Glen Rock Jewish Center 682 Harristown Road Glen Rock, NJ 07452 Phone:  201-652-6624   Email: office@grjc.org

Tonight we light candles at 7:45 PM. Tot Shabbat and Shabbat Sheli will begin at 6:30 PM followed by our evening service at 8 PM.

Shabbat morning services begin at 9 AM. During our Torah service we will be celebrating the baby naming of Amanda Morgan Hittman. Mazel Tov to the Hittman and Settlow families! Representatives from our Bogrim, post-Bnai mitzvah class, will be participating in our Saturday service marking the end of the first year of the program. We are happy to announce that the program will continue next year.

This week we read from the last third of the double-parasha Behar-Behukotai. We will be reading the end of Sefer Vayikra/The Book of Leviticus, and at the end of the reading we will say, “Hazak, hazak, ve’nithazek!” (“May we all be strengthened again!”) We say “Hazak” as a prayer to give us the strength read the next book of the Torah, Sefer Bamidbar/The Book of Numbers.

The section we will be reading on Saturday morning begins with a passage about an individual who takes an oath to give a sum to the Temple. The sum in question is the monetary value assigned to a person of a certain age and gender. The Torah explains that, for example, a male between the ages of 20 and 60 is worth 50 shekels. 

These monetary values in no way indicate the full value of each human life. It is simply a way to approach the serious task of fulfilling an oath that a person takes. An entire tractate of the Mishnah is devoted to understanding how these “arachin” (“monetary values”) are applied. 

The end of the parasha takes up the issue of the sale of land in ancient Israel as well as material about sacrifices, agricultural pledges such as the tithe, and other offerings to the Temple. And so the Book that began with God calling to Moses from the Mishkan/The Tabernacle, the Temple that moved with the Israelites in the desert, ends with details of holy offerings to the Temple that will be given even after the Israelites settle in the Holy Land.

The spring holiday of Shavuot is coming soon. The first night of Shavuot is Tuesday, May 22nd. There will be an evening service at 8:30 PM. Wednesday morning May 23rd will be a 7 AM morning service for the first day of Shavuot. Wednesday evening May 23rd will be an evening service at 8:30 PM including Yizkor, and then there will be a morning service and Yizkor Thursday morning May 24th at 7 AM. I want to encourage everyone to join us for our holiday evening and morning services. The morning service lasts 90 minutes. It is a meaningful way to start the day during the holiday.

ANNOUNCEMENTS:

1. Tree of Life Award – Saturday evening at 8 PM we will have a Minchah (afternoon) service in the downstairs Youth Lounge. Following that service there will be a cocktail hour. The evening program in the social hall will begin with a Ma’ariv/Havdalah service.

2. Sunday, May 13, 5-6:30 PM – Rosh Chodesh Women’s Group in the Social Hall. This group celebrates the New Month in a spiritual, educational, and social way.

3. SAVE THE DATE May 21 – 7:30 PM at St. Catherine’s Church in Glen Rock. The Religious Communities of Glen Rock will present, “Waging a Living,” the PBS documentary looking at America’s working poor as they strive for their piece of the American Dream. Discussion led by Deacon Diane Riley of All Saints’ Episcopal Church.

4. SAVE THE DATE June 9 – Join us on Shabbat morning as we come together as a community to welcome new member families to the congregation.