Friday, April 21, 30 Nisan 6:00 PM Please join Rabbi Marcia Plumb and Ellen Allard for a Hybrid Kabbalat Shabbat Service.
Saturday, April 22, 1 Iyyar, 9:30 AM Please join Rabbi Marcia Plumb and Cantor Lorel Zar-Kessler for a Hybrid Shabbat Morning Service.
Please join us for a Yom Ha'Atzmaut Celebration!
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
Tuesdays with Morrie and The Wisdom of Morrie: Living and Aging Creatively and Joyfully with Rob Schwartz Series
We are continuing our counting of the Omer, the 49 days between Pesach and Shavuot.
Every year at Congregation Mishkan Tefila, we count the Omer with a special thought for the day. The Omer began on Thursday evening, April 6. This year, I will greet you, every morning, with a short video message to help you start your day in a positive inspired way.
I invite you to celebrate someone you love by sponsoring a day of the Omer. Choose someone to honor, who has instilled an important value in you. You may choose someone in your family (past or present), a teacher, a friend, or anyone who has taught you an important life lesson. Please share their name, and yours, so we can celebrate you both. The cost to sponsor a Day of the Omer is $118. Be sure to read the morning emails to see your day!
Thank you so much, and we look forward to celebrating the Omer with you, Rabbi Marcia Plumb
We Remember: This week's upcoming Yahrzeit Observances
Shloshim Stuart Levine Rosalind Glickman
Saturday
Sunday Edward L. Dashefsky Carol Comras
Monday Blanche Watchmaker-Kaplan Harvey Lewin
Tuesday Anne Zarit Richard Plumb Sylvia Blotner Genya Gaitsgory Dale Jeffrey Moss Sara Rebecca Berkman
Wednesday Benjamin J. Selig Phyllis O. Goodman Barbara Sack
Thursday Max Rothstein
Friday Dorothy Adelson Sonia Gordon Mindick Alfred''Al'' Cutter
A Teaching from our Rabbi
‘Tomorrow belongs to me.’ This line comes from a chilling song from Cabaret, the musical about the rise of Nazism in Germany in the 1930’s. It is sung by a group of early Nazi’s to show how much Nazism had spread among the common Germans.
Last night, my family, friends, and Rosalie Reszelbach, attended the excellent production of Cabaret by Emerson College at the Cutler Majestic Theater. Michael and I were rabbinic consultants for the play, and we spoke at a pre-show talk.
The Nazi song came in the middle of a scene in which good friends and neighbors were having an engagement party. One very likeable character was wearing a swastika armband hidden under his jacket. Everyone else looked ‘normal’, and we had gotten to know and like these characters during the first act. When the man took off his jacket and revealed his armband, the audience gasped. Suddenly most of the party attendees joined in to hold hands with him and sing the ‘Tomorrow belongs to me’ song.
It was chilling because it graphically showed how pernicious and contagious baseless hatred is.
The scene, and the whole play, reminded me of Mary Erlich’s statement to CMT at our Yom Hashoa memorial event this past week. She pointed out that hatred, and anti-semitism is virulent, and to be aware of it.
In this week’s parasha, Tazria-Metzora, we read about rashes that spread through the body and the walls of your house. The High Priest notices and comes to check on the person or the house that is affected and does rituals to help cure it.
Antisemitism, and prejudice in general, is like the rash in the Torah portion. It spreads quietly, quickly, and no one is immune. Here in America, we can see the effect of prejudice against LGBTQ, and transgender folks, in laws that are spreading across the country.
A keyway to stop the spread of hatred, and to dissolve it, is to notice it, and call it out. We can become the High Priests in charge of stopping the spread of the ‘illness’ that is baseless hatred for those who are seen as ‘Other.’
One of the Mussar middot that CMT chose as a fundamental trait for our community is zerizut/persistence and determination. Yom Hashoa, and our parasha, calls on us to use zerizut to fight antisemitism and other prejudice.
Being visible and proud of our Jewishness is another way of fighting antisemitism. Join me and Cantor Lorel Zar-Kessler tomorrow morning at services to celebrate Yom Ha’atzmaut with song, a special haftarah and more.
This Shabbat may your home be free from illness or harm. May your heart be filled with zerizut to fight antisemitism and prejudice. May our celebration of Israel’s 75th fill you with pride and joy.
Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Marcia Plumb
Congregation Mishkan Tefila 384 Harvard St. Brookline, MA 02446
