Modeh Ani
Mah Gadlu
Mah Tovu
Elohai Neshama
N’sim B’chol Yom
Baruch She’amar
Mizmor Shir L’yom HaShabbat
Ashrei
Psalm 150
Shabbat
Friday Night Music
Yedid Nefesh
Candle lighting
Mizmor L’David
Shalom Aleichem
L’cha Dodi
Mizmor Shir
Ahavat Olam
V’shamru
Amidah
Shalom Rav
Shabbat Dinner Crowd is back
Congregation Beth Israel is reviving its Shabbat Dinner Crowd — a flash mob Shabbat dinner experience — though the sign-up format will be adjusted a bit.
How it works:
Someone volunteers a location for Shabbat dinner and guests supply the food (a main dish or a side, enough to feed your family). The host provides challah, kiddush wine, and glasses/plates/utensils. The dinner is casual — buffet style, paper plates and jeans are fine. Just come and enjoy.
Dinners can be meat, dairy, or vegetarian. Hosts, please let everyone know what the kashrut status of the meal is.
What’s new:
Instead of getting an automated email the Sunday before a Shabbat Dinner Crowd, we will be maintaining a Google worksheet with the dates for Dinner Crowd listed. Hosts can peruse the dates and sign up to host, specifying any food rules, number of guests they can handle, and their
address and contact information. Once a date has a host, guests can fill in their names, along with the number in their party and their contact information.
If the first host site fills up, we will open up a second host spot so as many people as possible can participate!
The database that was used for the previous setup will not be used, so if you want to participate, you need to check the Google worksheet and sign up. The link for the worksheet will be available in the weekly Timbrel, which is distributed to Congregation Beth Israel members. Members are welcome to share the link with friends.
Our first Dinner Crowd will be October 27, and the signup link will be in the Timbrel, starting at the beginning of October.
The plan is to hold Dinner Crowd once a month — when Friday night services are at 7:30 pm, an early dinner (5 to 7 pm) is suggested. When it’s an evening without a Friday night service (typically a fifth Friday), dinner can start a little later, usually around 6 or 6:15 pm.
Any other questions? Call Melissa Schapiro (360) 738-7182, or email webmaster@bethisraelbellingham.org
Let’s keep this rolling by having someone host every time!
Torah Blessings
Want an aliyah? Learn or brush up on the blessings for before and after the Torah readings. Listen here:
Blessings before the Torah reading:
Blessings after the Torah reading:
Read along: Torah blessings with transliteration
Shabbat at Home
When Shabbat lands on the fifth Friday of the month, Congregaton Beth Israel observes Shabbat at Home. There is no synagogue service; instead, everyone is encouraged to host or attend a Shabbat at Home. Contact the office if you’d like to be connected with a host with extra seats at the table.
Shabbat at Home
Shabbat Blessings
Celebrate Shabbat at Home
Celebrating shabbat at home with family and friends creates a warm and wonderful end to your week. Saying or singing blessings over family, candles, wine and challah helps make it sacred. Enjoy this guide from Larchmont Temple, NY. Shabbat Shalom!
18 Little Things You Can Do For Shabbat
1. Invite friends.
2. Ask guests to prepare a Shabbat blessing, song, or story
3. Set a special table for Shabbat dinner.
4. Use a special tablecloth.
5. Arrange fresh flowers in your home.
6. Polish the silver.
7. Pour a nice wine.
8. Bake or buy a challah.
9. Give thanks for the blessings of the week.
10. Light special candles.
11. Read a Shabbat prayer…then read it again.
12. Say blessings over the wine and challah.
13. Sing some nice songs.
14. Listen to the quiet peace of a dinner at home…without phone, TV, or radio.
15. Take a Shabbat walk.
16. Be open to moments of wonder, of soulful encounter.
17. Pause for a moment as Shabbat ends on Saturday night. Sing havdalah!
18. Look forward to the next week’s Shabbat celebration.
Recommended Reading and Music for Shabbat
Shabbat Anthology Volume II (Book/CD)Composer/Artist:Dunn, J. Mark/Joel N. Eglash, editors
Format:Piano/Vocal/Guitar and CD
$34.95
The long-awaited series is finally here! Shabbat Anthology brings to light both newly composed and older Sabbath music that has never been published, in Piano/Vocal/Guitar format. Shabbat Anthology Volume II includes classic liturgical works from such esteemed composers as Joe Black, Charles Davidson, Paula Goldberg, Sylvia Goldstein, Lisa Levine, Louis Lewandowski, Mah Tovu, Rachelle Nelson, Stuart Rauch, Benjie Ellen Schiller, Sol Zim and many more. Several ‘folk’ pieces are also included, focusing on the music of the Ladino (Judeo-Spanish)-speaking Sephardic Jews. Perfect for those looking to add something new to their worship. Includes CD with all 33 songs, featuring performances by the original artists, as well as Cantors Richard Botton, Erik L.F. Contzius, Jessica Epstein, Mark Opatow, Kari Siegel-Eglash and others.
