By Rabbi Alicia Magal
The JCSVV offers services and classes which are life-affirming and soul enriching. All are listed on the synagogue website,
jcsvv.org. Visitors are welcome to attend services after security check. People who cannot attend or who live far away can access the service through zoom. Several classes, holidays, and special events are coming up in April. Check the website and plan to join us!
Erev Shabbat services begin on Friday evening, May 17 beginning at 5:30 pm in person and on Zoom led by Rabbi Alicia Magal. Rabbi Magal will chant from the portion for this week: Emor ((Leviticus 21:1 – 24:23) dealing with laws pertaining to the Kohanim (priestly clan) as well as the Sabbath, the Holy Days and Festivals. Included in the service are also healing blessings for those who are ill, a mazal tov for Simchas (happy occasions), and Kaddish, mourner’s prayer, recited for loved ones who have passed away.
The congregation and community friends will hold an elegant Gala celebrating twenty years since the dedication of the synagogue building with a gourmet dinner, retrospective book of history and memories, slide show, performance by Robert Shields, silent auctions with valuable services and products, and a chance to honor the Founders and supporters of the Jewish community through the years.
http://www.jcsvv.org/jcsvv-events/20th-anniversary-gala/.
On Wednesdays at 8:30 a.m. we offer a morning minyan on Zoom, with traditional prayers sung or read in Hebrew and English. Join through the website link to support each other needing a minyan to say Kaddish for a loved one.
Meditation class will meet on Wednesday, May 22, led by Rosalie Malter and Rabbi Magal on zoom, focusing on the spiritual practice of counting the Omer, the 49 days’ journey between Passover and Shavuot, as we recall the Israelites’ journey from the Exodus to Mt. Sinai where they received the Ten Commandments. In our day, we take this journey as a spiritual practice of preparation and refinement of our personality traits.
Torah study will be held on Thursday, May 23 at 4:00 pm on zoom, led by Rabbi Magal. The portion for that week is Behar (Leviticus – 26:2, dealing with a remarkable approach to the relationship that should exist between man and the earth which gives us food by which we live. This is based on the faith that “the earth is the Lord’s.” The Jubilee year, seven times seven Sabbatical years, is a time each 50th year when the land would lie fallow and would return to its original owners. It was a time to make a fresh beginning, erase debts, and prevent poverty. This reading inspired our American Founding Fathers. The Liberty Bell in Philadelphia is inscribed with a verse from Leviticus 25:10: “Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.”
The Social Action Committee is continuing to collect food for the local Sedona food pantry. Please drop off cans or boxes of non-perishable foods in the bin provided for collections at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the synagogue sanctuary.
The Jewish Community of Sedona and the Verde Valley, located at 100 Meadow Lark Drive off Route 179 in Sedona, is a welcoming, egalitarian, inclusive congregation dedicated to building a link from the past to the future by providing religious, educational, social and cultural experiences. Messages to the office telephone at 928 204-1286 will be answered during the week. Updated information is available on the synagogue website –
www.jcsvv.org.
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