RITUAL COMMITTEE UPDATE – SERVICE TIMES
For many years, Temple Habonim held Erev Shabbat Services during the summer at 6:15PM and during the academic year at 8:00PM. A few years ago the Ritual Committee decided to change the time of the later service from 8:00 to 7:30 and also to alternate the later services with the earlier services throughout the year.

We have tried that, and we have noticed that there is a great deal of confusion as to what time Friday night services begin. So we are returning to the system of beginning Friday night services at 6:15 during the summer months and at 7:30 during the rest of the year.

We will still hold Shabbat morning services twice a month, and on those weekends, Torah will be read on Saturday morning rather than Friday evening. When there is no Shabbat morning service, then Torah will be read on Friday night at the 7:30 service.

Lunch & Learn Takes A Field Trip To Mayyim Hayyim

This summer THB took out a one year organizational membership to Mayyim Hayyim, the interdenominational Community Mikveh and Education Center in Newton, Massachusetts. Mayyim Hayyim provides a sacred space that is revitalizing the ancient Jewish custom of immersion in living waters for people living in the Greater Boston area. Visit their website for more information mayyimhayyim.org

The regulars at Thursday?s Lunch & Learn went on a field trip in early August to the mikveh, and we all had a really wonderful experience. Below are comments from two of the participants:
* I will never look at Narragansett Bay the same way again. Who ever thought it was really a Kosher mikveh? That's what our wonderful guide, Lisa Berman, explained to us when we visited Mayyim Hayyim in Newton, Massachusetts. After all, the Bay is really living waters.

For those of you who are uninitiated about this ancient ritual, as I was until today, the mikveh represents living waters, a deep pool, where a man or a woman immerses his or her body underwater totally nude (even nail polish has to go) and solemnly reflects on issues involving transformation or gratitude. There are inspiring prayers to offer as you experience the healing and comfort that comes with complete immersion in the mikveh. Forget about your hair; the water must touch everything, including your short or long flowing locks.

People go to the Mikveh for conversion, before their marriage, or to remember the life and death of a loved one. It is a time to be alone in communion with God's message just for you.

I used to think the old, Orthodox Jews might be out of touch with the 21st century. But I'm not so sure now. This, I think, they got just right for me. In the sacred silence of the mikveh surrounded by the warmth of some pure rain water, God's holiness touched me and washed my soul clean.
~Rosalie Franks

*Surprises and inspiration -- that's what I experienced at the mikveh center. It's soaring, bright and airy, not the damp, cramped space I've always pictured a ritual bath to be. Our guide was knowledgeable and peppy. She explained the many life events that bring people to immerse, among them divorce; Bar or Bat mitzvah; end of mourning; miscarriage; and the well-known events of conversion .and adoption. This was a memorable trip.
~Myra Shays

Temple Habonim
165 New Meadow Road
Barrington, RI 02806
401-245-6536
Rabbi: rabbiklein@templehabonim.org
Marjorie: marjorie@templehabonim.org