Shabbat Beshalach Week of February 7th, 2025 Shevat 5785 Wishing you and your family Shabbat Shalom and a Happy Tu Bi'Shvat!
Friday February 7th ,2025 * Shevat 9, 5785
Erev Shabbat: Candle lighting at 5:03 pm
Shabbat February 8th, 2025 * Shevat 10, 5785
Shacharit Services in Shul will begin promptly at 9:30 am, followed by a Kiddush at 12:00pm, all are welcome! Kiddush this week is sponsored by Margie Segal in memory of her mother, Renee Segal (Rivkah Bat Bayla V’ Yitzhak). We thank Margie for her generosity.
If you would like to sponsor Kiddush in the future, please reach out to info@stantonstshul.com.
Women's Tefilah Group is back! Shacharit begins at 9:30 am and the Torah Reading will take place at approximately 10:30 am. We hope to see many familiar faces and also new ones!
Wednesday, February 12, 2025 * Shevat 14th, 5785
Weekly Shiur with Rabbi Birkeland- in person and on ZOOM
Thursday, February 13th, 2025 * Shevat 15th, 5785
Tu Bi'Shvat - Happy Birthday to Trees!
IMPORTANT! We now have security for all services from 9:30 AM to 1:00 PM.
COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS
Birthdays: Tuesday, February 11, 2025 • 13 Shevat 5785
Happy Birthday to Jessica Spector and Jonah Sampson-Boyarin!
Misheberach: Liba Miriam bat Channah Devorah ליבה מרים בת חנה דבורה Rachel Devorah bat Elke Cecile Cohen זיאסל מלכה בת אסתר Manny Kaplan מאיר ראובן בן לאה Chana Mera bat Fruma Henna Gitche bat Honcha Ella bat Leah Chaya Malka bat Esther Leia Nolan Rhodes נתן צבי בן פרידה Ashlynn Elizabeth Helen Coffman Moshe Asher Ben Esther Sarah Reuven ben Rochel Rivka bat Miriam Sara Eliyahu Natan ben Shayndel Shayna bat Chana Kayla Yitzhak Calev ben Leetza Tzvia Ashira bat Yosef Chaim Yonah ben Dubrah Efraim Ben Sore Shimon Sumer HaLevi Ben Malka Jim Lee Leah Zahava Bat Elka Barry Feldman Yaacov Ben Chaya Gitza Rochel Ben Chaya Gitza
We pray that all who are sick may have a full recovery. We are especially sending prayers to those who are wounded and in need of healing in Israel and Gaza, and daven for the safe return of those who are still unaccounted for. To add a name to our communal misheberach prayer list,email us. If you have a Yahrtzeit, birthday, anniversary or other milestone coming up, please reach out! We'd like to update our Yahrtzeit database. Pleasesend us your yahrzeit details. If you don't know the exact Hebrew date, just let us know the date of passing, and we will figure it out and add it to the Shul Cloud calendar.
Torah Inspiration with Rabbi Birkeland
Dear Friends, This week we read Parshas Beshalach. We have just witnessed the ten plagues in Egypt and Pharaoh has finally agreed to let the Israelites go. Still, once the Israelites are on their way, Pharaoh has a last minute change of heart and he mobilizes his chariots to chase after them in the wilderness. The Egyptians corner the Israelites at the Sea of Reeds and God and Moshe perform a final miracle with the splitting of the sea in which the Israelites escape on dry land and the Egyptians are drowned, thus guaranteeing the Israelites’ new found freedom. The parshah continues with the beginnings of the Israelite wanderings in the wilderness complete with ups and downs that will continue to define the desert experience. I’d like to focus on the exodus itself, though, and some of its ramifications. Because we are already familiar with God’s promises to the patriarchs that the Israelites will be brought out of Egypt and up to Eretz Yisrael, we probably take it for granted that when the Israelites are finally freed, they leave. We maybe lose sight of the fact that this is not usually the dynamic that plays out in most struggles for freedom. In his work, Peninei Halakha, Rabbi Eliezer Melamed notes the uniqueness of the exodus. In one of his introductions to the laws of Passover, he notes that, historically, when there is a rebellion, it leads to an inversion of the power dynamic and the oppressed often becomes the oppressor. Rather than an exodus, we maybe would have expected the Israelites to take over Egypt, exacting revenge upon the Egyptians and greatly consolidating their own power. Rabbi Melamed notes that “Israel, however, did not try to enslave the Egyptians, even after completely defeating them; they only sought their own freedom. This was the first time that freedom appeared in the world as a moral value” (Peninei Halakha- Laws of Pesah). Central to the exodus, and thus to the Jewish experience and ethic, is the fundamental importance of human freedom as its own value. This is not just for Jews. Earlier in his analysis, Rabbi Melamed notes that our experiences in Egypt are supposed to awaken us to the misery and suffering that we are capable of inflicting on each other so that we can then move forward to build a world that is free of such suffering. He states that Passover “embodies the foundation of human freedom and consequently of moral responsibility for every individual and societal act.” Our exodus from Egypt tells us that the answer suffering and oppression is not to shift its focus onto the other but rather to eliminate it for everyone. Shabbat shalom, Rabbi Birkeland
Calling All Photographers in the Community!
Dear All, We are looking for photos from our community life! If you took any pictures at an event you attended these past two years, feel free to email Andreea at info@stantonstshul.com Thank you!
Women's Tefillah Group Thank you to all who have joined us for services this year! Our schedule for 5785 is below: Shabbat Parshat Beshalach - February 8 Megillat Esther Reading - March 13 Shabbat Parshat Emor - May 17 Shabbat Parshat Nasso - June 7 Shabbat Parshat Korach - June 28 If you would like to layn, lead services, or give a d'var Torah with us, or if you have questions, please be in touch!
StantonKIDS Shabbat Programming for 5785
Shabbat Program February 1: 10:30am-12pm Shabbat Program February 15: 10:30am-12pm Shabbat Program March 1: 10:30am-12pm Shabbat Program March 15: 10:30am-12pm Shabbat Program April 5: 10:30am-12pm Shabbat Program April 26: 10:30am-12pm Shabbat Program May 3: 10:30am-12pm Shabbat Program May 31: 10:30am-12pm Shabbat Program June 14: 10:30am-12pm Shabbat Program June 21: 10:30am-12pm
Happening in the City
Dear Stanton Community, Thank G-d in recent weeks we have been welcoming back Israeli hostages returning from Gaza. Israeli citizens, among them Americans, are still hostages in Gaza. You can find information on them and on their families' efforts to release them here. Over 1,800 Israelis are dead with many more wounded. There are also innocent civilians caught in the line of fire in Gaza and Lebanon.
This has been an unprecedented and the most deadly attack on Israel in a generation. We must take action!
In addition to our prayers, we ask you to consider making a generous donation to one of the listed causes.
The One who makes peace on high, may He bring peace down below to us. Amen
ONLINE ARCHIVES
If you missed services this past shabbes, or arrived too late to hear the drasha, you can go to our archives and read a copy! Click here for an archive of shiurim Clickherefor an archive of drashot Clickhere to go to our YouTube Channel for an archive of all of our ZOOM classes
