Friday, February 18 18 Adar 1 6:00 PM Please join Rabbi Marcia Plumb and Zach Mayer for a virtual "From Our Home to Yours" Service.
Saturday, February 19 19 Adar 1 9:30 AM Please join Rabbi Marcia Plumb and Cantor Ellen Band for a virtual "From Our Home to Yours" Service.
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
The offie will be closed on Monday, February 21 for Presidents Day
If you are observing a yahrzeit or saying kaddish and need a minyan on a different evening, plesae let us know and we will make it happen - contact Toni
Jewish Guided Meditation with
Rabbi Marcia Plumb February 23, 7:00 PM
Find calm within Jewish meditation.
Jewish meditation has been part of Jewish spirituality for centuries. Join Rabbi Plumb as she shares her love of Jewish guided meditation. We will draw upon texts to help us find inner calm. Learn tips for how to meditate, if you are a beginner, and enhance your own meditation practice if you are a regular meditator.
We Remember: This week's upcoming Yahrzeit Observances
Shloshim Allan Goldman Ziva Paley
Saturday Hattie Goodman
Sunday Rebecca Sandofsky David Sandler Stanley Kohen Margaret Greenberg
Monday Robert Pugatch
Tuesday Harold S. Stern Philip Zimmerman
Wednesday Sylvia Jaye Laura Katz Yovel Resnick Eleanor Feld Barbara Fisher Sara Selma Ettlinger
Thursday Albert Modricamin Charles Aronson Samuel Leve
Friday Harry Alberts
A Teaching From Our Rabbi
Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night
Our parashat hashavua, Ki Tissa, is full of beauty and baseness; faith and doubt. Art takes center stage and represents all of it.
In the middle of the parasha, we find the story of the Golden Calf. The Golden Calf was the first sculpture made by the free Israelites. It represents the fallenness of the Jewish people and their greatest sin. The Golden Calf reminds us how easy it is to doubt and lose hope.
In contrast however, the parasha begins with a focus on art and beauty in the Mikdash, the Holy of Holies. We are introduced to God’s chosen artist, Bezalel, whose work will represent the beauty that God created in the world.
רְאֵ֖ה קָרָ֣אתִֽי בְשֵׁ֑ם בְּצַלְאֵ֛ל בֶּן־אוּרִ֥י בֶן־ח֖וּר לְמַטֵּ֥ה יְהוּדָֽה׃ See, I have singled out by name Bezalel son of Uri son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah.
וָאֲמַלֵּ֥א אֹת֖וֹ ר֣וּחַ אֱלֹהִ֑ים בְּחׇכְמָ֛ה וּבִתְבוּנָ֥ה וּבְדַ֖עַת וּבְכׇל־מְלָאכָֽה׃ I have endowed him with a divine spirit of skill, ability, and knowledge in every kind of craft; Bezalel will create the furnishings in the Mikdash–all the fabric murals for the walls, the golden menorot, the washstands, and much more. He will create beauty and holiness through art.
In doing so, he will be imitating the greatest artist of all time–God.
God created the most stunning colors, and natural masterpieces out of sunsets and sunrises, and much more. Bezalel’s work will teach the Israelites how to believe again, how to have faith. Art reminds us of the creativity within the universe, and within us. It can take our breath away and reveal hidden places in the world, and wisdom, we never would have seen without it.
One of the holiest places I have ever been is the Hermitage in St. Petersburg. I was in awe at the depth of insight, the soaring creativity, and the masterful use of the colours God created, that emerged from the minds, hearts and brushes of the artists.
Art can bring us back to hope and faith–in humanity and in ourselves, as well as to the Divine.
This Shabbat, I invite you to look for beauty, whether in nature or in a piece of art. May you find renewed faith in humankind and come closer the Divine Presence.
Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Marcia Plumb
Congregation Mishkan Tefila 384 Harvard St. Brookline, MA 02446
