Friday, July 17, 25 Tammuz 6:00 PM Kabbalat Shabbat Services Please join Rabbi Plumb and Ellen Allard for a virtual "From Our Home to Yours"
Saturday, July 18, 26 Tammuz 9:30 - 10:30 AM Shabbat Mevarchim Morning Services Please join Rabbi Plumb and Ellen Allard for a virtual "From Our Home to Yours"
Come and support Ellen Allard as she co-leads Shabbat morning services at CMT for the first time!
The Parasha is Matot-Masei Numbers 30:2-9 The Haftarah is Jeremiah 2:4-28;3:4
Please click here for the link to the new Conservative prayerbook, Siddur Lev Shalem: Shabbat Shaharit Siddur Lev Shalem The prayers will be the same as in our usual blue siddur, so feel free to use that instead if you wish.
We Remember: This week's upcoming Yahrzeit and Shloshim Observances
One summer, when I was a child, my family took a road trip from Texas to Washington DC, to visit my grandparents. We stopped at the border of every state to take a photo with the ‘Welcome to…. sign. I don’t remember much about what we did in each state as we passed through it, but I do remember the thrill of arriving at each new State sign. This week in parashat Matot Ma’asei, we come to the end of the book of Numbers. This double parashah is a bit of a scrapbook, made at the end of a long trip. Within the parshot, is a travelogue of the stops the Israelites made on their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land. Each encampment is listed but there is very little about what happened in each place. It is like our family’s photos of each state.
This past week, we laid to rest a beloved member of our congregation, Marty Alpert. At his funeral, his children Nancy and Ken talked about Marty’s different careers and hobbies. They named them, as if they were stops on his journey through life. What they couldn’t detail were the many meaningful moments and conversations held at each stop. In the life of a vibrant 90-year-old, there were too many to list. But we know that this man’s actions, kindnesses and conversations shaped the lives of many others who knew him. So too with us. This time of Covid is a particular stop along our journey through life. It is unusual and challenging. It looks like we will be at this Covid stop longer than we expected. When we look back at it years from now, what will we remember about our experience at this ‘stop’? How will it have changed us, or prepared us for the next step in life? How will our actions shape those with whom we walk? This Shabbat, in the midst of our Covid stop, let’s make a conscious decision to act in a way that influences others for the good. May we too be remembered for being a blessing to others along the way.
Life is a Journey by Rabbi Alvin Fine Birth is a beginning And death a destination And life is a journey: From childhood to maturity And youth to age; From innocence to awareness And ignorance to knowing; From foolishness to discretion And then perhaps to wisdom. From weakness to strength or From strength to weakness And often back again; From health to sickness, And we pray to health again. From offence to forgiveness, From loneliness to love, From joy to gratitude, From pain to compassion, From grief to understanding, From fear to faith. From defeat to defeat to defeat Until, not looking backwards or ahead, We see that victory lies not At some high point along the way But in having made the journey Step by step, A sacred pilgrimage. Birth is a beginning And death a destination And life is a journey. --Rabbi Alvin Fine
Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Marcia Plumb
Congregation Mishkan Tefila 384 Harvard St. Brookline, MA 02446
