Friday, November 27, 11 Kislev 6:00 PM Please join Rabbi Plumb and Ellen Allard for a virtual "From Our Home to Yours" Kabbalat Shabbat Services
Saturday, November 28, 12 Kislev 9:30 AM Please join Rabbi Plumb and Cantor Ellen Band for a virtual "From Our Home to Yours" Shabbat Morning Services
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 Maye Cohen
Saturday Chava Reuveny
Sunday Eva Shepatin Naomi Diamond
Monday Agnes Bridges
Tuesday Harold Kaitz Elias Figler Todd Schwartz
Wednesday Hyman Shepatin Barry Gross
Thursday Joel Cohen Sydney Green
Friday Celia Baer Rose Alpert Elaine Kaplan
From Our Rabbi: A Teaching
First let me wish you a Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you were able to practice the Mussar trait of Hoda’a and see all the good in your life. You might be interested to know that Thanksgiving has some Jewish connections. The word for turkey in Hebrew is ‘hodu’, which also means thanks. So whenever we see or eat turkeys, we should say thanks!
In tribute to giving thanks, I offer you this video by the Brookline Interfaith Clergy Association, of which I am a part. http://brooklineclergy.blogspot.com/ The video is called Thanksgiving 2020.
One of the things I am grateful for in this strange Thanksgiving of 2020 comes from this weeks’ parasha, VaYetze. In the first paragraph of the sedra, we read of Jacob’s famous dream of angels going up and down a ladder. When he wakes, he exclaims, ‘God is in this makom, this place, and I, I did not know it! How awesome is this place.’ The word ‘Makom’ has several meanings. It means place, and at the same time, it refers to all space and all places, and it is also a name of God--HaMakom, The One Who Encompasses All Time and Space, or The One Who Resides Everywhere.
Many of us may be tired of Zoom. Some don’t feel comfortable online, some have trouble accessing it, and some feel disconnected because of the technology. Others have found a renewed sense of community through the technology, and sometimes because of it. This Thanksgiving, I am grateful for the technology that powers Zoom and other online platforms. Every Zoom room in which we gather to laugh, cry, show comfort, pray, and sing is a Makom, a sacred place. God dwells within our Zoom rooms just as much as God is in our physical sanctuary, in our homes and in our hearts. If God dwells in all time and space, then holiness resides in our Zoom times and spaces too.
On Tuesday night, during our CMT pre-Thanksgiving zoom gathering, I felt gratitude for those who came together. We had quite a crowd and it was great fun. I felt awe, as I became aware that God was there too, in that Makom, that holy place. Our Makom at the moment, our sacred beit knesset, house of connection, is via Zoom. We have created a new Beit Knesset which exists beyond physical boundaries. So I say with Jacob, HaMakom is in this Makom, in all of our spaces. This Shabbat, I hope you find God in all your spaces too.
Shabbat Shalom and Happy Thanksgiving, Rabbi Marcia Plumb
Congregation Mishkan Tefila 384 Harvard St. Brookline, MA 02446
