Parshat Miketz/Shabbat Hanukah

In Midrash B’midbar Rabbah, the ancient rabbis used the image of one candle lighting another as a metaphor for sharing spiritual energy. In reference to the story in the book of Numbers in which Moshe delegated his authority to the seventy elders by sharing his prophetic power with them, the rabbis explained: “They [the elders] were filled with the holy spirit from the spirit of Moshe, but Moshe was not diminished at all. This is like a person who lights a candle from another candle. The second candle is lit, but the first candle is not diminished.”

The same thing happens when we put our hearts into the work of building a spiritual community. Rather than deplete our energy, we multiply it in the act of sharing it. May the light of the Hanukah candles, which grow brighter by the night as one candle lights another, remind us that our work in this world is to do the same.

• 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. This Shabbat, December 31, we will celebrate the bat mitzvah of Naomi Anbar, daughter of Ariel and Marni Anbar. The kiddush-lunch is sponsored by the Anbar family.
• Childcare is available from 10 am to noon on Shabbat mornings. Our learning service for grades 1 to 4 is from 11 to 11:40 am.
• Minyanim during the week are on Sunday mornings at 9:30 am, Monday evenings at 7 pm, Wednesday mornings at 7 am, and Wednesday evenings at 7 pm.
• On New Years Day, Sunday January 1, and again on Martin Luther King Day, Monday January 16, The New Shul community will serve meals to the hungry at St. Vincent de Paul’s Jackson St. dining room. Please let us know if you can help.
• The annual meeting of The New Shul community is on Sunday February 4 at 10:30 am. All are welcome. Our blood drive is that same afternoon. Please contact us to sign up for an appointment to donate blood.