FROM THE PRESIDENT

Shalom, my Agudath Achim Brothers and Sisters! Happy 2017! May it be a year of Health, Happiness and Prosperity for you and your families. I know that it will be a year of great challenges and great opportunities for our little congregation as we move forward together – Kadima B’yachad. The subject I want to address this month is about minyans at our Friday night and Saturday morning Shabbat services. As you know, it takes 10 adult Jews in attendance to constitute a minyan. A minyan is required to conduct various aspects of the service, which must be skipped if no minyan is present. An example of this is during Saturday morning Shabbat service, the Torah cannot be removed from the Ark and the honor of giving aliyahs to our congregants cannot be done, unless a minyan is present. There are several other important prayers that cannot be said without a minyan present, including the Mourner’s Kaddish. The Ritual Committee met recently to deal with this issue. They and Cantor Neil have made adjustments to the flow and content of the service to address this problem, including beginning Shabbat morning at 10:00 a.m. (Please see Cantor Neil’s comments for more details). However, speaking frankly, nothing will improve this situation without your involvement in the solution. Our congregation needs you to be Number 10 to make the minyan on Friday night at 8:00 p.m. or Saturday morning by 10:30 a.m., we need YOU to be there, to enable all of us to fulfill the mitzvah of a complete service. Everyone is busy; on any given Shabbat things come up; we understand that ... but I hope that you will examine your circumstances and make a renewed effort to enrich YOUR religious life and that of your fellow congregants. Too often there are 9 of us who are waiting for YOU to be Number 10, and to be the key that opens the whole service to all of us. Thank you for your consideration of this important matter. Shalom Ya’ll