Shavua tov! Looking forward to Shabbat Vayeshev and to Chanukah!
Shavua tov: a good new week to all.
Happening This Week
Light the first candle of Chanukah on Thursday night. And celebrate online: the City of North Adams Menorah Lighting will be virtual / remote this year. Join us via livestreaming on iBerkshires at 5pm on Thursday; read about it and RSVP on Facebook here.
Relatedly, starting on Thursday night there will be short offerings on Willinet on the first and last night of Chanukah, created by Rabbi Rachel and Rabbi Seth Wax of Williams College. Each of those two nights we’ll offer a short teaching or prayer or poem and then light the candles. Find that programming online at Willinet at 4:30pm on those two Thursdays.
And, join us in the CBI Zoom Room also on Saturday morning at 9:30am for Shabbat morning and Chanukah Festival services, led by R’ Jarah Greenfield.
Torah Portion and Commentaries
This week we’re reading from parashat Vayeshev in the book of Genesis. If you’d like to read some commentaries on this week’s parsha, here are a few:
- 2005: The strange soap opera of Vayeshev
- 2005: Vayeshev and couture
- 2006: In dreams begin responsibility
- 2008: In the dark [Torah poem]
- 2012: For a reason [Torah poem]
- 2012: Drawing (on) our dreams [Torah poem]
- 2013: On Joseph and solitary confinement [Torah poem, written for T’ruah’s Human Rights Shabbat] [pdf]
- 2013: The other story in this week’s Torah portion: Judah and Tamar
- 2014: Joseph, falling with style
- 2017: Joseph’s Amazing Technicolor Faith (at My Jewish Learning)
- 2018: Letting our light shine
- 2019: On silence, and speaking out, and bringing a better world
And here’s commentary from the URJ:
As Chanukah Approaches…
We’re delighted to share this beautiful resource for this pandemic Chanukah — co-created for Bayit: Building Jewish by eight writers, artists, and rabbis, including CBI’s own Rabbi Rachel Barenblat. We hope these poems, prayers, and illustrations enliven this dark season! Read excerpts and download the PDF here: Great Miracles Happen Here.
Hope to see you soon on Zoom at CBI.
