Rabbis' Weekly Message

Dear Kol Rinah Family,

Shabbat and Passover are just about here! I hope your preparations have been meaningful. This morning, Wendy Love Anderson made a siyyum (completion ceremony) on a tractate of Talmud, enabling us firstborns to eat, despite it being the fast of the first born.

We stopped eating chametz at 10:45am; at 11:30am, we’ll be burning chametz here at Kol Rinah. And at 11am, your chametz (those of you who made me your agents) was sold.

A full service schedule is here.

Services tonight will be at 5pm in the chapel, and will be quick-please come to make sure we have a minyan! It may be a little crowded with Good Friday services.  Candle lighting is at 7:24pm.

Tomorrow, services will be at 9am. Rabbi Shafrin will lead Torah Talk at about 10:15am, and I’ll be teaching about the ninth plague. There will be a very small Kiddush on Saturday. We’ll have mincha immediately after Kiddush, and there will not be evening services Saturday night. Remember to start counting the omer Saturday night!

Sunday morning services will be in the chapel at 9am. Please note that parking will be very tight, because it is also Easter, and The Journey will be very crowded. Please plan accordingly. No Kiddush on Sunday.

Services Sunday evening will be back to the usual 6pm. The festival ends Sunday evening at 8:26.

Services Monday-Thursday mornings will be at 6:45am, and 6pm each evening.

And now, for a little Torah…

First, make sure to read Rabbi Scott Shafrin’s thought-provoking d’var Torah in the Jewish Light this week here.

For some wonderful Passover reflections, check out Hadar’s new collection of essays on Passover. Rabbi Shai Held’s essay (he was here at Kol Rinah in November for the Rabbi Arnold Asher Memorial Lecture) is particularly beautiful.

And one more thought. One of the things we always do at our seders is at the very beginning, ask the question, “Who is not at the seder with us this year?” Sometimes, it’s people who have passed away, whether recently or years ago, but whom we remember particularly at Seders. Other times, it’s people who can’t make it this year. Seders are a moment to reflect on the passage of time, on how things have changed, and how they have not changed, for us individually, for the Jewish people, and for the world.

I’ll have more to say about this tomorrow, but we read in the Haggadah paradoxically, that God freed us from Egypt, and that we are now slaves. How, this year, are we differently free than we were last year, and how, this year, are we differently enslaved that we were last year?

May you have a Shabbat shalom and a sweet Passover.

See you in shul,

Rabbi Noah Arnow