New newsletter

Deep thanks to Pattie Lipman for taking on the work of creating this winter’s CBI newsletter! It will be coming to everyone shortly via email, and also via post to those who have requested paper copies. Thank you Pattie!

CBI Newsletter 2016 Jan Feb [pdf]

Shavua tov! Looking forward to Shabbat Shemot.

Shavua tov – a  good week to you!

Join us on Shabbat morning for services led by Rabbi Rachel, where we’ll read from parashat Shemot, the beginning of the book of Exodus.

If you’d like to read some commentaries on this week’s Torah portion, some links follow:

• 2007: Opening our hearts and our eyes
• 2009: Becoming [Torah poem]
• 2010: Labor [Torah poem]
• 2010: Seven Miriam Stories [Torah poems]
• 2012: Names, and opening our eyes
• 2013: Choosing to be Ivrim
• 2013: Moses, love, and light
• 2015: Crying out, and the possibility of change

And here’s the URJ’s compilation of commentaries on this week’s Torah portion: Shemot.

Many thanks to our shamashim, the members who host our Shabbat services each week. If you would like to join that group, please contact Pattie Lipman.

We hope to see you soon at CBI!

Join us on Friday night for a special Kabbalat Shabbat Chanukah!

Dear CBI members and friends,

Chag urim sameach — wishing you a joyous festival of lights!

This coming Shabbat is Shabbat Chanukah, and we’ll celebrate on Friday night at 5:30pm with prayer, song, a potluck feast, and plenty of dreidel-playing.

This year we’ll be interweaving a few of the songs of Shabbat (“Shalom Aleichem,” welcoming the angels of Shabbat into our midst, and an abbreviated “Lecha Dodi,” welcoming the Shabbat Bride to join us) with songs of Chanukah.

Bring your own chanukiyah; we’ll kindle all of them together before we light the Shabbat candles.

Because I know of at least one mourner who needs to recite kaddish on Friday night, here will be an opportunity to say mourner’s kaddish in community before we close with a final Chanukah song and move to our potluck feast.

If you have not yet RSVP’d to the office, please do so as soon as you can so we know how many potatoes to peel! And if you’d like to help cook latkes, let us know that too; Tim Hermann has graciously volunteered, and I’m sure he’d appreciate the help.

If you want to refresh your memory on melodies, some are enclosed below.

As we kindle the lights of Chanukah, may we rededicate ourselves to the work of bringing light where there is darkness, and fanning the flames of love and hope wherever we go.

Blessings to all,

Rabbi Rachel

 

Shalom Aleichem, melody by Shneyer, as recorded here by Cantor Jeff Klepper:

(If you can’t see the embedded audio player, you can go directly to the audio file.)

Lecha Dodi:

(If you can’t see the embedded audio player, you can go directly to the song online: Lecha Dodi.)

Chanukah Oh Chanukah

(If you can’t see the embedded audio player, you can go directly to the song online: Chanukah Oh Chanukah.)

Maoz Tzur / Rock of Ages

(If you can’t see the embedded audio player, you can go directly to the song online: Maoz Tzur)

Shavua tov! Looking forward to Shabbat Miketz — and to the rest of Chanukah!

 Shavua tov – a  good week to you!

Since the coming weekend is the Shabbat which falls during the festival of Chanukah, we’ll gather at 5:30pm on Friday for our annual Shabbat / Chanukah Celebration and Potluck, as well as at 9:30am on Saturday morning for Shabbat services led by Rabbi Pam Wax where we’ll read from parashat Miketz.

If you’re coming on Friday night, please RSVP to the office so we know how many potatoes to peel, and bring your chanukiyah (Chanukah menorah) — we’ll light them all together, sing a few Friday night prayers and a few Chanukah songs, and then dine and play dreidel in the social hall.

If you’d like to read some commentaries on this week’s Torah portion, some links follow:

• 2006: The treasure of teshuvah
• 2008: Unrecognizable [Torah poem]
• 2012: S’fat Emet on Chanukah and on light
• 2012: On abundance and dreams
• 2014: Miketz and Chanukah: letting your light shine

And here’s the URJ’s compilation of commentaries on this week’s Torah portion: Miketz.

Many thanks to our shamashim, the members who host our Shabbat services each week. If you would like to join that group, please contact Pattie Lipman.

We hope to see you soon at CBI!