Friday, December 4, 18 Kislev 6:00 PM Please join Rabbi Plumb and Zachary Mayer for a virtual "From Our Home to Yours" Kabbalat Shabbat Services
Saturday, December 5, 19 Kislev 9:30 AM Please join Rabbi Plumb and Rabbi Lev Friedman with Rose Spitzer 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 will be lighting Hanukiyot as a community each night of Hanukkah! Please bring your menorah and candles to your Zoom screen and help us create shared beautiful light together. We will say the blessings, share a song and enjoy the warmth of the flames at a short gathering each night.
Menorah Lighting Together Thursday, December 10 – candle lighting led by Rabbi Plumb, 6:00 PM Friday, December 11 – candle lighting led by Yael and Toni, 4:00 PM Saturday, December 12 – Hanukkah and Havdallah with Rabbi Plumb, 7:00 PM Sunday, December 13 – Or Haneshama: Light of the Soul, A Mussar Hanukkah Sacred Song Circle, led by Rabbi Plumb, Adirchai Haberman-Browns and other musicians (see flyer below), 3:00 - 4:00 PM Monday, December 14 – candle lighting led by Tea with the Team, 7:00 PM Tuesday, December 15 – candle lighting led by Sisterhood, 7:00 PM Wednesday, December 16 – candle lighting led by the CMT Board of Directors, 7:00 PM Thursday, December 17 – Online MenorahFest led by Rabbi Plumb and Ellen Allard, 7:00 PM
Or Haneshama: The Light of the Soul - A Mussar Hanukkah Sacred Song Circle Dec. 13, 3:00 PM
We are excited to announce that Morning Mussar Moments will begin on Thursday, Dec 10 for each night of Hanukkah, then will continue twice a week going forward.
We Remember: This week's upcoming Yahrzeit and Shloshim Observances
Shloshim Maye Cohen Amy Tichnor Dr. Marjorie Sue Rosenthal
Sunday Jean Rubin
Monday Ida Seidman
Wednesday William B. L. Freeman Harvey Chet Krentzman
Thursday Leonard Pach Jacob Finkielsztein David Brodsky
Friday Audrey Wintman Jack Kochman Ruth Sheff Rosenberg
From Our Rabbi: A Teaching
In our parasha this week, Vayishlach, we are told that Jacob wrestles with an angel. He is hurt in the process, but wins the fight. The angel blesses him and changes his name from Ya’akov to Yisrael. Yisrael means “One who wrestles with God.’ (Genesis 32:29). The angel concludes the verse saying, ‘You have wrestled with God and with people, and you have prevailed.” As you know, the Jewish people are named after this wrestler Israel. We are not called the Ya’akovites, but the Israelites. We are the descendants of a master wrestler. Wrestling is in our DNA.
Rabbi Yitz Greenberg says: Consider: what must the wrestler do in the process of wrestling with another? One: Embrace/hug tightly/hold the other close to you. Two: Pushing back and pushing off the other so you do not fall and crash. Three: Exhibit endurance. Straining muscles and exerting will to the limit in order to hang in there. Four: In spirit: to not give in, not give up and take a fall. Rather you persist until you overcome.
How have we, the Jewish people, been wrestlers? One: We hold each other tightly. We keep our people, our faith, and our traditions close to us, even as we wrestle with the religious beliefs and practices that sometimes bedevil us.
Two: At the same time as we hold our religion close, we also sometimes push back against it. We step away from observances that no longer help us survive (like animal sacrifices), and embrace new rituals and laws that help Judaism thrive in new circumstances. The tension between holding onto the ancient while embracing the new helps keep us from falling and crashing, as Greenberg says.
Three: Greenberg notes that endurance is necessary to prevail in a wrestling match. We Jews are masters at endurance. We strain our willpower and use every drop of hope and faith to survive challenger after challenger.
Four: When faced with an adversary, we do not give up. We persist until we overcome. Once the struggle is over, we stand tall, recover, regain our energy, and become a blessing to the world….again and again.
I am proud to be from wrestling stock. From Yisrael, to the Maccabees, to Marranos, to the survivors of the Shoah, to the founders of the modern State of Israel, to the Jews of the former Soviet Union, to the Ethiopians and all immigrants to victims of anti-semitism anywhere in the world to us...we who withstand the pressures of assimilation to hold tight to Judaism and God---we are all wrestlers.
May it continue to be so, and may we be blessed and be a blessing.
May this Shabbat give us a break in the wrestling match with the world at large. May we take a breath and renew our souls to prepare for whatever new match we may face in the week ahead.
Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Marcia Plumb
Congregation Mishkan Tefila 384 Harvard St. Brookline, MA 02446
