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AGDUATH ACHIM SYNAGOGUE
Synagogue · Place of worship
(318) 797-6401
WHAT’S NEW
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
Shortening Shabbat Services Most members of our synagogue know that we approach prayers and rituals in a traditional manner. To be more specific, many of us believe that our traditional prayers should usually be chanted in an accessible, egalitarian manner. Thus, the title of this article may come as a surprise to some members of our congregation, and as welcome news to other members. As your Spiritual Leader, it is my responsibility to walk the fine lines between the religious needs of those who would like more tradition, and those who would like less. During recent months of 2016, it was brought to my attention that there apparently are many members of Agudath Achim who would like somewhat shorter services on Shabbat morning. Here are the parameters for accomplishing this: 1) Until we have a Minyan, some prayers such as the Kaddish are not chanted during the service. 2) Some sections of the service can be shortened, while other sections cannot: the Preliminary Service can be shortened, the Sh'ma Section cannot, each Amidah can be shortened, and the Shabbat Torah Service has already been made as short as is possible. Here is a list of those occasions when extra sections must be added on Shabbat, and thus the service cannot be shortened: 1) When Shabbat coincides with a Festival, or twice each year when Shabbat is also Rosh Chodesh (the New Month). 2) When Shabbat falls during the Intermediate Days of Sukkot or Pesach, and during the week of Hanukkah. 3) When a Bar\Bat Mitzvah or other major life-cycle \ social event falls on Shabbat, such as a speaker. After I did research on what sections can be shortened and how to do so, a sub-committee met to review the options. A recommendation was made to the full Ritual Committee that our Shabbat service begin at 10:00 a.m. rather than at 9:45, and that our usual half-hour Preliminary Service be shortened to 15 minutes. This was based on a prayer-list found in the Rabbinic literature that specifies which are not included when a person arrives late. When the Ritual Committee met, discussion also centered about five "decision-points" as our Shabbat morning service progresses. At each of these points, when there is a Minyan present we make one choice, and if there is no Minyan, we continue in a different manner. We are already including certain liberalities, such as chanting the Mi Shebeirach for those who are sick regardless if there is a Minyan, and saying a Psalm in honor of those on our Yahrtzeit list when we cannot recite the Mourners' Kaddish. Here is the "bottom line" for Agudath Achim: on a "normal" Shabbat, our prayer-service cannot be shortened beyond two hours, or we are no longer doing a Conservative prayer service. When we occasionally do not have a Minyan, some important prayer-sections are being curtailed or left out, and that is not healthy for our future. I am keeping my weekly D'var Torah to five minutes with a Minyan, ten minutes without, to help shorten the service. By making the change to 10:00 for our start-time, we hope that more of our members will now attend services on a regular basis. Except for the special occasions mentioned above, this shorter service will now end at noon most weeks, as requested by many members. We have made the service shorter to accommodate those who requested this – it is now up to you to participate as often as possible, preferably weekly if you can do so. Todah Rabbah – Thank You in advance! Hazzan Neil Schwartz
AA Announcements – Dec. 30 + 31, 2016
Fri., Dec. 30, 9:00 a.m. = Latke-making in our AA kitchen; 6:30 p.m. = Dairy / Pareve \ Veggie Covered-Dish Dinner (please bring your own serving utensils); approximately 7:30 p.m. = Friday Evening Service following Shabbat dinner; sermon = "Ideas about Light in Judaism".
Sat., Dec. 31, 9:45 a.m. = Shabbat Morning service; D'var Torah = "Tradition vs. Assimilation"; this Shabbat Hanukkah service includes a few extra prayers for Hanukkah, so it may be slightly longer.
Men's Club Football Raffle fundraiser – Please contact Bob Lachman at (318) 272-5123 to participate – $35 per numbered square or $60 for two.
One last Hanukkah program on Red River Radio (89.9 FM):
Yiddish Radio Project Holiday Special, Part Two – airs Sun., Jan. 1, at 6-8 p.m.
Sun., Jan. 8, 10:30 a.m. = Sisterhood Meeting (also NO Community Religious School).
Wed., Jan. 11 & Jan. 25, 7:00 p.m. = Adult Education, topics to be announced.
Fri., Jan. 13, 7:00 p.m. = Family Service with a Shabbat story – no 8:00 p.m. service.
reservations due on Jan. 13 for the Sisterhood Matzo Ball Gumbo Shabbat dinner on Jan. 20 at 6:30 p.m., with the Sisterhood Shabbat service following.
Sat., Jan. 21 = Bat Mitzvah Service for Sophie Wiener at B'nai Zion – NO morning service at AA.
Sun., Jan. 22, 1:00–5:00 p.m. = World Religion Day at The Highland Center, 520 Olive St.
Sat., Jan. 28 = new start time for Shabbat morning service at 10:00 a.m.
We thank the Sisterhood Oneg Committee for the Kiddush.
Candle-Lighting at 5:01 p.m. (18 min. before sunset).
What's New: News & Updates
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