Dear Kol Rinah Family,
Mazal tov Ryan Snyder, who will celebrate his bar mitzvah this Shabbat. Mazal tov as well to his parents, Sharon Rosenberg and Al Snyder, as well as his grandparents, our members, Alan and Donna Rosenberg, and his brother, Jared.
Tonight, we’ll gather at 6pm in the chapel for Kabbalat Shabbat, regardless of the weather (!). Rabbi Shafrin and Karen Kern will lead our Shir Chadash service, featuring some of the best and newest melodies in the Jewish world. Candle lighting is at 4:47pm.
Tomorrow morning we’ll have services in the sanctuary beginning at 9am. There will not be Torah Talk tomorrow. Mincha will be at 3:50pm, and Shabbat ends at 5:49pm.
Monday is MLK Day. Here’s a someone less-known speech of Dr. King’s, from 1967, an address called “What is Your Life’s Blueprint?” Listen to it, and let me know what part spoke to you the most.
Please note that in honor of MLK Day, minyan Monday morning will be at 8am (not 7am).
Starting January 21, we have the opportunity to vote in the World Zionist Congress Elections. Here’s a little more information: Vote in the World Zionist Congress Election - Beginning in January, you, along with millions of other American Jews, will have the opportunity to Vote for Your Voice in Israel. From January 21 through March 11, 2020, American Jews can vote online in the election for the 38th World Zionist Congress and impact the Jewish future in Israel and around the world. Click HERE to learn more.
And now for a little Torah…
I spent Sunday through Thursday of this week at the Rabbinic Training Institute (RTI), a professional development retreat/conference for Conservative rabbis at a retreat center outside Baltimore with about 70 other rabbis. I’ve been before, and it was, as always, a wonderful, energizing, nourishing, refreshing, and connecting experience. I took courses in the stories of King Saul, the Talmud about Yom Kippur, fundraising, and a communication approach called “non-violent communication.”
One theme I’m reminded of and coming away with is about the importance of language and speech. Having language—having the words for something, gives us access to it. And then speaking it makes it real, bringing the inchoate into reality. This, of course, was one of the many gifts that Dr. King brought to his work, and to our world.
We have a taste of this in the moment when the Israelites, having been oppressed, finally find not even the words, but their voice(s), and cry out to God. It’s only then that God hears their cries, and begins the process that leads to their redemption from Egypt.
Try to find a moment this Shabbat where you say out loud something that has been inside you for a while, or maybe something new you’ve come to notice, but that you haven’t yet found the words for, or even the voice for. Say it out loud—to yourself, or to someone else. And create a tiny piece of new reality for you, and the world.
Shabbat shalom, and see you in shul,
Rabbi Noah Arnow
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