For the first time in 19 years, we will not have guests for Shabbos, and we will not go to shul.
Chabad of Uptown has suspended all on-site programming, including no Shul services, Shabbat meals, or in person classes. The 50+ social scheduled for this Shabbos will be reschedule for another date. There will not be a public Pesach seder at Chabad of Uptown this year. We will try out best to support you to help you create your own seder at home. Please let us know if there is anything specific you need help with. All weekday activities have moved online to our virtual classroom www.chabaduptown.org/liveclass.
Although all events are being canceled due to corona, still, Pesach is coming - ready or not! Help local families celebrate Pesach in a dignified manner by donating and choosing the "Maos Chitim Fund" at www.chabaduptown.org/donate.
This is unchartered territory, a small taste of what many previous generations must have felt when their world was in upheaval. Thankfully, this is not a man made persecution, but, something Hashem wants us to hunker down and wait for the trial to pass.
Hayom Yom for 23 Adar Sheini: “My father once said to a Rav, who labored in avoda and was an especially diligent scholar: A Rav must remember at all times and at every moment that he always stands on the threshold between being one of those who bring merit to the public and, G‑d forbid, one of those who cause the public to sin - the threshold between the loftiest of heights and the most abysmal depth. All issues must touch him at the innermost core of his soul, literally, because his very soul is at stake.”
I feel like today’s Hayom Yom was talking to all of us. This has been a tough 2 weeks since initiating the Chabad contingency emergency plan on March 3. Every decision that limits our ability to function in our regular method is a painstaking one.
Our children's Torah Day School administration has been working tirelessly to ensure we had protocols and functions in place to get up and running in a virtual setting. The teachers have worked really hard to learn a whole new program in a very short time. The parents have really been patient trying to figure out a new way of parenting and schooling.
Shuls have had to close, and many wonderful Jewish community events canceled.
All of these decisions made by our community leaders are not made lightly and are agonizing. Studying the pandemic and becoming educated on its danger has consumed huge amounts of time and (emotional) brain space.
Seeing the impact this has had on so many that we all know personally, has made all of this very real. We can not allow this pandemic to hit our community here in Houston. We CAN stem the tide and, with Hashem’s help, stop the inevitable. The only way this can work is if we all work together to follow the guidelines laid out by the experts.
Stay home. Stay home. Stay home.
Do not go out, do not go shopping, do not go to the park, do not make play-dates for your children. Only one person of the family should go out to get the bare necessities, and only if it is really needed. Try to utilize the curbside pickup or deliver options, if available. Sanitize your hands and the packaging on the way into the house.
This is pikuach nefesh (saving lives) and sakanas nefashos (putting lives in danger). We are all familiar with eating on Yom Kippur and driving on Shabbos in order to protect health, even when it is only a doubt. Year round I receive questions and have to make the hard determinations when it is appropriate for birthing support, people who are ill, hatzala response, and more that all fall under this category. Would anyone question if it was determined that one should eat on Yom Kippur or drive on Shabbos? Of course not!
Please, please, please, we implore you to listen to the directives of doctors and Rabbis from all over the world. Stay home.
In our history there were many times where we could not daven with a minyan because of hate.
This Shabbos, we will not daven with a minyan because of love.
This is not like the communists that tried to stop our davening with a minyan. In that instance, our grandparents risked their lives literally to gather at extreme risk in order to fight back a man made decree against Judaism as a whole.
This is a decree from heaven. In Baba Kamma 60b the Talmud discusses a plague in the city “gather your feet, i.e., limit the time you spend out of the house, as it is stated in the verse: “And none of you shall go out of the opening of his house until the morning”. The gemara continues to stress and learn lessons from verses that this is not only by night, but even by day and applies even from refraining from going to Shul. Stay home.
Guarding your health is a mitzvah from the Torah. Davening with a minyan, as important as it is, is a tradition. When a biblical commandment is in contrast with a tradition, the biblical commandment takes precedence. Stay home.
BH, today we have modern technology that allows us to connect virtually. Please connect with someone and make a chevrusa online, farbreng with one another and strengthen each other at this surreal and difficult time. Connect with us at www.chabaduptown.org/liveclass and stay home.
The whole world has been forced to be home this Shabbos for the first time in modern history.
Let's unplug and connect with Hashem, and really keep Shabbos, together!
Jewish law states that if one is unable to attend a Shul, one should aim to pray at the same time as the rest of the community is. This Shabbos, please consider davening at the listed times below and we will all connect from our homes to each other as one community.
We are living through a future history lesson. Let’s be proud to be able to say that perhaps we have been over-reactive and that nothing happened, rather than regretfully say we wish we did something more. Stay home.
May this unprecedented time be the final birth pangs of Moshiach. May Hashem protect us all to remain healthy and may we merit to all sit at our own Seder - each one with our entire family - with the Pesach sacrifice in Yerushalayim!
Good Shabbos,
Rabbi Chaim & Chanie
P.S. Get ready for Pesach at our Sunday interactive online class listed below and on our Pesach megasite www.chabaduptown.org/pesach.
P.P.S. Don't forget to sell your chametz! Do it now at www.chabaduptown.org/chametz
The Coronavirus Outbreak
How to celebrate Shabbat and Pesach in isolation. How to talk to kids. How to stay calm and healthy. Things you can do. What the Rebbe said. What our sages teach. With much, much more! Check out this growing section of COVD-19 survival resources more…
Shabbos Mevarchim, Parshas Vayakhel-Pekudei & Hachodesh
Friday, March 20, Adar 24
Candle Lighting and Mincha at 7:16 pm
AT YOUR HOME - Kabbalat Shabbat at 7:30 pm
Shabbos Mevarchim, March 21, Adar 25
Shabbos Mevarchim Tehillim
AT YOUR HOME - Morning Services at 10 am
Special reading of Parshas Hachodesh
AT YOUR HOME - Mincha at 7:15 pm
Maariv, Havdalla & Shabbos Ends at 8:10 pm
Living Torah Video Program (Episode 8) - View at www.70years.com
WEEKDAY VIRTUAL CHABAD
www.chabaduptown.org/liveclass
DAILY
Shacharis at 8:15 am
SUNDAY
10:00 am - Pesach Laws Class - Beginners
11:00 am - Pesach Laws Class - Advanced
TUESDAY
12:00 pm - Parsha Class
WEDNESDAY
8:00 pm - YJP Class
THURSDAY
12:00 pm - Kitzur Shulchan Aruch - Jewish Law
8:00 pm - Chassidus - Derech Mitzvosecha (The Mitzvah to Appoint a King)