Dear Temple Or Olam Congregants and Friends,

What a weekend we have in store!  We’ll begin with tonight’s Kabbalat Shabbat service, where we’ll read from the Weldon Torah for the last time at a regular Shabbat service.  Teens and adults will be chanting tonight.  They will be using a special glass yad gifted to us by Phyllis Herschenfeld, a yad made in Venice, location of Europe’s first Jewish ghetto.

Sunday at 2 p.m. we will be welcoming guests from a number of faith traditions to our program at McGill Baptist Church with nationally known scribe and artist Neil Yerman.

In Deuteronomy 31:19 we read: “So now, write this song for yourselves.” The rabbis concluded from this verse that every Jew is commanded to write a Sefer Torah (Torah Scroll).  At 4 p.m. congregational members will be part of our siyyum, a dedication ceremony for our new Torah.  Part of our celebration will be giving the opportunity to all our congregants to write in our new scroll with Neil — an opportunity not to be missed.

And there’s more cause for thanks: A donor is matching our donations, dollar for dollar to up to $6,000 at Causes.com (see link below) and we are now well past the halfway mark for our goal at the site, which is to raise the moneys needed to purchase the scroll.  As you all know, we have additionally raised money on our own website towards our overall goal.  If you haven’t contributed yet, we ask you to consider doing so at the Causes website in order for us to receive those matching dollars from our generous friend in California! Here’s the link:

http://www.causes.com/actions/1690785

Shabbat Shalom to all — I look forward to a very special thanks-giving weekend with everyone!

Rabbi Barbara