Shavua tov! Looking forward to Shabbat Re’eh

cbi-zoom

Shavua tov – a good new week to you!

This week our Zoom offerings include Rabbinic Drop-In Hour (1pm Mondays), Reverse Omer Group with Jen Burt (5pm Tuesdays) and Shabbat Morning services (9:30am Saturday) led this week by R’ Jarah Greenfield, all in the CBI Zoom room with the usual password. (Our Friday morning meditation minyan is on hiatus and will return in the fall.)

Links and password will go out out in the CBI Announcements email (and are the same as previous weeks) but if you don’t have them, contact the office.

Meanwhile, speaking of Zoom…

Help With Zoom: Do You Need It? Can You Offer It?

Need a hand? Are you unfamiliar with Zoom and uncertain how to join our online programs (Shabbat and festival services, book group meetings, and more)? Let the office know and we’ll match you with someone who can walk you through installing the software and learning how to use it. Lend  a hand! Are you familiar with Zoom and willing to teach someone else how to use it? Let the office know and we’ll match you with someone who wants to learn.

Seeking “Zoom Angels” For High Holidays:

Are you comfortable with Zoom (or are you willing to learn)? We’re looking for (at least) one person to be a “Zoom Angel” for each of our seven High Holiday services. (Erev Rosh Hashanah, Rosh Hashanah morning 1 and 2, Kol Nidre, Yom Kippur morning, Y”K afternoon, and Ne’ilah / Yom Kippur’s closing service.) Each Zoom Angel will be made “co-host” of the Zoom room for the service(s) when they sign up to help. They will manage the virtual door / waiting room (letting people in as they arrive) and will be asked to mute and unmute the room from time to time. Does this sound feasible to you, or would you be willing to learn some Zoom tips in order to lend a hand in this way? Please let Rabbi Rachel know!

We’re on the spiritual runway to Rosh Hashanah, and Rabbi Rachel is sending weekly emails to help us prepare for this unprecedented holiday season. Here are the first two: Seven Weeks Until Rosh Hashanah (don’t forget to sign up for a high holiday box — details at that link!) and Creating Sacred Space at Home (video and text at that link.) Stay tuned for the third post in the series, coming on Wednesday.

This week we’re  reading from parashat Re’eh in the book of Deuteronomy. If you’d like to read some commentaries on this week’s parsha, here are a few:

Here’s commentary on Eikev by Rabbi Cynthia Hoffman and Steve Silbert of Bayit: Building Jewish:

and here’s commentary from the URJ:

Hope to see you soon via Zoom at CBI!

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Shavua tov! Looking forward to Shabbat Eikev

Shavua tov – a good new week to you!

This week our Zoom offerings include Rabbinic Drop-In Hour (1pm Mondays) and Shabbat Morning services (9:30am Saturday) led this week by R’ Rachel, all in the CBI Zoom room with the usual password. (Our Friday morning meditation minyan is on hiatus and will return in the fall.)

Links and password will go out out in the CBI Announcements email (and are the same as previous weeks) but if you don’t have them, contact the office.

Meanwhile, speaking of Zoom…

Help With Zoom: Do You Need It? Can You Offer It?
 

Need a hand? Are you unfamiliar with Zoom and uncertain how to join our online programs (Shabbat and festival services, book group meetings, and more)? Let the office know and we’ll match you with someone who can walk you through installing the software and learning how to use it.

Lend  a hand! Are you familiar with Zoom and willing to teach someone else how to use it? Let the office know and we’ll match you with someone who wants to learn.

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Seeking “Zoom Angels” For High Holidays

Are you comfortable with Zoom (or are you willing to learn)? We’re looking for (at least) one person to be a “Zoom Angel” for each of our seven High Holiday services. (Erev Rosh Hashanah, Rosh Hashanah morning 1 and 2, Kol Nidre, Yom Kippur morning, Y”K afternoon, and Ne’ilah / Yom Kippur’s closing service.) Each Zoom Angel will be made “co-host” of the Zoom room for the service(s) when they sign up to help. They will manage the virtual door / waiting room (letting people in as they arrive) and will be asked to mute and unmute the room from time to time. Does this sound feasible to you, or would you be willing to learn some Zoom tips in order to lend a hand in this way? Please let Rabbi Rachel know!

Speaking of the High Holidays, we’re now on the spiritual runway to Rosh Hashanah, and Rabbi Rachel is sending weekly emails to help us prepare for this unprecedented holiday season. Here’s the first one, from last week: Seven Weeks Until Rosh Hashanah. (Don’t forget to sign up for a high holiday box — details at that link!)
This week we’re  reading from parashat Eikev in the book of Deuteronomy. If you’d like to read some commentaries on this week’s parsha, here are a few:

Here’s commentary on Eikev by Rabbi Evan Krame and Steve Silbert of Bayit: Building Jewish:

and here’s commentary from the URJ:

Hope to see you soon via Zoom at CBI!

