All Shabbat Services this Week are Hybrid - please join us in our Sacred Space or on Zoom
Friday, March 11, II Adar 8 6:00 PM Please join Rabbi Marcia Plumb, Ellen Allard and the CMT Band for an IN-PERSON and online Festive Friday "From Our Home to Yours" Kabbalat Shabbat Service.
Saturday, March 12, II Adar 9 9:30 AM Please join Rabbi Marcia Plumb and Cantor Ellen Band IN-PERSON and online for a “From Our Home to Yours’ Shabbat Morning 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
If you are observing a yahrzeit or saying kaddish and need a minyan on a different evening, please let us know and we will make it happen - contact Toni.
We Remember: This week's upcoming Yahrzeit Observances
Saturday Solomon Barza Arlene Kaitz
Sunday Stephen Pugatch
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday Aaron Korbman Lewis Wilson Morris Benjamin
A Teaching From Our Rabbi
We all continue to watch with horror the continuing destruction of Ukraine by Putin. At the same time, many of us have complicated feelings about the Ukraine because of its Shoah history. Throughout the Jewish community, some are struggling between compassion for innocent citizens and understandable resentment toward Ukranians who collaborated with the Nazis during World War II.
Jewish thought is clear about how to manage that complexity. Rabbi Arthur Green, Rector of Hebrew College, suggests a way to manage that complexity. He pointed out recently that standing by while our neighbor bleeds is not the Jewish way. Resentments from the past, however legitimate, do not keep the Jewish people from seeing the suffering of others, and responding. Helping the stranger, caring for the needy, and helping others carry their burdens are mitzvot that repeat time and again throughout our texts.
The moment we harden our hearts because of our wounds and pain from the past is the moment we have lost our souls. Our compassion keeps us human. Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel asks: What shall I do with my existence, with my being here and now? What does it mean to be alive?
Our resiliency as a people depends in part on our belief that our survival, against all odds, requires us to use our continued existence for good; for tikkun olam, the betterment of society. Our survival has an extra purpose: to free others from suffering. This Shabbat is Shabbat Zachor, the Shabbat where we are told to both forget and remember evil doers. The way we remember evil is to try to defeat it. How can we do that? By offering the opposite–hesed, lovingkindness and compassion toward others. Hesed is the antidote to evil.
This Shabbat, may we fill our hours with acts of hesed,and an attitude of compassion.
Yad Chessed supports needy Jews in Boston at Purim. Please give if you can, and list Congregation Mishkan Tefila as your synagogue. Click here to donate to Yad Chessed
Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Marcia Plumb
Congregation Mishkan Tefila 384 Harvard St. Brookline, MA 02446
