Simon Says, February 5, 2021

This is a public service announcement.  We will start the service on Shabbat, and all ensuing Shabbatot, at 9:30 am.  We will start the service with P’sukei D’zimra, the preliminary service, and everybody who wants to hear the preliminary service can Zoom in.  It takes 30 minutes to do the preliminary service; some people are faster, but we will start Shacharit at 10:00 am. 

In the weeks to come, we will do Musaf regularly, but if circumstances make us abnormally late we will do Aleinu and the mourners’ kaddish.  The majority of the time since we have had services on Zoom, we do Musaf, and three weeks out of the past four weeks we did Musaf:  Dubby’s cousin, Susan Zweibel, and Linda Grabiner.  If you don’t want to stay to the end, I understand.

February 6 and 13 are long services.  February 6 we need to bless the new month, Adar, and February 13 is Rosh Hodesh Adar, that means we celebrate with Hallel.  And, February 13 is Shabbat Shekalim, the first of the four special Shabbatot before Pesach.  That means, if we were in the sanctuary, we remove three Torah scrolls and read from them.  In actuality, the Torah service on Zoom won’t last as long as the Torah service in the sanctuary, because we don’t remove actual Torah scrolls.

We are commanded to be happy in Adar, because the Jews defeated the forces of Haman.  We need to plan for Purim, that is Thursday, February 25 in the evening, and Friday, Friday 26, in the morning.  We should probably join with Temple Beth Ahm Yisrael on Friday morning, but we will probably go it alone on Thursday evening.

Purim last year was the last event in our sanctuary (we held Shabbat services two days later), but we are looking forward to next Purim, because we undoubtedly will be in the sanctuary.

We read the Ten Commandments this week, and I add to the Ten Commandments this eleventh commandment:  protect your community and get vaccinated.  Gayle and I were vaccinated on February 3, and every person who is vaccinated lessens the risk of the general population.  Whatever your feelings about vaccinations, the Covid-19 vaccine protects you and your fellow citizens.