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This week: Tisha b’Av and Shabbat Va’etchanan

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Shavua tov – a good new week to you!

This week our Zoom offerings include Rabbinic Drop-In Hour (1pm Mondays), Tisha b’Av (Thursday 5pm),  Friday Morning Meditation (9am Fridays), and Shabbat Morning services (9:30am Saturday) led this week by R’ Pam Wax, all in the CBI Zoom room with the usual password.

Links and password will go out out in the CBI Announcements email (and are the same as previous weeks) but if you don’t have them, contact the office.

Tisha b’Av is coming up. Here is a set of five new kinnot / poems / resources for Tisha B’Av this year, curated by Rabbi Rachel — five new variations on Lamentations, plus one recording and one sketchnote visual — all crafted through the lens of this year’s pandemic. They are here: Megillat Covid.

Here’s a reminder of our two Tisha b’Av offerings this year:

Two Ways to Experience Tisha b’Av: On July 29 at 8pm we’ll meet at the labyrinth for a silent, masked, socially distant labyrinth walk while listening to Eicha / Lamentations – an opportunity to reflect in silence on exile, on the loss of the Temples long ago, and on the loss of being able to gather together in person during this covid-19 era. On July 30 we’ll meet on Zoom at 5pm. Honoring the tradition that says that moshiach will be born on the afternoon of Tisha b’Av (which I take to mean that we must find the seeds of hope in our most hopeless places), R’ Pam Wax and I will lead a discussion of two podcasts: Resmaa Menakem ‘Notice the Rage, Notice the Silence’ and Robin DiAngelo and Resmaa Menakem In Conversation. Please listen to the podcasts beforehand.

Meanwhile, speaking of Zoom…

 

Help With Zoom: Do You Need It? Can You Offer It?
 

Need a hand? Are you unfamiliar with Zoom and uncertain how to join our online programs (Shabbat and festival services, book group meetings, and more)? Let the office know and we’ll match you with someone who can walk you through installing the software and learning how to use it.

Lend  a hand! Are you familiar with Zoom and willing to teach someone else how to use it? Let the office know and we’ll match you with someone who wants to learn.

*

Seeking “Zoom Angels” For High Holidays

Are you comfortable with Zoom (or are you willing to learn)? We’re looking for (at least) one person to be a “Zoom Angel” for each of our seven High Holiday services. (Erev Rosh Hashanah, Rosh Hashanah morning 1 and 2, Kol Nidre, Yom Kippur morning, Y”K afternoon, and Ne’ilah / Yom Kippur’s closing service.) Each Zoom Angel will be made “co-host” of the Zoom room for the service(s) when they sign up to help. They will manage the virtual door / waiting room (letting people in as they arrive) and will be asked to mute and unmute the room from time to time. Does this sound feasible to you, or would you be willing to learn some Zoom tips in order to lend a hand in this way? Please let Rabbi Rachel know!

This week we’re  reading from parashat Vaetchanan in the book of Deuteronomy. If you’d like to read some commentaries on this week’s parsha, here are a few:

Here’s commentary at Builders Blog, a project of Bayit: Building Jewish, this week written by Rabbi Jennifer Singer:

And here are commentaries from the URJ:

Hope to see you soon via Zoom at CBI!

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Coming up: Shabbat Devarim and Tisha b’Av

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Shavua tov – a good new week to you!

This week our Zoom offerings include Rabbinic Drop-In Hour (1pm Mondays), Friday Morning Meditation (9am Fridays), and Kabbalat Shabbat Services (7:30pm Friday), all in the CBI Zoom room with the usual password.

Links and password will go out out in the CBI Announcements email (and are the same as previous weeks) but if you don’t have them, contact the office.

Please also join us for Tisha b’Av on July 29 and 30:

Two Ways to Experience Tisha b’Av This Year: On July 29 we’ll meet at the labyrinth at 8pm for a silent, masked, socially distant labyrinth walk while listening to Eicha / Lamentations – an opportunity to reflect in silence on exile, on the loss of the Temples long ago, and on the loss of being able to gather together in person during this covid-19 era. On July 30 we’ll meet on Zoom at 5pm. Honoring the tradition that says that moshiach will be born on the afternoon of Tisha b’Av (which I take to mean that we must find the seeds of hope in our most hopeless places), R’ Pam Wax and I will lead a discussion of two podcasts: Resmaa Menakem ‘Notice the Rage, Notice the Silence’ and Robin DiAngelo and Resmaa Menakem In Conversation. Please listen to the podcasts beforehand.

