Save the Date for our upcoming Mimosas and Mussar - led by Rabbi Plumb
We Remember: This week's upcoming Yahrzeit and Shloshim Observances
Shloshim Irma Gershowitz Bruce Shoicket
Saturday Herbert Heshy Waxman Jacob S. Carle Lillian Sagan
Sunday Ethel Sheinkopf Morris Sagan
Monday Haim Liftmanovich Chanoch Reuveny Dora Ober Bernice Fisher Leve Abraham Roblin
Tuesday Estelle Bravman
Wednesday Constance V. Medcalf Edward Jaye Melvin A. Ross Joseph Rubinstein Allick Eidelman Dr. Maurice Tolman William Erlich
Thursday Peter Kaplan Mollie Targe Jeanetter Perlmutter Solomon Barza Maurice Greenspon Esther Magid Florence Baron Arlene Kaitz
Friday Stephen Pugatch Stanley Gaffin Lillian Cohen
World Zionist Congress elections are here!
World Zionist Congress elections are here! This election is your opportunity to make progressive American Jewish voices heard in Israel, and to give support to progressive Israelis who are fighting for democracy, equality, and renewed peacemaking in their beloved country. DEADLINE TO VOTE IS MARCH 11. HAVE YOU REGISTERED YET? Every 5 years, American Jews have the opportunity to vote in the World Zionist Congress and have influence on critical decisions, influential positions, reputational influence, and funding in Israel. Given the high stakes of this election, we encourage you to register and vote for Mercaz -- the slate of Conservative Judaism. Need more reasons to vote Mercaz? Check out this video! Register to vote today and cast your ballot by March 11!
וְעָ֥שׂוּ לִ֖י מִקְדָּ֑שׁ וְשָׁכַנְתִּ֖י בְּתוֹכָֽם׃ You shall make me a sanctuary so that I may dwell within them.
This verse, from our parasha this week, is written in the context of God asking the Israelites to build a Mishkan, a physical sanctuary, for God to dwell in on earth. The parasha lists the materials that the Mishkan should be built from - beautiful couloured yarns, acacia wood, gold and silver. We chose to build our new CMT Mishkan out of beautiful materials, too.
But there is something even more beautiful, more precious than the Mishkan structure that holds God's presence - the human soul. Because God breathed life into us, and does so every morning, we carry a bit of God's neshama, breathe/soul, in ours. We don’t need a building - we ourselves are the Mishkan within which God dwells.
So when the parasha asks וְעָ֥שׂוּ לִ֖י מִקְדָּ֑שׁ, v’asu li mikdash, make me a sanctuary, it is asking us to make ourselves holy containers. The verse is a prayer: Help me make myself a holy container so God's presence can shine through me. Help me clear out any spiritual ‘schmutz’ that might hide or diminish the soul space within me. Help me remember the pure soul deep within me and my ability to be a conduit for holiness and goodness.
How do we do this? The first, most important step to being a Mishkan, is to believe it. Believe that we are holy, precious souls, and that God wants to dwell within us. A lovely group of women that I teach Mussar for Parents to, gave me a bracelet that has our verse on it. Every morning, when I put on the bracelet, I set an intention to be as good a vessel for the Eternal as possible.
I challenge myself, during the day, to put aside my ego, so that my soul space is ‘clutter free’ and available for holy intentions and actions. I often don’t succeed but setting the intention, and regularly looking at the bracelet, helps me to try again. This Shabbat, as we pray together in our Mishkan in Brookline, may we feel filled with God's presence around us and within us.
