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Our July 8 service will include melodies from Woody Guthrie, Simon and Garfunkel, Cat Stevens, the Beatles, and more. We won’t change the words much, if at all, because we’ve chosen songs to reflect on the themes expressed in our traditional liturgy — feeling grateful for the gift of Shabbat, celebrating our community, and resolving to help heal our world.

(Besides, we’d like you to sing along!)

Per request from one of our beloved youngsters, please wear your Or Olam T-shirts if you have them. Feel free to match up their radiant blue tones with red and white. Or just wear American colors. As you wish, of course.

Please join us for a Kabbalat Shabbat feelin’ altogether groovy…..

Event: Kabbalat Shabbat Service
Date: July 08 at 7 pm
Location: McGill Baptist Church, 5300 Poplar Tent Road, Concord.

Korach on one side; Moses on the other. The two face off over leadership, holiness, and God’s real intentions.

Who will win the battle? The upstart Korach or the much-beleaguered Moses? Is the battle really about who has the right to lead in the first place?

Join us as we see Torah presented as we’ve never seen it before at our June 24th Kabbalat Shabbat service in 3d!

Why didn’t our own Sunday School teachers talk to us about the how’s and why’s of our Shabbat services? Why do we stand for the Amidah but sit during the Shema? How should we handle our Torah, wrap it and hold it?

Our next service is about the Way Things Work at a Jewish service. We’ll take the essential components and explore what we do and why through stories, legends, and even Jewish jokes.

Then we can turn to greet the Sabbath bride knowing why we turned in the first place. Then we can rise for the Barchu together with the wonderfully communal intention that that act deserves.

Join us for our next Shabbat service and learn together with us!

In this week’s parsha, B’har, the Israelites are given a vision of a world of equals. According to the laws of this parsha, no human being can be condemned to perpetual servitude, there are provisions for the forgiveness of debts, and every fifty years all land returns to its original owners. Since all the earth and its inhabitants belong to God, no one can lay exclusive and permanent claim to land or people.

The rabbis say that this parsha teaches us that all human beings deserve the respect and care that prevents their utter degradation. But to care for each other, we must know that we are connected. At this service, we’ll hear a story that tells us why understanding that we are connected is the key to our survival, our freedom, and our chance at a jubilee of our own.