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The New Shul

Parshat B’har

One of the themes of parshat B’haris the responsibility that members of a community have to care for one another. “If your brother, being in straits, comes under your authority. . . let him live by your side.” Focusing on the words “by your side,” Rabbi Shlomo of Karlin taught that, if we wish to help a person who is stuck in the mud, we must get down into the mud with him/her. We cannot save someone from above, but only side-by-side.

In other words, the kind of help and advice that can be offered from above — from a position of superiority — is often not as helpful as we think. When people struggle, when they feel isolated and cut off, their deepest need is to know that they are not alone. By being present with them, by their side, and truly listening, we help them to recover their sense of self, their dignity as human beings. By standing next to them, we help them in a way that we cannot from above.

May we be privileged to help each other, in that deepest sense, in times of need.

  • The New Shul’s Shabbat morning service is from 9 am to about 11:45 am. Now that Maricopa County is in the “Green Zone” (low Covid risk), masks are optional during our services.
  • This Shabbat, May 21, the kiddush-lunch will be sponsored by Jody Cohen Gordon and Marc Gordon in honor of the third anniversary of Garric Gordon’s bar mitzvah.
  • Weekday minyanim at The New Shul are on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings at 6:30 pm, and on Sunday mornings at 9:30 am. Kabbalat Shabbat is on Friday evenings at 6 pm at our rabbis’ home (please contact us for directions).
  • On Monday morning May 30 (Memorial Day) we will celebrate the bar mitzvah of Jonah Araiza. The service will begin at 9:30 am.
  • The festival of Shavuot begins on Saturday night June 4. Join us for our all-night Tikkun Leil Shavuot (Shavuot study vigil) from 9:30 pm to 4:30 am, as we prepare to receive the Torah anew. The Tikkun will be followed by a sunrise service on Sunday morning beginning at 4:30 am. 
  • Our service for the second day of Shavuot, Monday June 6, will be from 9 am to about 11:45 am, and will include Yizkor, the memorial prayer.