Dear Temple Sinai Members and Friends,
This past weekend was certainly a time of wonderful Jewish experiences in our congregation. It began on Erev Shabbat with almost 100 people in attendance at the worship service. After a Shabbat morning service, 180 people joined together to celebrate the first night of Pesach at an incredible Seder. Sunday morning was our first day Pesach morning service followed by a delicious “Pesadik” lunch made up of leftovers from the previous night. Diamond Caterers sure did a great job. If all this were not enough, Dayenu, on Sunday afternoon six congregants joined me to bring Seder to about 25 residents and their families at the Harbour’s Edge Rehab Health Center in Delray Beach.
As we now enter Chol HaMoed, the intervening Festival days, Passover does not end. We, of course, continue to observe the dietary regulations of Pesach. We should also be reciting the Sefirat HaOmer, the counting of the Omer, each night. Remember that in the Reform tradition, following the Torah injunction that Pesach is only celebrated for 7 days, we end Pesach at sundown Saturday night. Traditional Jews outside of Israel end their Yuntif Sunday night at sundown.
This Friday night we will observe Shabbat with a Chol HaMoed service, but on Saturday morning the service will be a Pesach Festival service with Yizkor. Please join us as we will hear Cantorial Soloist Shir Rozzen leading our Tefillot, prayers. We will end Pesach as we began, as a congregation coming together in body and spirit observing the ancient traditions of our people with devotion and love.
Some special Shabbat observances are coming up in the next few weeks and I hope you will be able to attend these services.
On Friday night April 25th, we will observe Yom HaShoah, the Remembrance of the Holocaust. On that night, everyone who has obtained a Yom HaShoah candle from our Brotherhood will be given the opportunity to come to the front of the sanctuary and light his or her candle. Hopefully the hundreds of lit candles will be like the lights of the souls that were taken from our people that shall burn eternally in our minds and hearts as we live our Jewish lives in their memories. If you have any names of loved ones who perished during the Shoah, please send those names to either Rabbi@TempleSinaipbc.org or Office@TempleSinaipbc.org to be read that night.
On Friday night May 2nd, in addition to honoring the five adult women of our congregation who will be celebrating their Bat Mitzvah the next morning, we will also be observing Yom Ha’Atzmaut, Israel Independence Day. It is important, especially in light of the unbelievable challenges the State of Israel is facing these days, that we come together and celebrate the State’s history and, God willing, unbroken future.
I am also thinking of offering a special program on Shavuot, which this year is on Sunday night, June 1st and the morning of June 2nd. As Shavuot is a celebration of our ancestors’ commitment to Torah and a Torah life, and ours as well, I ask that you begin thinking of what kinds of classes for study that you would like for next year. As I mentioned earlier, five of our adult women will be celebrating their Bat Mitzvah on Saturday May 3rd. Are any of you, women or men, interested in becoming Bar or Bat Mitzvah next year? My class on Maimonides was certainly very successful, with almost 50 people in attendance. I will be offering more classes on the Jewish prayer service, but are there any other subjects you are interested in? Please let me know.
I wish all a good end to the Festival of Pesach and a Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Steve