Shabbat Service Dates

There may be additional Kabbalat Shabbat services held periodically throughout the year. These will include a pot-luck congregational dinner and will start at 6:00pm. Watch for announcements.

2010-2011 SHABBAT SERVICE DATES

All services listed below will start at 7:30 p.m. Unless otherwise noted.

Reminder: There will be NO services on Friday, September 3, the day before Selichot.

September 4 ⁽Saturday) Selichot Educational program: 8:00 pm  followed by Refreshments Candlelight Service: 10:30 pm (approximately)

September 8 (Wednesday) Erev Rosh Hashana

September 9 (Thursday) Rosh Hashana Day:  Children’s Service 9:30 am Morning Service 10:15am  / Followed by Tashlich at Treaty Park

September 17 (Friday) Kol Nidre / Erev Yom Kippur

September 18 (Saturday) Yom Kippur Day:   Morning Service 10:15am Children’s Service 1:00 pm Discussion with the Rabbi 2:15pm Afternoon Service 3:15pm

Yizkor 4:30pm (approximately) Followed by Neilah, Havdalah, Break-the-fast

September 24 (Friday) Sukkot : Pizza in the Hut 6:30pm  followed by Sukkot, Family Service 

October 1 (Friday) Consecration / Simchat Torah / Shemini Atzeret – Family Service  

October 15 (Friday)  Temple Service

November 5  (Friday) Temple Service 

November 19 (Friday) Temple Service

December 3 (Friday) Chanukah Family Service (3^rd Candle). Possibility of Pot luck dinner prior to Service

December 17 (Friday) Temple Service

December 18 (Saturday) Bar Mitzvah – Alex Woolfolk

2011

January 7  (Friday) Temple Service

January 21 (Friday) Tu B’shevat – Family Service

February 4 (Friday) Temple Service

February 18 (Friday) Temple Service

March 4 (Friday) Temple Service

March 18 (Friday) Purim – Family Service

April 1 (Friday) Temple Service

April 15 (Friday)  Temple Service

April 19 (Tuesday) –  Congregation Seder dinner, 2^nd Day of Pesach

May 6 (Friday) Yom Ha Shoah / Yom Ha Atzmaut / Bless the Trip (to Israel)  - Temple Service

May 7 – 17 Temple Trip to Israel

May 20 (Friday) Lag B’Omer - Temple Service

Shabbat is God’s gift to the Jewish people and the Jewish people’s gift to the world. However, many of us hear the call to observe Shabbat as a call to orthodoxy. We fear that Shabbat with its cumbersome rules, and we have not yet found a way to observe Shabbat meaningfully in our day.

The eclipse of Shabbat is just another sign of the eclipse of personal/family time. The hurried pace and unceasing interconnectedness of modern life makes the observance of Shabbat even more important. How one does that is deeply personal. The critical thing is that Shabbat be a day apart from the ordinary, a special and unique time. 

Just as Shabbat offers us a moment for renewal, perhaps Shabbat itself needs renewal, a new set of simplified instructions. Perhaps instead of a list of don’ts, we need to develop a list of dos.  Here are some suggestions for a start:

·         Begin Shabbat amongst a community of friends at services (which so many of us already do) and/or celebrate at Shabbat dinner.

·         Set that time aside and sanctify it with candles, Kiddush and motzi.

·         Read something that will enrich and challenge you that isn’t related to the everyday things of your life.

·         Take some alone time. Check in with yourself, review the week past and plan the week to come.

·         Don’t feel the press to run and do.  Try a hobby, a craft or something creative, or perhaps do something radical -- nothing.

Rabbi Elijah of Vilna asked why the climactic act of creation was the act of stopping. The answer he tells us is that God stopped to show us that what we create becomes meaningful only once we stop creating and pause to think about why we did so. 

Shabbat is without value unless it teaches us to revere the rest of time. Rabbi Arthur Green reminds us that it is the “tangible experience of holiness on Shabbat that inspires us in our ongoing task of redeeming the everyday and uplifting the world.”