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Shabbat Shalom!
All Zoom links have migrated to our webpage! Click here to get there! 
Shabbat Evening Services with Oneg to follow

Friday, 6:15 PM
In-person and live-streamed
Shabbat Morning Services followed by Kiddush lunch - Join us in welcoming Rabbi Scott & Phyllis Hoffman back to New Orleans after a 30-year hiatus!

Saturday, 9:30 AM
In-person and live-streamed

Babysitting

Saturday, 10 AM
Minyan with
Men's Club
followed by breakfast

Sunday, 9:15 AM
In-person and live-streamed
Torah on Tap with YAS
(Young Adults of Shir Chadash)

Sunday, 5 PM
at Bayou Beer Garden
426 N. Norman C. Francis Pkwy

Register HERE
COVID-19 UPDATE
Our Health Committee update as of July 15, 2022 is as follows:

In the last few months, we have been able to largely resume our normal programming (babysitting, indoor dining, etc.), and remove the strict limitations on attendance numbers and spacing. We also lifted our mask mandate, while keeping our vaccine requirement in effect.

In the last few days, however, local COVID-19 positivity rates have started to significantly increase. Unfortunately, local hospitalizations have begun creeping up again as well. As a result, we will be opening up the back of the sanctuary to allow for maximal ventilation during services. We also STRONGLY ENCOURAGE everyone to mask while indoors. Lastly, we suggest that anyone who is at high risk for serious infection consider staying home and joining us via Zoom for the time being.

Please click HERE to read our guidelines in full.
Haftarah Tidbits
One of the hardest things for people to do in life is to receive admonition. A major part of my acting school experience was working on becoming “coachable”: being able to take notes and feedback happily (even hungrily) and without resistance. This is not the natural way of humankind. No one understands this quite like the prophet, and no prophet dealt with resistance to his prophesy quite like Jeremiah.
 
This first chapter of Jeremiah is used as the first of three “Haftarot of Rebuke” that are read during the three weeks from the 17th of Tammuz until the 9th of Av—a time in Jewish tradition fraught with calamity and ultimately destruction. Jeremiah is, in fact, the prophet for the first two out of three of these haftarot, as his prophesy deals with the coming destruction of the first temple in Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 587 BCE.
 
Interestingly, Jeremiah—the prophet who deals with so much resistance from people in power and his fellow Israelites—himself puts up resistance to God’s call to prophesy. When God tells him that he was destined from before birth to be a prophet, this is Jeremiah’s response:
וָאֹמַ֗ר אֲהָהּ֙ אֲדֹנָ֣י יֱיְ הִנֵּ֥ה לֹֽא־יָדַ֖עְתִּי דַּבֵּ֑ר כִּי־נַ֖עַר אָנֹֽכִי׃
Ah, Lord GOD! I don’t know how to speak, for I am still a boy.

Stepping into a new role is always difficult. New Rabbis speak of experiencing “imposter syndrome” as they find their way into feeling like they belong in the position. In a certain way, none of us ever completely gets over feeling like just “a kid”—like the job we’ve been tasked with is one for our parents or the authority figures with whom we grew up. How could we possibly fill their shoes?
 
God’s response is instructive: “Do not say, ‘I am still a boy,’ but go wherever I send you…” God tells Jeremiah that he must overcome those feelings of inexperience, of “imposter syndrome,” to do what God needs from him in the world. This is true of each of us in our own mission. To do what we were meant to do, we must step forward into the role and little by little embrace the fact that this is now our task. May we all have the courage to accept our responsibilities and our work in this world and know that God is behind us.
 
- Rabbinic Intern David Kaplinsky
A Prayer for Peace
May we see the day when war and bloodshed cease,
when a great peace will embrace the whole world.
    Then nation will not threaten nation,
    and the human family will not again know war.
For all who live on earth shall realize
we have not come into being to hate or destroy.
We have come into being to praise, to labor, and to love.
    Compassionate God, bless the leaders of all nations
    With the power of compassion.
Fulfill the promise conveyed in Scripture:
I will bring peace to the land,
and you shall lie down and no one shall terrify you.
    I will rid the land of vicious beasts
    and it shall not be ravaged by war.
Let justice and righteousness flow like a mighty stream.
Let God’s peace fill the earth as the waters fill the sea.
And let us say: Amen.
A Prayer for Our Country
Our God and God of our ancestors, with mercy accept our prayer on behalf of our country and its government. Pour out Your blessing upon this land, upon its inhabitants, upon its leaders, its judges, officers, and officials, who faithfully devote themselves to the needs of the public. Help them understand the rules of justice You have decreed, so that peace and security, happiness and freedom, will never depart from our land.
 
Adonai, God whose spirit is in all creatures, we pray that Your spirit be awakened within all the inhabitants of our land. Uproot from our hearts hatred and malice, jealousy and strife. Plant love and companionship, peace and friendship, among the many peoples and faiths who dwell in our nation. Grant us the knowledge to judge justly, the wisdom to act with compassion, and the understanding and courage to root out poverty from our land.

May it be Your will that our land be a blessing to all who dwell on earth, and may You cause all peoples to dwell in friendship and freedom. Speedily fulfill the vision of Your prophets: “Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” “For all of them, from the least of them to the greatest, shall know Me.” And let us say: Amen. 
Parashat Pinchas
Torah: Numbers 28:16 - 30:1
Maftir: Numbers 29:35 - 30:1
Haftarah: Jeremiah 1:1 - 2:3

The Torah reading for this week is in the panel above. If you do not have a Chumash at home you can find it on the link below. We are reading Triennial Year 3, but you might like to read the full portion (“Full Kriyah”).
Brochure
Our Shabbat brochure with yahrzeits and simchas for this week is attached. You might wish to take special notice of those who are sick and take a moment to direct your thoughts towards them.
Thank you!
Thank you to all those listed below who performed the mitzvah of supporting our community this past week.
Gilda Finkelstein Gift of Israel Fund

In memory of Isaac Pailet
From: Ken & Barbara Pailet

In memory of Gilda Finkelstein
From: Ken & Barbara Pailet
Yahrzeit Fund

In memory of Dora Klemes
From: Dr. Lester Dulitz

In memory of Jack Fishman
From: Linda Appel

In memory of Sara Pailet
From: Marilyn Zackin

In memory of Cathy Laufer
From: Michael Laufer

In memory of Ruth Force
From: Robert Force
Contact Us
Scott Hoffman
Rabbi

Ricardo Totah
Executive Director 
 execdir@shirchadash.org
Chaviva Sands
Director of Education & Programming

Sarah Lustig
Office Manager
shirchadash@shirchadash.org
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