All Shabbat Services this Week are Hybrid - please join us in our Sacred Space or on Zoom
Friday, March 18, II Adar 15 6:00 PM Please join Ellen Allard for an IN-PERSON and online "From Our Home to Yours" Kabbalat Shabbat Service.
Saturday, March 19, II Adar 16 9:30 AM Please join Rabbi Lev Friedman for an IN-PERSON and online for a “From Our Home to Yours’ Shabbat Morning service. Torah Reading by Rose Spitzer
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
An Evening with Author Charles Dellheim April 6 - 7:30 PM
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
Sunday Morris Levosky Bessie Fleischer
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
A Teaching From Our Rabbi
אֵ֗שׁ תָּמִ֛יד תּוּקַ֥ד עַל־הַמִּזְבֵּ֖חַ לֹ֥א תִכְבֶּֽה׃ {ס} A perpetual fire shall be kept burning on the altar, not to go out. וְזֹ֥את תּוֹרַ֖ת וַיַּ֥עַשׂ אַהֲרֹ֖ן וּבָנָ֑יו אֵ֚ת כׇּל־הַדְּבָרִ֔ים אֲשֶׁר־צִוָּ֥ה יְהֹוָ֖ה בְּיַד־מֹשֶֽׁה׃ {ס} And Aaron and his sons did all the things that יהוהhad commanded through Moses. אֵ֗שׁ תָּמִ֛יד תּוּקַ֥ד עַל־הַמִּזְבֵּ֖חַ לֹ֥א תִכְבֶּֽה׃ {ס}
This Shabbat,in Parashat Tzav, we read : ‘ A perpetual fire shall be kept burning on the altar, not to go out. ‘ The first word in this verse is Aish–aleph, shin (fire). The last word is Tikh’bah (go out or extinguish), with the last letter being Hey. Put these letters together and we get Aleph, Shin, Hey, which spells Isha–woman. So, what is the flame that must not go out? The fire that exists within women. The light of a woman’s soul is strong and shining. Too often, women are told to dim their inner light for the sake of the men in their lives, whether they be husbands, fathers, employees, employers, or colleagues. Regularly, the bias’ of society assert that women should speak less, demand less, protest less, and accept abuse, disinterest and disregard, as well as inequalities and glass ceilings.
We know that Jewish law has not been particularly welcoming or inclusive of women’s participation. But this year, we celebrate the leadership of Jewish women because we mark two major epic anniversaries: the 50th anniversary of the ordination of women rabbis in America; and the 100th anniversary of the first Bat Mitzvah.
The first Bat Mitzvah was Judith Kaplan Eisenstein on March 18, 1922. This Shabbat is her 100th Bat Mitzvah anniversary. Her aliyah and Torah reading changed the nature of Jewish life forever. She paved the way for all Jewish women to find their full place within synagogue life. The light that shone from her 100 years ago, lit my way to the bima as a Bat Mitzvah myself, and enabled me to find my way as a woman rabbi.
It was Judith Kaplan Eisenstein’s courage and determination that opened the way, eventually, for Barbara Karas to be the first woman president at CMT, and Myrna Cohen to sit on the bima and wear a kippah, among other ways that women have shone at Mishkan, and continue to do so.
On May 14, we will have a special service honouring Jewish women’s leadership. Please mark your calendars. We hope everyone who has had a Bat Mitzvah will come, and everyone who wishes they could have one to come too. Send us your Bat Mitzvah photos, and stories. From this Shabbat until May 10, we will collect your pictures and stories into an online tribute to the light of Jewish women that continues to shine from generation to generation. Please send your picturs and stories to Toni .
Below, you can see Judith Kaplan Eisenstein as a Bat Mitzvah, and then later, at the age of 83, when she repeated it.
