Shabbat Blast

Shabbat Blast!

Erev Shabat – June 17, 2016

11 Sivan 5776

Candle Lighting: 8:10pm

Maariv: 6:30pm

Shabbat, June 18

Parshat Nasso

Nosh and Drosh 9:00

Services 9:30

Check us out on Facebook, (Bellmore Jewish Center) Twitter (@BellmoreJC) and Instagram (congbethohr)!!!!

Mazal  tov  for

6/18/16-6/24/16

Birthday:

Mark Klein

Steven Breitman

Russel Wilenkin

Dr. Dana Adelstein

Megan Eisenstein

Lori Levine

Andrei Forman

Anniversary:

Mark & Helene Wilenkin

Click here to watch a Video of some of our Hebrew School Students and their parents recite the Blessing of the Children. Try it tonight with your own family. Click here for the more on the prayer itself.  Thank you to Jennifer Lerman, Brooke Lerman, Drew Lerman, Madison Adelstein, Jennifer Goldman, Samara Goldman, and Chase Goldman for your participation!

Dear [first_name],

Last Saturday night and Sunday morning, the night that the Jewish people celebrated the giving of Torah, the night that we concluded counting 49 days of the omer, a madman took the lives of 49 people and injured 53 at an LGBT club in Orlando, Florida. The night that we recalled the 10 commandments, of “thou shalt not murder” and “thou shalt not steal,” our country became witness to a fanatic, full of hate, breaking the decency of human coexistence, stealing 49 individual worlds. Families, communities, and a country is grieving the loss of life and the shock of a massacre in our home.

And we are left wondering where there can be blessing when there is so much hate. Join us tomorrow morning as we offer blessing and goodness in the face of destructive forces. When darkness pervades, we must counter with light. The priestly blessing, the one we offer children every Friday night is in this week’s portion. You can watch above, a video created by our very own members. Let us bring more light into the world.

And simultaneously, our minds hold Israel in our consciousness. We witnessed 500 Conservative and Reform Jews gather in the Western Wall Plaza, making a statement that they will no longer tolerate the delay of a permanent space that is egalitarian, a space that reflects the diversity and pluralism of Judaism in the world, at our most sacred location.

At a time when so much is going on in the world, I pray using the words of Ecclesiastes, Ch. 3: “There is a time to weep, and a time to laugh... a time to mourn, and a time to dance...a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.”

God, give us the words to explain what happened in Orlando to our children. Help us call upon blessing and connect with each other when words fail us. Help us be silent when the space calls for stillness. Strengthen our voices when we speak for justice.

Shabbat shalom,

Rabbi Bernstein