July 2 - July 9 • Chukat

Erev Shabbat Services - Friday, July 4, 6:00pm

In the air-conditioned Weintraub Community Room

Please join us this week for Friday night Erev Shabbat services, led by Betty Canick & Marvin Kabakoff. In person or on Zoom, at 6:00pm. Please join us! Click here to join by Zoom.

Please renew your “SinaiPromise” Temple Membership for 2025-2026!

How do I “renew my SinaiPromise Membership?"

1. Fill out this form; OR
2. Physical letters and paper pledge forms will be going out in the mail to all current members, if your preference is to pledge that way;
3. If all else fails, please reach out to the Temple Sinai office to renew your membership.

We thank you in advance for your generous support of and commitment to Temple Sinai. Please contact billing@sinaibrookline.org if you have any questions.

Mussar Study Group: Ancient Wisdom Meets Modern Challenges

Wednesday July 2, 12:00pm, led by member Merry Arnold

Mussar is a Jewish tradition that helps each of us cultivate and practice our ethical understanding. Come and explore Jewish ethical teachings - such as gratitude, patience and compassion - through study, conversation and practice. Regular meetings will then be every two weeks from June 18 - August 20th, 12:00-1:15pm, at Temple Sinai. Commitment required for sessions through August. Limited to 12 people maximum. Contact Merry Arnold for questions and to register.

Summer Thursday Morning Study Group

Thursday, July 3

10:15am-11:45am in the Weintraub Community Room, in person only

This self led group enjoys continuing Jewish learning in a warm and convivial 

atmosphere. Members of the group will be teaching a variety of interesting and wide-ranging topics. Come have a nosh, engage your curiosity, learn and laugh - all are welcome. Come any weeks you can!

Summer Book Group: Interested in Learning More about Rabbinic Judaism?

Thursdays at 1:30pm: July 10 & 24, August 7 & 21

Temple Sinai's weekly Talmud study group (join us during the school year on Sunday mornings at 9:00am on zoom!) is once again hosting a Talmud-related summer reading group. In July and August, we'll be reading and discussing Maurice D. Harris's The Forgotten Sage: Rabbi Joshua Ben Hananiah and the Birth of Judaism as We Know It. We'll meet four times (every other Thursday at 1:30 pm). This is a hybrid conversation, so there's a Zoom as well as in-person option. Interested? Email Karen Keely (karen.keely@gmail.com) for more info. All are welcome!

Adult Learning Class:

“Who is Saying What, and Why? Looking into Pirkei Avot”

Wednesdays: July 23 & 30, August 6 & 13

7:00-9:00pm, in person or by Zoom

Led by Temple Sinai members Jeremy Wolfe & Robin Orwant

The book Pirkei Avot (“Chapters of the Sages”) is a nearly 2,000 year-old collection of sayings on a wide range of topics from what is needed for a good life to when God created Balaam’s talking donkey. Some of the speakers are famous (Hillel and Shammai); others, not so much

(Antigonous of Sokho?). Some of the statements are famous (“If I am not for myself, who is for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?”); some, less so (“There are seven traits of an unformed clod”). Many pieces seem very relevant to our current moment.

Join Jeremy and Robin for a lively discussion.

Call for Sinai Ambassadors! 

What is a Sinai Ambassador?

One of the tasks of the Sinai Membership Committee is to welcome new members into the congregation and we need your help. We are looking for people who are excited to meet with new members in the congregation to connect them with the various different offerings at Temple Sinai. We would put you on a list of people doing this important work and helping us think through how best we can be doing our welcoming work at Temple Sinai. If you have questions or to express interest, send an email to Jeremy Wolfe. Thank you!  

In the Community...

Film at 100 Centre Street: “Why We Dance,” on women & body image

Friday, July 11 at 1:30pm

Please join the residents of Hebrew Senior Life’s 100 Centre Street for a showing of local resident Michal Goldman’s new film “Why We Dance” (42 minutes), about women dancing, confronting body image, seeking renewed community and relevance, developing resilience, becoming grandmothers. The context: an online dance class filmed by the dancers themselves. The film documents a Zumba Gold class sponsored by the Newton MA Senior Center and taught over Zoom since the beginning of the Pandemic by an extraordinarily charismatic and compassionate teacher, Ketty Rosenfeld, who immigrated to the US from Indonesia. Many of the dancers are also immigrants. For more information, contact Rabbi Jim Morgan, jlmorgan4@gmail.com.