Congregation Beth Mordecai
Congregation Beth Mordecai
An inclusive congregation affiliated with the Conservative Movement.
Your Jewish Home for the Soul!
An inclusive congregation affiliated with the Conservative Movement.
Your Jewish Home for the Soul!
November 7, 2016 By bethmordecai no comments.
Want to share a special Shabbat dinner with fellow Beth Mordecai members? Sign up for Shabbat Across Beth Mordecai! It's easy, just fill out the form below and we'll tell you where you're going by Wednesday, November 16th.
Shabbat Shalom!
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June 8, 2016 By bethmordecai no comments.
If something is important, it contributes to your mission, your values, your high priority goals...if we don't have a clear idea of what is important, of the results we desire in our lives, we are easily diverted into responding to the urgent.
(Stephen Covey, Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, p. 151)
[The Sabbath] is a day on which hours do not oust one another...the seventh day is like a palace in time with a kingdom for all. It is not a date, but an atmosphere
(Heschel, The Sabbath, p. 21)
Have you ever noticed that a telephone ring is really annoying? I don't know about you, but whether it's a traditional ring, a screaming ringtone, or a gentle buzz, it doesn't[...]
Category : Bulletin Articles home Rabbi Tag : abraham joshua heschel bulletin message importance June Bulletin quadrant 2 Sabbath Seven Habits of Highly Effective People shabbat Stephen Covey telephone urgency
May 6, 2016 By bethmordecai no comments.
Reflection on this Shabbat Morning's Torah Talk with a special kiddush sponsored by Harriet Pearlman who is moving to Minnesota to be closer to family..
תלמוד תורה כנגד כולם
Talmud Torah k'neged kulam
The Study of Torah is greater than everything else
(Mishnah Peah 1:1)
Dear Hevreh,
We yearn for our actions to be purposeful, efficient, and relevant, to take advantage of every second we have in this world because there are too few to spare. It may be ironic then that the study of ancient Jewish texts is perhaps, as the quote above teaches us, the most important thing we can do as Jews, yet on the surface, studying Jewish texts is an inefficient, laborious, task to delve into topics[...]
Category : home Rabbi Rabbi's Journal Shabbat Tag : rabbi rabbi's journal shabbat torah Torah Talk
April 15, 2016 By bethmordecai no comments.
Reflecting on an On Being podcast featuring David Whyte...
"Alertness is the hidden discipline of familiarity"
- in "Everything is Waiting for You" by David Whyte
Dear Hevreh,
Imagine that noise has disappeared. You sit or stand without the reverberations of the world around you. Are you scared, elated, or confused by the weight of silence? We must imagine a world full of silence because our lives are not silent; they are a messy mixture of noise and actions. And even when there are opportunities to be still, we cannot. We mindlessly click on our phones when nothing else is going on, reflexively hoping to fill that silence some useful action.
Yet what if we can find a way[...]
Category : Rabbi Rabbi's Journal Shabbat Tag : Alertness David Whyte Familiarity Noise On Being rabbi rabbi's journal sh'ma shabbat shema Silence שמע
January 21, 2016 By bethmordecai no comments.
Reflection on last week's Friday night service and this week's upcoming storm...
"דומה דודי לצבי" (שיר השירים ב:ט), מה צבי זה מדלג מהר להר מבקעה לבקעה מאילן לאילן ומסוכה לסוכה מגדר לגדר, כך הקב"ה מקפץ מבית הכנסת זה לבית הכנסת זה מבית מדרש זה לבית מדרש זה. כל כך למה? כדי לברך ישראל.
- שיר השירים רבה פרשה ב
"My beloved is like a gazelle" (Song of Songs 2:9), Just as a gazelle skips from mountain to mountain, valley to valley, tree to tree, and dwelling to dwelling, fence to fence, so too the Holy One Blessed Be He skips from this synagogue to that synagogue, from this house of study to that house of study. Why? In order to bless Israel.
- Song[...]
Category : Rabbi Rabbi's Journal Shabbat Tag : Ahad Ha'am angels God home jewish community learning Midrash Northern Jewish Middlesex rabbi rabbi's journal shabbat skipping song of songs synagogue שיר השירים
September 17, 2015 By bethmordecai no comments.
