A beautiful Kiddush was held in honor of the new couple, Adam and Clara Chaya Epstein. Mazel tov to them on their new marriage and to Drs. Henry and Maxine Epstein.
Sunday was a weather perfect day with perhaps more than 700 participants in the Friendship Walk. Many thanks to all those that sponsored Chaya Mushka and Mendel in their quest to help special needs children!
We welcome to the neighborhood Chaim and Dorit Kamman who have moved to our community with their young daughter!
The "Final Four" is here! Four cups, four questions, four sons.... :) Pesach is fast approaching and the week was spent cleaning and getting ready for the big celebration! Our Seders are almost full, so if you plan on attending either the "Uptown" or "in depth" style seders, please let us know ASAP. All the details at www.chabaduptown.org/seder. Of course, we will never forget the fifth son, the one is so absent he is not even one of the four.... If you know of one, that perhaps will not be by a seder this year, please reach out to them and see if they will join you or let us know and we will save them a seat!
This Shabbos is Shabbos Mevarchim, when we bless the new month of Nissan and is also known as Parshas Hachodesh. On the Shabbat that falls on or before the 1st of Nissan, a special reading called "Hachodesh" (Exodus 12:1-20) is added to the regular Shabbat Torah reading. It is also the true "Final Four" of the special readings leading up to Pesach. Hachodesh recounts G-d's historic communication to Moses in Egypt on the 1st of Nissan (2 weeks before the Exodus) regarding the Jewish calendar, the month of Nissan and the Passover offering. Links: Parshat Hachodesh with Commentary; From the teachings of the Chassidic masters on Hachodesh; About the Jewish calendar and the Passover offering.
Here is a a thought: Our parsha refers to the most observed mitzvah, the Bris Mila. On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised (12:3) The Midrash teaches that Isaac and Ishmael were engaged in a controversy. Said Ishmael to Isaac: "I am more beloved to G-d than you, since I was circumcised at the age of thirteen, but you were circumcised as a baby and could not refuse." Isaac retorted: "All that you gave up to G-d was three drops of blood. But lo, I am now thirty-seven years old, yet if G-d desired of me that I be slaughtered, I would not refuse." The Lubavitcher Rebbe explains, Jewishness is not a matter of historical conscious, outlook, ethics, or even behavior; it is a state of being. This is the deeper significance of the debate between Ishmael and Isaac. When the Jew is circumcised on the eighth day of life, he is completely unaware of the significance of what has occurred. But this "non-experience" is precisely what circumcision means. With circumcision the Jew says: I define my relationship with G-d not by what I think, feel or do, but by the fact of my Jewishness--a fact which equally applies to an infant of eight days and a sage of eighty years.
Please join us this Shabbos for some more great cholent and good times!
Shabbos Mevarchim Nissan, Parshas Tazria and Hachodesh
Friday, April 1
Services at 7:30 pm
Candle Lighting at 7:22 pm | RSVP for dinner www.chabaduptown.org/shabbatdinner
Shabbos, April 2
Shabbos Mevarchim Tehillim at 8:30 am
Services at 10:00 am w/ Reading of Parshas Hachodesh
Followed by Shabbos Mevarchim Kiddush and Farbrengen
Mincha at 7:30 pm
Maariv, Havdalla and Shabbos Ends at 8:16 pm
Living Torah
Have a great Shabbos!
Rabbi Chaim & Chanie
Chabad of Uptown Pesach Schedule & Seder info are now online at www.chabaduptown.org/seder
PREPARE:
Sell your Chametz now www.chabadhouston.com/chametz
Shop for Pesach www.chabadhouston.com/store
CELEBRATE:
Visit our mega Pesach site www.chabadhouston.com/pesach
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Rabbi Chaim & Chanie
Chabad of Uptown
4311 Bettis Drive, Houston, TX 77027
713-419-3960 | www.chabaduptown.org
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