Saturday June 3 SERVICES START AT 10:30AM in the CMT Sacred Space
Mazel Tov to
Vera Silk,
daughter of Sandi and Ken Silk, on becoming a Bat Mitzvah
Please join us for the first in-person Bat Mitzvah since the beginning of COVID.
Support Vera Silk's Mitzvah Project
To make a monetary donation to The Brookline Pantry in Vera Silk's name click here.
Friday, June 2, 13 Sivan 6:00 PM Please join Rabbi Marcia Plumb and Ellen Allard for a Hybrid Shavuot and Kabbalat Shabbat Service
Saturday, June 3, 14 Sivan, 10:30 AM Please join Rabbi Marcia Plumb and Cantor Lorel Zar-Kessler for a HYBRID Shabbat Morning Service and the Bat Mitzvah of Vera Silk.
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
Friday, June 16 Silver Lining Buddy Program Kabbalat Shabbat
We Remember: This week's upcoming Yahrzeit Observances
Saturday Herbert Kamowitz
Sunday
Monday
Tuesday Morris D. Katz
Wednesday Eva Alpert James Kurland Noach Bresler Israel Halper Sarah P. Wizansky
Thursday Alan Smith Charles Reszelbach Harvey Kagan Beatrice Schlager
Friday Em Kessler
A Teaching from our Rabbi
When I was a Scout as a child, I remember that, for some reason, I was always in the group that washed the pans in the river on camping trips. I don’t know why, but maybe it was foreshadowing for my later passion for cooking (but I still hate washing dishes!).
In Parashat Naso this week, we read about the responsibilities divided up among the Bnei Yisrael as they wander through the wilderness. Each tribe is assigned a different task for packing up and moving the Mishkan from place to place. One tribe is in charge of putting up and taking down the fabric and dolphin skin walls; another carries the ritual objects, etc.
Everyone has some responsibility. No one can carry the Mishkan alone. It is too heavy. Even the High Priest who everyone looked to for guidance and leadership, required help, and shared their tasks with the community.
Aside from the cumbersome nature of all the accoutrements of the Mishkan that needed transport, why did everyone in the community have a role in looking after the Mishkan and ensuring its safety along the journey?
It is because all who gathered in the Mishkan, and found it a meaningful place to meet, pray and celebrate, also had to help protect it. The Torah makes it clear that one person, one High Priest (or rabbi), one tribe (or board), is not sufficient to ensure the survival of the Mishkan. Every member of the tribe (who is old enough) has something to carry during every transition.
This ensures that no part of the Mishkan is neglected or forgotten along the way; and that it makes it intact to the Promised Land.
It also means that one person or leader does not have to keep track of every part of the Mishkan, and does not have the pressure to get everything right. No one is perfect, neither High Priest or rabbi. Bearing that expectation is too heavy a burden for anyone.
I have had the honour of helping to carry this Mishkan Tefila, our Sanctuary of Prayer, for 10 years. I am proud of my leadership in guiding us from place to place, from one building to another, from one town to another; integrating us into our new home, and keeping us steady and connected during Covid. I have shared these tasks with lay leaders and many others in the congregation. With you, we have managed to carry our Mishkan through rocky times.
As the community faces another transition, and I reduce my hours for the time being, to manage my own change, I have faith that Mishkan will continue to move forward.
This Shabbat, we will dance and sing with Vera Silk as she celebrates her Bat Mitzvah. This will be our first Bat Mitzvah in our sacred space. I hope you will join me in person (or online) as we welcome her as a young adult into the community. She will take her place as a carrier of the Mishkan and I have great confidence that she will be an outstanding pole holder, or whatever role she chooses to take in the Jewish community and within our congregation.
This Shabbat, may your heart be filled with the certainty that you are a valued and necessary part of Mishkan Tefila and the Jewish community as a whole. May your soul sing as you join with me to celebrate the next generation of Jews.
Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Marcia Plumb
Congregation Mishkan Tefila 384 Harvard St. Brookline, MA 02446