Hear Cantor Bronwen Mullin's beautiful description of the Jewish love for repetition and an example of that kind of repetition in prayer with Ki L'olam Hasdo (God's Love Endures Forever).
Teaching on Shabbat: Repetition
[audio m4a="http://bethmordecai.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Rosh-Hashanah-Day-2-Teaching-Shabbat-Repetition.m4a"][/audio]
Ki L'Olam Hasdo
[audio m4a="http://bethmordecai.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Rosh-Hashanah-Day-2-Ki-LeOlam-Hasdo.m4a"][/audio]
CLICK HERE TO Listen to ALL of the great teachings, prayers, sermons, and speeches from Rosh Hashanah 2015/5776
Category : Ari-archive videos-archive Tag : Cantor Bronwen Mullin high holidays Ki l'olam hasdo Repetition Rosh Hashanah shabbat כי לעולם חסדו
September 16, 2015 By bethmordecai no comments.
ROSH HASHANAH SERMON -- Listen to Rabbi Saks’ Rosh Hashanah Sermon for 5776 on opening ourselves to the natural, gravitational pull of belonging we feel to one another, to tradition, to God, and to all of creation.
[audio m4a="http://bethmordecai.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Rosh-Hashanah-Sermon-5776-Encouraging-Belonging.m4a"][/audio]
CLICK HERE TO Listen to Rabbi Saks' other great teachings from Rosh Hashanah 2015/5776
Category : Ari-archive videos-archive Tag : 2015 5776 Belonging connection Day 1 Encouraging Faith opening ourselves planets rabbi ari saks Rosh Hashanah Sermon shabbat sun thinking tradition Un'taneh Tokef Unetaneh Tokef ובשופר גדול יתקע ונתנה תקף וקול דממה דקה ישמע
September 4, 2015 By bethmordecai no comments.
(9/4/15),
אמר לו הקדוש ברוך הוא למשה: מתנה טובה יש לי בבית גנזי ושבת שמה, ואני מבקש ליתנה לישראל - לך והודיעם (תלמוד בבלי מסכת שבת דף י עמוד ב)
The Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses, "I have a precious gift in My treasure house, called the Sabbath, and desire to give it to Israel; go and inform them" (Babylonian Talmud Tractate Shabbat 10b)
Dear Hevreh,
Last week was a beautiful Shabbat. Kids dancing, food sharing, prayer singing. Every moment was more precious than the next and as the sun turned into a beautiful full moon, you couldn't help but think that God had truly blessed this moment as "good."
Click here for some pictures from the event taken[...]
Category : Ari-archive Tag : 10b beauty kids moon rabbi's journal shabbat shabbat by the sea Shalom Aleichem Shalom Aleikhem sun talmud Tot Shabbat y'did nefesh Yedid Nefesh
August 25, 2015 By bethmordecai no comments.
Dear Hevreh,
Back in rabbinical school, we talked a lot about the language we use to describe a synagogue. Synagogue and Community describe a group of like minded people who affiliate together for a particular purpose, whether it's to do a ritual or to help someone find a job. On the other hand, Home and Family connote a closer connection, one in which we feel tied together despite (or because of?) our flaws. The former terms depict a place and a group we can move in and out of as we please; the latter terms describe a condition that is always a part of us, no matter how often we are present or absent.
I spent this past Shabbat with my family celebrating[...]
Category : Ari-archive Tag : rabbi rabbi's journal shabbat shabbat by the sea
August 14, 2015 By bethmordecai no comments.
(8/14/15),
Dear Hevreh,
I'm always trying to tinker with our Friday night and Saturday morning Shabbat experiences. It could be linking Adult learning with Tot Shabbat as we will do tomorrow morning, or it could bemeals at people's homes as we did in the Spring, or it could be a Family and Community Shabbat by the Sea experience like we'll have at the end of August, or it could be something as simple as having a dedicated Shabbat to celebrate people's smahot (special occasions). The goal is not just to change things up for the sake of change, but to find meaningful, interesting, and creative ways of connecting together as a community.[...]
Category : Rabbi Rabbi's Journal Shabbat Social Media Tag : facebook rabbi rabbi's journal shabbat shabbat message social media