Rabbi header logo
Shabbat and Candlelighting  
for Friday, July 16, 2021 / 8 Av 5781

 Light Shabbat candles at 7:20 p.m.
  
border experiment
Dear Congregation Kehillah and Friends,

Parashat Devarim is the beginning of the last book of the Torah. Moses reviews the history of the wandering in the desert as he prepares to say goodbye to our people, a journey that should have taken 11 days, but instead, took 40 years! A selection from this week's Haftarah encapsulates a reminder of what Moses taught our ancestors during their desert years, precious values deeply embedded into the Jewish psyche: 
 
Cease to do evil
Learn to do good
Devote yourselves to justice
Aid those who are wronged
                       (Isaiah 1:16-17)


A kavannah for candlelighting on Shabbat Devarim

As I prepare to light the Shabbat candles, may the gift of this Shabbat renew and restore my energy and my soul so that I might embark on the wondrous journey of the new week 
that lies ahead. May the words I speak be rooted in love and caring for my family, my community and myself, reflecting on the miraculous of life itself.




A note: Saturday night/Sunday is Tisha B'Av, the ninth day of the month of Av, on
which date in our history both Temples were destroyed (the first by the Babylonians, the second by the Romans), the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492 and World War I broke out in 1917. While it is a day of mourning and fasting, from that dark place understanding, growth, and healing might transpire through our actions. Can we commit to one act of tikkun (healing, repair) as our contribution toward increasing light in this gateway to our High Holy Days season? 
 
Tisha B'Av is totally relevant today!Tisha B'Av's origins are in mourning for the destruction of the Temple, but its practices and rituals (sitting on the ground, not wearing clean clothes, not eating or drinking, not washing, not greeting one another) sounds like we're describing the life of a refugee. The destruction of the Temple was not just a physical tragedy pertaining to the Temple per se; the destruction also stands for the plight of the people who lived (or died) in that frightening, unsafe, impoverished and unsheltered world, leading us to consider what it means to seek shelter, security, safety, nourishment, peace...
 
Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Bonnie Sharfman 

The Kehillah office will be closed Sunday, July 18, for Tisha B'Av. The phone will be checked for emergencies only.  

Congregation Kehillah
602-369-7667
info@congregationkehillah.org   |   congregationkehillah.org
Mailing Address: 21001 N.Tatum Blvd., Ste 1630, #439, Phoenix AZ 85050 
Physical Address: 5858 E. Dynamite Blvd., Cave Creek, AZ 85331
(Please note that no mail is received at this address.)