Friday, January 24, 27 Tevet 6:00 PM Kabbalat Shabbat Services with Rabbi Plumb and Ellen Allard with Ezra Kleinbaum Saturday, January 25, 28 Tevet 9:30 AM Shabbat Morning Services with Rabbi Plumb and Cantor Ellen Band
Mazel Tov to Ezra Kleinbaum! Ezra Kleinbaum will be beginning his Bar Mitzvah weekend by joining our service on Friday night, January 24, by playing saxophone with Ellen Allard. Please join Ezra and his family for this special occasion.
Save the Date for our upcoming Mimosas and Mussar - led by Rabbi Plumb
This coming week, the Torah and modern history come together. We read in parashat Vaera about the oppression and persecution of the Israelites in Egypt. Pharoah sees the Jews as a threat to his empire, and attempts to destroy Jews and their culture.
This coming week, in our day, we mark the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Aushwitz. The whole world is remembering the oppression and persecution of Jews, and the attempt to destroy our people and culture, in our day. The parasha speaks about the despair of both the Biblical Israelites and the Jews in the Shoah when it says, 'their spirits were crushed by cruel bondage.' The next paragraph in the parasha suddenly interrupts the story of Israelite oppression by listing the names of the twelve ttribes and names of their descendants. Why does the Torah inexplicably move into a lineage list just as the story of our peoples suffering is being laid bare?
I suggest two reasons. The first is to remind us that every suffering soul matters. Each name of an enslaved or oppressed person is a world unto themselves. The Talmud says, 'One who destroys a life, it is as if they destroyed the whole world.' We can hear the stories of individual survivors at Coolidge Corner Theatre on Monday, January 27, at the showing of Soul Witness,The Brookline Holocaust Witness Project.
The second reason may be to celebrate that our line carries on. Jews continue to thrive. The Jewish community around the world is vibrant. We are a resiliant, joyous people despite our history, or perhaps because of it.
I pray we have a sweet and hopeful Shabbat, Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Marcia Plumb
Congregation Mishkan Tefila 384 Harvard St. Brookline, MA 02446
