Dear friends,
I hope you had a great week. Last week, as we began our preparations for Purim and Passover with the first of the special Shabbatot (Shabbat Shekalim), this Shabbat weekend, we read my favorite Torah Portion and Haftorah, Parashat Terumah.
One of the reasons that it is my favorite, is that the Torah reading details the construction of the portable Mishkan (Tabernacle) which held the Torah throughout our ancestors journey in the wilderness towards the Promised Land, and the Haftorah from the Book of Kings, details the construction of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem by King Solomon.
The other and more personal reason that it is my favorite is simply that it was my Bar Mitzvah portion and Haftorah on a very cold, but wonderful Shabbat winter morning in New Jersey nearly 60 years ago! That said, I am sorry that I likely won't be with you in the synagogue this weekend as I am recovering from surgery, but I will be thinking about you and will be there in spirit!
Services will be led by Eileen Hochstadt and Elliot Shapiro and held at 7:30 Friday evening and 9:30 Saturday morning and Eileen's adult Hebrew reading class will take place at noon on Sunday.
I hope to be "back in the saddle" soon. With best wishes for a Shabbat Shalom and always, Ron
Ron Becker,
Spiritual Leader