and labeled boxes to Howard. If you would be willing to help assemble candles, please let Howard know at president@tasnorthridge-motas.org.

5. MOTAS SEDER SURVEY: WE NEED YOUR INPUT

In the mailing for the Annual Appeal, Howard included a tenative date for the MoTAS Seder. If we are actually doing the event, and how it might look, and who we might do it with, is up in the air. Your humble Newletter editor is the coordinator for the event, and I’ve prepared a short SurveyMonkey survey to see what people want. After a week or two (or I get 10 responses), and if there is a desire to actually do something, I’ll drop a note to Mark Singer and see if he wants to pass it to his membership and we can continue the coordination. You can find the survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/5CXJ28W .

For reference: You can find the updated draft version of the MoTAS/TBHLA Haggadah (cut down from the first trial year) at https://app.box.com/s/gbh0aydqshh4omtb3ac8gf4pta3iy1vk . Note that we would not do everything in the service, especially if we do a discussion-only (no meal) event.  You can find the 2007 version of the MRJ Haggadah at http://www.menrj.org/sites/default/files/articles/files/MRJ%20The%20Mens%20Seder%20highres.pdf .

IN CLOSING

As always, remember that the Men of Temple Ahavat Shalom is *your* organization. Keep up to date on our activities at http://www.tasnorthridge-motas.org/ and participate. Sign up for our action alert list at http://tinyurl.com/motas-action-alert. We want to serve all the men of Temple Ahavat Shalom and welcome new participants from the TAS membership. Join our Facebook group and “follow” our website. Come be part of the Men of Temple Ahavat Shalom!