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Prayer

Services

Our approach to tefilla (prayer) is guided by tradition and based on the full participation of our members as service leaders and Torah readers. If you want to lead services or read Torah, just let us know, and we will be glad to make use of your talents or help you develop them. We are committed to offering Shabbat and holiday programs that engage children of all ages. Preschoolers can attend Tot Shabbat that combines storytelling, singing, and hands-on activities. You will see children of all ages in the sanctuary as families enjoy Shabbat and holidays together.

Shabbat

We begin Shabbat with a peaceful Kabbalat Shabbat (welcoming the Sabbath) service at 6:00 p.m. every Friday. The Shabbat morning service begins at 9:30 a.m. and has been carefully crafted to convey a wonderful sense of fellowship and community. Our services are traditional, with an air of informality and “haimishness." A Tot Shabbat is offered for children and their parents twice each month.

Following our Shabbat service each week, either the Congregation or a family celebrating a simcha sponsors a kiddush which is a weekly opportunity for the community to gather and get to know each other better.

Daily Minyan

We hold a combination of in-person and virtual davening to accomplish a daily minyan making it possible for anyone to see Kaddish every single day of the year.

Beth Israel’s Rotating “School Year” and “Summer Season” Weekday Minyan Schedules are as follows.  The School Year Schedule begins following Labor Day and goes through the end of April, during which time minyan meets: Sunday: 9:30am in person in the M&M Chapel.* Then 7:30pm by Zoom. Monday & Tuesday: 7:30pm by Zoom Wednesday: 6:15pm In Person*. Thursday: 7:30pm by Zoom.  The Summer Schedule (May through Labor Day) is : 7:45pm Minyan (Minchah and Maariv) Sunday through Thursday by Zoom. In person options to be announced. 
*= In person minyanim will still (1) be streamed through Zoom from the c

We encourage all of our congregants to attend in order to help make a minyan. Those who do find these few minutes to be an invaluable source of quiet calm and spiritual meaning in their busy days.

A Deep Exploration of the Saturday Morning Service

What does it mean to experience the Saturday morning service?  What if you don't know Hebrew or the prayers?  Was the service intentionally constructed by the Rabbis of blessed memory and if so, what's the blueprint?  What are the historical and halakhic bases for the different customs?  What should I be doing in my mind and heart while the service is happening?

All these questions and more are explained in Rabbi Caine's Guide to the Saturday Morning Service, which includes content for both introductory and advanced learners.  It can be found by clicking here, and may be used/reprinted with permission.  

A Deep Exploration of the High Holiday Services

The services of Rosh Hashanah and of Yom Kippur are the culmination of over a month of spiritual preparation, action, and exercise.  Books like Rabbi Alan Lew's This is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared are helpful guides to taking this period seriously as a focus of personal and communal development. 

During the services themselves, we proceed rapidly though a succession of liturgical pieces, all part of an unfolding process that remains largely unexplained.  While the marginal notes of the Machzor Lev Shalem are invaluable, we are meant to be conducting personal prayer and introspective exercises during the service while the prayer leader is chanting.   

Here are some guides to these prayers and exercises prepared by Rabbi Caine:

Contemporary "Al Cheit" Introspective Exercise for our Own Errors
Contemporary "Al Cheit" Sins Againts Ourselves
Guide to the Signature High Holiday Prayers
Spiritual Exercises (Kavanot) to Do During and In Between Services
Readings to Foster Living the High Holiday Themes

Thu, November 21 2024 20 Cheshvan 5785