Friday Night/Erev Shabbat Rabbi Phil Cohen leads Kabbalat Shabbat services at 6:30 pm via Zoom. The service includes prayers, songs and a few words of Torah. Check in with friends and share Shabbat. Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84124865329 – Meeting ID: 841 2486 5329
Saturday Morning Rabbi Cohen leads a Reform Shabbat morning service at 10 am via Zoom. Prayerbooks are not needed. B’nai mitzvah students and their families are encouraged to attend. We’ll sing, chant, read from the Torah, have a few words of Torah. Zoom to: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83900854580 ~ Meeting ID 839 0085 4580
Religious School pizza picnic Sunday, August 29 @ 11:30 am CBS Book Club Sunday, August 29 @ 3 pm Loaves & Fishes Sunday, August 29 Deadline for Sisterhood honey orders Wednesday, September 1 Sisterhood honey project work day Sunday, September 5
Selichot Saturday, August 29 @ 7:30 pm https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89623234133 Erev Rosh Hashanah Monday, September 6 @ 7:30 pm Rosh Hashanah I Tuesday, September 7 @ 10 am Rosh Hashanah Children’s Service Tuesday, September 7 @ 9:30 am Rosh Hashanah II Wednesday, September 8 @ 10 am
Maariv 7 pm Thursday, 9/9 – Sunday, 9/12 – Monday, 9/13 – Tuesday, 9/14 Kol Nidre Wednesday, September 15 Yom Kippur Thursday, September 16
Religious School begins Sunday, September 19 CBS Fall Opener Saturday, September 18 @ 6 pm Tefilah Tuesdays @ 7 pm – https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86420634509 Hebrew Bible with Howard Lidsky Sundays @ noon @ CBS
CBS Reopening
CBS is open! We continue to Zoom weekly Shabbat services, but we also are in-person every other week in the sanctuary for both Friday evening and Saturday morning services.
Shabbat services this Friday evening, August 27, will be held via Zoom.
Shabbat morning services and Torah study this Saturday, August 28 will be held via Zoom.
High Holy Days at CBS
The CBS Board of Directors has determined that the safest way to conduct High Holy Days services this year is to offer in-person services outdoors only and via live streaming.
*** No indoor services will be offered for Rosh Hashanah ***
We have set up our tent and will welcome you to sit beneath it as the rabbi and cantorial soloist bring in the year 5782.
Bring lawn chairs/blankets and sit on the lawn. A limited number of chairs will be available under the tent.
We will offer outdoor in-person services and live streaming via YouTube (link will be provided) for these services:
Erev Rosh Hashanah – 7:30 pm Monday, September 6
Rosh Hashanah first day – 10 am Tuesday, September 7
Children’s service (outdoor, in-person) – 9:30 am Tuesday, September 7
Rosh Hashanah second day – 10 am Wednesday, September 8
Additionally, we will offer these services via Zoom only:
The Binding is the Torah reading for Rosh Hashanah, and as such plays a pivotal role in the themes of the holiday. In eighteen or so verses, the Torah presents an enormously complex and rich tale that asks a wealth of questions.
Chris and Phil will not answer many of these questions, but they will ask many, and in their conversation suggest a few answers from within both the Jewish and Christian traditions.
Join us and participate as once again we face God and Abraham and Abraham’s son Isaac as father and son once again trudge up the mountain and face some mortal questions.
from Rabbi Phil Cohen
The HHDs are upon us, and that sense of the new year has begun to descend. It’s another imperfect moment for our communal celebration, as the Delta variant and large numbers of unvaccinated folks mean that the air still carries dangers that we need to attend to. Though we’ll have some limited gathering outside our sanctuary, a full court press inside our building seems unadvisable.
But still, it’s the new year, and with that comes a feeling of both sobriety and celebration.
Let me begin with sobriety.
The themes of these days, teshuvah and atonement, teach us that we ought to look inward and examine our behavior over the previous year, and confront those deeds we committed of which we disapprove. Whom did we injure by word or action? What did we do that left the world just a little bit worse off? Have we distanced ourselves from friends and family? Have we been the best we could have been, and if not, how can we be the best self?
When we’ve made an honest internal assessment, referred to in Hebrew as heshbon hanefesh, we do what we can to make restitution. And if we make this effort, we come out of Yom Kippur feeling pure, if only momentarily, for the Jewish tradition teaches that life is a continual movement from sin to purity and back. That’s real life; it’s coded into human nature. Which is why we need Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.
