Rabbi Aaron Rosenberg has served Temple Emanu-El as spiritual leader since 1980. In addition to teaching, preaching, and reaching out to help members of our congregation, he is active in the community. A graduate of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, he is the Jewish chaplain at Connecticut College and past president of Waterford Rotary Club. Rabbi Rosenberg and his wife, Karen, have three sons, Ari, Elon, and David, and live in Waterford.

Dear Friends,

As I hope you realize, at the request of several people, and through a proposal of the Religious Practices Committee, the Board of Trustees approved moving the time for Shabbat Evening services from Fridays at 8 PM to 7:30 PM. And child friendly Family Services on the first Friday of the month are now at 7 PM. The advantages, as I see it are two-fold. After a long week, the Friday night service and oneg Shabbat conclude at a more reasonable time. Also, younger families with children will now be able to attend and still have the children in bed at their normal time.

There is but one drawback that concerns me. It will be more difficult to have a traditional Shabbat dinner experience at home. How could people have a leisurely, meaningful, delicious Shabbat meal accompanied by candle lighting, kiddush and blessings, and not feel rushed to be in temple by 7:30 PM, or 7 PM the first Friday? As important as it is to worship with one’s congregation, is there not equal value in welcoming Shabbat with one’s family at home? Are the two mutually exclusive?

After all, the dominant themes of Shabbat are kedusha~holiness, menucha~rest, oneg~joy, mishpacha~family and shalom~wholeness and peace. Shabbat ideally is a time when we set aside the hectic, frantic, stressful pressures of the week and glory in a Shabbat state of mind, a time of togetherness, torah, nature and what I like to call re-Jew-venation.

We Jews are a clever, resourceful people. What practical suggestions might I offer to get the full Shabbat evening experience, both at home and temple. First, if possible get home early on Friday. In Israel, people leave work at noon. Delegate preparation amongst the family: Perhaps, one person sets the good china and silver in the Dining Room, another picks up wine and challah, and another makes dinner. Can the meal be made the night before and just require heating up? It might seem early, but why not sit down for dinner at 5:30 PM.

Last month we held a Shabbat early service with a subsidized dinner that was geared toward younger families. On February 10^th we will be having an adult Shabbat Service at 6:30 PM followed by a subsidized Shabbat Dinner at 7:30 PM. Send in the registration form found later in this bulletin with your check. At these Shabbat Dinners we distribute sheets with the blessings over the candles, the wine, the children and the challah, as well as songs and the Birkat Hamazon, the grace after the meal. Be sure to take these with you and use them to enhance your home observance.

Experiencing Shabbat in both the home and the synagogue will enable us to truly know a “Gut Shabbos” and a “Shabbat Shalom.”

With love and shalom,

Rabbi Aaron Rosenberg

Sherry Barnes joined Temple Emanu-El in 1987. In May of 1989 she became an adult bat mitzvah and began teaching in the Religious School that fall. In 2001 Sherry became Temple Emanu-El's first full-time Cantorial Soloist. She enjoys teaching an adult Hebrew classes, B'nai Mitzvah students, as well as congregants interested in chanting Torah. She has the pleasure of leading the Temple Emanu-El Choir. Sherry can be reached by e-mail at shirie3860@aol.com.

Shabbat Shira, the Sabbath of Song, falls in February this year and thus begins Jewish Music Month.  Shabbat Shira also marks the first yahrzeit of singer, song writer, Debbie Friedman.  How appropriate that this Sabbath of Song, with its haftarah being Devorah, will always remind us of her.  Rabbi Joy Levitt and Cantor Angela Buchdahl are reaching out to clergy members in the Reform, Conservative, and Reconstructionist movements, asking them to sing the last song that Debbie had written, a new melody for Shalom Alecheim, on the February 3^rd and 4th, the anniversary of her first yahrziet.  I heard this song sung in Boston at a memorial concert given in her memory not long after she had passed.  I loved it, but it hadn’t been written down yet.  It wasn’t until the Biennial Conference in Washington, D.C., that I was able to purchase the sheet music.  So, our congregation will join the many congregations on February 3^rd and 4^th, that will be opening their Shabbat Services with what Debbie Friedman called her legacy, Shalom Aleichem.  Hope you will join us as remember this very special person in Jewish Music.  You many listen to hear her sing it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfmJRTssA6s   May her memory always be for a blessing.

February 17^th, the choir will be adding their sweet voices to our Shabbat Service!

Looking ahead at March, the Jewish Federation of Eastern Connecticut will kick off its 14^th year of sponsoring our communities Jewish Film Festival. Many people are working hard to screen movies in order to bring you the best of the best!  You have always been supportive of this community event, and I hope you continue to do so.  Please watch the Jewish Leader for more information about it.

Thank you to our Torah reader for January, Jo-el Fernandez.

B’shir,

Sherry