Dear Friends,
It has been nearly ten weeks since we have been able to worship together in person, and I wanted everyone to know how much I miss our personal time together. I miss the joys of welcoming Shabbat with our community in our sanctuary. I miss the beautiful energy generated as we bring our voices together in song and prayer, and I miss being able to socialize and catch up at our onegs following our services.
Please know that these shared experiences will be available to all of us in the not too distant future. Know, also, that our staff and leadership are working diligently to come up with plans to ensure the safety of our membership for such gatherings. Until then, however, we must continue to bring a sense of shared community virtually. Friends, shared Shabbat experiences are literally at your fingertips. Each week we provide two beautiful opportunities for worship and inspiration. Each of these Shabbat program addresses a separate need, and each strives to keep us connected in sacred ways.
Sharing Shabbat is a weekly Shabbat experience which includes all of the basic elements of a traditional Shabbat service. We welcome Shabbat with songs and rituals; we recite the shema and other blessings; we express our prayers for the sick; we observe yahrzeits with the mourner’s kaddish; and we there is always brief sermon. These Sabbath experiences are put together every week with music that has been pre-recorded by Jane Becker, Mike Kahn and Yana Didyk, and the setting for our worship experience is our beautiful sanctuary. We believe that each of these elements come together to provide those who watch a sense of sacred time in our sacred space.
Welcoming Shabbat is a weekly experience on Facebook Live. This Shabbat event takes place every Friday night at 6:00 and is recorded for those who are not able to join us live. The experience takes place in the home of a different member each week. Through the lighting of candles, and the blessings over wine and challah, we have an opportunity to share an intimate moment as we welcome Shabbat together.
We may not be able to come together in person for a while, but these two Shabbat experiences are designed to keep us connected in spirit. Every week you will continue to receive links to each of these Sabbath events. We hope you will join us, and we cannot wait for the time when we will be able to do this again in person.
L’Shalom,
Steve