Friday, October 23, 5 Chesvan 6:00 PM Please join Rabbi Plumb and Rabbi Lev Friedman for a virtual "From Our Home to Yours" Kabbalat Shabbat Services
Friday night, we celebrate JArts Shabbat with a special film: Creativity Connects Shabbat. This film, which includes Rabbi Plumb, shows how the arts connect us all.
Saturday, October 24, 6 Cheshvan 9:30 AM Please join Rabbi Plumb and Cantor Ellen Band for a virtual "From Our Home to Yours" Shabbat Morning Services
The Parasha is Noah Genesis 8:15-22 The Haftarah is Isaiah 54:1-55:5
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.
Please click here for the link to the page numbers for Shabbat morning prayers in Sim Shalom (Blue) and in Lev Shalem Page Numbers for Shabbat Morning
We Remember: This week's upcoming Yahrzeit and Shloshim Observances
Shloshim Bernard Berkman Miriam Harel
Saturday Rose Aronson Rabbi Abraham Kazis
Sunday Harold Burg Sylvan Rosoff Julius S. Cohen
Monday Alex Rose Sumner Rosenberg Esther Solomon
Wednesday Eva Modricamin Isaac Davidi
Thursday Morris Kaitz Esther Dickerman
Friday Ina Seidman Harvey Weiss
Reminder to Vote!
Early voting is open in Massachusetts until October 30. Please vote early to ensure your vote is included. If you need help, or need someone to collect your ballot and drop it in your local ballot box, please call the synagogue office at 617-332-7770. If you want to ensure that your vote is counted, you can track your postal and in person ballot by going to Trackmyballotma.org
From Our Rabbi: A Teaching
At the end of the story of Noah, most of us know that God sent a rainbow as a symbol of the promise that God would never again destroy humanity. But few people realize that God made a covenant with the animals that day as well. The text reads:
God made a covenant of devotion and care with humanity but also with all the animals and creatures on earth. This brit was made with both in the same sentence. Why should God make a covenant with creatures that can’t speak or think intellectually and don’t seem to have the ability to agree to such a commitment? And why lump animals and humans in the same contract? Perhaps because God knew that the animals, birds, sea creatures and insects would need special care, for the very fact that they could not assert their needs or rights. They would need to be looked after, respected, and valued for their contribution to the ecosystem. The brit was a three way contract- between God, humanity and the other creatures. Each would look after the others in the partnership. All the creatures of the earth, whether two legged or twelve legged, would protect each other and the world. God wanted human beings to know that the world would face destruction again if the covenant between them all was broken.
Humanity has broken the brit made that day so long ago. We are destroying the habitats of creatures of every type,including our own. We have made extinct thousands of species God created. God's fear is coming true- this time, we are bringing the floods, and fires, upon ourselves.
This Shabbat morning, we will give a special blessing to our pets who often feel like our children and who fill our hearts with joy. In blessing our dogs,cats,fish, gerbils, etc., we will also recommit ourselves to the Noahide covenant to treasure all God's creatures that sustain our planet. As we bring our animals in front of our computer cameras tomorrow morning to be blessed, may we, in turn, bless this planet with the care it deserves.
This Shabbat, I pray that our homes will be filled with the joy of our pets, the beauty of bird songs outside our windows and gratitude for all the creatures that maintain our world
Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Marcia Plumb
Congregation Mishkan Tefila 384 Harvard St. Brookline, MA 02446
