Hanukkat HaMishkan: Welcome back to Mishkan Celebration Weekend Shabbat Hanukkah, December 3-5
Shabbat Services this Week are Virtual and In-Person
Friday, December 3, 29 Kislev 6:00 PM Please join Rabbi Plumb, Ellen Allard and the CMT Band for an in-person and virtual Hanukkat Ha-Mishkan musical service, followed by dinner in the Social Hall
Saturday, December 4,30 Kislev 9:30 AM Please join Rabbi Plumb and Ellen Allard for Shabbat morning prayer for our in person and virtual "From Our Home to Yours" Service.
Special Haftarah reading by Miriam Drukman, in honor and in memory of Mitchell Selig
If you have a simcha, please share it with us and receive a special blessing from Rabbi Plumb during an upcoming Shabbat service. Sponsor a Kiddush by virtually inviting us to your home as you lead the community in KIddush and HaMotzi prayers. (we will provide challah and grape juice!) Please contect Rosalie Reszelbach, Janet Stein Calm or Toni Spitzer to arrange.
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
JArts Presents: Brighter Revealed Mobile Public Art Display Friday, December 3, 4-8 PM
STOP BY BEFORE SERVICES! Brighter Revealed, an illuminated mobile public art display, will be stopping by Harvard Street - directly accross from our 384 Campus on Friday, December 3 from 4-8 PM!
Brought to you by @JArtsBoston and artist Tova Speter, this traveling Hanukkah installation will incorporate artwork created by students and community partners throughout the Greater Boston area. Don’t miss your chance to share in its glow and experience this groundbreaking project. Click here for more information!
Friday, December 3 - Celebratory Kabbalat Shabbat Musical service with Ellen Allard and the CMT Band, followed by a Reunion Dinner in the Social Hall Click here to register
Saturday, December 4 - Shabbat morning services with special haftarah read by Miriam Drukman, with memorial to Mitch Selig
Sunday, December 5 - Menorahfest style Bring Your Own Hanukiyah lighting, plus a Campus wide Public Outdoor candlelighting, latkes and sufganiyot (More details and registration to follow)
Calling all Young Adults! Not your parents KIDS TABLE! There will be a Yong Adult seating area in Social Hall for you to have your own gathering time and conversation. Bring Your Friends!
Including Bring-Your-Own Menorah Community Lighting with Teachings by Rabbi Plumb 5:30 PM
We Remember: This week's upcoming Yahrzeit Observances
Shloshim Leo Karas Harvey Hecker
Saturday Barney Sheff Shirley S. Kaplan Samuel Grossman
Sunday Esta Lyman Jessie Nathanson Minnie Vernick Dorothy Bronstein Joseph Miller
Monday Jessica Miriam Kaplan Louis Cohen Leah Resnick
Tuesday Dr. Horace Sarter Dr. George Benjamin Jay Rome
Wednesday Agnes Selig Anne Levine
Thursday Ida Gilman Marjorie Hendel Dr. Samuel Krensky
Friday Rose Lushan Benjamin Perlmutter
From Our Rabbi: A Teaching
ANOTHER WAY TO CELEBRATE CHANUKAH
We all know the mitzvot of saying the blessings,lighting the Hanukiyah (Hanukah menorah) every night, and putting the hanuikiyah in the window for all to see its light, and the miracle it represents.
Mussar adds another way to celebrate Hanukkah and ignite the lights. Mussar says that lighting the external Hanukiah is not enough. We should also light our internal flame.Rabbi Ira Stone suggests that we each have our own inner hanukiah that needs to be relit at Hanukkah. Our inner Hanukiah is like the pilot light of our soul that can go out if we don't tend to it. Hanukkah is the time to rekindle the light of our souls alongside the external candles.
Andie Insoft, a member of one of our Mussar groups wrote: “Our... eternal inner flame or light is very vulnerable to being obscured. Anger, envy, or resentment easily creep into our vision such that our Ner Tamid (eternal light) becomes hidden.
The work of Hanukkah is to create for ourselves a ritual, a “lighting of the lights” that first recognizes when our light has gone out and how we can redouble our efforts through study, journaling, mitzvot, and ma’asim tovim, good deeds, to rekindle our inner light with as pure an oil as we are capable of. Perhaps each night as we light the candles, we might think of a way in which we want to rekindle our flame – through an act of kindness, engaging in patience or silence when others need us to listen or be there for them, seeking truth, or having trust that things will work out. You might wonder where our oil is coming from to keep our own inner Chanukiah lit? Our oil comes from our own pure soul which is always there within us, waiting to be kindled.”
Tonight, we will be celebrating both the external Hanukkah and internal Hanukkah. By celebrating a ‘Hanukkah Homecoming’ this Shabbat, with special services in person (and online) tonight and tomorrow morning, we are being like the Maccabees. The Maccabees had to leave their physical Mishkan due to circumstances beyond their control (Greek oppression) and then returned to rededicate it. We too had to leave our Mishkan building due to Covid, and we are rededicating our community at Shabbat Hanukkah, tonight and tomorrow.
By coming together, through music, joy, dancing and prayer, we will be celebrating the light of our community, the lights of Hanukkah and the light of our souls.
I look forward to seeing our shining souls tonight and tomorrow.
Shabbat Shalom Rabbi Marcia Plumb
Congregation Mishkan Tefila 384 Harvard St. Brookline, MA 02446
