This Coming Shabbat: Preparing for Purim February 25, 2022
Our service is on ZOOM and begins at 6:00 p.m. Join us for candle lighting, blessing one another, kiddush, motzei and invoking an angel to bless us during the week ahead. In keeping with the spirit of the celebratory month of Adar I-II we will also take a moment to celebrate our landmark moments and accomplishments. Please come prepared to share anniversaries, birthdays, successes and other happy moments.
This shabbat is Shabbat Shekalim, the sabbath when we begin marking the weeks before Purim and the beginning of spring. Our reading reminds us that this was tax season in the world of Ancient Israel when the ½ shekel tax was collected in preparation for the spring festivals. We will also mark the new month of Adar II which begins next week. In these anxious times, when we wonder about the future course of the pandemic and when Eastern Europe seems on the edge of a significant conflict, how do we balance concern and celebration? Join us to welcome a shabbat of rest and reflection.
Zoom Link Meeting Id: 978 470 037 Passcode: 183618
Shabbat Morning: Thinking about Israel and davening from home
As we anticipate a major snow fall on Friday we will hold services only on Zoom this shabbat. Our service begins at 10:00 a.m.
At the end of our service we will welcome a very special speaker from Jerusalem, Rabbi Naami Kelman, the dean of the rabbinical school at the Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem. Naami was also the first woman ordained as a rabbi in Israel and the organizer of the first egalitarian minyan in Jerusalem. Since the 1990s, Naami and I have been study partners going back to our time together as participants in the second rabbinic cohort of the Institute for Jewish Spirituality.
Rabbi Kelman will offer us a power point presentation and talk entitled “A Progressive Perspective on re-engaging with Israel.” How are we to engage lovingly with Israel in the face of the many challenges facing the Israel-Diaspora relations? Naami will look at issues of religious pluralism and the ongoing conflicts within Israel and between Israelis and Palestinians and offer her unique perspective as an American born Israeli woman rabbi and leader.
We also read Parshat Vayakhel, a special reading for Shabbat Shekalim and we will announce the new month of Adar II that begins Thursday and Friday of next week.
Our siddur isavailable here, by PDF linkso you can follow from home if you do not have a siddur. If you need a bible, please be in touch with our office or consider purchasing a copy of Siddur Lev Shalem and Humash Etz Hayyim for your home library.
Our B’nai Tikvah trip to Israel has been postponed due to the ongoing COVID situation. Our new dates are May 10-22, 2022. You can see the new itinerary and pricing here www.bnaitikvahma.org/israel-trip. Interested? Have questions? — please contact me (rabbi@bnaitikvahma.org).
