May 21, 2026

Candle Lighting for Shavuot Day 1: 7:35 pm

Candle Lighting for Shabbat and Shavuot Day 2: 7:35pm

Dear Friends,

This week we celebrate Shavuot, the season of the giving of the Torah, on Thursday night, Friday, and Shabbat. As I hope you have seen from several TBA announcements, some other congregations are combining with TBA and IKAR to have an extensive Tikkun Thursday night. Study sessions will continue all night concluding with an outdoor Festival Shacharit service at 5 am.

For those of us with who will not stay up all night, there will be a combined Shacharit service at 9:30 am Friday morning in Ganzberg Sanctuary.

There will be a combined Kiddush the after services.

On Shabbat/2nd Day Shavuot, Library Minyan will meet in the Dorff-Nelson Chapel at 9:30. The service includes Hallel, Ruth, and Yizkor. There will be a Kiddush in Hersch Hall after services.

In honor of the custom of eating sweet dairy foods for Shavuot, the "Timeless Topic" from Sefaria this week was "Milk." Here are a few insights from the Sefaria comments: "Milk features throughout Jewish texts as a marker of blessing, a legal category, and a metaphor for spiritual sustenance.........

Milk also appears in symbolic and poetic contexts, such as in Song of Songs 4:11, where it represents sweetness and intimacy, and in rabbinic literature (which compares) Torah to nourishing milk."

Important announcements:

The Library Minyan will return to having the children sing "Adon Olam" immediately after Mourner's Kaddish and have announcements after that. If you have comments or concerns about this sequence, please email or speak with me (RRG). Please do NOT comment about it during the service.

Please SILENCE your phones while you sit in Library Minyan services. Electronic sounds are very disruptive to our communal prayers.

Also in this week's Update:

• Shabbat Services
• Mishna Study
• More Comments from the Rosh
• Upcoming Events
• Donations This Week
• Haftara Plethora
• Jewish Trivia



If you have questions or suggestions, or would like to include something in a future edition of the Weekly Update, please email Rachel Rubin Green at rachelrubingreen@gmail.com.

Shabbat Shalom!

Rachel Rubin Green

Rosh Minyan

Shabbat Services

Services First Day Shavuot, Friday, May 21, will start at 9:30 in Ganzberg Sanctuary. Our Gabbai for that service will be Larry Herman. He can be reached at larryjerusalem@gmail.com.

Services for the Second Day of Shavuot/Shabbat will start at 9:30 am in the the Dorff Nelson Chapel. Our Gabbai for Shabbat/2nd Day Shavuot will be Norm Garr. He can be reached at norm.garr@sbcglobal.net.

Mishnah Study

Mishnah study will not meet this week due to the 9:30 start time for services. Mishnah study will resume next week.

From the Rosh:

I wish each of you a joyous Shavuot. Like all holidays, it is a time to count my blessings. One of my greatest joys is my annual camping trip with my son Stevie and my grandson Archer. Since Archer's parents are not campers, Stevie and I decided that we would take on the responsibility of teaching the skills and the joy of camping to Archer. This year we are heading towards Bryce and Zion National Parks. I find it easy to have "Awe of Heaven" while I am camping. Since I am likely to be "off the grid" for a few days, Joel Elkins will take care of the next edition of this newsletter. I am grateful for his willingness to do this.

Please read the announcements below about two of our Upcoming Events: Torah Club End of Year Shabbat and Graduation Shabbat.

Upcoming Events

5/21 - Erev Shavuot Tikkun and all night study sessions

5/22 - 5 am (ish) Sunrise Service

5/22 - Shavuot Day 1 Combined Festival service 9:30 am

5/23 - Shabbat and Shavuot Day 2 includes Yizkor Service 9:30 am

5/30 - Torah Club End of Year Shabbat

6/6 - Graduation Shabbat

6/13 - Rabbi Elliot Dorff's 2nd Bar Mitzvah

6/20 - Outdoor Service

Celebrate Torah Club!

Become a sponsor for the May 30th end-of-year celebration kiddush and show your appreciation for the wonderful service provided by Torah Club members to our community.

 Please consider making a tax-deductible donation of any amount to Torah Club by either

1. donating online at https://tbala.shulcloud.com/form/lmdonations; type “Torah Club” in the “Notes” box or

2. donating directly to Library Minyan, noting the contribution is for Torah Club.

Let’s show the kids what a difference they make to Library Minyan!

Donations this Week:

In honor of Nina Golden and Torah Club Members

-Batya and David Ordin

-Russell Cohen and Rachel Berwald

-Joel Elkins

Mazal Tov to Frumi and Benjamin Gluck on the Engagement of their daughter Naomi to Henry Weinburgh

-Susan Laemmle and John Antignas

Haftarah Plethora

In the Haftarah Plethora episode for the first day of Shavuot, Rick and Larry discuss whether Ezekiel’s weird, wild and wondrous visions were a divine revelation, chemically-induced hallucinations, or encounters of the third kind. Rick discovers his inner poet while Larry thinks that Ezekiel’s frequent use of the words D’mut and Marei hold the key. Hag Sameach!

In an exciting episode of the Haftarah Plethora for the second day of Shavuot, Rick and Larry get a little carried away by this lone reading from the Book of Habakkuk. Larry explains how little is known about this prophet while Rick talks about the unusual musical instructions that seem to be unique among Haftaroth. Rick suggests that the plethora of bombastic sound and light imagery is suggestive of the scene at Mount Sinai, thus linking the Haftarah to the holiday. Shabbat Shalom and Hag Sameach!

Jewish Trivia

Last week's question:  What profession did all the following have: Morton Gould, Meyer Davis, Eugene Ormandy, Arthur Fiedler, Andre Kostelanetz, Bruno Walter?  Answer: Conductor

This Week's Question:  

What well-known prayer, not said on Shavuot, nevertheless ends with the word “shavuot”?  (Answer next week.)