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This week we’re  reading from parashat Devarim, the start of the book of Deuteronomy. If you’d like to read some commentaries on this week’s parsha, here are a few:

And here are commentaries from the URJ:

Hope to see you soon via Zoom at CBI!

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Zoom offerings this week at CBI

Shavua tov – a good new week to you!

This week our Zoom offerings include Rabbinic Drop-In Hour (1pm Mondays), Friday Morning Meditation (9am Fridays), Kabbalat Shabbat Services (7:30pm Friday), and Let’s Talk About Racial Justice! (7pm Sunday), all in the CBI Zoom room with the usual password.

Links and password will go out out in the CBI Announcements email (and are the same as previous weeks) but if you don’t have them, contact the office.

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Special Events This Week:

Pride Shabbat

Join us at 7:30pm on Friday for Pride Shabbat. Together we’ll welcome Shabbat with prayer and song, and also uplift and celebrate LGBTQIA folks in our community with special readings and blessings. All are welcome!

And:

Let’s talk about Racial Justice!
Sunday, June 28, 7-9pm in our Zoom room!

The Reform movement has been wrestling with the issues of racial justice for some time. Join us at CBI as we watch a short video together featuring three Reform Jews discussing the challenges they face as Jews of color. We will also discuss the URJ’s recent statement on Black Lives Matter, and have time to brainstorm next steps within our own community. Facilitated by Rabbis Pam Wax and Rachel Barenblat.

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This week we’re  reading from parashat Korach. If you’d like to read some commentaries on this week’s parsha, here are a few:

Here’s Torah commentary at Builders Blog (a project of Bayit: Building Jewish), this week written by Rabbi Mike Moskowitz and Rabbi Wendy Amsellem and sketchnoted as always by Steve Silbert:

And here are commentaries from the URJ:

Hope to see you soon at CBI!

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Zoom offerings, Torah portion / commentaries, and Shabbat info for this week

Shavua tov – a good new week to you!

This week our Zoom offerings include Rabbinic Drop-In Hour (1pm Mondays), Friday Morning Meditation (9am Fridays), Psalm-Writing Weekly Workshop (1pm Fridays, for members of CBI and TBE together), and Shabbat Morning Services (9:30am Saturday), all in the CBI Zoom room with the usual password.

Links and password went out in the CBI Announcements email (and are the same as previous weeks) but if you don’t have them, contact the office.

 

Join us for Shabbat services on Zoom at 9:30am on Saturday morning led by Rabbi Pam Wax. This week we’re reading from parashat Naso. If you’d like to read some commentaries on this week’s parsha, here are a few:

Here’s commentary from Steve Silbert and Rabbi Alana Suskin at Builders Blog, a project of Bayit: Building Jewish:

And here are commentaries from the URJ:

Hope to see you at one of CBI’s Zoom offerings (again, for Zoom link and password, contact the office.)

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Shavua tov!This Week’s Zoom Offerings at CBI (and Shabbat / Torah info for the week)

Shavua tov – a good new week to you!

This week our Zoom offerings include Rabbinic Drop-In Hour (1pm Mondays), Omer Discussion Group with Jen Burt (5pm Tuesdays – in Jen’s Zoom room), Friday Morning Meditation (9am Fridays), Psalm-Writing Weekly Workshop (1pm Fridays, for members of CBI and TBE together), and Kabbalat Shabbat Services (7:30pm Friday), all (except the Omer group) in the CBI Zoom room with the usual password.

Links and password went out in the CBI Announcements email (and are the same as previous weeks) but if you don’t have them, contact the office.

 

Join us for Shabbat services on Zoom at 7:30pm on Friday night led by Rabbi Rachel. This week we’re reading from parashat Bamidbar. If you’d like to read some commentaries on this week’s parsha, here are a few:

Here’s commentary from Steve Silbert and Rabbi Rachel at Builders Blog, a project of Bayit: Building Jewish:

And here are commentaries from the URJ:

Hope to see you at one of CBI’s Zoom offerings (again, for Zoom link and password, contact the office.)

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This Week’s Zoom Offerings at CBI (and Shabbat / Torah info for the week)

Shavua tov – a good new week to you!

This week our Zoom offerings include Rabbinic Drop-In Hour (1pm Mondays), Omer Discussion Group with Jen Burt (5pm Tuesdays – in Jen’s Zoom room), Friday Morning Meditation (9am Fridays), Psalm-Writing Weekly Workshop (1pm Fridays, for members of CBI and TBE together), and Shabbat Morning Services (9:30am Saturdays), all (except the Omer group) in the CBI Zoom room with the usual password.

