5771 is just around this August bend with all the promise that a New Year brings. One such promise we will be offering is a 6 pm Friday night Intergenerational Shabbat Family Service that will replace the current 7:30 Shabbat Family Service. Pull out your calendars and mark off September 10th and October 1st – the first two of what will be hour-long services that will take place once a month, with an optional potluck Shabbat dinner beginning in October with blessings and singing to follow. This change in service hour reflects an observable shift in service attendance by our families with children in religious school. Whereas at one time, attendance at the 7:30 Family Service filled the sanctuary, the past several years have witnessed more families with children attending the regular 6 pm sanctuary service. This inspired the clergy and the Education Director to rethink the 7:30 Family Service. With input from the Religious Practices Committee as well as with their blessing, the result is the new monthly 6 pm Intergenerational Family Service—not to be confused either with the 6 pm Young Family Service that will continue to be held monthly on a separate Friday, nor the 6 pm Sanctuary Service that will also continue unchanged. The 8 pm sanctuary services also remain unchanged. So beginning this September, all services will be held either at 6 pm or at 8 pm unless otherwise indicated for special events.
Unlike either of the other 6 pm services, the 6 pm Intergenerational Family Service will continue to invite participation in prayer leading by both children and adults, will embody an abbreviated Shabbat liturgy using our prayer book, Mishkan Tefilah, will feature a brief Torah reading, and a story, game or discussion geared to younger—though not our youngest--minds. Worship will take place in the sanctuary and is open to anybody who enjoys being in the company of others of all ages—whether you come with immediate family or not. Following this hour-long worship experience, inmost months all will be invited to the social hall for a pot luck Shabbat dinner. There you will have an opportunity to learn the Birkat Hamazon, the traditional blessing sung after the meal—so that even if you never got it during summer camp, you can still learn it now—as well as other Shabbat songs, called zemirot, that are traditionally sung around the Shabbat dinner table. It will be a joyous way to meet new families, to sustain friendships, and to live in community together. Dinners will be coordinated through the religious school. Those attending who do not have children in the religious school can call the office to sign up for a dish to pass.
The traditional definition of a Jew is one who keeps Shabbat. While we do not limit ourselves to this definition, we certainly want to make it easier for you to experience on a regular basis what it can mean to keep Shabbat with other likeminded Jews sharing, keeping alive, and innovating Jewish tradition. I’m excited about this new worship (and dining) opportunity! Hope you are too.
L’shalom,
Rabbi Amy J. Sapowith