Invitation to Shabbat, An (with CD) – A Beginner’s Guide to Weekly Celebration
Ruth Perelson
$18.00
Explore Shabbat step-by-step and blessing-by-blessing from candlelighting to Havdalah. Discover the essential elements of tradition along with modern options for enhancing spiritual awareness. Explore the many paths to a satisfying Shabbat celebration through the words of those who began to observe Shabbat as adults. Blessings in Hebrew, transliteration, and English are included, alongside descriptions of rituals, as well as their history and folklore. Rounding out this extraordinary guide are traditional recipes–Ashkenazic and Sephardic–a bibliography, and a CD recording for learning and pleasure that brings to life the music of Shabbat.
A Shabbat Reader: Universe of Cosmic Joy
Edited by Dov Peretz Elkins
$14.95
Share the rich Sabbath experiences of a diverse group of prominent Jewish thinkers. Noted author and anthologist Rabbi Dov Peretz Elkins has mined every vein of Jewish experience to produce a collection of spiritual essays, poetry, and meditations on the transcendent meaning of the seventh day. He culls from a wealth of sources ranging from the traditional to the radical, including among his forty selections works by Sue Levi Elwell, Blu Greenberg, Lawrence Kushner, Michael Lerner, Alicia Suskin Ostriker, W. Gunther Plaut, Gershom G. Scholem, and Elie Wiesel. Sections of the collection explore Shabbat in Classical Texts, Shabbat as the Ultimate Mitzvah, Jews Celebrate Shabbat, and Shabbat in Modern Thought.
“Dov Peretz Elkins is one of the most spiritual people I know. His work continues to be chicken soup for my soul.”
— Jack Canfield, coauthor of Chicken Soup for the Soul
Do It Yourself Shabbat
URJ Department of Lifelong Jewish Learning
$2.25
Prepared by the Family Education Committee of the URJ-CCAR Commission on Jewish Education This guide explains each of the four prayers recited on erev Shabbat and suggests alternate ways to incorporate them into various family settings. The blessings are presented in English, in Hebrew, and in transliteration.
The Shabbat Angels
Maxine Segal Handelman, Illustrated by Joani Keller Rothenberg
$13.95
Something is not right in the home of Chaim Yonkel and his wife, Esther. Usually their home is filled with the smells of delicious foods, the sounds of laughing children, and happy smiles on everyone’s faces. But this Shabbat finds the family fighting, Shabbat dinner unprepared, and the house a mess.
The Talmud tells the story of two angels, Tov and Rah. According to this legend, these angels follow each person home from synagogue on Shabbat and deliver a blessing. If Shabbat is being honored and the home is filled with Shabbat peace, the angel of good, Tov, gets to deliver the blessing that every Shabbat should be like this one. However, if Shabbat is not being honored, the angel of evil, Rah, gets to deliver the blessing, turning the same words into a curse.
This contemporary version of the talmudic tale, illustrated with breathtaking illustrations by Joani Keller Rothenberg, updates the story for today’s families. The Shabbat Angels will delight the whole family while it teaches the importance of Shabbat shalom, Shabbat peace.
Tot Shabbat
Written and illustrated by Camille Kress
$5.95
This board book for toddlers encourages parents and children to share a rich spiritual and sensory Shabbat experience. Artist and author Camille Kress created this story on cardboard for her young son because heavy pages cannot be torn by little fingers. Her warm watercolors depict Shabbat symbols within the home–candlesticks, challah, and a Kiddush cup–and a family celebrating a peaceful Shabbat evening.
“Simple and engaging.”–Booklist
Shabbat Shalom!
Written by Michelle Shapiro Abraham,Illustrated by Ann Koffsky
$6.95
From the author of Good Morning, Boker Tov and Good Night, Lilah Tov, Michelle Abraham’s latest book introduces preschoolers to the joy of Shabbat.
In simple, rhyming language, Shabbat Shalom! tells the story of family celebrating Shabbat. . Filled with prayers and beautiful illustrations, Shabbat Shalom! is a wonderful way to teach toddlers about lighting Shabbat candles, reciting the Kiddush, saying the blessing over the challah and more. Abraham’s educational books for preschoolers are proven successes, making learning fun and exciting. Shabbat Shalom! is the perfect compliment to the Morning/Bedtime Rituals books, creating a strong start to leading a Jewish life.
Blessing the Children: To bless a boy, a girl, or both.
Place your hands on the child’s head and say:
For a boy:
Y’sim-cha Eh-lo-him k’Ephra’im v’chi-M’nasheh.
May God inspire you to live in the tradition of
Ephraim and Menasheh.
For a girl:
Y’si-meich Eh-lo-him k’Sarah, Rivka, Rachel, v’Lei-ah.
May God inspire you to live like Sarah,
Rebekah, Rachel, and Leah.
For both boys and girls:
Y’va-reh-ch’cha Adonai v’yish-m’reh-cha.
Ya-eir Adonai pa-nav ei-leh-cha vi-chu-neh-ka.
Yisa Adonai pa-nav ei-leh-cha v’ya-seim l’cha sha-lom.
May God bless you and keep you.
May God’s light shine upon you, and may God be gracious to you.
May you feel God’s Presence within you always, and may you find peace.
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