Friday, May 20, 19 Iyyar 6:00 PM You are invited to join KI for Kabbalat Shabbat Services on Zoom this evening.
Rose Spitzer was set to lead services this evening, but Rose and Toni have earned a few extra days in Ireland due to COVID. (they are both doing well and are expected back home this weekend) Click here to go to the KI website. Scroll down to where it says: SERVICES, UPCOMING PROGRAMS AND HOLIDAYS Go to the date, May 20 and click on 6:00pm Mincha/Kabbalat Shabbat. This will bring you to the Zoom You may join in person as well, in the chapel on the lower level.
Saturday, May 21, 20 Iyyar 9:30 AM Please join Rabbi Lev Friedman, for a virtual "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
Shloshim Bernice 'Sis' Kazis Harvey Lewin
Saturday Hebert Kotzen Hebert Kotzen
Sunday Abraham Salzman Sarah Adelson
Monday Stanley E. Weisman Minna Lapp
Tuesday Beryl Chafetz
Wednesday Rhoda Davidow Sarah Krentzman Bertha Katz Charlotte Paley Henry Ward
Thursday Solomon Aronson Arnold B. Ehrlich Serena Boronkay Robert Shuman
Friday Lee Wolchansky Barbara Cohen Eliot Michaelson Claire Lorraine Pearl
A Teaching From Our Rabbi
In our parasha this week, Behar, we are given the mitzvah of allowing the land to lay fallow for a year, every 7th year, called Shmita. As you may remember from Rosh Hashana, we are currently in the middle of the Shmita year. In this year of the increasing presence of the climate crisis through our misuse of the planet, our focus during the Shmita year has been on the environment.
Since Rosh Hashanah, those of you who attend services will have heard my weekly reminder to pay close attention to the second paragraph of the Shema.
‘if you vigilantly obey My commandments which I command you this day, to love Adonoy your God, and serve The Eternal with your entire hearts. and with your entire souls— that I will give rain for your land in its proper time,the early (autumn) rain and the late (spring) rain; and you will harvest your grain and your wine and your oil. And I will put grass in your fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied. Beware lest your hearts be swayed and you turn astray, and you worship alien gods and bow to them. And Adonoy’s fury will blaze among you, and God will close off the heavens and there will be no rain and the earth will not yield its produce; and you will perish swiftly from the good land which Adonoy gives you.’
The second paragraph, following the v’ahavta, is often overlooked, or read quickly.
It tells us that if we do all the mitzvot we are supposed to do, then God will cause rain to come in its due season, the earth to yield its produce, and all will eat and be satisfied. If we disobey God then God will stop up the rain, animals will die, and grain will cease to grow.
It presents the theological idea that if we obey Gods commands, then God will reward us with enough food and the earth will thrive. But if we don’t, God will punish us by ensuring that the planet will suffer, and therefore, so will we. I both agree and disagree with this theology. I do not believe that God intentionally treats us harshly if we don’t follow the rules, for example by punishing us by causing water to dry up.
However, I do believe that our actions have consequences. One of God’s commands is to be stewards and protectors of the land. We have disobeyed and ignored that mitzvah. We have worshipped greed and desired excess, over our responsibility as protectors of the most precious gift ever given to us. The second paragraph of the Shema has therefore come true. Drought abounds, grain cannot grow. We are desperately trying not to perish from the good land which God gives us.
So,on every Shabbat of this Shmita year, I have encouraged us to pray and follow the second paragraph of the Shema. It continually reminds us to turn our hearts toward the earth and pay attention to our actions. This prayer may be the one that matters most out of the entire siddur. It may serve to save our planet, and our lives.
This Shabbat, may the Shema inspire us to take our responsibility for the earth seriously. We have five months left of the Shmita year. Now is the time to become good stewards of our precious gift from God.
Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Marcia Plumb
Congregation Mishkan Tefila 384 Harvard St. Brookline, MA 02446
