Friday, April 28, 7 Iyar 6:00 PM Please join Rabbi Marcia Plumb and Ellen Allard for a Hybrid Kabbalat Shabbat Service.
Saturday, April 29, 8 Iyar, 9:30 AM Please join Rabbi Marcia Plumb and Cantor Ellen Band for a Hybrid 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
Dear CMT Friends,
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 Paul Gilson
Sunday Alan H. Freedman Goldie Figler Jennie Clark Betram Swerling
Monday Abraham Goldstein Ethel Benjamin Robert Diamond
Tuesday Arlene Goodstein Dexter J. Hyman Israel Kazis Max Feinberg Joseph Schwartz Joseph Berman
Wednesday Irene Gross Laura Finkielsztein
Thursday Charles Blumer Willam Gordon
Friday
A Teaching from our Rabbi
Rabbi Plumb and Ronna Mumtaz and the Brookline Interfaith Clergy Association Iftar Celebration.
Rabbi Plumb at Pro-Democracy Rally in support of Israel at the Boston Commons.
Rabbi Plumb and Dana Klein from the Alexander Muss High School in Israel at the UnXecptable Rally in the CMT Sacred Space.
Over the years, people have asked me to define Mussar, and why I brought it to Mishkan. In short, the question is ‘why Mussar?’
The answer comes from someone in one of our mussar classes this past week who said, ‘The world would be so much better if everyone studied mussar.’
In this weeks double parasha,Achrei Mot- Kedoshim, we find the verse, that in some ways, is the source for Mussar. ‘Kedoshim Tihiyu’ You shall be holy. The founder of Mussar, Bahya ibn Pakuda, in Spain in the 9th century, wondered how we can become holy. He wrote that holiness comes from within each of us. If our attitude towards others is one of compassion rather than judgement, curiosity rather than fear, working for the good rather than seeing only the bad, then our relationships improve, our community is stronger and more empathetic, and our society is healthier.
Rabbi Shuval-Weiner wrote, ‘I recall a teaching by one of my teachers the late Rabbi Richard Levy z”l who reminded us that the words “Holy to God” were engraved on the head plates adorning the foreheads of the kohanim (Exodus 28:36). Rabbi Levy posed the question, how might we behave if every time we looked into the face of another, those same words “Holy To God” were reflected back at us? Would we not feel a sense of sacred responsibility to them?
Yes, we are living in extremely challenging times, and there is tremendous divisiveness everywhere. Yet each one of us has the ability to temper, even mitigate, the emotions of anger, fear, and frustration if only we focus on elevating ourselves by cultivating compassion and kindness. Transcending our focus on ourselves and thinking about other people—family members, friends, community members, and strangers.
The middot/traits that the congregation chose as our grounding values are badly needed for our society: patience, seeing the good, respect, seeing the G*dliness in everyone, enthusiasm and persistence, and joy. The more we practice these middot, the more they spread to others. Individually, each of these middot can transform us, but combining them together makes Mishkan a stronger community and allows us to be our best selves.
This Shabbat, may our homes be filled with holiness, and our minds and hearts turned towards others with compassion. May we find joy and G*dliness this Shabbat.
Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Plumb
Congregation Mishkan Tefila 384 Harvard St. Brookline, MA 02446