Links and password went out in the CBI Announcements email (and are the same as previous weeks) but if you don’t have them, contact the office.

 

Join us for Shabbat services on Zoom at 9:30am on Saturday morning led by Rabbi Jarah Greenfield. This week we’re reading from parashat Behar-Bechukotai. If you’d like to read some commentaries on this week’s parsha, here are a few:

Here’s commentary from Steve Silbert, Rabbi Rachel, and Rabbi Bella Bogart at Builders Blog, a project of Bayit: Building Jewish:

And here are commentaries from the URJ:

Hope to see you at one of CBI’s Zoom offerings (again, for Zoom link and password, contact the office.)

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A message from Rabbi Rachel before Shabbat

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Here’s a video message for the CBI community from Rabbi Rachel. If you prefer to read it rather than viewing it, the text is enclosed below.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AsoGsAcRq4]

 

(And if you can’t see the embedded video you can go directly to it: In the Wilderness.)

Hello friends.

As Shabbat approaches, we’re finishing week eight of shelter-in-place and social distancing.

Many of you have described to me a sense of being unmoored in time. Normal life stopped in March. Kids don’t go to school anymore. One day blurs into the next. Has it been two weeks since this started, or two years? It feels like both.

I keep thinking about the Torah story we’re reading right now — about our spiritual ancestors wandering in the wilderness. They might have thought when they left Egypt that their journey would be quick. It wasn’t.

Even in my worst moments I know this pandemic won’t last 40 years! But it might feel that way sometimes. And a journey always seems longer when we don’t know how long it will take.

This year I empathize with our ancestors in a way I never did before. Everything about this is hard. Maybe especially wondering whether these hardships are worth it, and not knowing how long this will last.

In our Torah story, our ancestors displayed almost every emotion there is. Sometimes they railed against God and against their leaders. Sometimes they were accepting. Sometimes they were grateful for manna. Sometimes they complained because they didn’t have meat. We too may be emotionally all over the map. That’s normal.

And I’ll bet our ancestors felt unmoored in time, just like we do. The only marker of time they had was the double portion of manna that fell on Friday, enough to sustain them on Shabbat.

Here’s how I’m trying to tether myself in time. I try to bookend each day with a moment of mindfulness — to wake with modah ani, the morning prayer for gratitude, and go to sleep with the bedtime shema. Counting the Omer helps, when I remember to do it.

Baking challah on Fridays helps. Friday morning meditation, now in the CBI zoom room instead of the CBI sanctuary, helps. Shabbat services, ditto. I try to take Shabbat as a day away from the news — to give my soul time to heal, and to make Shabbat different from other days.

I try to notice as spring green return to the trees, as the moon waxes and wanes. These remind me that the cycles of the natural world continue.

And I’m trying to stop speculating about how long the journey will be. We can’t know. But like our ancestors, we’re not alone. Even if we can’t be together “in person,” we can be together on Zoom or Facetime or over the phone. We can be together in spirit.

Tonight as the sun goes down, I’ll kindle two little lights. As sundown sweeps across the globe, I imagine a wave of tiny lights appearing in response. In my home and your home. All around the world. Whether or not we have candles, we can kindle that light in hearts.

May that light shine brightly and bring us comfort for the journey ahead — however long the journey may be. Shabbat shalom.

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This Week’s Zoom Offerings at CBI (and Shabbat / Torah info for the week)

Shavua tov – a good new week to you!

This week our Zoom offerings include Rabbinic Drop-In Hour (1pm Mondays), Omer Discussion Group with Jen Burt (5pm Tuesdays – in Jen’s Zoom room), Pirkei Avot  (2pm Thursdays with Rabbi David Markus, in TBE’s Zoom room), Friday Morning Meditation (9am Fridays), Psalm-Writing Weekly Workshop (1pm Fridays, for members of CBI and TBE together), and Shabbat Morning Services (9:30am Saturdays), all (except the Omer group and the Pirkei Avot class) in the CBI Zoom room with the usual password.

For password and login information, email the office.

 

Join us for Shabbat services on Zoom at 9:30am on Saturday morning led by Rabbi Pam Wax. This week we’re reading from parashat Emor. If you’d like to read some commentaries on this week’s parsha, here are a few:

Here’s commentary from Steve Silbert and Rabbi Rachel at Builders Blog, a project of Bayit: Building Jewish:

And here are commentaries from the URJ:

Hope to see you at one of CBI’s Zoom offerings (again, for Zoom link and password, contact the office.)

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