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This Week at Lubavitch Centre of Leeds
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Shabbat Friday, 22 May 7:45pm
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Shabbat and Shavuot Ends:
10:32pm
Torah Portion:
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Message from the Rabbi
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I hope you are keeping well. Tonight is Shavuot. You can see our Shavuot minisite at www.judaismlive.com/shavuot
At 4.30pm this afternoon I’ll be streaming my pre-Shavuot thoughts live in the Alwoodley Ward Residents Facebook Group. And at 7pm I’ll be joining with nine other Rabbis from across the UK for a series of Ten Talks on the Ten Commandments. Details here.
Last night we had a great communal Zoom call. You can watch a recording here.
We also have a brilliant full DIY Shavuot Guide available for download
here
and three great lessons to learn by yourself on Shavuot night
here
,
here
and
here
. If you would like a printed copy of any of these materials please let us know as soon as possible.
All our coronavirus support is online here.
Wishing you a Good Shabbos and a Good Yom Tov and may we experience the Giving of the Torah with joy and spiritual intimacy!
Rabbi Eli Pink
Director of Education
Chabad Lubavitch Leeds
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“If I had the power, I would provisionally close all synagogues for a hundred years. Do not tremble at the thought of it, Jewish heart. What would happen? Jews and Jewesses without synagogues, desiring to remain such, would be forced to concentrate on a Jewish life and a Jewish home. The Jewish officials connected with the synagogue would have to look to the only opportunity
now open to them to teach young and old how to live a Jewish life and how to build a Jewish home. All synagogues closed by Jewish hands would constitute the strongest protest against the abandonment of the Torah in home and life.” - Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (Founder of Modern Orthodoxy, 1808-1888)
Around 150 years ago Rabbi Hirsch lamented about the premium role that was unduly projected upon synagogues and temples. For thousands of years the Jewish home was the centre of Jewish life, but in 19th Century Germany it shifted away from humble houses to be replaced by large edifices and grandiose sanctuaries. Unfortunately, this trend was alive and well until very recently.
Not only did it cause for Jewish life to be mostly removed from the Jewish home, but it brought about the greatest division of the Jewish people in modern times, the so-called Jewish denominations. Where one prayed become more important that how often one prayed.
There is a well-known joke about the Jew stranded on a desert island. When he is finally discovered after many years, his rescuers find that he has constructed two synagogues. “One, I go to. The other? The other I would never set foot in.”
Since March, for the first time in centuries, Jews around the world have been praying in the same house of worship. Our own homes. And by all measures it's a good thing. We have finally brought Judaism and G-d back where it belongs. In our living rooms, in our dining rooms, even in our bedrooms.
In his authorized biography the Lubavitcher Rebbe describes his idea of establishing Chabad Houses around the world:
5747 (1986-87): Urges establishment everywhere of "Chabad Houses" - houses of Torah study, prayer and good deeds. Explains that this may be accomplished (and in a simple manner) by first establishing a "Chabad House"... in one's own home, (thereby transforming the home of every man, woman and child into a Chabad House), with a further "emphatic proposal and request" to all Jewish children
to make their room their bed, table etc. into a "House” of Torah study, prayer and good deeds by studying Torah there daily, reciting prayers to G-d, and putting charity into a charity box (pushka) except on Shabbat and Yom Tov.
The Rebbe did not seek to create a large network of institutional synagogues around the world. He envisioned decentralised, unaffiliated, independent centres of Jewish life in every single Jewish home! To that end he sent thousands of Jewish families to remote corners of the world to open a model Chabad House that their neighbours and friends would eventually replicate in their own houses.
Decades earlier, in the 1960s the Rebbe began to put the framework in place when he launched the Ten Mitzvah Campaigns as a way for every Jew to experience Jewish Life without formally joining any synagogue or temple. We like to call them Ten Ways to be Jewish Without Stepping Foot in a Synagogue. You can see details of the campaigns here.
Shavuot is the time when we renew accept anew the Torah and Mitzvot. As we pray for an imminent ending to the current restrictions on communal prayer and the reopening of our synagogues, we also hope that the trend of Jewish life in the home continues to flourish and grow.
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Zoom Event
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Upcoming Events
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Ruth Bell's weekly session
Monday, Jun. 1, 2020 - 8:30 pmMondays 8.30pm
Ruth Bell's weekly class covers current and relevant points of interest in the yearly cycle beginning with counting the Omer; a look at the weekly sedra, and the daily schedule of Tanya (Chassidic teachings) and Tehillim (psalms).
Via Zoom. For details please contact Ruth on 07963 316 279
Communal Zoom Call
Wednesday, Jun. 3, 2020 - 8:00 pmThree Rabbis and a Doctor walk into a Zoom
With words of inspiration, halachic and medical guidance.
For details contact Rabbi Eli Pink on 07875 320 344
Introduction to Shabbat
Friday, Jun. 5, 2020 - 4:00 pmFriday afternoon introduction to Shabbat on Facebook Live in the Alwoodley Residents’ Group as well as on Zoom.
For details contact Rabbi Eli Pink on 07875 320 344
More Info »
Ruth Bell's weekly session
Monday, Jun. 8, 2020 - 8:30 pmMondays 8.30pm
Ruth Bell's weekly class covers current and relevant points of interest in the yearly cycle beginning with counting the Omer; a look at the weekly sedra, and the daily schedule of Tanya (Chassidic teachings) and Tehillim (psalms).
Via Zoom. For details please contact Ruth on 07963 316 279
Communal Zoom Call
Wednesday, Jun. 10, 2020 - 8:00 pmThree Rabbis and a Doctor walk into a Zoom
With words of inspiration, halachic and medical guidance.
For details contact Rabbi Eli Pink on 07875 320 344
Introduction to Shabbat
Friday, Jun. 12, 2020 - 4:00 pmFriday afternoon introduction to Shabbat on Facebook Live in the Alwoodley Residents’ Group as well as on Zoom.
For details contact Rabbi Eli Pink on 07875 320 344
More Info » |
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Shavuot ... Zoom style!
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Service Times
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All services are suspended until further notice
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Parshah in a Nutshell
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Completing the
headcount of the Children of Israel taken in the Sinai Desert, a total of 8,580 Levite men between the ages of
30 and
50 are counted in a tally of those who will be doing the actual
work of
transporting the
Tabernacle.
G‑d communicates to Moses the law of the sotah, the
wayward wife suspected of unfaithfulness to her husband. Also given is the law of the
nazir, who forswears
wine, lets his or her
hair grow long, and is forbidden to become contaminated through
contact with a dead body. Aaron and his descendants, the kohanim, are instructed on how to
bless the people of Israel.
The leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel each bring their offerings for the
inauguration of the altar. Although their gifts are
identical, each is brought on a
different day and is
individually described by the Torah.
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