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The New Shul

Parshat Yitro

In an ancient midrash, the rabbis asked: Why did God wait fifty days after taking us out of Egypt before giving us the Torah? Why didn’t God give us the Torah immediately after we left Egypt? The midrash answered that the children of Israel needed time to recover from the experience of slavery. They had to heal before they would be ready for such closeness to the divine.

What was true as we left Egypt is also true each week as we leave our work behind. To emerge from the stresses of the week into the wholeness of Shabbat requires patience. To open our hearts, after a week of gritting our teeth, takes time.

That is why the pace is so much slower on Shabbat. We take our time to eat, we take our time to pray, and so on. The pace of the day is part of the secret of its healing power. Slowly, patiently — like our ancestors leaving Egypt — we make our way from fragmentation to wholeness.

  • Shabbat services at The New Shul are on Friday evenings from 6 to 7 pm and on Saturday mornings from 9 am to 12 noon. The kiddush this Shabbat is sponsored by Bob Clinton and by Beverly and Ben Smolensky.
  • Childcare is available from 10 am to noon on Shabbat mornings. Children’s services this Shabbat are: Munchkin MInyan for ages 2 to 4 and their parents from 11 to 11:30 am, Beyond Bim Bom I for grades K to 1 from 10:30 to 11:00 am, and Beyond Bim Bom II for grades 2 to 3 from 10:15 to 11:30 am. Parashah study for teens is from 10:15 to 11:15 am.
  • Minyanim during the week are on Sunday mornings at 9:30 am and on Wednesday mornings at 7 am.
  • The next meeting of The New Shul Book Group is on Wednesday February 6 at 7:30 pm. The book is Enemies of the People: My Family’s Journey to America, by Kati Marton.
  • Please note that there will be no email newsletter next Thursday, February 7. The kiddush on Shabbat, February 9, will be sponsored by Debby and Kenn Harris, and by Pnina and Itzik Becher
  • Rabbi Wasserman’s class on the Shabbat morning prayers,Finding Our Way, will continue on Shabbat afternoon February 9 after kiddush.
  • On Sunday evening February 10 at 7:30 pm, The New Shul will host a public lecture by Rabbi Arthur Green: Spiritual Insights from the Hasidic Tradition: A Scholar Reflects. The lecture is free and open to all.
  • On Shabbat morning, February 16, The New Shul will celebrate the bar mitzvah of Julien Polster, and the marriage of Ruth Storch and Ira Joseph. The kiddush will be sponsored by the Polster and Storch families.
  • Purim begins on Saturday night, February 23. Join us at 7:30 pm for our Megillah reading and shpiel.