Dear Friends,
What a great evening with our Young Professionals network, crafting shofars from the raw material and learning the meaning and sounds at the Shofar Factory!!!.... Photos are up here!
Mazel Tov to Jonathan Mcallister and Felix Schigel who will be celebrating their Bar Mitzvahs this Monday. May they be a source of prife to their entire families!
We look forward on having a most meaningful and uplifting Rosh Hashana, beginning this Wednesday evening at the Holiday Inn. Complete adults and youth service schedule, candle lighting schedules, dinners, hotel rates and RSVP information can be found at www.chabaduptown.org/services. Our Sept. 1 RSVP deadline for the Rosh Hashana Dinners was yesterday. If you still intend on joining us, it is important to let us know ASAP so we can plan accordingly.
You can find a wealth of information, guides, recipes, games, e-cards, multimedia and so much more on our High Holiday section of the website at www.chabaduptown.org/high. Check it out!
According to the Baal Shem, "G-d Himself blesses the month of Tishrei, and it is with the power of this blessing that the people of Israel bless the other months of the year." This Shabbos is known as Shabbos Mevarchim, Shabbos Selichos. Each month, on the Shabbos before Rosh Chodesh, we bless the upcoming new month with a special blessing recited in the synagogue. The one exception is this Shabbos: although it proceeds Rosh Hashanah -- which is also the first day of the month of Tishrei -- we do not recite the special "blessing for the month," just as all other Rosh Chodesh elements are absent from the Rosh Hashanah prayers and observances. Although the formal blessing is not recited, we fulfill the other customs of Shabbat Mevarchim Hachodesh ("the Shabbat that blesses the new month"), reciting the Book of Psalms before morning prayers and conducting farbrengens.
The series of Selichos ("supplication") prayers recited in preparation for the "Days of Awe" of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur begin this Saturday night, after midnight (after the Ashkenazic custom; the Sephardic community begins on the 1st of Elul). On subsequent days, the custom is to recite the Selichos in the early morning hours, before the morning prayers, each morning up to and including Elul 29, the eve of Rosh Hashanah. You are more than welcome to join Rabbi Chaim at Chabad Lubavitch Center on Sat. night at 1 am for the first of the set of four Selichos to be said betwee this Shabbos and Rosh Hashana. Links: More on Selichot
Shabbos Parshas Netzavim-Vayelech
Friday, Sept 3
Services at 7:30 pm
Candle Lighting 7:25 pm / RSVP for dinner
Shabbos, Sept. 4
Shabbos Mevarchim Tehillim at 8:30 am
Services at 10:00 am / Hashem to Bless new month! (see above).
Followed by kiddush
Mincha at 7:25 pm
Final week of Ethics of our Fathers Chapters 5 & 6.
Maariv, Havdalla and Shabbos Ends at 8:17 pm
"Midnight" Selichos (Sat. night) at 1 am
Good Shabbos!
Rabbi Chaim & Chanie