Parshat Vayishlah

In this week’s parashah, Vayishlah, Yaakov receives his new identity as Yisrael, the one who struggles with God. Yaakov’s willingness to wrestle with the divine, to keep God in this world and not allow God to withdraw to heaven, defines him as the father of the Jewish people. As heirs to Yisrael, we do the same thing each time we perform a mitzvah, a sacred deed. We wrestle God to earth. We make the transcendent, the ultimate mystery, a tangible presence in our world.

On Shabbat, we come to shul to seek peace, to escape the struggles that preoccupy us during the rest of the week. But the peace that we seek is not a static, lazy peace. It is a peace that makes it possible for us to engage in a different kind of struggle. the struggle to grow, to search, to seize the divine.

May the quiet of Shabbat enable us, like Yisrael our ancestor, to bring heaven down to earth.

• The New Shul’s Shabbat morning service is from 9 am to about 11:45 am. In accordance with the latest Covid guidance from the CDC, we require all those over the age of 2 to wear a mask while in our building. Our kiddush-lunch is outdoors, so masks are not required.
• Childcare is available on Shabbat mornings from 10 am to noon.
• The kiddush-lunch this Shabbat, November 20, is sponsored by Stephanie Trotta in honor of the first anniversary of Vincent Trotta’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).