But these days are also celebratory, aren’t they? We gather with family and friends, we eat together, wish each other a sweet new year, and bask in the moment of this new beginning.
The Jewish tradition teaches that the world was created on Rosh Hashanah (which is why we turn the calendar to a new year). And as the world was created on this day, so, too, we have the opportunity to (re-) create ourselves in this new year. Everything’s open to a new beginning, a new interpretation. A new world awaits us as we leave the synagogue after ne’ilah, the closing service of Yom Kippur. Everything is possible once again.
And thus, we celebrate our newness and that of everyone and everything around us. The slate is clean, and we begin again. The year is ripe with possibilities. All we need do is face the new year with a brave and refreshed soul and that sense of the great possibilities of all things, as we observe Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, those great days we set aside in our calendar for exploration, prayer, and love.
Betsy and I wish all of you a happy, healthy, and sweet new year.
Phil
Rabbi Phil M. Cohen
Religious School
We’re having an outdoor “returning to learning” pizza lunch social for families with children on Sunday, August 29 from 11:30 am to 1 pm.
This is going to be an exciting year! We’ll see our old friends and make some new ones. Our first day of in person classes will be on Sunday, September 19, the first Sunday after Yom Kippur. Our youngest learners are in preschool, starting at age three.
It’s time for Sisterhood’s Rosh HaShana Honey Care Package fundraiser. Last year was our first for this project and it was very successful and well-received. This year it will be even more fun and will help us do even more great things for our community.
With the funds we raised last year we helped CBS with some big costs, such as:
Copies of Mishkan Tefilah, our primary prayerbook – $1000
The digital version of the prayerbook, used for Zoom services – $700
This year our packages will contain lots of local products, fresh local honey, tea, baked goods, and some surprises. The deadline for our community-delivered orders is Wednesday,September 1st so please order early.
We’ll need assistance to put the packages together and deliver them, all in one big day. The workday will be Sunday, September 5th. If you can help with this program please let Laura Flacks-Narrol know – email her at flacks-narroll@hotmail.com or phone/text at 573.529.9578.
Three Ways to Order – Deadline: September 1
1. Online: www.cbsmo.org/honey 2. Phone: Laura @573.529.9578
3. Mail: Laura Flacks-Narrol, 2116 Bridgewater Dr, Columbia MO 65202
Checks payable to CBS Sisterhood
Loaves & Fishes
CBS is hosting the Loaves and Fishes dinner on Sunday, August 29th at Wilkes Blvd. Church. We’ll be serving chicken, but we’ll need side dishes and other food items as listed below.
We still need 3 or 4 people for setup, serving, and cleaning up.
We need to provide enough food for at least 80-100 meals. If you can commit to bring enough of a food item that can serve at least 40-50 people that would be great.
We still need many of these food items:
chicken: provided
mac ‘n’ cheese or potato salad – need another 40-50 servings
cole slaw – provided
cheese sticks – need about 4 dozen more
desserts (pre-wrapped)
bananas – need about 4 dozen more
hard boiled eggs – provided
apple juice or other 100% juice
snack crackers, apple sauce cups, granola bars
to-go boxes – provided
If you can assist with any of the above please contact Brent Lowenberg atbrentlg@hotmail.com as soon as you can so we make sure we have enough food needed well before the meal.
CBS Book Club
The CBS Book Club meets this coming Sunday, August 29, at 3:00 p.m. We will be meeting via Zoom to discuss This is Real and You are Completely Unprepared: The Days of Awe as a Journey of Transformation by Alan Lew. Regardless of how religious one is, the book presents inspiring and touching approaches to the meaning and obligations of the High Holy Days.
With the arrival of the hot summer temperatures, please help keep the memorial garden at CBS growing by help lending a hand with the watering. The memorial garden is the two flower beds by the entrance to the new building.
If you have questions, please contact Tanya Christiansen at tj_christiansen@yahoo.com. Thanks for your help!
Donations
Donations to CBS are a good way to remember or honor people and special life events. Your gift can be directed to the CBS general fund, the rabbi’s discretionary fund (RDF), the library, the Sasha Yelon book fund or the school scholarship fund.
Send a check to CBS, 500 W Green Meadows Rd, Columbia 65203, with a note with details about honorees and where you’d like the notification sent. We’ll send a handwritten card as you direct.
Tell & Kvell!
Have you received an award or a promotion, welcomed a new child to your family, or otherwise have reason to kvell? Share your good news with your CBS friends. Send an email to Mary at maxmax@mchsi.com to include in eShalom.
