Newsletter

For ShulCloud help see Emily Fuller’s excellent tutorial: https://youtu.be/R0KdvSfCT_U

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: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83900854580 ~ Meeting ID 839 0085 4580

Rabbi Cohen leads Zoom Torah study at 11 am.
Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84491167901 ~ Meeting ID: 844 9116 7901

Parashat Vayeilech

Haftarah – Isaiah 55:6-56:8

Here are links to this week’s texts via Sefaria:
Torah: https://www.sefaria.org/Deuteronomy.31.1-30?lang=bi&aliyot=0
Haftarah: https://www.sefaria.org/Isaiah.55.6?lang=bi&with=all&lang2=en

We have set up our tent and will welcome you to sit beneath it as Rabbi Phil Cohen and cantorial soloist Andy Curry bring in the year 5782.

Feel free to 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:

• Kol Nidre – 7:30 pm Wednesday, September 15
• Yom Kippur – 10 am Thursday, September 16
• Yom Kippur Children’s Service – led by Langston & Jacob 9 am Thursday, September 16
• Yom Kippur Mincha service – 4:45 pm Thursday, September 16
• Yom Kippur Yizkor/Memorial Service @ 5:45 Thursday, September 16 @ 5:45 pm, followed immediately by Neilah/Concluding Service

 Join Rabbi Cohen for Maariv services at 7 pm on the dates below via Zoom only:

• Thursday, September 9 – Teshuva
• Sunday, September 12 – Forgiveness
• Monday, September 13 – Atonement
• Tuesday, September 14 – Tikkun

Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87455041015

I’d like then to offer a class for those interested in reading some of those texts in a study context.

Please join me on Monday evening, September 13 at 7:30 pm in person or on Zoom for an exploration of some of these Yizkor texts.

Here’s the link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83025902735

Repentance is the main topic of Rosh Hashanah, the day designated by the rabbis that marks the anniversary of the creation of the world.  That ancient rabbinic claim has a further connection wit  Rosh Hashanah. The tradition teaches to look inward to recall actions taken during the previous year that were hurtful to others, and, if we’re diligent, we resolve to make restitution to those we’ve wronged.  This we attempt to do between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. And if we achieve even a moderate level of success in resolving these difficulties, we renew ourselves, we re-create ourselves as it were. Just as Rosh Hashanah celebrates creation we use these days to find ourselves anew a new.  Thus, repentance is necessarily active.

We come to Yom Kippur hopefully having completed a process of repentance.  If so, the prayers of Yom Kippur provide us the opportunity to look inward, to find our unity both with ourselves as individuals, and between ourselves and God.  I like to think of that day as a solitary exercise experienced nonetheless (and necessarily) in community. It’s an irony of the day that we require community to experience a spiritual solitude.

At Neilah, at the close of Yom Kippur, we’ve tasted both repentance of atonement.  We leave the sanctuary– having partaken of a bagel and a schmear (in normal times, at least) – as complete as a human being can be, ready to begin the new year to face our new opportunities, challenges, and, yes, our many mistakes.  This fact of human existence, that it is spiritually healthy to face our mistakes and attempt to find a modus vivendi with the other, is precisely why we need High Holy Days every year.

Betsy and I both wish you a happy, healthy, and sweet new year.

Shalom,
Phil
Rabbi Phil M. Cohen

Find pledge and school information on our ShulCloud site: https://midmocongregationbethshalom.shulcloud.com

For ShulCloud help see Emily Fuller’s excellent tutorial: https://youtu.be/R0KdvSfCT_U

Both food and monetary donations are welcome and necessary. We will distribute grocery bags for non-perishable food items at all three HHD services and elsewhere. Please return these bags (or your own bags) with non-perishable items and place them in one of the Food Bank barrels, which will be outside during services and inside the sanctuary foyer at other times (through Sukkot).

You can also leave food donations in front of the sanctuary door if the building is closed and we will make sure they get into the barrels. Or send a check to CBS, 500 W. Green Meadows Rd., 65203, and write Project Isaiah on the memo line.

Our CBS youth group has organized a Facebook Project Isaiah fundraiser. If you have a Facebook account you can give money directly. Login to your account and cut-and-paste this number in the Search box: 402357121556321.

Please join us in raising money for The Food Bank for Central & Northeast Missouri. Your contribution will make an impact, whether you donate $1.80, $18, or $180 – every chai helps!
This year, we hope to raise $1800 over the High Holy Days through Sukkot.

Thank you for your support and generosity!

The goal is to complete this all in one afternoon!  Sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/60B0D48AAAE2CA2FC1-cbsplayground
We’ll get started pulling weeds at moon, but don’t feel like you need to arrive right on time or stay for the entirety of the effort.  Any help you can provide is enough and is highly appreciated!

Thank you!

Paul

In honor of Aaron Krawitz’s production of Golgotha
Deborah & John Zemke

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.